How to Stay on Track with Healthy Eating

You have learned some important new information about healthy eating. You have tried to stop demonizing fat. You have learned to focus on real, whole foods instead of packaged ones. You have read ingredient labels until they were blurry. You were doing really well… until the initial excitement wore off. HOW do you keep it going?! With kids and appointments and LIFE, it’s hard to stay on track. Over time, as you build healthy habits, it WILL get easier, I promise. But here are some reminders to keep you going:

• Meal Planning is KEY to success
  • Write out a shopping list each week and STICK to the LIST!
  • This keeps you from impulse-buying unhealthy items
  • Saves $$$
• Meal Prep is helpful to manage a busy schedule
  • Once you have your groceries home, prep lunches or dinners by pre-chopping vegetables, marinating meats, making salads or dressings, etc.
  • If the veggies are already chopped or some part of the meal is prepped ahead, you will have fewer barriers to cooking at home and you are less likely to abandon your meal plan.
• Get a white board for the kitchen and write meals on it to stay mentally organized
  • Get excited for cooking!
  • Get the family involved in menu choices
  • Inspire others to follow your lead!
  • No more wondering, “What’s for dinner?”
• Planning healthy meals and snacks keeps you from eating impulsively
  • And planning filling meals means you will need fewer snacks to begin with
  • Avoid a “belly ache” by planning healthier treats
• Bring water with you wherever you can
  • Sometimes “hunger” is really THIRST!
  • Aim for half your body weight in ounces daily (150 lbs = 75 ounces of water per day).
• Have healthy “back ups” for unexpected stumbles
  • Rx bars, Larabars, etc. in your purse
  • Frozen veggies, organic soups, shelf-stable healthy items at home
  • Frozen fish or shrimp that will defrost quickly
  • These will come in handy for when you just couldn’t plan ahead or you get stuck out of the house longer than planned
• NO COUNTING NEEDED!
  • Math does not belong at the dinner table
  • Focus on whole fruits and veggies, free-range eggs, pastured meats, wild caught fish, whole-food fats and cold-pressed oils
  • If you eat grains, soaking and sprouting them is best

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!

Don’t Stress too much. Even the best plans get messed up sometimes, and that’s okay. The important thing is not to sweat it too much, or else you could give up altogether and go back to the Standard American Diet of packaged junk and drive thrus. Think about it. If you have a great meal plan for 5 days of the week, and one of those ends up being take-out for whatever reason, you STILL had 80% of your weeknights as home-cooked, healthy meals. I’d call that a win and enjoy my dang take-out if I were you. Plus, if you had fresh food in the fridge planned for that night, you can always use it for a weekend meal or add it to next week’s plan. Just don’t let it go to waste!

This photo is all the food I brought to one of my 3-day training weekends for nutrition school. I got my Nutritional Therapy Practitioner certification through the NTA in October 2018. It’s a 10-month intensive program that was mostly remote, but included 10 days of in-person trainings. During the trainings I committed myself to eating as healthy as I could, despite being in a hotel with just a mini-fridge to rely on. I couldn’t believe all the food I was bringing so I had to snap a photo. For dinners, I supplemented meals with room service sometimes, asking for a salmon fillet and veggies or some other protein/veggie combo.