In my experience, many people I work with are interested in eating healthier, but don’t know where to start. If they do begin making changes, they often get overwhelmed fairly easily and quit.
Below are a few very simple tips that I share with my health coaching clients. I hope they are helpful for you too!
Take small steps
If your habit is eating fast food on a regular basis, it’s not realistic to begin eating a vegan diet straight away, for example. Your current eating pattern is probably a habit that took a long while to take root. The direction you want to go in needs time and space to develop. Start with a small change, possibly adding a green smoothie to your breakfast routine, or making it a goal to try just one new healthy recipe a week. Once you find some consistent success, build on it.
Be organized!
Find a convenient time/day to make a list of the ingredients that you will be eating/trying during the upcoming week. (For me Sundays seem to work well) Plan in advance the mornings you’d like to add that smoothie, and pick the new recipe and the actual day that you will try your new healthy recipe.
Write the ingredients down on your shopping list, double checking what you already have on hand. During this set time you may also look through new future recipes you want to try online (my website for example 😉), or flip through some cookbooks that you have.
Note how you feel after you eat
A big component to maintaining a healthy diet is awareness. After you eat anything, pay attention to how you feel afterward. Do you feel energized, tired, bloated, clear? How soon after are you hungry again? Make the connection to what you are eating and how it affects you. Some of my clients benefit from keeping a food diary.
Look at ‘bad’ eating as a food experiment
There will always be times when you overindulge, whether on delicious dessert, a large heavy meal, or alcohol. Again, notice the effects. Without judging yourself at all, pay attention to how your both your body and mind feel. The more we make this connection, the easier it will be to eat healthier. Ultimately we all want to feel good.
Be patient
Like anything new, change takes time. Don’t give up on yourself. Experiment. If you’re not liking some of your first new meals, try again. Let yourself make mistakes and simply try again. It’s that simple.
