September 29, 2017 · Written by Foodtolive Team
How to Start Loving Your New Healthy Food Routine
To start loving a healthy food routine you must literally train your body to do this. A study from Harvard proves that behavioral therapy combined with a weight loss program can change a person’s perceptions. Such changes can literally make you crave healthy foods instead of high calorie options. The best thing is that you can start working on those behavioral changes yourself. Tricks, like adding healthy foods to your favorite recipes or creating new healthy treats will do wonders long term. With regular practice, this will turn into a habit.
1. Understand What a Healthy Food Routine Is and Why You Need It
The most important step you must take before you start rewiring your brain is to answer two questions:
- What exactly do you need to do?
- Why do you need to maintain a healthy food routine?
‘Healthy food routine’ is a term that encompasses the entirety of your eating habits. This means the foods you eat, meal times, and even cooking habits. A good routine to have should look like this:
- Eat 5 times a day.
- Eat at least 2 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruits a day.
- Have your meal plan consist of 25% protein, 25% healthy fats, and 50% carbs.
- Have no less than 40g fiber every day.
- Eat healthy foods for diabetes and other low-glycemic products more often.
When planning a healthy diet, be sure to consider your cooking schedule as well. Some basic meal prep ideas will help you avoid takeout and eating out, which are usually less healthy options.
Once you’ve designed your healthy food routine, you should write a list of reasons why you must follow it. It’ll help with motivation and encouragement of the behavioral changes needed for brain rewiring. Read this list every time you start to falter.
2. Add Your Favorite Foods to Healthy Meals
Switching to healthy foods only in one go can be extremely stressful for the body, especially if your diet was unhealthy. Make your change gradual by using recipes that will allow you to enjoy familiar flavors. For example, you can add a strip of bacon to an eggs white omelet with salad. You can also go the other way and add some healthy element to an otherwise not-very-healthy food, like topping a burger with avocado.
The idea is to help your body get used to a healthy food routine by allowing an occasional indulgence. Decrease the frequency of these indulgences from 5 meals a week to 3, and eventually to a ‘big day only’.
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3. Find Delicious Healthy Recipes
Many people believe that only unhealthy foods can taste amazing. However, there are hundreds of delicious recipes that can be included in a healthy food routine.
See these posts to get some ideas:
- Healthy Nutritious Meals for Children: 4 Vegan Recipes
- 4 Best Healthy Vegan Recipes for Surprise Guests
- 4 Mouthwatering Recipes for a Typical Gluten-Free Diet
- 3 Healthy Low-Fat Recipes of Desserts for Vegetarians
You can try simple changes in recipes first, like choosing grilled over fried foods, or hard boiled eggs over scrambled. You can also modify your favorite recipes using healthier ingredients. For example, replace canned legumes with cooked and canned veggies with frozen varieties.
Whatever you choose, remember that developing a healthy food routine takes time. Keep your motivation and start over if you falter and indulge in an occasional greasy pizza.
