Numerous surveys in different countries show that more than 80% of people want to eat healthier. But many of those surveyed admit that they do not know where to start.
1. Make a menu for the week.
At first glance, this doesn’t seem very easy. But the more often you make a menu, the less time you will spend on it. You don’t have to think through breakfast lunches dinners. If you’re having dinner at home, it’s going to be a dinner menu.
There is such an exciting thing as a breakfast bar. There are many containers with different breakfast options (muesli, cereals, cereals, and so on). And every day you can choose something new: to take and cook. Very convenient: for example, poured the cereal boiling water, added berries, and got porridge.
A pre-designed menu will help you plan your purchases and optimize your spending.
2. Choose 20 dishes you like to cook.
The list should include only those dishes that you like. They will become part of a balanced diet. This list is worth hanging on the fridge.
You can ask other family members about what they want to see on the menu. And try to present your favorite dishes in a healthier version.
Why do you need this list and even a menu? He helps a lot when he doesn’t have the strength to cook. You have all the foods in advance for your favorite dishes: you can take them and cook, no need to go to the store, puzzle over what to cook. It saves a lot of energy.
3. Start planning the menu as you cook vegetables.
We are used to starting to plan the menu with how we will cook protein-rich foods (fish or meat). Historically, this has happened. We always feel like we’re in a protein deficiency. But the modern man lacks in the diet of vegetables and fruits. Therefore, the menu planning should start with vegetables.
An adult should eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. We eat an average of 3 servings.
To dislodge this dissonance, refrigerate enough vegetables and place them in the center of the menu.
Vegetables are helpful for gastrointestinal and immunity, help to create color and taste variety of diet.
It is essential: first, you need to think through the menu, and then buy vegetables. Then you won’t have dried packs of lettuce in your fridge.
You can also read: Why do we overeat? Doctor’s explanation and 3 proven ways to eat less
4. Buy one new product a week and learn how to cook it.
This is very important: you go out of your comfort zone, set an example for children (teach them to new products) and enrich your diet.
Try it: it’s great to discover new tastes.
Why is it essential to expand the menu?
1. To diversify the microbiome of our intestines. Scientists have found that different beneficial bacteria in our gut feed on different types of fiber. If you eat a variety of foods, you help the intestines, make it healthier, enrich it with a microbiome, and therefore increase your immunity, improve your mood, and so on.
Together with new types of fiber, new types of bacteria enter our bodies.
2. To defeat the craving for sweets. The inclusion of new products helps to combat sugar dependence. When we have a great variety in the diet, we enjoy the very possibility of choice. It replaces the pleasure that sweets give. In both cases, dopamine is released. These pleasures are equal.
5. Don’t complicate
Eating healthy food does not mean buying expensive and popular products on social networks.
Whole foods are most helpful. The simplest that you are familiar with. You have to look at them from the other side.
For example, in China, buckwheat is brewed like tea, and drink this broth (try!). Cabbage can not be baked under a thick layer of cheese, and there is a raw (a plate of vitamin C).
Don’t be fooled by fashion advertising. For example, now very popular powders of different fruits (blueberries, goji berries, etc.). They are expensive and promise incredible health benefits. But if you count, a small package of such powder costs about 1000 rubles. For the same amount, you can buy six bags of frozen or fresh berries.
There are no studies that confirm the use of powders from berries. A balanced diet is much more critical.
6. Surround yourself with people with healthy habits
To change food habits, as for any other change, you need good company. Changing food is convenient together, for example, as a family. And you don’t have to start with global change: choose a small step and gradually introduce it into your life. It’s more effective.
You can go to cafes, where they offer healthy food, or cook valuable something and treat colleagues. Or go to some parties where everyone is set up for a healthy diet. It’s also very motivating.
You can also read: Eating disorders. How to recognize what the norm is?
7. Put your phone aside.
When eating and while you’re talking to your family.
With the phone in our hands, we eat faster, do not perceive the whole palette of tastes, do not get absolute pleasure from food, and stop appreciating the food itself.
The phone takes away from us an absolute pleasure, which can be received during lunch.
In one experiment, people were asked to try different varieties of cheese and asked to describe their tastes. And then, experienced tasters evaluated how accurately the participants of the experiment characterized a particular flavor. It turned out that ordinary people used only a dozen words to describe tastes, and in fact, these tastes can be evaluated by palettes of more than 100 words.
Why did this happen? We have forgotten how to enjoy food and appreciate it to the fullest. This is the fault of the phone and the habit of doing everything quickly, including there is.
8. Stop “starting a new life.”
Choose 1-2 habits and work on them. And periodically evaluate the result: what was before and what is now.
For example, two or three days is enough to appreciate the habit of drinking more water.
You can also read: Plate with healthy habits: 3 healthy recipes
9. Rate your dishes
Do you like eating from it? Do you get aesthetic pleasure from what dishes you put your food in or from the cooking process? It’s important because it fills our day.
Dishes should also bring joy, as well as clothes or interior items.
