This week (14th to 18th June) is Healthy Eating Week. The British Nutrition Foundation is encouraging everyone to reflect on their lifestyle choices and on the improvements that can be made to improve your health and wellbeing. The main theme for this week is ‘Find your healthier you’ and will be reinforced by the following five steps across the week: know the facts, make a healthier choice, plan for success, be the chef and keep moving.
At Love Yourself, we aim to put out content to encourage you to begin or continue your health and fitness journeys so that you can be the happiest and healthiest you! Check out our Food For Thought Lifestyle Blog where we look at finding the best diet for you, tips and tricks to staying fit and healthy, fun facts on vitamins and minerals and what foods you can get them from and much more. For Healthy Eating Week, we thought it would be a good idea to look at hacks to make eating healthy easier for you. So, let’s jump straight into it!
Do Not Shop Without A List
If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you will know that I love lists and it is a great way to stay on track and in this case, avoid impulse buys. Writing up a list can help you to avoid getting things that you don’t really need and don’t help you on your health journey. If you have unhealthy foods lying around the house, it is way to harder to resist them than if they weren’t there at all. Another little tip is never go to the store hungry! You will find yourself picking up things that are completely unnecessary.
Small Plates For A Smaller Waist
We tend to base our portion size relative to how it looks on our plate. So, following that logic, a smaller plate means portions are smaller and you are basically tricking your brain into feeling fuller with less food. It is important to remember that we don’t eat logically and stop eating when our nutritional needs are met. We make a number of different subconscious decisions depending on our circumstances. Some of these circumstances include: who we are eating with, if you are watching TV when you are eating and even the weight of the waiter who served the food.
Eat Slower
It takes approximately 20 minutes for your brain to send signals to your body that you are full and should stop eating. Eating slowly gives more time for the brain to trigger these signals that tell us we are full. If you feel full, you will therefore eat less. Not only this, eating slowly and mindfully creates a more pleasant dining experience. Studies showed that overweight men and women tend to consume less calories when they slowed their normal eating pace.
If you aren’t the best chef…
We understand that not everyone has the time to cook, enjoys cooking or struggles to make healthy meals that taste good. This is where we come in. At Love Yourself, we believe everyone deserves to eat healthy nutritious meals that are packed full of flavour. Check out our wide variety of diets to find a meal plan that suits your needs and is delivered fresh from our kitchens straight to your door. We take the hassle of cooking and cleaning away from you so you can spend time doing the things you love with the people you love.
It is important to remember that eating healthy is a lifestyle change that takes time so be patient and stick with it to see results. We hope you have find these hacks useful and will give them a try!
By Pooja Depala