Nowadays, it feels harder to eat healthy than ever before. Not only are the prices of lots of healthy ingredients soaring, but we’re also surrounded by the tempting spectre of fast food on every street corner. What’s more, when so many of our lives feel like they’re always moving at 100 miles an hour, many of us struggle to find the time to cook delicious, healthy home-cooked meals.
On top of that, I fear that healthy eating is suffering from a severe branding problem. In recent times, health and healthiness have been associated with some of the most annoying people and trends on earth – you know, the sorts who post videos of their morning routines, during which they wake up at 4 am and eat a plate full of chicken and raw kale, before hitting the gym and loading up on supplements and vitamins.
If you want to be healthy, you don’t need to do any of that. In fact, even if you did, it likely wouldn’t end up being sustainable, which would put you right back where you started. Since the best healthy eating habits are the ones you can actually stick to, I thought I’d put together a quick guide about some healthy eating habits that you can actually stick to. So, without any further ado, let’s jump in.
Base Your Meals Around Protein and Fibre
One of the worst things about ultraprocessed foods is their inability to keep me feeling full for longer than 20 minutes. After that, I’m suddenly ravenous and will often eat an unhealthy snack as a result. Not ideal.
This is why you should build your meals around protein and fibre. These meals can keep you fuller for longer, as well as having other health benefits. Protein is the best food source for growing and maintaining muscle, while fibre supports digestion and helps us release energy more steadily. On top of that, foods that contain fibre usually contain other healthy vitamins and minerals that benefit the body.
Together, these two food groups make meals that will actually tide you over until your next meal, and will prevent you from scavenging for snacks after half an hour.
Some examples include:
- Scrambled eggs and avocado on wholegrain toast
- A lentil dahl
- Honey chicken noodles with pak choi
Find Healthy Snacks
Even though we might try our very best to avoid snacking, for a lot of us, it’s inevitable that we’ll open our fridge or cupboard with the hopes of finding something to fill the snack-shaped hole in our lives. And fundamentally, this isn’t a bad thing. Eating a snack at the right time can help maintain energy – especially if you’re busy at work or doing exercise.
So when we do inevitably snack, we should make sure that the snack in question is both delicious and nutritious. Rice cakes with peanut butter and oatcakes usually hit the spot for me, but if I’m in the mood for something a bit sweeter, then I’d recommend kefir yogurts in a heartbeat.
They’re good because they require zero preparation and are packed full of live cultures that fuel your good gut bacteria to break down your food, turbocharge your immune system, and regulate your mood with regular doses of serotonin. They also go super well with fruit, like raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.
Make Healthy Foods Easier to Eat
Now, that’s an ambiguous statement, isn’t it?
Stay with me. Nowadays, one of the biggest excuses people give for eating unhealthily is inconvenience; they don’t have time to cook up something that’s good for them. In the end, people will be much more likely to start eating healthily if more nutritious options require less effort than unhealthy ones.
Well, here are a few things we can all do to cut down prep times and cooking times, that might well be enough to make the difference and kickstart a new, sustainable, healthy eating habit:
- Wash and prep fruit and veg ahead of time.
- Keep healthier foods (fruit and vegetables) at eye level in the fridge.
- Store nuts and seeds at the front of the snack cupboard.
- Cook double what you need so you have enough food for lunches the next day.
- If you have leftovers, freeze them! You’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have the energy to cook.
- Prepare your breakfast the night before (applies well to overnight oats)
Closing Thoughts
This article is all about sustainable habits. Telling you about which food groups to eat is one thing, but advising you on the most effective, sustainable strategies to prepare them and continue to eat them is another. Among the most useful nutritional skills are knowing what food to eat and how best to prepare it. So, after reading this article, you’re hopefully a little more knowledgeable on both.
Author Bio:
Damien Woods is an established freelance writer specialising in all things health and lifestyle, with articles like this one that detail the benefits of fibre, kefir yogurts, and a healthy, balanced diet.