When you think of cleaning up your diet and eating healthier, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? If you’re anything like the average person, images of stale lettuce, flavorless ‘diet’ concoctions, and gallons of water flood your vision. If you’ve found yourself yearning for more energy, focus, and eliminating the problem areas on your waist, thighs, and lower stomach, here’s what you need to know.
Convenience Is Key
One of the ways individuals who make lifelong changes to their diet accomplish their goals is through convenience. You, and the people you love, are prone to cheat on a diet when a more convenient option is at arm’s reach. After a long day at work, tackling the gym, and chasing the kids around before school, one piece of candy doesn’t seem so bad.
To counteract this habit, you need to keep healthy fruits and veggies around the house in easy-to-access areas. Do you always snack when you’re sitting on the couch? Place a bowl of assorted fruit on the coffee table. Make a promise that you can snack whenever you get the urge, but only with the items that you’ve placed in the bowl.
Moreover, making the transition into consuming more vegetables may seem like a daunting task to you. Most individuals, when pressed about the topic, claim they don’t have the time or patience to pick fresh vegetables from the store, clean them, cut them up and place them in a meal. Luckily for you, companies such as Balance of Nature have created a fast and convenient way of consuming servings of fruits and veggies with a tasty powder.
Add Flavor to Your Life
You mustn’t associate the process of eating fruits and veggies as something that rivals mild torture. Instead, you can approach the preparation of these food items as a way of expressing yourself through the medium of seasoning and explosive flavor.
There are various ways you can spruce up bland food with the addition of a little forethought and creativity. Did you know that you can bake apples and coat them with organic honey and cinnamon? Similarly, you may find that roasting specific vegetables and adding olive oil on top of the dish enhances the taste and draws out the natural flavors. There are no right or wrong answers here — try different additives! Not only will this make the idea of eating fruits and vegetables seem less daunting, but it will also give you an outlet to express yourself.
One Day at a Time
Have you ever heard the phrase “what gets measured, gets managed” in the past? This essentially can be equated to the fact that people are more inclined to improve their output on tasks that they keep track of.
Following this approach, you should consider setting up a system for measuring your positive progress. Did you eat a serving of fruits and vegetables today? Good, now mark it on your calendar. Over the following weeks and months, you will have a series of days in which you were productive with your eating habits. Your brain will naturally keep this streak going to avoid the mental anguish of failing a task.
But most importantly, give yourself a break! Start small and build your habits into lifelong changes that can improve the quality of your health and mood. Begin by adding a few pieces of fruit to a bowl of yogurt, a small bit of greenery to your protein meal, or a powdered vegetable into your drink. All these steps, when completed regularly, will provide massive results!