The National Institutes of Health reports that two in three Americans are overweight. Considering this fact, it’s no surprise that people are looking for ways to lose weight and keep it off.
Where a lot of people struggle is in making lifestyle changes and learning how to eat better in the long run.
Read this easy to follow guide to learn some handy tips for eating better and building a healthier lifestyle.
How to Eat Better without Completely Changing Your Lifestyle
The first step to a thinner, healthier you is to find out how you can eat better. A healthy sustainable diet for one person may not work for you.
Look at what you already eat and find things that are kind of healthy. Most people already have a lot of healthy components in their diet. By making a list of all the foods you eat on a regular basis, you can identify problem areas and make changes.
Vegetables, fruit, and other whole foods are a great place to start. You might have something like a hamburger with roasted veggies already. By replacing the burger with chicken breast, you only have to make simple changes.
Forget the Fads
One of the worst things you can do when trying to make permanent changes is to follow fad diets.
Slimming down is easy. If you follow a strict diet for just a few weeks, you’ll be shocked by how much weight you lose. The problem is that this isn’t sustainable.
There are tons of celebrity diets and meal plan programs available. They’re easy to start and will show results.
The problem is that you can’t maintain that level of dedication forever.
The second you stop following your cabbage soup or carb-free diet, you’ll slowly start to put the weight back on. The only way to keep the pounds off permanently is to make healthy lifestyle changes. For most people, this starts by eating better.
Make Gradual Changes
Don’t try to go from a kind of unhealthy diet to a super healthy one. This sudden change is impossible for most people. What’s worse, many dieters get discouraged when they can’t keep to their strict new plan and give up entirely.
Start by cutting fatty, greasy, and high-calorie foods from your diet. You can even take baby steps to better eating by reducing your portions. Once you’ve done this, you can slowly change something else.
The key is to gradually change things. This lets you adjust your needs and expectations.
Try substituting healthier alternatives for your favorite foods. Cauliflower mashed potatoes taste very similar to traditional ones and have significantly fewer calories. Little changes like this, done over the long term, allow you to lose weight and keep it off for good.
Once you’ve begun to improve your diet, you can incorporate other healthy changes into your life. Getting active is one of the best ways to improve your heart health and overall feelings of wellness.
Count Your Calories
A simple way to balance your diet is to just keep track of what you’re eating. A lot of people simply don’t realize how much they eat every day. Making a daily food journal really puts your current diet in perspective.
Don’t even try changing what you do for the first few days. Just see what you already eat and figure out how far you are from your goal. Once you know what you’re already doing, you can start making small changes to reduce your overall calorie intake.
Substitute or eliminate unhealthy snacks. Lots of Americans snack throughout the day without thinking about it. Switching to whole food snacks like carrots, fruit, or raw nuts can be a great way to reduce your overall calorie count.
Make sure you also monitor your macro and micronutrient intake. When you make major changes to your diet, you have to be sure you’re still getting enough protein and vitamins.
Stay Hydrated
One of the absolute best tips for eating better is just to stay hydrated. Studies have shown that the majority of Americans are living in a chronic state of dehydration.
Drinking enough water is essential to long-term health. The human body is 60% percent water. Not getting enough water every day slows down your metabolism, impairs cognition, and leads to general feelings of unwellness.
Beware that many people also mistake feelings of thirst for hunger.
By drinking plenty of water throughout the day, you’ll keep your body in tip-top shape. You’ll also help prevent thirst-induced snacking.
We shouldn’t have to say this, but make sure you’re hydrating with water. Sugary sodas and sports drinks contain nothing but empty calories.
Focus on the Long Term
Losing weight should never be something you do in a rush. The only way to make measurable changes in your life is to look at that long-term. You have to set realistic goals and track your progress.
The worst thing you can do is obsess about your progress. Don’t weigh yourself every day. You should check your weight at most once a week; this lets you monitor your progress without putting your day-to-day actions under a microscope.
Many people struggle with willpower. Try building in an external element to keep yourself motivated.
There are lots of apps and online challenges you can try to let your friends and family know about your goals. This gives you a source of positive reinforcement and helps make it more real.
Remember, Life Is a Series of Small Decisions
Many people have the misconception that only big changes count. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything you do in life is just a series of small decisions you make on a day to day basis.
Learning how to eat better is one. Following what you learn is another.
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