Healthy Diet Plans
Initiating healthy eating plans does not mean planning rigid, inflexible, bland and boring meals. It’s not about starving yourself to tears or staying unrealistically thin. Quite the opposite, it’s about feeling great, having energy that lasts throughout the day, sleeping soundly through the night, and being as healthy as possible. It’s about reducing your risk of diseases that are mistakenly thought of as part of the aging process. All of this can be effortlessly achieved by gradually switching to a simple, healthy diet menu
10 healthy eating tips
1 – Don’t drop your current eating habits right away
Make your transition to healthy eating plans a gradual, step-by-step process. If you commit to making the change in small, manageable steps, you’ll be eating healthy in no time.
Instead of bothering with calorie counting or portion measurements, consider changing your diet around color, freshness, and variety. Find recipes that call for fresh fruits and vegetables. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and tastier.
Remember to make this change gradually, not overnight. Start by adding a colorful vegetable salad to a meal every day for a few weeks. Then maybe add fresh fruit for dessert. Make the transition gradually.
Every change you make to your diet is important. You don’t have to be perfect or eliminate foods you like right away. Your long-term goal is to feel good, have energy, and reduce your chances of developing diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.
Think of water and movement as integral parts of your new transition.
Your body needs clean, clear water. No so-called fruit juice (unless it’s freshly squeezed) and especially no coffee. Many people go through life dehydrated because they drink very little water or drink almost exclusively coffee. Your digestive system, like all body organs, needs plenty of water to function efficiently. These so-called fruit juices are full of sugars, flavorings, and preservatives that your body can’t digest, so it stores them as fat. Coffee is nothing more than an addictive drug that dehydrates your body. Coffee is the biggest drug addiction in the world.
Also, the human body was built for movement, not the sedentary lifestyle that most people lead today. Pick an activity that you enjoy and make it part of your daily routine, even two or three times a day.
2 – The secret is moderation
The key to switching to a healthy diet is moderation. Your body always needs a balanced ratio of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Don’t think that some foods are taboo, think about smaller portions and eat them less often.
3 – How you eat
It’s not what you eat, it’s how you eat. Slow down, think of food as sustenance, not something to swallow as you rush from here to there. And have breakfast. Get up each morning, do light exercise to get your heart rate up and your lungs open, then eat a light, healthy breakfast. Your body wants exercise and it wants breakfast. It has gone several hours without food, so your organs need food to wake up and function.
4 – Color is the secret
Fruits and vegetables are the secret ingredients of a healthy diet. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. You say you don’t like vegetables? Gradually incorporate fresh vegetables into your diet. You will soon develop a taste for vegetables because your body wants and needs them.
Green vegetables provide calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, vitamins A, C, E and K and strengthen the blood and respiratory systems. Sweet vegetables will help eliminate your cravings for sweets. Corn, carrots, beets, yams or yams, winter squash, and onions are examples of sweet vegetables. A healthy diet includes a wide variety of fruit. Berries fight cancer, apples provide fiber and citrus fruits are packed with vitamin C.
5- Eat healthy carbohydrates
When most people think of carbohydrates, they think of bread, potatoes, pasta and rice. These are carbs, but unhealthy, starchy carbs. They are broken down into glucose very quickly, making your blood sugar and insulin levels very erratic. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are sources of healthy carbohydrates. Notice I said whole grains, not whole wheat.
6 – Healthy Fats vs. Unhealthy Fats
Fats are a necessary part of your diet, but there are healthy and unhealthy fats. You need healthy fat to feed your brain, heart, hair, skin and nails. Omega-3 and omega-6 fats found in salmon, herring, mackerel, and sardines are vital to your diet. Fats that you need to reduce from your diet are trans fats and saturated fats.
7 – albumen
Protein provides the necessary amino acids we need to build muscle tissue, strengthen our immune system, heart and respiratory system. Protein also helps stabilize blood sugar levels. When we think of protein we usually think of red meat, make it lean red meat. Other sources of protein that you can incorporate into your healthy diet include salmon and other fresh fish, and turkey.
8- Your body needs calcium
Of course, dairy products are the obvious source of calcium. However, leafy green vegetables are an excellent source of calcium. Beans are also high in calcium.
9 – sugar and salt
Sugar and salt are necessary for our survival but must be taken in moderation. Sugar and salt are hidden in many of our processed foods today. Foods such as bread, canned soups and vegetables, spaghetti sauce, margarine, instant mashed potatoes, frozen meals, fast food, soy sauce and ketchup. Again, for a smooth transition, gradually eliminate these foods from your diet.
10 – Plan your meals in advance
Plan your meals weekly or even monthly. Planning your meals takes away the impulse to grab something simple and light and unhealthy.
Conclusion – your healthy nutritional menu
Remember that eating healthy doesn’t mean submitting to a strict, boring regime. It means having more energy, sleeping better at night, and reducing your risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases that are mistakenly attributed simply to aging. Make your transition gradually and you’ll be enjoying healthy eating plans before you know it.
Thanks to Steven R Robison
