Where do I Start with Eating Healthier?

Use these five tips to jumpstart your journey with healthy nutrition.

Are You Ready?

First off, starting to change a lifetime of habits is no easy task. Be open to the changes and be prepared to make conscious decisions every day that might go against your "norm" (aka past self).

Don't be too hard on yourself, but realize that this is a process and be ready to accept a challenge.

The following are my top 5 tips to start with on your journey!

Track Your Habits

First of all, you won't know what's lacking or what you need to change until you look at your habits dead in the eye.

How? Use a form of habit tracker.

You can start by journaling and writing down what you ate each day. Be sure to leave space to notate how you felt, or if anything particularly stuck out to you that day. That way, when you look back, you can match certain triggers and behaviors with bad decisions and begin to weed out the things that affect you the most.

If writing down each item by hand feels excessive, try an app based program that will calculate the small numbers for you. Then, all you have to do is look and see what things stick out as highly caloric, or high in saturated fats, for example.

When looking at your habits, if self reflection is too confusing, be sure to seek out health professional to narrow down the specifics for you!

Eat Your Colors

Now this will be an easy one!

Focus on eating more colors throughout the day. The more colorful foods you incorporate, the better. Why? Colors represent nutrients!

For example, red/ orange colored fruits and veggies tend to have vitamin C and purple/ blue fruits and veggies will be higher in antioxidants. So the more you incorporate, the less guesswork you have to do!

If you normally eat a salad for lunch, try adding more than just lettuce and tomato. Spice it up with purple onion, avocado, and even berries!

Making spaghetti sauce? Add more veggies to the mix like mushrooms and carrots. Eggs aren't your favorite? Elevate them with peppers, shallots, and arugula for starters.

Even more specific, focus on whole and less processed foods. Also, be aware of dyes and powders used as additives to fake the appearance of healthy foods.

You might see tricolor pasta and think it's made from veggie flour, when in fact, it is simply processed wheat with dyes or an insignificant amount of spinach powder added to it to turn it green.

Make it Yourself

Spend time preparing and making your own meals. Choosing to skip the fast foods and opting for home cooking is one of the best long-term decisions you can make.

This is important because not only will you know exactly what is in your food, but

you can increase nutrient quality and control for allergies, etc. There are so many hidden sugars, fats, and additives in fast foods that are easily eliminated when you simply cook for yourself.

It might be hard at first, but there are two ways to accomplish this strategy. The harder, but more variable version would require you to cook each night and prepare lunch or breakfast for the next day. I like this method personally because I enjoy a high variety of fresh meals during the week and am not a huge fan of leftovers. The downside is that I have to track my meals as I go throughout the day and cook daily, which require a little more time.

Alternatively, you can do the prep method. Spend a few hours on Sundays to pre-chop veggies and fruits as quick grabs for the week and make a few bulk meals that will be easy leftovers. This makes it a lot easier for the week ahead, but requires more planning on that particular "prep" day.

Cut the Fat

High fatty foods, and more specifically, deep fried foods are one of the worst things you can do to your body. They can be responsible for not only high caloric weight gains, but even more detrimental effects to your internal organs and cause things like heart attack, stroke, inflammation, and obesity, for starters.

Think about when those oils and butters are cold, they turn into a goopy sticky substance when you leave them in a pan or when you try to clean them in a sink. They're not only greasy, but extremely hard to clean off with out a tremendous amount of soap involved.

Now picture that substance caking into your "internal pipes"... Gross huh? And we don't have Dawn soap to eliminate that!

So, the best thing you can do is start to eliminate these foods types for the long haul. You will be surprised how much your body, mind, and tastebuds will change over time. Spend weeks not eating that greasy burger at the lunch joint and the next time you indulge, you probably will not enjoy it. Even worse, you might get a stomach ache or earn yourself an early trip to the bathroom!

A Treat Is a Treat

Enjoying a dessert or indulgence like a glass of wine every now and then is not bad if that isn't on the daily. Remember that the sugars, desserts, chips, wine, etc are meant to be a treat on occasion.

If you struggle with daily treats outside of the house, start by skipping those places that tempt you the most, for example, that sugary latte at Starbucks. Make sure you have healthier options to grab at home instead if you don't see yourself getting the low fat or sugar free versions. Also, search for healthier swaps like dark chocolate or fruit for desserts, sparkling waters for wine, or crispy chickpeas for chips.

The best strategy to keep the treats away it to not bring them in the house in the first place. It takes a lot of will power to avoid a treat when it's staring you in the face, so keep it out of sight and out of mind!

As a side note, try not to treat yourself with food as a reward for healthy behaviors because that might turn into another daily reliance or habit. The last thing you want to do is self sabotage. Don't reward time in the gym with a frappuccino because you worked out hard and it's hot outside. Try grabbing an icy cold protein shake or make a fruit smoothie instead. Don't negate that 400 calorie burn with 600 calorie drink!

It's a Daily Choice

If you think about it, it takes forever to make a good habit, but not long to break it. And that goes for any habit- exercise, healthy eating, walking, consistency in therapy, etc. So it comes down to the daily decisions, and what choices are made the most that really make the difference.

One day with a few poor decisions won't hurt you, but one good day out of many won't help you either. Whatever comes frequently will be your result in the end, so what should be your choice?

When it comes down to it, there is really only one choice. Choose you.

Remember your reason for why you are doing this in the first place, and hold on to it.

Pair these tips with exercise and you're all set for success!

What was something that helped you or motivated you when you deciding to start on your health journey?

Share below!

For a quick list of Dos and Don'ts, check out my handouts page.