One of the questions I get asked most often is, where do I even start if I want to “eat healthier” and lost weight????
Today I’m going to go through a few general nutrition tips that helped me get started on my journey to healthier nutrition habits. These are not specific foods, recipes, or meal plans. Instead, I’m going to give you a baseline for small steps you can take that will point you in the right direction to succeed when you begin your journey to a healthier lifestyle. One key thing to remember is that we are all different and our bodies all respond differently to different dietary changes. With that being said, you will need to remember throughout the entire process of improving your nutrition, that everything will be trial and error. Be patient with yourself and remember that this is a learning process, and the most important thing is that you’re taking strides to develop a plan that works for YOU!
Learn to Properly Read Food Labels:
This is something that is very easy to do, and will help you to make more educated decisions whenever you’re buying products at the grocery store. Example: Certain items are meant to be high in fat because they’re a source of good fats, but if you read a label for ground meat and the fat is 30+ grams per serving, then that may not be the best decision. Learn to familiarize yourself with reading food labels and watching out for extremely high levels of fats and sugars.
Explore your Alternatives
There are SO many amazing options available on the market today, and so many different places to find items. I guarantee you that if you search around and do a little research, then you could find a healthier alternative to your favorite cookies, pancakes, noodles, etc. For example: I LOVE PANCAKES, but regular bleached flour mixes have so many unnecessary ingredients and empty carbs. I instead buy my Kodiak Cakes Protein Pancake mix when I want to get my pancake fix. (as you all may have seen on my Instagram) This option is made from whole grains and has a better balance of carbs, proteins, and fats. Think of your favorite item and just google healthier options! I bet you can find something.
Learn Portion Sizes
The U.S. has oversize and supersize EVERYTHING when it comes to food and drinks these days. Every once and a while this is fine, but eating huge meals and bottomless bags of food everyday can become a really bad habit. Just taking the time to consciously observe the portions you’re eating can make a significant difference. Instead of just opening the bag of chips and eating out of the bag, grab a bowl and measure out a serving size. Once you do this a few times you’ll be able to intuitively know what a portion size is in the future when you go to make that bowl for a snack. This goes for your dinner plate as well.
Drink More Water
I don’t care what your health goals are, you need to make sure you drink more water. This is something I cannot stress enough because water helps your body down to a cellular level. Most people do not drink near enough water on a daily basis, so try to start carrying around a convenient bottle with you! Tracking on a fitbit or having tracking stickers on your bottle may help you as well, when you’re just getting started. Water will help rev your metabolism, flush out toxins, improve your digestion, improve your skin, and so much more.
PLAN AHEAD PLAN AHEAD PLAN AHEAD
I can’t stress this one enough and honestly, I think it may just be the most important of all of my tips today. If you take a little bit of time to just plan ahead, I guarantee you will be 90% more likely to actually stick to your nutrition goals. So does this just mean meal prep? Well meal prep is definitely part of the equation that you can incorporate. Taking one night out of the week to just prepare a few healthy, portioned out meals for the week is something that helps me tremendously. Other things can include bagging out snacks in to portioned sized baggies. That way you can just grab and go when on the run! The first part of this equation, though, is taking time to go to the grocery store and making conscious decisions while there. By this I mean that you should think ahead as to what you have time to do, and which items would be most convenient for you without breaking your healthy goals. For example: Meats can take a ton of time to cook. Instead, I love to grab chicken patties, turkey patties, and black bean patties while I’m at Costco. These are already perfectly portioned and cook way quicker, so this makes it way more convenient when I’m pressed for time. Same goes for snacks from the store. Apples, protein shakes, bananas, protein bars, etc are all easy to eat on the run.
If you’re just getting started, then remember to take this one step at a time. Take one of the tips above and master that one first, and then move on to the next one. Developing healthier eating habits will definitely help you discover a newfound energy and make you FEEL so much better. Over time it will all just become habits as you master each one. If you’re interested in talking more specifically about your current goals and and what I can do to help you reach those, then feel free to shoot me an email. I’d love to steer you in the right direction and get you started on your own journey.
Well I hope all of these tips will help you take that first step in your journey to discovering your spark, and beginning your lifestyle transformation!
XOXO
Devon