4 tips for eating healthier

culled from:pulse.ng

We all know it can be a struggle to find the time and effort to eat the right way we all  know should, the way that makes us feel our best.

We all have our moments of breaking, whether it is a work lunch, or having a friend send desserts, the key is knowing that every day is a new day and every meal is another opportunity to make a healthy choice.

If we focus on eating more plant-based, whole foods, try to fill our plate with a variety of color, and prepare the majority of our meals at home, we can rest assured that we are on a healthy-life track.

Check out four sure guidelines that make it a lot easier to stay on the healthy track.

Weekly Meal Planning

This is extremely important especially for working mothers. It makes a whole lot of difference if we make time over the weekend to form a meal plan for the new week. This helps prevent waste of money and time thinking of what to eat during the week. We should aim to eat three to four different colors of vegetables and fruits in each meal to get a variety of nutrients!

Advance Preparation

We all know the saying, 'fail to plan,plan to fail.' If you fail to plan to eat healthy, chance are you will not eat healthy. Often times we somehow forget that we are going to eat dinner until five minutes before we are ready for it. Desperation eating is eating that moment when you realize you are hungry, which often leads to grabbing the quickest, easiest thing to satisfy that hunger. The more advanced preparation you do, the easier it is to throw a tasty, nutritious, weeknight meal together and avoid making poor choices based on convenience. When you get home from the grocery store, put everything away in the pantry and freezer, but keep your vegetables out and get out your cutting board. Cut your veggies into small, usable sized pieces and store them in your fridge in airtight containers. Having clean, washed and ready-to-eat fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator means you and your family can grab those for easy snacks.

Leave room for a little bit of failure

Acknowledge the fact that you’re not going to eat perfectly 100 percent of the time. It’s one thing to eat well in short spurts, but that you should aim to create a lifestyle where healthy eating habits make up the majority of your routine. This helps to leave room for the unexpected things in life like the occasional drinks with friends, birthdays, and so on. A little room for failure allows you to leave a 'normal life' while remaining focused on eating healthy.

Don’t make eating healthy unrealistic

Lisa Hugh, a registered dietitian and creator of “Single Ingredient Groceries", says that it’s important to set realistic goals when it comes to healthy eating. For example, preparing homemade food is a better option than ordering fast food or fried food with soda and dessert. It’s less important to be perfect and more important to make smart choices.