Planning a Healthy Diet and Sticking to it

A healthy balance diet is a type of food that contains all the classes of food. A healthy diet is one that helps maintain and improve general health in humans. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition; such as vitamins, minerals, adequate calories, adequate essential amino acid from protein, fluid, and essential fatty acid. Healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and stabilizing your mood. If you feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone. It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. But by using these simple tips, I’m sure you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create a tasty, varied, and healthy diet. The first thing to put in mind is; 

 Set yourself up for success

To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a perfect healthy diet sooner than you think.

1. Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of colour, variety, and freshness. This way it would be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.

2. Start slow and make changes to your eating habits with time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different colour 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 more healthy choices to your diet.

3. Changes you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate the 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 missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make does counts.

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

Water. Water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins, yet 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. Find something active that you like to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy greens, apples, or blueberries. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.

 Moderation is key

People often think of healthy eating as an all or nothing proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation. But what is moderation? In essence, it means eating only as much food as your body needs, eating the exact quantity of food that your body requires. You should feel satisfied at the end of a meal, but not stuffed. Moderation is also about balance. We all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body. The aim of healthy eating is to develop a diet that you can maintain for life, not just a few weeks, and months or just for a period of time, or until you've hit your ideal weight. For most of us, that means eating less than we do now. More specifically, it means eating far less of the unhealthy stuff ‘’refined sugar,

saturated fat, for example’’ and replacing it with the healthy food such as fresh fruit and vegetables. But it doesn't mean eliminating the foods you love. If you eat 100 calories of chocolate one afternoon, balance it out by deducting 100 calories from your evening meal. If you're still hungry, fill up with an extra serving of fresh vegetables.

1. Try not to think of certain foods . When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. If the rest of your diet is healthy, eating a burger and fries once a week probably won’t have too much of a detrimental effect on your health. Eating junk food just once a month will have even less of an impact. As you reduce your intake of unhealthy foods, you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.

2. Think smaller portions. When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entree, split a dish with a friend, and don't order supersized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms, and start small. If you don't feel satisfied at the end of a meal, try adding more leafy green vegetables or rounding off the meal with fresh fruit. Visual cues can help with portion sizes, your serving of meat, fish, or chicken should be the size of a deck of cards and rice, or pasta is about the size of a traditional light bulb.

It's not just what you eat, but how you eat

Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate, it is also about how you think about food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between meetings or on the way to a meeting or to pick up the kids.

1. Eat with others when possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits particularly for children, and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.

2. Take time to chew your food. Chew your food slowly, savouring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavours and feel the textures of our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.

3. Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so it is advisable to eat slowly.

4. Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day rather than the standard three large meals keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.

5. Avoid eating at night. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast for 14-16 hours until breakfast the next morning. Studies suggests that this simple dietary adjustment—eating only when you’re most active and giving your digestive system a long break each day may help to regulate weight. After-dinner snacks tend to be high in fat and calories so are best avoided, also.