Healthy Eating Habits
4 MINUTE READ • SELF-HELP
Good nutrition can lay the foundation for all the essential elements of your life - your physical health, mental acuity and academic performance, even your mood and attitude are affected by what you put into your body. While we all know the importance of eating whole foods as part of a well-balanced diet, healthy eating is less about the individual foods you put into your body and more about the habits your eating choices create.
Looking at Small Choices
Ask yourself — when do you make your least healthy food decisions? Are you someone who binges or turns to fast food when emotional or stressed? Will you eat an entire bar of chocolate when you’re bored? But at the same time, keeping an overly restrictive diet and never allowing yourself moments to indulge in the foods you crave can also lead to binge-eating or more unhealthy eating. Understanding the situations that trigger you to make unhealthy food choices is part of the battle.
Much of the time, our overall health is decided by the smaller food choices we make each day. Do you drink a soda every day? Do you turn to sweets as a snack on the regular? Cutting out soda and substituting for juice or water is one way to build healthier eating habits. Similarly, switching out sweets or chips for healthier snacks can be a shift that impacts your overall health.
Taking an Active Role in Making Meals
Have you ever been taught what you’re doing in the kitchen? Many times, people who are younger lack the experience in the kitchen to confidently make choices, especially healthy ones. If you can’t identify the difference between kohlrabi and fennel, you’re probably not going to use either as you build a meal. Learning more about different foods, experimenting in the kitchen, and trying out new spices and recipes can be one way to build a healthier diet overall.
Additionally, taking an active role in meal preparation means you will be less likely to dine out on less healthy foods and enjoy a home-cooked meal from time to time. Enjoying the fruits of your labor is both satisfying personally and nutritionally. It also means you can confidently make choices that will benefit your overall health.
Too often, when you live in a house where you aren’t in charge of the meals, you also don’t have much say over whether you’re cooking with a healthier fat, like olive oil, over using lard or butter. It’s difficult to eat vegetarian once or twice a week if you’re consistently relying on others to provide your meals. By volunteering to make a meal or two a week, you will not only be able to employ healthier eating habits, but you’ll be shouldering some of the load from the main cook in your household.