Our fast-paced lives give us little time to focus on our food and eating habits. This is negatively affecting our health and causing multiple problems. However, it is very important to maintain a healthy diet for the overall well-being of the mind and body. Below are five easy ways with which you can improve your diet and make your life healthier:
Re-organise your kitchen: A simple hack to stop yourself from late night snacking is to move high-calorie foods to the back of the fridge, leaving the front free for healthier snacks like carrot sticks and yoghurt.
Try storing any sweets, biscuits or chocolates in opaque containers. It’s also a good idea to reorder your kitchen cupboards, moving smaller plates to the front, making them more accessible, as research has found that when you eat from a small plate, you tend to consume less food.
Ensure you have a balanced diet: When it comes to improving your diet, ensure you eat a balance of foods. You should make sure that you eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, at least five times a day. Make sure that they are part of each meal, for example, having a banana with breakfast, some green vegetables like spinach, or asparagus for lunch and ensure that half of your plate for dinner is also vegetables.
Include starchy foods in your diet also. For example, potatoes with the skin are a great option. Try and make sure that your starchy foods are wholegrain, as these contain more vitamins and nutrients than the alternatives.
Drink plenty of water: There are many reasons why water is an essential component of our diet. Firstly, water assists the body in disposing off waste products. It also ensures a stable blood flow and provides your cells with the hydration they need in order to function properly.
Reduce the amount of sugar in your diet: An easy way to improve your diet is to reduce the amount of sugar you eat. When we’re feeling tired or sluggish, we quite often reach for sugary foods to give us that quick boost. However, the truth is that sugar isn’t great for the body. To begin weaning your body off processed sugar, it’s a good idea to start with a complete sugar detox for the first couple of days, as a way to reset your body, before slowly introducing natural sugars and unrefined carbohydrates for the remainder of the month.
Snack wisely: If you are suffering from sugar cravings, then try snacking on nuts and seeds as they are high in healthy fats and proteins that will keep you full for longer. Try also using alternative flavours, for example; a sprinkle of cinnamon on your porridge instead of the usual dollop of honey.
