It is about that time of year to start coming up with your New Year's resolutions! There are so many to choose from! Year after year, one of the most popular resolutions is healthy eating. This resolution is notoriously hard to stick to and rightfully so. Eating healthy can seem boring, joyless, and tiring if gone about the wrong way. Although, if gone about the right way it can significantly improve a person's lifestyle and sometimes even emotional health! Maintaining a healthy lifestyle will not look the same for everyone and each individual will have different techniques that work for them. Keeping that in mind, here are a few basic tips to launch your New Year's resolution!
Less sugar, more fruits and veggies
Cutting out sugar is one obvious way to start out healthy eating. Processed sugars are a key contributor to weight gain and health issues. Instead of going to grab a sugary treat, try grabbing some fruit. Fruit contains natural sugar, which is far better for human health than processed sugar. Another easy way to eat healthy is to incorporate more vegetables into everyday meals. Veggies are super nutrient rich and have many benefits. Starting with fruits and veggies is a great and simple way to start off eating healthy.
Nutrient Balance
Unhealthy food is okay to include in a lifestyle as long as it is consumed in moderation. When unhealthy food is consumed frequently and in large portions, that is when it starts to become a problem. Having a healthy lifestyle doesn't always mean go all in on everything healthy all the time. In fact, a healthy lifestyle really is not that healthy without balance. Eat foods you like, desserts you crave, and drinks you enjoy. Healthy eating will become much more
burdensome if you feel like you can't eat those "unhealthy" foods (in moderation of course). Just be mindful of what food you are consuming and keep your goals manageable.
Add, don't take
In order to make healthy eating more attainable, focus on what healthy and nutrient rich options can be added to a meal instead of taking the more enjoyable parts away from the meal. For example, add a veggie to a rice or noodle dish instead of substituting the carbs for some healthy alternative that tastes far worse than the original. Keep the dish enjoyable but just add a little something healthy to it.
Manageable goals
Keeping goals manageable is a crucial part of taking on healthy eating. If you take in too much at once, goals can become unattainable and seem daunting. Creating one big goal also makes it easier to quit in my opinion. If you haven't reached this one big goal in the time you expect to then it is easy to abandon your resolution. However, if you constantly are reaching small goals, it makes the large goal more attainable and creates a sense of progress. By creating small goals instead of impossibly large ones, it becomes way easier to manage expectations and pursue an end goal.