It is human tendency to love and hate certain foods. Many of us have our favorite foods that we crave regularly. We also have those foods that we run away from, the kind that is supposed to be healthy for us. While we know that they are healthy, we still avoid eating them for certain reasons.
This could be due to an unpleasant childhood memory associated with it, the taste of it or the smell and so on. However, this means that as adults, we need to consciously develop a love for healthy foods. In other words, we need to learn a few tips and tricks that can help us eat and stay healthy. Here they are.
1. Practice Mindful Eating
It’s not easy to develop healthy eating habits or start eating some food which we don’t like at all. The solution to this problem is to adopt mindful eating. Mindfulness, when practiced for eating habits can bring about a positive change and help develop healthy eating attitudes and preferences. Mindful eating is a practice wherein you will start paying attention to the food you eat.
Being thankful for the food you eat without being emotional or judgmental about it, fully appreciate the food with all your senses. These are just a few of the tips and tricks that help you slowly become a mindful eater.1
2. Only Stock Up On Healthy Foods
The key to developing a love for healthy foods starts in your shopping cart. If you are reaching out for the candies or the soft drinks while shopping despite knowing that they may not be healthy choices, you have a problem. When you are hungry and go looking for something to eat in your pantry or the refrigerator, you will again automatically reach out to the foods you have bought.
So, the solution to the problem is simple. Only buy and stock healthy foods, don’t even purchase those unhealthy options. After all, why do you want to put your willpower to test? This will automatically lead you to start eating healthy.2
3. Take Small Steps
Take small steps, one at a time. But be sure to take them and in the right direction. It is extremely difficult to give up on our food indulgences in one shot. If you say that you have the willpower to stop eating something from day one, you may be setting yourself up for binge- eating some other day.
It is better to be realistic and take it slowly. So, plan and phase out the unhealthy foods one by one, little by little. Continue doing this until such a time that you feel that your eating habits have turned healthy.3
4. Understand Your Body’s Signals
Eating food only when you are really hungry helps a lot in inculcating a healthy food habit. When you are hungry, you are more likely eat whatever is available, even if it happens to be something that you may not otherwise gladly pick. This is easier said than done.
To understand how hungry you are, you can adopt certain practices like writing down your degree of hunger. This is called appetite monitoring. Develop this habit to help you in the long term for healthy eating.4
5. Go Natural
The best way to stay healthy is to eat natural or organic food. Even if you are eating meat, learn to look for the organic meat that is healthier. Opt for lean protein. Even more important is to learn to cook it properly, the right way using healthy cooking habits.
Try to bring in whole grains, natural sweeteners, healthy oils, and colorful phytonutrient-packed ingredients through innovative cooking. The key words to remember for healthy food habits are natural and wholesome5
Try these simple ways to help you maintain the healthy food habits. The trick is to make changes to your life that will enable you to stick to these healthy food habits for the longest period of time.
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