Who does not want to be healthy?
Everyone wants!
Being healthy is the most valuable asset one can have. With a healthy body and mind; the potential of a person is at its peak. They feel capable and living to the best of their possibilities. Being healthy is a blessing and everyone wants it.
So, what’s the best way to become healthy?
Amongst all the fast and quick ways, the most natural, safe, and affordable way to become healthy is to adopt healthy eating habits. What you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat; all matter to your health. And, all this is counted as your eating habits.
Remember, the earlier you start building healthy eating habits the more you will benefit from it. What you eat in your 20s, your body responds to all these after your 30s and that's why it's important to start early.
It may sound bitter but we will be sharing some amazing tips which if you follow will help you build healthy eating habits.
1. Plan Your Meal For the Month
If you want to build good eating habits for your life, your need exclusive planning.
Meal planning for the entire month (or even for a week) is the first thing you should do to achieve healthy eating habits. Try to include a balanced diet each day; that contains the proper amount of carbohydrates, all types of vitamins, proteins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, adequate amount of sugar, fat, etc.
To plan your mean; you can follow three simple steps:
Select the recipes
Get all the ingredients (for week or month based on your plan)
Cook (get it cooked) and follow the schedule
Make sure you write your meal plan for the month or week. And keep cross-checking for your daily meals. You can take a consultation from the dietitian for better results.
Here’s another suggestion!
It's advised to start this kind of meal planning on Friday; as you get enough time on weekends for shopping and recipes planning, adding momentum to your plan, increasing the chances of success.
2. Eat Lots of Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits are rich in vitamins, minerals, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, and folic acid. If you eat fruits on a daily basis, then you can get enough essential elements of life that matter for your body's well-being.
Fruits have quick benefits to your body. Eating juicy fruits can help your body to keep hydrated. List of some fruits with benefits that you can include in your habits:
Apple - contains carbs, fiber, vitamin C, Potassium, and calories.
Pomegranate - contains carbohydrates, sugar, fiber, sodium.
Avocados - contains vitamin B, C, B6, magnesium, potassium, and omega 3 fatty acid
Blueberries - contains beta-carotene, folate, choline, Vitamin E
Bananas - contains potassium, magnesium, fiber, vitamin B, and vitamin C
Orange - contains vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, and fiber.
Kiwi - contains vitamin C, fiber, anti-oxidant, proteins, carbohydrates, and sugar
Strawberries - contains vitamin B9, anti-oxidant, potassium, vitamin C
Pineapple - contains fat, proteins, carbs, folate, copper, vitamin B6, and C
Watermelon - contains anti-oxidant, lycopene, vitamin B
Guava - contains proteins, carbs, fiber, and fat
Grapes - calories, proteins, carbohydrates, sugar, calcium, and iron
The right way to consume fruits is to chew them, as chewing fruits has an additional advantage. It increases the blood flow to the stomach and increases digestion.
Make a habit of eating one fruit every morning in your breakfast. Prefer seasonal fruits over non-seasonal ones. Consuming fruits in the form of juice could be an easier way to intake more in less time; a good option for people in a rush.
Along with fruits, vegetables are equally important.
Include vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, capsicum, tomatoes, potatoes, etc in your diet plan. Vegetables contain a good amount of fiber, various minerals, vitamins, magnesium, iron, antioxidants, and many more things. These elements help to regulate blood pressure, improve eye-sight, control weight, avoid diabetes risk, help in digestion, etc., enhancing your overall health. Eating steamed veggies is found to be very nutritious, as boiling often drains out a portion of vitamins and nutrients along with water.
3. Cut Down Added Sugar & Food Colour
Anything added artificially in the food isn’t good for your health. Added sugars and food colors are dissolved in cold drinks, ice creams, and in many desserts. Avoid these market products as much as possible.
Cutting down the added sugar and food color benefits you by lowering blood pressure, less risk of a heart attack, tooth decay, reducing the chances of Alzheimer's and Dementia.
These are common sources of added sugars in day-to-day life:
Cakes
Candies
Cold drinks or soft drinks
Ice-creams
Energy drinks
Juice drinks
Added sugars are present in almost every food that we purchase from the market, however, we can minimize it the most to avoid any risk attached with the high intake of added sugars.
4. Cut Down Processed Food
With so many online apps that allow you to order food from nearby restaurants; we all have turned lazy to cook at home.
Eating food from restaurants regularly is risky and may lead to lower blood pressure, obesity, poor immunity, uneasiness, and other health risks. Further, you are not sure if the food is cooked with proper hygiene in practice or not, whether the ingredients used are fresh or not, etc.
Eating junk food harms the fertility of men and women. These processed foods contain phthalates that disrupt the normal functioning of the hormones, adversely affecting the reproductive process.
On the other hand, packaged foods are made with some preservatives, chemicals like Sodium Nitrite, Sodium Benzoate, added flavors, food colors, and sugars. These packaged foods don’t provide any food value as they create only health problems.
Contains preservatives- not good for health
Avoid spicy food
Create problems on your health and your mind
So, avoid eating these packaged foods and start living a healthy life.
5. Never Skip Breakfast
For a healthy and active lifestyle; breakfast is a MUST. Skipping breakfast isn't good for your health.
Here’s the thing you need to know to understand why you should not skip breakfast!
After dinner, suppose at 9 PM, there is a lot of time gap (9 PM to 6 AM next morning) for eating another meal. Hence, that long gap can be treated as a fast. And, so it becomes compulsory to break that fast in the morning.
And, that’s the reason, it's called “Breakfast”.
In the morning our stomach becomes super active. And, it's recommended to eat a lot in the morning. You can eat green beans, peanuts, kidney beans, almonds, eat eggs, milk, fruits, add greek yogurt to your diet.
6. Stay Hydrated
If you have a habit of drinking water only after getting thirsty, then you are making a great mistake.
Drinking at least 3.7L water/day is best for your body. This differs from person to person. Start carrying a water bottle with you. Prefer metal bottles instead of plastic bottles. Don’t drink too chilled water. Normal room temperature water is best to drink.
Drinking water helps you to keep your body hydrated. It also helps in good digestion and detox chemicals from your body. So, drink as per requirement but avoid drinking sugary drinks.
7. Increase Your Protein Intake
Proteins are important for growth and development as it repairs our body cells, helps build and maintain bones, muscles, and skin. Proper protein intake is necessary for our body.
Therefore, your eating habits must be molded in a way that contains a good amount of protein. For non-vegetarians, you can eat protein-rich foods like eggs, meats, some seafood like- Salmon, Sardines, Shellfish, Trout, Tuna. Eating at least two servings of fish each week is necessary to increase your taste.
Pulses and milk; are best for vegetarians to get a good amount of protein.
8. Avoid Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is that type of fasting which is trending among people who are worried about their weight. They see it as a way to lose weight, however, it's not safe to do intermittent fasting.
It’s a fast which involves a long gap between the meals, sometimes 24 hours of the gap, 2 times a week.
Usually, this type of diet is done only after consulting the doctor because it doesn’t suit everyone and these days doctors are even not recommending it. As in some cases, it has been seen that a long period of fasting secretes more HCL which in turn can cause stomach ulcers or can create gastric-related diseases, or your body has a tendency to gain fat.
However, normal fasting in a month is good for health, and you can include it in your eating habits.
9. Eat Healthy Oils & Supplements
Eating natural healthy oils can boost your immune system making you healthy, active, and strong.
Eat and cook with healthy oils like olive oil, avocado oil, natural mustard oils, etc.
You can also take some supplements like protein, calcium, vitamin C and D, minerals supplements, which are helpful for your body. Building these habits can help you to be active throughout your life.
10. Don’t be Addicted
To build healthy eating habits for yourself, quitting all types of addiction is required. Addiction to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, etc., all need to be shut off.
Addiction not just ruins your daily eating plans but also badly impacts on mind and body. It damages the relationships, leads to business losses, and risks organ damage. And, with such an addiction, you will fail to implement your healthy eating plans.
However, in some cases, such as parties and in cold countries, alcohol consumption becomes a need, more than just an addiction. So, ensure that you minimize it as much as possible.
Meditation or consultations from doctors can help you to avoid addiction.
And, once you are free from all types of addiction, you are ready to plan your eating habits that are promising for better health.
Let's summarize this for you!
Unhealthy eating habits lead to several health risks. Eating disorders are one of the common health problems that are observed among 30 million men and women of the US alone. Anorexia nervosa, in which people see themselves as overweight, trying to lose weight. Pica, another eating disorder that is prominent among children in which they consume things that are not food, such as paper, chalk, soil, etc.
These eating disorders lead to physical and mental. However, with good eating habits, you get a good stand against any such disorder or health issues.
A diet that lacks essential nutrients, fruits, vegetables, or proper routine leads to diseases such as high blood pressure, high crystal, diabetes, eating disorder, obesity, tooth decay, bones-weakness, etc.
To start planning, take a paper or notebook, or a calendar, write down all the good habits that you want to practice (hopefully, this article contains some of the major habits that you can include in that list).
Reserve a fruit in the morning
Never miss breakfast
Drink enough water
Avoid fast food and packed food
Include pulses, vegetables, eggs, fruits in your diet
Stay away from any type of addiction
Avoid processed food and minimize added sugars and food color.
All the above-mentioned habits are very much effective to stay healthy and fit. You need to practice these eating habits to be healthy.
Remember, if you fall sick no one can ever take your pain from you, it's you who has to suffer from the pain. So, it's up to you whether you want to stay healthy or want to ruin your health.
Keywords
healthy eating habits
good eating habits
become healthy
Contributer:
Satya Prakash Mourya
Satya is a digital enthusiast, who has a unique perspective of looking at the world