Have you ever thought about your lifestyle and ways to make it better amidst your busy routine? Probably yes, probably lots of times even. But with fast food and soft drinks so tempting and so readily available and affordable, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is more difficult than it should be.
Read ahead and find out some simple and easy-to-do tricks that you can add to your lifestyle to make it a healthier one.
MAINTAIN A FOOD JOURNAL
Write down in your journal what you eat and the time at which you take it. Maintaining a food journal like this has proved to increase weight loss success by twice the amount. The logic behind it is pretty simple; the journal helps you keep track of your eating habits, better than without keeping one.
You can either do it on a diary, or also use an application on your phone. S Health is a great application available on most Samsung phones. In addition to just helping you take note of your eatables, these applications also provide you with the option of exercise, sleep, blood pressure and the likes.
DO NOT LET YOURSELF BE HUNGRY
It is imperative to keep your food intake up in order to keep hunger from pushing you around. In order to learn to minimize your appetite, you must make better eating choices. To help reduce cravings, one good idea is to add protein to every meal or snack.
What you need to remember most is that the key is to come up with or discover an eating pattern that works best for you. It is not necessary what works for someone else must work for you too. Another vital thing to note here is that you have to avoid being in a position where you have to fight hunger and craving at the same time, because trust me, that is a war one cannot win.
KEEP IT SIMPLE, KEEP IT REAL
One trick that has shown immense promise and worked for generations is this: simplify things. All you need to remember is to increase your consumption of whole fresh foods and decrease consumption of processed and high-calorie ones.
The more you fancy it up, the harder it will be for you to keep up with your healthy routine. An elaborate menu will do you no good. Look for local produce, whole foods easily available, lean grilled meats, fruits and vegetables.
SIZE MATTERS
You may have come across the phenomenon of eating in “portions”. Mentioned below are some basic guidelines for what one portion size is:
- The fruit in your meal should be the size of a tennis ball.
- The meat in your meal should be the size of two palms
- Starch (let’s say cereal, potatoes, rice and noodles) should be equal to the size of a fist.
- The size of vegetables too should be the size of a fist.
REMEMBER TO STAY HYDRATED
Not all the growls in your stomach are because you are hungry. It is easy to mistake thirst/dehydration for hunger. The stomach produces hunger pangs or growls not only when you’re hungry, but also when there is not enough water in your body.
Drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated will therefore save you the trouble of reaching out for a quick snack. When choosing between water and fruit juices, always go for water. Packed juices are loaded with calories. When also choosing between a fruit or fruit juice, go for the fruit. Did you know that 84% of apple’s composition is water? That’ll hydrate you enough.
Follow these 5 tips for healthy eating and see the difference for yourself.