According to a recent study, 64% of adults want to change their diet and make it healthier. However, while they start off with the best intentions, many people abandon healthy eating plans the moment they encounter a roadblock.
For example, they may be invited out for a fancy meal with friends which can often end in healthy diet disaster, depending on the restaurant. Or they may simply feel as though they do not have enough time to cook all of the meals from home – meaning that they decide to ditch the diet.
However, by finding ways to make healthy eating more fun, you can continue on this healthful journey – and reap the many benefits of doing so.
With that in mind, here are some simple ways to make healthy eating more fun and manageable! We mean not just for you, but ALL the family. It’s always great when you can get your loved ones involved because everyone wants to see their best people becoming strong, fit and healthy and living their life optimally and, hopefully, disease free.
1. Follow A Meal Plan
Sometimes, people struggle with following a healthy diet because they struggle to plan their meals. For example, you may need to learn how much of each food group you should eat to reach your goals, whether they relate to weight loss or muscle gain. In this case, following a meal plan can make the process much more straightforward and enjoyable.
Eating a plant based diet is a great way to go for healthful living and has completely taken off this New Year with the advent of the Netflix documentary ‘You Are What You Eat’. This documentary follows the lives of identical twins put on different diets and how the change in the group eating the plant based diet was much more profound and definitely worth a watch if you need some inspiration to begin.
There are lots of ways to start incorporating more plant foods into your daily diet and the delicious recipes on this website is a great start. As with any new lifestyle change, planning is crucial in your success. Make sure you take the time at the end of the week to plan out your meal, write your shopping list and stick to it. In doing this you will be less tempted to go off track when you do hit the sweet isle in the supermarket.
2. Make Healthy Treats
Don’t think eating healthily isn’t fun; not for one minute. There are a myriad of fantastic treats you can eat that will mean you will never need miss the unhealthy stuff again. You can make amazing desserts from fruits, carob, avocados, nut creams, maple syrup and date paste and much more.
You can even make ice-cream from frozen bananas and other frozen fruits in only seconds in your blender. Top them with some delicious, dark chocolate, toasted coconut, homemade granola or anything you like and you have the perfect breakfast, dessert or ANY time snack that will leave you never missing ice-cream again, and that’s just for a start. The list is never ending of what you can create from a healthy foods list once you get started.
Find delicious (yet healthy) alternatives to your go-to treats
When picking out your next sweet treat, try to pay close attention to the ingredients! For example, many people forget how many calories are in traditional sodas. As such, you must find healthy alternatives to your go-to drink so that you can stay on track to meet your goals while satisfying any cravings you may have. For example, this could include living soda by Hip Pop. Living Soda contains live cultures and apple cider vinegar and is just 30 calories per can – making it a great alternative! Not only is it delicious, its also good for you!
4. Try New Recipes
Healthy eating does not mean that you need to eat the same dressing-free salad again and again. Healthy eating is all about a varied diet! As such, you should refrain from using the same recipes day in and day out, which can quickly get boring. Instead, you should try new recipes that liven up your kitchen and excite your taste buds.
A good start is to make this fun by buying one new fruit or vegetable a week that you have never eaten before and try it. Or prepare a meal around it if you’re feeling more creative. Google is a great source of free recipes and you can pretty much find a new recipe for any ingredient.
If you think that you only have limited access to such different foods, then try your local Asian stores and you’ll be blown away by what’s on offer. You’ll find probably hundreds of new food items to try over time in the fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs sections. It’s literally a treasure trove of fancy and beautiful things in these stores that you probably never knew existed.
Yes, this kind of shopping can be truly exciting and may be especially good for getting the kids interested in trying new foods too.
5. Allow Yourself Some Indulgences
While following a healthy diet encourages you to be more conscious of what you consume, this does not mean you should restrict yourself 100% of the time. Doing so will only lead to burnout and frustration. Set aside one day a week as a “cheat day,” or allow yourself the occasional treat or indulgence.
We like to stick to the 90/10 rule here at ZestForever. This is 90% of the time you eat a clean diet and save 10% for treats or the things you miss. We can guarantee that the longer you stick with healthy eating and make it a part of your life and habits, you’ll feel less and less like eating junk foods anyway. You’ll reach a point where your taste buds will alter completely, and you’ll even crave the healthy stuff when you’re hungry instead.
6. Recreate Your Favourite Takeout
If you’re craving a specific takeout dish, recreate it at home instead of ordering in. This way, you have more control over portion size and ingredients, meaning that you can make them a little healthier along the way. For example, you could make a Chinese-style Stir Fry or a pizza using a wrap as the base rather than dough. This way, you continue to eat food that tastes good without feeling guilty.
Many of our ZestForever recipes created to emulate people’s favourite comfort foods. We like to make comfort food as healthy as possible without compromising on taste and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Try something like this immense veggie pizza and you’ll see what we mean.
7. Allow Yourself To Make Mistakes
Nobody is perfect, and there will be times when you make mistakes on your journey toward better health, and that’s okay. You just have to pick yourself up again instead of viewing this as a sign you should quit.
If you have a blow out or a bad food day, DO NOT beat yourself up and think “I’ll wait until Monday or tomorrow to start again”. Never wait until the next day or week to start again because this is a trap and a cycle that you will never break. This will ultimately lead you to more and more bad food choices than you may have even made before. You’ll be thinking along the lines of getting as much of everything you want in before you start again tomorrow or Monday and this leads you to eating worse than if you were not on a healthy diet.
If you eat something that you consider bad, just get back on it STRAIGHT AWAY. Do not wait. Crowd out that bad stuff with the good stuff and forget it ever happened. Once it’s gone in you can’t take it out again, so don’t beat yourself up.
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