If you find it hard to eat healthy and end up at a fast food restaurant a lot of the time, then it’s time for you to start following some healthy lifestyle tips like meal prepping, having healthy snacks at home instead of junk, and more.
A lot of Americans (51%) are actively trying to eat healthy, according to a recent survey. However, many of them also end up eating at fast-food places during the week due to poor habits.
There are many healthy eating tips to incorporate into your daily habits, allowing you to eat healthily without sacrificing too much time, money, or mental resources.
Why Is Processed Food Bad for You?
This is one of the biggest lessons that everyone in America and globally needs to learn about healthy eating. You are not eating healthy if you are consuming a lot of processed foods during the week. And this includes fast food.
You should try to eat unprocessed foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. This doesn’t mean that you need to only eat raw vegetable salads or fruits all the time.
Cooked vegetables, meat, and grains are fine, as long as they aren’t overly processed. For example, if you are choosing between beef jerky and a grilled steak, choose the steak.
If you are choosing between a burger made from ground meat at home or one from a fast food restaurant, choose the ground meat one.
Green Leafy Vegetables for the Win
The most important thing you can consume throughout the week is fiber. Americans are not getting enough fiber in their diet.
You are probably focusing way too much on protein and forgetting to get the fiber that helps your body move waste through your body.
You are probably also not getting enough green leafy vegetables, especially if you eat at fast-food places often. That little limp piece of lettuce on your burger doesn’t provide any nutrients or fiber to keep your digestive system going.
Make sure you make green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables a major part of your diet throughout the week.
Meal Prep on the Weekend
Do not make excuses that you do not have enough time to cook real meals. It doesn’t take that long to cook if you have done a bit of meal prep on the weekend.
Set aside some time on the weekend to cut up vegetables and portion-size your ground meat, or whatever other meat you are going to use in your wholesome recipes. Precook rice or other grains if that works for you.
Don’t like cutting vegetables? Buy precut vegetables.
Do everything you can to make things easier for yourself during the week to cook and avoid eating at unhealthy fast-food places.
Also, carry around healthy snacks with you when you are out and about, like nuts, trail mix, yogurt drinks, or other such items, because this means that you won’t have a sugar crash and end up making poor food decisions on the run.
Shop Intelligently at the Grocery Store
You probably go grocery shopping once a week. Make sure you are buying the healthy items from the grocery store, rather than the unhealthy snack items or junk foods.
The more junk food you have at home, the more likely you are to eat it. If you wish to avoid eating junk food or unhealthy food, you need to avoid buying it at the grocery store in the first place.
Make your pantry a junk food-free spot. If you don’t have it at home, you won’t consume it. It’s as simple as that.
Also, have lots of easy-to-cook canned items in your pantry, like canned beans, canned peas, canned corn, etc. These are all simple to open and dump into a stew or a stir-fry, and add that much-needed fiber to your diet.
Finally, don’t worry too much about what the media is saying about what’s healthy or not. One week, it’s eggs that are the enemy. Next week, it’s chocolate.
Ignore all the hype and eat natural, unprocessed foods of all kinds to get a wide variety of nutrients into your diet. Your body will thank you for it.
You can consult JM Nutrition, your doctor, or reputable online sources if you need even more help with healthy eating and dietary recommendations that fit your lifestyle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is It Okay to Have Cheat Days?
You don’t want to become a fanatic about eating healthy food. Having cheat days here and there is absolutely okay.
In fact, if you indulge some of your cravings, you are less likely to binge on unhealthy food. The point is to eat healthy the majority of the time. That is, most of your nutritious meal ideas should include natural, unprocessed, fibrous foods.
You don’t need to go plant-based or anything, but try to eat as many plants as you can during the week.
What Are Some Healthy Eating Tips for Weight Loss?
If you are trying to lose weight, recommended healthy eating tips do not change. You still need to eat healthy, natural, unprocessed, fibrous foods, but you just might want to reconsider the quantities a bit.
The main way to lose weight is to have a calorie deficit, which means you want to consume fewer calories than you expend. This will result in healthy weight loss over time.
Also, adding exercise to the mix is a potent combination and should not be dismissed.
A Balanced Diet Guide for Everyone
In today’s world of fast food restaurants and cheap, unprocessed foods available everywhere, it’s not easy to eat healthy. But our healthy eating tips should get the ball rolling for you.
Don’t worry if you fall off the wagon once or twice. It’s okay to do that. As long as most of your meals through the week are healthy, that’s a win for you.
Please check out related articles on our website to keep learning.
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