Thread: Easy tips for planning a healthy diet and staying motivated

Healthy Eating is not about maintaining a strict nutrition program, staying unrealistically thin, or starving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it's about feeling great, having more energy to do the things you love, and keeping yourself as fit and strong as possible- all of which will enhance your quality of life. This is can be achieved by learning some basics nutrition guidelines and using them in a way that works for you.

Healthy eating begins with learning how to eat smarter-it's not just what you eat, but how, when and what you eat, this of course varies for each individual. The foods you choose to eat can reduce your risk of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, as well as defend against depression. Additionally, adopting healthy eating habits can boost your energy, sharpen your memory and stabilize your mood. Once you have earned the basics you can expand your range of food, experimenting with the different varieties and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a satisfying and healthy diet.

Healthy Eating Tips: Set yourself up for success
Setting yourself up for success is essential for Healthy Eating

To set yourself up for success, you must think about adopting a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. By approaching this gradually and slowly incorporating this into your lifestyle you will not only be maintaining a healthy diet but you will also find it hard to fall back into bad habits.

- Simplify. Instead of being obsessively concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of variety and freshness-then it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Don't be afraid to experiment a little bit either. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.

- Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to change your diet overnight isn't realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan, which is why most "New Years Resolutions" fail. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add a variety of healthy choices to your diet.

- Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don't have to be perfect and you don't have to like it straight away, you don't even have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don't let your slight missteps derail you-every healthy food choice you make counts in the long term.

If you wish to find out about how to make a long term diet plan I recommend having a look at our website My Healthy Diets or more specifically The review section

Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.

Water - Water is as an extremely precious part of our diet. Simply put water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins which is essential in maintaining a healthy diet and exercise regime. Why you ask? Well our entire bodies contain some percentage of water. Up to 60% of the human body is water, the brain is composed of 70% water, and the lungs are nearly 90% water. Lean muscle tissue contains around 75% water by weight, body fat contains 10% water and bone has 22% water. About 83% of our blood is water, which helps digest our food, transport waste, and control body temperature. If you haven’t realized how important water is by now then you are wasting your time here. Each day humans are expected replace 2.4 litres of water, some through drinking and the rest taken by the body from the foods eaten. Unfortunately many people go through life dehydrated-causing tiredness, low energy and headaches. It's common to mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you make healthier food choices.

Exercise - Exercise is an important part of maintaining a healthy diet. The activities that you do effect what vitamins, proteins and every other source of energy to keep your body functioning as it should. Finding an activity that you genuinely enjoy will help you stay motivated and take a more cautious approach to staying healthy. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.

This is a very nice article and I couldn't agree with you more. I consumed less water this month and I think I gained weight which is sad. Since it is the summer, I have been drinking a lot of fruit shakes to beat the summer heat and I think it one of the biggest reason why I gained weight . I have to say that I have to start drinking more water again and exercise more. Changing lifestyle and eating habit is really difficult and it takes a lot of getting used to. Thanks for sharing this article. It's very helpful and I learned a lot

Drinking plenty of water and exercising are indeed one the most helpful when losing weight. I have a friend who can eat anything she wants and doesn't gain a pound and all she does is drink water and jog everyday. Water cleanses our body of all the toxins and it helps a ton in shedding off pounds. I do notice that once you start to eat healthy and drink water regularly you have less appetite for junk foods and sweets so it should be a good reason not to slack on drinking water. Good article indeed.