Being healthy and fit shouldn’t be a trend but a lifestyle. Our bodies help and support us to do everything that we want to. Shouldn’t taking care of it be something that we do everyday?
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in this fast paced world can be tricky. Adding to it, new and often contradictory diet advice emerges everyday. While diets, supplements and lifestyle overhauls are becoming very trendy, simple and small changes are all you need to move towards overall health and well-being. The truth is the basics of eating right really don’t change.
1. Mind your plate
According to The Healthy Eating Plate created by Harvard Health Publishing and nutrition experts at the Harvard School of Public Health, fill half your plate with a variety of vegetables and some fruit. Potatoes do not count due to their negative impact on blood sugar. Go for crunchy and colorful veggies like beans, broccoli, bell peppers, purple cabbage, beets…the list is endless. On the other side of the plate, put whole grains or legumes in one quarter and a lean protein in the other.
If you feel this is too much of a change to start off with, you can add a bowl of salad to your already existing meals and take off an equal amount of carbohydrates like rice or chapati. Slowly build towards the Healthy eating plate.
It is also important to get into the habit of using small plates. When you use a large plate, it is highly possible that you will fill up the plate with extra food because there is extra space. When you use small plates, you are limited to the amount of food you can fill up. This also gives your body a visual cue of fullness and can prevent you from overeating.
2. Learn to read nutrition labels on pre-packaged foods
Not all packaged foods are bad for you. Picking healthy options like rolled oats, canned beans and frozen vegetables can make nutritious cooking easier and help save on time. Avoid meals in a box that are loaded with hidden sugar and sodium, unhealthy fats and preservatives.
To make these choices wisely, it is of utmost importance to learn to read nutrition labels. You can also use a chemical dictionary to learn about ingredients you haven’t heard of before. It is always better to be well informed instead of ignorant and happy when it comes to our health.
3. Stock up on healthy snacks
Having healthy snacks on hand will reduce your need to reach out to your phone to order that bag of fries or an ice cream. Roasted nuts, roasted makhana, fruits with Greek yoghurt, raw veggies with peanut butter or hummus, dried fruits and dark chocolate are a great place to start with.
You can also have healthy packaged snack options like protein bars, ladoos and granola, provided you have already mastered reading nutrition labels.
Also remember a snack is not a meal. Your portion size matters here. Small portions are key.
4. Variety matters
Eating a wide variety of foods will help ensure you get all the nutrients required to support your overall health and help prevent nutritional gaps.
An easy way to incorporate variety in food is to ‘Eat the Rainbow’. Foods that are naturally different in color like red radish, purple cabbage, orange carrots, green spinach, all contain different nutrients and phytochemicals.
When we talk of variety, this is not limited to vegetables alone. Rotating your sources of protein (tofu, cottage cheese, chicken, fish, beans, legumes), carbohydrates (rice, millets, sweet potatoes, wheat, barley,quinoa) and fats (avocado, nuts, different oils for cooking) is as important.
Try out a new recipe each week that uses fresh in-season ingredients, different proteins, fats and grains. This can also add excitement to your plates and regular routine while providing you with different important nutrients.
5. Do not deprive yourself of foods you enjoy
Yes, you shouldn’t be eating a whole tub of an ice cream, a dozen pastries or a burger and fries everyday. But completely depriving yourself of these foods, especially if you enjoy them, will only make you unhappy and lead to overindulging in the long run.
If you are eating a nutritious balanced diet and doing some form of exercise most days, an occasional treat in appropriate portions will keep you happy. This will keep you on track towards your lifestyle goals.
6. Stay away from the TV or phone while eating
Your food is meant to be enjoyed. In addition to taste cues, your body needs visual cues to truly enjoy your food experience. When you are distracted by your phone or the TV, you will end up eating more while feeling less satisfied.
Focusing on your food helps you truly appreciate the taste and texture of the food and this also helps you identify which foods or food combinations you enjoy.
7. Do not starve yourself
If you think starving yourself is a way to eat lesser calories to lose weight, think again. This strategy is not only unhealthy but almost always backfires.
Starving yourself on a regular basis can lead to nutritional deficiencies, decrease of bone density, reduction of muscle mass and affect your mental health.
In the short term, starving yourself the entire day will set you up for an eating binge later. Instead of eating a nutrient dense meal, you are more likely to reward yourself at the end of the day with a high calorie low nutrition bomb like a tub of ice cream and a huge bag of chips.
8. Cut down on Sugar
Skipping the sugar in your tea and coffee is a great place to start but that’s not where people get majority of their sugar from. Pre-packaged foods like fruit juices, sauces, soups, instant pasta and noodles are laden with salt and sugar.
Start by checking the nutrition label on your favourite fruit juice (some contain about 20g per serving). Divide the amount of sugar in grams by 4 and you will get the number of teaspoons. Would you really add 5 tsps of sugar into a glass of fruit juice made at home?
9. Chew your food (Well)
It is important to chew food slowly and thoroughly. Chewing helps break down larger food particles into smaller fragments. This helps produce digestive enzymes. These enzymes help breakdown food further to assist digestion which allows your body to absorb a greater amount of nutrients.
A 2017 research paper on eating speed from Kyushu University in Japan found that taking your time to chew slowly leads to better digestion and feeling full faster. Researchers also found that, on average, slower eaters had a smaller waistline and lower body mass index.
10. Enjoy your food
While this may sound obvious, most people think of making healthier food choices as a sacrifice. I attribute this to the diet culture.
Firstly lets delete the word diet and its connotations from our mental dictionary. Let us focus on making good choices that are sustainable in the long run towards our overall health. Explore and find nutritious foods that you enjoy. Food should be something that nourishes you and brings you happiness. It is not just fuel.
Eating right is a lot to do with sticking to the basics. These ten basics above should get you started and carry you far on your healthy eating journey. Beyond the habits and tactics, fitness and healthy eating is about the right mindset. Make sure you are developing that as the core of your campaign towards better health.
