How To Start Eating Healthy
When it comes to how to start eating healthy, we often get caught up in the details like:
- “Are potatoes fattening?”
- “If I don’t drink a protein shake after my workout, is it even worth exercising?”
- “Is keto really the best way to lose weight? Or should I be doing Paleo? Or what about the alkaline diet?!”
Yet these elements are pretty insignificant when it comes to asking ourselves if we are getting the basics right first and foremost.
I will always recommend that people start with the basics and add habits over time. But the basics are often not big and sexy BUT they will be the elements that will help you achieve better health and to lose weight (if that is your goal) and to do it in a way that will actually last.
We eat faster than ever, on the go or in their car, or in a daze while in front of the TV. We live in constant distraction, how often do you eat without really thinking??
We often don’t sit down and spend the time to be mindful about the food that we are consuming.
And this is no judgement we all do this as eating becomes one of those subconscious actions as we often have so many other things to think about.
We’ve been taught to think about what we eat, not how we eat.
That’s too bad since…
Eating slowly and mindfully can actually be an incredibly powerful habit for driving major transformation.
The research on mindful eating is growing and starting to show that people who slow down and eat more mindfully have a better chance at being in more control of their eating habits, tend to overeat less, have a better relationship with food and therefore have a better chance at losing weight.
Instead of having to figure out which foods to eat, in what frequency, and in what portions—all important factors, of course—eating slowly is the simplest way anyone can start eating and feeling better, immediately.
Why?
Two reasons:
1. It takes about 20 minutes for your body’s satiety signals to kick in. Slow eating gives the system time to work, allowing you to better sense when you’ve had enough.
2. When you slow down, and really try to savour your meal, you tend to feel satisfied with less, and feel less “deprived.”
But…
People struggle with this habit.
(Oh, do they struggle.)
What to do?
Practice at slow eating and know you won’t be perfect. That’s okay.
It’s also why it’s not a bad idea to spend a whole month on just this one habit. I say this all the time, but creating lasting habits takes time, and you should work on one habit at a time if you want these habits to be able to stick.
Ditching the all-or-nothing mentality and moving closer towards progress over time.
To help you, try one of these tips. You can experiment with them for just one meal, or take on a full “30-day slow-eating challenge,” if you feel up to it.
Take a breath.
Before you eat, pause. Take one breath. Take one bite. Then take another breath. Go one bite and one breath at a time. That’s it.
Add one minute per meal.
At the beginning of a meal, start a clock and see if you can make each meal one minute longer than the meal before.
Do something between bites.
Besides taking a breath (or three), try:
- setting down your utensils
- taking a sip of water
- asking someone at the table a question
Savour your food.
When you eat… eat. Enjoy it. Really taste it. Is it salty? Sweet? Does it coat the roof of your mouth? What’s the texture like? Think about these questions with each bite.
Notice what affects eating speed.
Even something as subtle as silence or background music can trigger you to speed up or slow down, which is why some folks have found success with listening to a 20-minute “slow eating” playlist.
And finally…
Try to remember: Don’t put food on your fork… if there’s food in your mouth!
I hope you will try out this one simple change to your eating habits this week, or this month. Let me know what happens.
Once you have mastered this and some other basics, then you can start moving towards more advanced diet techniques when it comes to learning how to eat healthy, but always work on mastering the basics first.
Want to know more about the basic health practices that work are?? CLICK HERE and access the FREE 5 Day Better Body Kickstart now. 5 Simple health habits to kickstart your health journey.
Leave a Reply