We all know that eating healthy is what’s best for our bodies and our overall health and wellness, yet, in today’s world, making good choices about what we eat and drink has never been harder. How do you improve your diet and nutrition when everything is so processed? When all the quick and easy food options are fast, fried foods, rather than something good for you, like grilled chicken and roasted vegetables? When everything is loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup, and sugar and caffeine are so very addicting, so much so that people get withdrawal symptoms when they try to cut back on their sugar and caffeine intake?
Working to improve your diet and nutrition can feel overwhelming. It’s hard to make changes, especially if you don’t know where to start or if you feel like the only acceptable way to improve your diet and nutrition is to do a complete 180 overnight. While doing an overnight change works for some, for others, it takes time to build sustainable habits. Here are some easy ways to improve your diet and nutrition step-by-step, until you’ve adapted to a healthy diet. Let’s get into it!
#1. Swap A Soda Out For A Glass Of Water
Soda’s loaded up with sugar and caffeine, both highly addictive ingredients. Many people drink soda, and only soda. If this is you, try swapping one can of soda out for a glass of water until it feels natural, and less like something you have to force yourself into doing. From there, you can work up to making water your primary drink of the day. This isn’t to say that you can’t have soda, just that soda is something that is better to have once in a while, rather than all the time.
Your body needs water in order to lubricate your joints, help your digestive system, carry oxygen and nutrients to cells, and more. Many people find that drinking water helps them feel less bloated and to lose weight, because they’re replacing all the excess calories sodas bring with water. If you’re someone who can’t stand the taste of water, you can try infusing fruit in it, so it tastes better.
#2. Have Fruit As A Snack
Everyone needs multiple servings of fruit in a day, but where do you start when you don’t have fruit in your diet? You can improve your diet and nutrition and work up to eating more fruits by switching an afternoon snack, like a candy bar, out for a fruit, like an apple. Apples help you feel more energized too, which is a great little pick-me-up between meals. It can be quite an effort initially, but over time, it’ll become second nature to reach for a fruit as a snack, rather than candy or a bag of chips.
It can take anywhere from 18 days to over 200 days to develop a habit, with the average person needing 66 days for something to become an integrated part of their life. So, don’t feel discouraged if it takes a while for reaching for fruit to stop being a challenge! Just keep at it, and your body will thank you for it in the long run.
#3. Meal Prep
No, meal-prepping isn’t just something for intense fitness influencers. If you’re looking for a way to improve your diet and nutrition, meal prepping makes having healthier meals throughout the week so much easier, because they’re already prepped and ready to go. Home-cooked meals typically have less calories and better ingredients than what you can get when you eat out. Meal-prepping is a surefire way to improve your diet and nutrition because you’re able to control everything that goes into your meals.
The reason why people struggle to improve your diet and nutrition is because healthy eating is often seen as this time-consuming process, and in the middle of the workday, you really don’t have the time to chop vegetables and cook a full-blown meal. When you meal-prep, you get all of the prep work out of the way, so all you need to do is toss a meal in the microwave and then you can be on your way.
#4. Focus On How You Feel After Eating
Most quick and easy foods don’t make us feel very good after we have them. It’s common for people to feel lethargic, cranky, bloated, and otherwise uncomfortable after having unhealthy foods, or too much of an unhealthy food. You can improve your diet and nutrition by focusing on how you feel after you eat something. More often than not, if you eat healthier foods, you’ll feel lighter and more energized after eating, rather than weighed down and gross.
Focusing on how you feel after eating is an excellent way to improve your diet and nutrition because you can keep it in the back of your mind when making your food choices. If you know one food always makes you bloat but another doesn’t, you’ll be more likely to opt for the one that doesn’t make you bloat, leading to healthier eating over time.
Do You Need Help To Improve Your Diet And Nutrition?
These are but 4 of the steps you can take in order to improve your diet and nutrition. If you’re looking for more ways to improve your diet and nutrition or you need help knowing how to do so, Ogden Chiropractic can help. Contact us to schedule an appointment to learn more about how to improve your diet and nutrition today!
Leave a Reply