Top Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Diet
Dec 02, 2024
A healthy and well-balanced diet is a base for a healthy lifestyle. Such a diet should be of importance to you as by eating right you can prevent many premature diseases such as decreasing your blood pressure, improving your cholesterol levels, balancing your body weight and controlling your blood sugar. Simple life choices and habits such as eating a healthy diet, being physically active, getting a good night’s sleep and drinking plenty of water can make a huge difference in your health.
Some of the top tips for maintaining a healthy diet are simple and easy to incorporate into a daily lifestyle. In order to maintain a healthy diet, you should start with the most important meal of the day - breakfast. You should never skip it. Moreover, you should base your diet on fresh fruits and veggies as well as nuts. As water is the essence of life, you should drink plenty of it to keep your body and mind hydrated. When it comes to food prep, you should be mindful of the way you prepare it as not all ways are equally healthy. Furthermore, you should increase your proteins with diverse food and skip fast as well as highly-processed foods.
1. Don’t skip breakfast
You’ve probably heard or read that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And yet, many people ignore this and decide to skip breakfast. Perhaps these people think that they’ll lose weight in that way, which is actually not true. Breakfast is important as it fuels our body and gives it the energy we need during the day. However, in order for breakfast to be able to do so, it needs to be packed with protein, fibre and healthy fats. As far as sugar and salt are concerned, their level should be limited. Only by choosing the right nutrients can you reach the status of a healthy breakfast. People often eat eggs in different ways in combinations with some cheese as well as veggies and toast. Some people also eat oatmeal, while others prefer cereal. The most important thing is to be mindful of how much processing is involved in making the food.
2. Base your diet on fresh fruits and veggies
For optimal health levels, experts suggest eating at least five portions of fruits and veggies a day. Fruits and veggies can be fresh, canned, dried or frozen - but it is best to go for those with a lower level of processing. You don’t have to have all five recommended portions separately from your other meals. You can include them as a side dish to any of your meals. Or you can make them a healthy snack choice. You can also mix them up and make some smoothies or fruit juices. Just make sure that you don’t go with more than one glass of such beverages, as they tend to contain lots of sugar.
You eating healthily is beneficial on multiple levels. Besides being a sure way to your overall health, by eating healthily and balancing your diet, you’re setting an example for your kids. However, it can often be tough to make your kids eat their veggies, especially their greens. What you can do is prepare lunch together after picking up your kids from the child care centre. To make it more amusing and appealing for eating, consider cutting out fruits and veggies in some fun shapes. It will make eating them easier both for you and your kids.
3. Drink plenty of water
Dehydration is very dangerous. That’s why we should be mindful of all the fluids we take in on a daily basis. What you shouldn’t allow is feeling thirsty. You should constantly remind yourself to drink water. People usually dehydrate because they forget to drink water. However, you can prevent that by keeping a bottle of water always next to you, in your sight. In that way, you’ll always see it, which will remind you to drink it. Health experts suggest that we need to drink approximately 8 glasses of water every day. This is in addition to other fluids we take in, such as coffee, tea, juice and soups.
4. Consider the way you prepare food
Choosing healthy foods, but preparing them in the wrong way, doesn’t have as positive effects as it should have. Food preparation has drastic effects on our health. When we grill, broil, fry, or deep-fry our food, some toxic compounds form. These toxic compounds are bad for our health as they have been connected to some diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Luckily for us, there are other, healthier methods of preparing food. To prepare your food in a healthier way, you could bake, poach, simmer, stew or slow-cook it, depending on the food itself and what you’re going for.
5. Increase your proteins
Protein has superpower and it is often called the king of nutrients. Protein is the most filling macronutrient and as such, it is able to affect hunger and satiety hormones. Taking in plenty of protein is essential in maintaining your muscle mass. We lose muscle mass either as we age or when losing weight. Even if your goal is to lose weight, you can add protein to each meal. How will that be helpful, you might be wondering? Well, adding a portion of protein will help you feel fuller for longer, regulate your curb cravings, and make you less likely to overeat. Some of the popular protein-rich foods include dairy products, nuts, peanut butter, eggs, beans and lean meat.
6. Skip fast and highly-processed food
Junk and highly-processed food are foods that present to us no nutritive value whatsoever. They are changed from their original source and they have many ingredients added. During the processing, vitamins, minerals and fibre are removed and replaced with sugar and salt. They often give us an energy burst, followed by a rapid fall of energy.
If you know that your diet is not healthy as you’d like it to be, it’s high time you did something about it. Start slowly, and make gradual changes. Not only that you’ll feel better about yourself, but you’ll also set a good example for your kids. Depending on the severity of your diet’s health levels, it might be tough. However, it’s important never to give up.