How To Become A Healthy Eater – 5 Common Sense Steps

How To Become A Healthy Eater For Beginners

How to become a healthy eater is a major challenge for those that have never learned to eat healthy in the first place.  Starting a healthy lifestyle can be difficult and intimidating but it doesn’t have to be.

While working through workout plans, obese women also have to evaluate their diet.  No…I did not say go on a diet.  We do not recommend that you search for a get skinny fast type of diet.  We don’t believe in fad dieting.

The trick is understanding how your body works and how the different varieties of food will help your body work most effectively.  But let’s face it, changing your lifestyle is kinda huge.

Making small changes toward a healthier lifestyle may be a little easier to face, don’t you think?  For Phase 1, we’ll learn how to become a healthy eater.  We’re taking baby steps to start our journey and we hope you’ll join us.

Disclaimer:  Different bodies respond differently to different diets and exercises.  We cannot tell you what will work for your body.  Our aim is to provide information on what we’ve learned on our journey in hopes that you will be inspired or find something that will help you along the way.

This post isn’t to give you a magic diet that will help you shave off 10 pounds in 10 minutes.  If that’s what you’re looking for, you may be on the wrong site altogether.  We are not about how to lose weight fast.

While I personally have 90 pounds to lose in order to reach my goal, I’m not doing this for weight purposes.  I’m changing my lifestyle to be more healthy and to teach my son the importance of a healthy lifestyle.  I want to prevent the heart disease that my family is trying to pass down to me.  Long story short, I’m doing this for me.

 

#1 – Learn What’s Healthy

Preventing disease and living life to the fullest with sufficient energy and vitality requires eating healthy.  Eating the proper foods in the right amounts is vital for maintaining proper body function.  This is why we are putting such a heavy emphasis on your diet.

We will be adding many more articles on exercising and getting fit as well, but if you’re not following a proper diet…there is no point in exercising to get fit.  A proper diet is essential.  This needs to be your top priority starting out your journey.

Breaking unhealthy habits is hard.  Let’s be real.  It’s hard as hell.  But it’s possible.  And if we can do it, you can too.  This might be the hardest part of the journey, but we can all do this together.

If you really want to start living a healthier lifestyle, you have to be willing to commit to a proper diet for the long term.  Not a fad diet, fad diets are bad but we’ll get into that more later.  I’m talking about a healthy diet according to the food pyramid…the proper servings of each of the food groups.

A good approach would be to start with getting rid of the bad foods in your house.  Bad foods are things that are processed, for example, cookies and soda are the two big ones.  Processed foods don’t have the nutrients that our body needs which is what makes them so bad.

Replace the bad foods with healthy ones such as fruit, carrot sticks, celery, yogurt, and various whole grains like crackers and rice cakes.  Nutrition bars are a better option for the sweet tooth as they contain lower amounts of sugar.  Atkins Bars, for example, have a variety of flavors that don’t contain sugar but ease the craving for sweets.

Learn how to become a healthy eater by finding out which foods are healthiest and why.  Understand your nutrients so you can make healthier decisions at snack time.

#2 – Cook At Home

Have you ever heard the term that America is upsized?  When you go through a drive through restaurant, after you give them your order, the very next question is do you want small, medium, or large.  One of the main factors that has led to the obesity problem in America is the lack of portion control.

We have to learn to control our portions.  I was one of those kids that got in trouble if I didn’t finish everything on my plate.  Therefore when I go out to eat and I’m given too much food, I naturally feel like I have to eat it all before I can leave the table.

The best way to combat this problem is to cook your meals at home.  By cooking at home you have more control over what you eat and how much you eat.  You control the ingredients that go into your food as well as the methods by which it’s cooked.

Cook your own healthy meals, at home, for yourself and your family so that you have full control.  Plan healthy, eat healthy, live healthy.  Simple as that.

 

#3 – Plan Healthy Meals

To ensure that you’re cooking healthy meals at home, plan ahead.  You want to make sure you have all of the necessary ingredients for a properly balanced meal.

Sit down a week, or even a month, ahead of time and plan out your meals.  Know what you need when you go to the grocery store.  Take a list.

Make sure you plan to include lean proteins in your meal.  White meat is healthiest.  Healthy carbohydrates instead of empty carbohydrates.  Focus on vegetables and whole grain starches.

Eat fruit for dessert instead of cake or cookies.  Stay away from ice cream, sorry y’all!  That should be a rare treat.  Low-fat and skim dairy products are best.

Your meal plans should include each of the recommended daily allowances for the various food groups.  Learn how to become a healthy eater by finding which foods are healthiest and why.  Gradually, this will become habit once you commit to it.

 

#4 – Set A Healthy Schedule

To start setting healthier habits, start scheduling consistent meal times into your day.  Sure, this may be annoying at first, but the idea is to create a new habit.  A healthier habit.  This would also be a good time to write in a workout plan for obese women.

Eating at consistent times will help create a habit of grabbing healthy snacks and preparing healthy meals.  After a few weeks, it should start coming naturally.

We’re all busy these days.  Instead of grabbing a candy bar from a vending machine for a snack, plan to have an apple or some celery sticks with you for that mid morning snack.

Take a healthy lunch to work instead of grabbing a quick burger during your lunch break.  A fresh salad or tuna salad on whole wheat are excellent alternatives to a greasy burger.

Prepare what you can during your weekends and use your freezer to store food until you’re ready to prepare it.  This will help save you time during the busiest parts of your week.  For those nights that you don’t have time to cook a healthy dinner, have some healthy frozen dinners available.  But choose the healthier ones, such as Healthy Choice.

#5 – Shop The Outside Walls

Have you ever noticed that the grocery stores have all of the raw, healthy foods on the outside walls of the store?

Think about it, when you’re walking through the aisles of the grocery store, you’re looking at boxed goods, canned goods, processed “goods”.  But the produce section, the fresh meats, the dairy section…those are all on the outside walls of the store.

On your next grocery shopping trip, try doing a loop around the outside first and pick up what you think you’ll need there.  See how much of your cart you can fill with the healthy choices before going into those dangerous junk lanes.  Maybe that can help reduce the amount of processed foods you go home with.  Once you’ve learned how to become a healthy eater, you’ll be able to do this without a list!

 

Final Thoughts

Changing your lifestyle is hard.  Don’t beat yourself up or expect to all of a sudden have perfect habits.  Also, don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to change everything at one time.  Take baby steps like we are.

One step at a time, make small changes to start creating better habits.  For example, try replacing one or two sodas per day with a bottle of water each.  If you’re a junk food junkie, replace one of those cookie snacks with an apple or orange.  Try taking your lunch to work with you instead of eating out.

Taking baby steps will also give you a little time to do some reading on nutritional foods and eating healthy.  As you learn how to become a healthy eater, you’ll be able to start making meal plans for your next grocery shopping trip!  You can also begin exploring our workout plans as obese women are not always able to do things like burpees and planks like thin people can.

In the meantime, don’t forget that we’re here for you.  We’re on the same journey and are glad to help with anything we can.  Please don’t hesitate to drop a line or 5 in the comments section and let us know how we can help.  If you’ve already started your journey, let us know how you’re doing!  Supporting each other is always a plus.

 

Most importantly, forget skinny…we’re training to be badass!

~Ki & Beck