If you’ve never felt able to stick to a balanced diet, this is the post for you. Many people struggle with this, but there are a few things you could be doing that could be making it harder. If you want to improve your health and outlook while still enjoying the food you eat, read on for some advice!
Stop putting yourself under pressure to be perfect
First of all, you need to have realistic expectations. You should start slow if you’ve not managed this before, and understand that perfection is not the goal. Forget the ideas of ‘clean eating’ and ‘low carb’. Those ways of eating are not necessarily healthy! While a different approach works for different people, you need to do something sustainable that you know you can stick to long term. If you can’t stick to this long term, then you need to change something. Stop making it harder than it needs to be! You can still eat pasta, bread, rice, and even pizza.
Make sure you’re eating enough
If you feel the need to snack a lot, then it’s likely your meals are not big or filling enough. To make filling meals, you should focus on protein, carbs, and fats with each meal. Make sure you’re getting plenty of vegetables and drinking water with your food, too. You don’t want to eat until you’re stuffed, but you should feel satiated after eating. It makes very little sense to keep your meals small in an attempt to eat well when you just end up snacking on everything in the fridge later on.
This isn’t to say you can’t snack at all, but when you’re eating enough you should want to snack a lot less.
Prep food in advance
Prepping some food in advance and even freezing it can stop you from going for fast food when you can’t be bothered to cook. It can help you to prepare your own lunch for work at home, too.
Use delicious ingredients
You can use yummy, fresh ingredients in your cooking to make it even more enjoyable to eat. Treat yourself to nice ingredients each week in your food shop, such as fresh mushrooms and crunchy vegetables. Use herbs, too, and anything else you like.
Identify ‘why’
When you have a strong ‘why’ to back up your mission, you’re more likely to stick to this. For example, if you want to improve your mental health and stop feeling sluggish, keep this in mind as you go about your day.
Stay active
Exercise and eating a balanced diet often go hand in hand, so see if you can improve your activity levels. You could even just try to get your steps up.
Avoid fads and trends
Fads and trends are not going to help you in the long run. There’s a reason people are always buying into the next trend! Stick to a balanced diet in the long run – there’s no need to go to extremes. There is no magic solution!
Accept yourself
Accepting yourself will make this a much more pleasant journey. Appreciate your body for all it does for you, and let go of the idea that we should all look like models!
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