Eating Healthy Tips
A lot of us want to eat healthy; we just have so much false information pumped into your brains from the media and well-meaning friends that it is hard to know where to start. Do you stop eating bread? Do you cut out red meat? If you stop eating sugar can you have chicken wings every day?
It is confusing, and most of the information we receive conflicts with one another. That is why it is time now to take a step back and use what we’ve known all along to be true because it really is what your mom preached after all!
Eating Healthy Tips #1: Load Your Plate with Lots of Color
Having lots of healthy vegetables in a variety of colors guarantees that you will be getting an intense amount of the vitamins and minerals you need. Having a rainbow on the plate also means that you aren’t overloading on one vegetable and neglecting other nutrients your body needs.
This doesn’t mean your plate should just be a huge vegetable platter. Just add some yellow bell peppers, broccoli and red radishes to your green salad. Having a good amount of veggies will help you to feel full faster as well.
Eating Healthy Tips #2: Check the Label
The general rule is that the first four to five ingredients listed on the label are the most prominent in the mix. It is important to look at the label and not just the product advertisements. You’d be shocked at how many unhealthy products claims to be healthy.
The ingredients to avoid are sugar, high fructose corn syrup (which is basically another form of sugar), hydrogenated oil, enriched flour, and bleached flour. All of these ingredients are basically empty calories meaning they add to your daily caloric intake but provide no nutrition.
Want to know a little more about reading labels? Check out this article – How to Read Nutrition Facts Label
Eating Healthy Tips #3: Pay Attention to Portions
A lot of people believe that eating healthy requires a complete elimination of all indulgences. This isn’t true. Eating a burger and some fries every once in a while isn’t going to kill you or make you gain a thousand pounds. Eating badly every day, well, that’s a different story.
If you want to have some pizza, then go for it. Have a slice with a salad (with some vinegar and extra virgin olive oil drizzled on top) and lemon-water and then wait twenty minutes for the food to settle and for your brain to receive the message that food has been eaten.
If you are still feeling hungry then have one more slice. But make sure you are actually hungry and not just craving a taste.
Eating Healthy Tips #4: Learn to Love Beans
Beans are a great source of quality nutrition being high in fiber, protein and a ton of minerals (such as potassium and magnesium which most of us are deficient in), plus they have the bonus effect of making you feel full faster and for a long time.
Black beans are a tasty substitute for meat in tacos, chili, or casseroles. Hummus and chickpea burgers made from garbanzo beans are low calorie and delicious lunch and dinner options.
Add beans to your shopping list right now and mix it up as there are certainly quite a few different varieties you can chose from.
Eating Healthy Tips #5: Your Pre Workout Food is Ultra Important
If you feel sluggish a lot of times before your workout this is most likely caused by inadequate or improper nutrition. So what is the best pre-workout food to have which will give you optimal energy and allow you to push hard through your workout?
Try this smoothie mix that not only tastes awesome but has all the right components:
1/2 ripe banana
1 scoop high quality vanilla whey protein (try: MyoFusion Advanced Protein or Platinum Hydrobuilder)
2 tablespoons vanilla yogurt
1 scoop branch chain amino acids (try: Scivation Xtend)
2 tablespoons blueberries
1/4 cup skim milk or almond milk
1/4 cup water
Best time to have this is about 60 minutes before your workout to give your body a chance to digest and absorb the amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.
Have any questions on these eating healthy tips? Please leave me a comment below…
Sign up to the weekly Weight Loss & Training Newsletter & get a 50 Smoothie Recipes PDF for FREE!
Thank you for visiting! Weight Loss and Training is a health blog which features all the best weight loss tips that I have learned over my 20 years of training. My background includes a degree in Kinesiology from the world renown Simon Fraser University, certification in nutritional sciences from UBC, and Personal Trainer Specialist certification from Can Fit Pro.
Funny that you mention learning to love beans. About two months ago I fell in love with garbanzo beans and now have fully stocked cupboards of them. So versatile. You can roast them, make a soup with them, add them to various things and make hummus with them. I think I’m addicted!