Time for part two of my HEALTHY LIFESTYLE TIPS… Today I’m going to be talking about my tips for healthy eating
Ok, first of all, I want to make you all aware that there is no need to survive on just lettuce or celery. Severely restricting your calorie intake is very dangerous and unhealthy, and in the long term it could damage your metabolism. So don’t go thinking you need to eat as little as possible, because that’s not how it works.
I’ve written various posts about this, which I’ve linked at the bottom of this post. Go check them out if you want more info.
This blog post could potentially go on to become the length of a dissertation, so to prevent that I’m going to try to keep it simple…
Carbs are not the devil. Not all fats are bad – monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are good fats. And you only need to completely cut-out certain foods/food groups from your diet if you are intolerant to them or have some kind of allergy or immune response.
You do not need to go gluten-free, dairy-free, etc in an effort to lose weight. And completely removing certain food groups from your diet is not a necessity for healthy eating.
I am gluten-free purely because I have horrible digestive issues when I eat gluten. Otherwise I would continue eating it because, contrary to popular belief, gluten and dairy do not make you fat.
On that note, you don’t have to go vegan or vegetarian to lose weight either. There’s a lot of rubbish advice out there lately claiming that going vegan will help you drop the pounds.
If you want to be vegetarian or vegan for moral/ethical reasons, that’s absolutely fine. But if you are just doing it because someone told you it’s good for weight loss, that’s not true.
Ok, that was the quickest possible way for me to summarise macronutrients – carbohydrates, fats and protein. I might write a more in-depth post about macronutrients at some point, if you guys want me to?
Anyway, onto how to make sure you stick to your healthy eating plans…
Meal prepping is one of the best ways to help you stay on track with healthy eating, simply because you don’t have to worry about the time taken to prepare a meal or snack when you’re hungry, because it’s already made and in the fridge!
However, meal prepping for an entire week isn’t for everyone. I’ll admit I tend to forget to do any meal prep and then end up staring at a fridge full of ingredients with nothing ready prepared…so the temptation to just grab a chocolate bar begins.
You all know I believe everything in moderation is the best way, and I have chocolate most weeks. But being prepared with your meals to a certain extent can help you to be in control of your cravings.
If you want to make healthy choices but don’t like the thought of meal prepping, my advice is to at least plan (and write down) your meals for the week in advance.
So on a Sunday, write down the meals you’ll be having for each evening of the upcoming week. Also write down the lunches you’re planning to have.
Don’t go crazy though and write down completely unrealistic meals that involve milking a feckin’ unicorn or anything like that – just keep it simple.
Healthy meals don’t have to be complicated, and you don’t need to go out and buy a load of superfoods.
The reason I say to plan your lunches as well as your dinners is because, by planning both of these meals in advance, you can figure out which meals you could make larger portions of to save some for lunch the following day. And you could also decide which days you’ll need to figure out a separate lunch to make the night before (because who is awake enough in the mornings to sort out lunch!?).
I find that doing this helps me to make healthier choices with food because if I’m left to my own devices when hungry I will without doubt just want to reach for a chocolate bar.
Some weeks I meal prep absolutely everything. Some weeks I just write down the meal plan for the week. And some weeks I don’t plan at all. That’s life!
But I will be honest and tell you that the weeks I plan at least a little bit are the weeks I eat the most healthy foods.
I hope that ‘whistle-stop tour’ of healthy eating has helped you. I’ve linked below to some other posts I’ve written about making healthy choices with food.
I’ll be back next week with part 3 of my Healthy Lifestyle Tips.
Nat xx
Why You Shouldn’t Just Eat The Same Calories As Your ‘Fitspo’
What should/shouldn’t I eat? Do I really need to eat superfoods?
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