Work & Family Life
Nutrition advisers offer these suggestions to help you overcome the most common obstacles to healthy eating:
1. Be thoughtful. Make a grocery shopping list and stick to it. Keep cut-up veggies in the fridge with a low-fat dip or a bowl of fruit on the table for sudden urges to eat.
2. Plan your meals around vegetables instead of what kind of meat or starch you want to serve. In other words: think asparagus and go from there. Make a point to eat some produce at every meal or snack.
3. Cook dishes on weekends that you can eat during the week. Make a pot of bean soup or a vegetable lasagna. Buy pre-cut greens and veggies. If you need a justification for the higher cost, think of it this way: we spend plenty on not eating healthfully.
4. Be incremental. Small changes count too. If eating fruit after lunch every day is too much, do it every other day. If you're a big soda drinker, switch to milk for one meal a day. Try doing one or two things as many times as you can.
5. Have strategies in mind when you eat out. Order baked and broiled dishes. Eat just one piece of bread. Have a plan to cope with supersizing: eat half and take the rest home. Cut a dish in half, move the rest to the side-and forget about it or take it home for tomorrow.
6. Eat a nutritious first meal of the day. It may not be first thing in the morning. But when you do eat, make it healthy: a piece of fruit, hard-boiled egg, bowl of cereal with skim milk.
7. Try new foods. Healthy eating is about eating-not about not eating. Focus on what you should eat more of. Try some kale, a ripe mango or papaya, or a whole-grain pancake mix.
8. Give yourself treats. Build small amounts of your favorite foods into your meal plan. That will help you stay motivated.
9. Chart your progress. It's great motivation to see positive results. Weigh yourself once a week. Check your cholesterol. Pat yourself on the back for getting a good thing going.
10. Enjoy yourself. Savor what you eat. Try not to eat standing, on the run, hurriedly, or in the car, if you can help it.