There are many benefits to consuming a healthy diet, not the least of which is you simply feel better. Some might say that true wealth is really your health. When your mind and body are healthy, it allows you to fully live in the present moment and enjoy this thing called life. By contrast, when your mind and body are not healthy, life can feel a lot harder than it has to be because you arent operating at 100%.Diet plays a huge role in our health and performance, giving our brains, bodies and vital organs the essential nutrients needed to function properly and work together in tandem. It can feel a little daunting when attempting to make healthy changes to your diet, there is so much information out there. The important thing to keep in mind is to start small and make incremental changes. Dont dive off the deep end and vow not to eat certain food groups ever again.Thats counter-productive and may cause you to crave those foods even more. In fact, instead of thinking of eating healthier as taking away foods you love, change your mindset to think of it as adding more healthy foods into your diet. The healthier foods you incorporate into your day, the more they will crowd out those less desirable snacks and meals. Youll be too full of the good stuff to even bother! But dont just take our word for it. Keep reading for some great tips on eating healthy from some of the top foodies around the blogosphere.Planning meals ahead of time is one tip thats paramount to adhering to a healthy way of eating. Stephanie Suen of The Butter Whisk agrees. She recommends that you:
Plan your meals. It makes life a lot easier if you set aside 30 minutes on a Sunday night to plan or even semi-plan what you will be eating the following week. This way, you can see if youre getting enough proper nutrition for the week.
If you must snack, snack healthy. By that I mean wash some fruits and pack them away so you can munch on them later during the day. Create your own granola mix and pack that. There are so many ways to curb eating a tub of ice cream or a whole bag of chips. I also like to freeze Greek yogurt for a chilled snack!
Stay away from processed foods. They are packed with a lot of no-nos and are usually extremely high in sodium. If cooking is too much work, buy meals that are fresh and be mindful of what is in them.
This is a great tip for getting started! Planning your meals can definitely take some of the stress away from this diet adjustment. After all, a healthy lifestyle is supposed to be fun! If you would like more tips on how to plan for a healthy lifestyle, check out Stephanies Instagram for more inspo: @thebutterywhisk.Speaking of consuming a diet of unprocessed foods and planning ahead for things like meals and snacks, Lana Yarkin of Lana Bakes is in agreement! She recommends that you:
Load up on natural, unprocessed foods.
Keep healthy snacks on hand. This helps me fill up on healthy foods when I feel like junk food!
Drink heaps of water!
Lana is on point with her tips. Water is definitely something you should never skimp on. Adequate hydration helps your body feel good, helps your brain perform at peak levels and it can even help curb a runaway appetite. It also helps you to be more mindful so that youre eating when youre truly hungry and not mindlessly noshing out of boredom or mistaking your thirst for hunger. If you agree with Lana and like her style, follow her on Insta @Lana_bakes.Clearly, listening to your body is a key component to healthy eating, because staying mindful is what Taylor Harbin of All Purpose Flour Child advises too. Taylor recommends that you:
Start with the highest quality ingredients you can.
Eat consciously by being in the moment, truly enjoying what you're consuming and feeling nourished by it.
Listen to your body and the way you feel when eating certain foods.
Theres nothing more empowering than truly listening to your body and feeding it the nourishment it needs. Choosing high-quality ingredients makes doing that much easier because you dont have to think about whether or not something is good for you. You already know! Follow Taylor on Insta @all.purpose.flour.child for more food wisdom like this.Another great tip comes from Jazz Leaf of Jazz's Recipes 4 Health. She advises keeping meals simple. Simple is always better because youre more inclined to stick with it that way. In her own words, she recommends you:
Dont overcomplicate anything. Just go with simple food.
To keep it exciting, try to find a healthy ingredient you love every day and figure out a way to incorporate that into your meals.
Find friends that encourage you and are like-minded. This will help with feeling supported vs. looked down upon.
Her last point is so good. Encouragement and support in living a healthy lifestyle and eating foods that are good for you are paramount. Without it, you might find it a little too easy to slip back into old patterns. For more great tips on eating healthy, follow Jazz on Insta @recipes4health.Ultimately, eating healthier boils down to the choices you make each day. Learning how to listen to your body helps you make food choices that are good for you. Those choices have a trickle-down effect in all areas of life because when youre eating well, youre feeling well.