There is an old saying that goes, you are what you eat. While that is not literally true, it is true nonetheless. If you eat a lot of junk food, you will feel sluggish. On the other hand, if you eat properly balanced meals, you will feel energetic and ready to take on the world.

While it is so easy to say just go and eat healthier, changing one’s habit due to years or even decades of eating the same thing will not be easy. But, modifying eating habits to become healthier is well worth it.

Modifying Eating Habits is a Marathon

The first thing you have to understand is that this is a marathon, not a sprint. This means you cannot rely on making one big change and voila, you now have healthy eating habits. It doesn’t work that way. It takes time and effort to break old habits and create new ones.

More often than not, people who take this approach end up going back to their old selves because the change was too big and too fast. So, the idea is to make small lifestyle changes towards your goal. Changing habits is about the small details.

For example, if you have snacks in your pantry, change some of them to fruits or other healthy food. In this way, when you go and open the pantry, you are reminded that there is this healthy option that you can take.

Become Accountable

If you know you are changing habits, you will sometimes negotiate with yourself. You’d tell yourself to have this last slice of cake today and you won’t have sweets the next few days. Accountability is solely on you in this scenario and it is quite easy to break.

So why not get others involved in keeping you accountable? This is a difficult task you’ll be undertaking and it makes sense to have other people help you out.

Tell the people you live with about your plan and your goal. In this way, they can support you. You would feel embarrassed or have a sense of pride in completing your goals because other people can see how you are doing it.

At the same time, they will not accidentally place more temptation in front of you. If they do not know what you are going through, they might order more food that you don’t need.

Healthy Eating Tips

In modifying eating habits, there are certain things you can do with how you eat and how you prepare your food. These small eating tips can go a long way in building new and better habits.

• Prepare your lunch for the office ahead of time. Doing this in the morning, people tend to hurry and just pack up whatever. If you do it ahead of time, you can plan on making healthier meals.
• Eat at the dining table. This allows you to focus on your meal rather and appreciate what you are having rather than just stuffing food in yourself.
• Get a good recipe book. This will give you a lot of ideas for healthy meals to prepare.
• When eating snacks, put them on a plate rather than eating out of the packaging. This will help you control how much you eat.
• When it comes to snacks, try to keep more fruits rather than the usual chips and other junk food. Get some low-fat milk, yogurt, and whole-grain foods.
• Pair fruits with your breakfast. This will give you a good boost in the morning.
• Try not to eat too fast, especially when having your main meals. Eating with other people helps with this too.
• Do not skip meals, especially breakfast. Even if you still feel full, eat something even just a small portion. If you get hungry you might end up eating way more than you have to.
• Have water instead of sugary drinks when eating your meals.
• If you like drinking coffee, try having it without sugar.

You do not have to do this all at once starting tomorrow. The point is making small changes. Try one or two points for now. Once you get used to them, add another. Then another. Concentrate on modifying eating habits one at a time. Once you have perfected them, you can move on to another without breaking the habits already built.

Pair Modifying Eating Habits with Exercise Habits

Having good eating habits is great when it comes to your overall health. But on the flip side of things, you also have to pair it with exercise. Go for a run every now and then. Maybe you might want to try cycling. If you have access to a pool, why not swim for an hour each day?

Take advantage of modifying eating habits along with good exercise habits and you will see great results eventually. You will feel more energetic and better overall. Start the day right with a good breakfast and a quick sweat session and you’ll feel like you can take on the world!