How To Improve Your Nutrition With 4 Simple Strategies
How To Improve Your Nutrition With 4 Simple Strategies
When most people decide to diet they really overdo it.
They get confused and overwhelmed and usually give up before long.
If you want to be successful losing weight, you need good simple strategies that will help guide you and keep you on track.
When you’re trying your best to lose weight, nutrition is most often the difficult part. And, it’s the most vitally important part. It seems when we decide to lose some weight we kind of go blank on the best food choices.
You simply can’t ignore your nutrition. If you do, you’ll most likely fail eventually.
It doesn’t matter how hard or how much you work out, if you don’t work on improving your nutrition you won’t lose much weight. And it won’t be sustainable.
Nutrition can be overwhelming for some people. More so than working out. With so many different diets, it’s difficult to decide on the right choice.
But what if you think your nutrition is really bad? Where to start?
Most people try to change everything at once. But don’t do that. You mustn’t get bogged down and distracted by all the different fads out there.
You need to make small, consistent changes over time. Changes that stick and become good habits. You don’t want to do what most people do:
Go health crazy for 2 weeks, burn out, and quit, going right back to square one. I’ve been there!
Let’s take a look at these 4 easy and simple tips you can use to build some solid momentum on your health journey.
1 – Stop buying junk food and keeping it at home
If it’s not in the house, you won’t eat it. You won’t be as tempted to eat it at least. Maybe you just love some ice cream. But is it really worth getting dressed and going to the store to go get some? Most of the time, probably not. At least it gives you that slight edge so you can put in some self-control.
An excellent long term nutrition strategy is to make things easier and save your willpower whenever possible. The more convenient you can make healthy nutrition, the easier it will be to eat well. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5303533/)
You must try to make unhealthy behaviors inconvenient.
These kinds of strategies are simple but they can be very effective.
There’s a big reason why eating better can be difficult. Cooking and eating at home is much less convenient than the drive-thru. So try to do whatever you can to make your life easier.
Try making healthy, low-calorie snacks that you can quickly reach for in those craving emergencies. See what I mean? Less willpower needed.
Stop buying foods that go against your health and nutrition goals. You’ll find you eat so much better without having to constantly have internal battles whether it’s ok to have a cookie or not.
2 – Learn to eat slower by using a timer
When you eat fast it’s very easy to eat too much. It can take around 20 minutes for your body to register it’s had enough to eat. When you slow down it’s easier to recognize your body’s hunger cues.
If you try this you’ll be surprised at how difficult it is. The first time I did this I set the timer for 10 minutes. When I only had 1 bite left I was shocked by how much time I still had left on the clock. Whoops!
You should also try to eat without any distractions like TV. Just focus on eating and all the senses that go with it. I guarantee you’ll start to appreciate food more if you just slow it down and enjoy the experience of eating.
Doing this’ll help you eat more mindfully and exercise better portion control. The rewards are worth it.
3 – You don’t have to eat everything on your plate.
Most restaurant portions in the U.S. and other western countries are HUGE. So turning one meal into two meals means you don’t feel bloated and uncomfortable after lunch with friends.
Control the portions you eat. Be clear about how much you plan on eating. Of course you also save money by turning a single meal into two. It’s a win-win.
4 – Before every meal, drink a glass of water
A lot of the time when you think you’re hungry, you could just be thirsty. It has a similar feeling. Your body’s telling you it needs something but it isn’t always clear what it is exactly. When you drink a glass of water before you eat, it stops you mistaking hunger for thirst. Then you’re less likely to overeat.
Feeling a bit full from the water before you start your meal will help you become more aware of your hunger cues. Learning to listen to your hunger cues is a super-important skill for eating healthy. Being in tune with your body’s cues will prevent overeating.
Conclusion…
Just pick one of these strategies at a time to try out. Really commit to sticking to it every day for a week or two.
When it starts forming a habit, add in one of the other strategies. After you’ve gone through all of them, you’ll have rock solid portion control and mindfulness around food.
You’ll have the confidence to keep yourself on the right track so you get the weight loss results you desire.