05/10/2020
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
To maintain your healthy eating habits, try the following tips.
Add More Fruits & Veggies
Mix veggies into your go-to dishes. Swap meat for peppers and mushrooms in your tacos or try veggie pasta instead of grain pasta like one made out of black beans for more plant-based protein.
Use fresh fruits and veggies whenever possible. Watch for sodium in canned veggies and look for canned fruit packed in water instead of syrup.
Pack your child’s lunch bag with fruits and veggies: sliced apples, a banana or carrot sticks.
Prepare Healthy Snacks
Teach children the difference between everyday snacks such as fruits and veggies and occasional snacks such as cookies and sweets.
Keep cut-up fruits and veggies like carrots, peppers, or orange slices in the refrigerator.
Prepare your meals for the week by making them ahead on weekends or on a day off.
Make water your go-to drink instead of soda or sweetened beverages.
Read labels on packaged ingredients to find foods lower in sodium.
Reduce amounts of salt added to food when cooking and use herbs and spices instead to add flavor like paprika, turmeric, black pepper, garlic or onion powder.
Control Portion Sizes
When preparing meals at home, use smaller plates.
Don’t clean your plate if you’re full, instead save leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.
Portion sizes depend on the age, gender, and activity level of the individual.
Practice Healthy Eating in School
Bring healthy snacks into your child’s classroom for birthday parties and holiday celebrations, instead of providing sugary treats.
Reflect, Replace, and Reinforce
Making sudden, radical changes to eating habits such as eating nothing but cabbage soup, can lead to short-term weight loss but it won’t be successful in the long run. To permanently improve your eating habits:
Reflect on all your habits, both good and bad, and your common triggers for unhealthy eating.
Replace your unhealthy eating habits with healthier ones.
Reinforce your new, healthier habits.
Keep a food diary for a few days to evaluate what you eat every day. Note how you were feeling when you ate – hungry, not hungry, tired, or stressed?
Create a list of “cues” by reviewing your food diary to become more aware when you’re “triggered” to eat for reasons other than hunger. Note how you’re feeling at those times.
Circle the cues on your list that you face on a daily or weekly basis.
Ask yourself about the cues you’ve circled; is there anything else you can do to avoid the cue or situation? If you can’t avoid it, can you do something differently that would be healthier?
Replace unhealthy habits with new, healthy ones.
Reinforce your new, healthy habits and be patient with yourself. You can do it! Take it one day at a time!
