To live a longer and healthier life is important to keep good habits. Even though we try hard, some objectives are harder to achieve. Sometimes people think that is hard to keep a healthy and balanced diet, especially when you have kids, but some small tricks can be helpful and determinant to get to your objective.
In this article we leave you some small advice to help you promoting healthy habits at home.
1. Have Breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it’s the first time you are eating after a prolonged period of fasting. You need energy to your daily activities; therefore, you need a balanced meal to start well your day.
Start your day with some fruit, low fat yogurt, cereals, whole grain bread or oats.
2. Get Yourself a Garden
One of the best ways of getting healthier goods is by getting your hands dirty and grow yourself a garden. Buying the seeds, planting them, treating them and harvesting is a wonderful way of healthy eating since you control all the growing process, besides it is an anti-stress therapy.
Don’t have enough space or live a small apartment? You can always get a vase with some small tomatoes and other vegetables and some seasoning herbs. You’ll save money and eat better.
3. Enjoy Your Meal Time
Make every meal a pleasant moment, choose a place in your home where everyone can sit and relax. Turn off your TV so you can dialog during the meal and avoid fights or stressful subjects since they can provoke digestive problems. Eat slow and enjoy every bite so you can stop eating when your satisfied to avoid over-eating.
Your kids will be positively influenced by your choices and will tend to copy those habits in the future.
4. Make Healthy Snacks
Nowadays most of us life a stressful life with lots of work, deadlines, always rushing to get to our objectives. So, we need some extra energy to perform our daily activities and snacks are an effective way to keep your energy going. Sometimes we feel the urge need to eat sugary snacks (specially children) but there are some healthy alternatives (like fruits and nuts) to keep your energy going.
If you have kids, you know the struggle of keeping them from eating unhealthy foods. Try to explain them the importance of a balanced diet and that they can eat cookies and chips on special events (like parties) but it shouldn’t be a habit because it is bad for them.
5. Plan Your Meals
One of the best ways to save money and eat healthy is planning your meals ahead. If you take 10 minutes from your weekend planning the meals (and the shopping) for the whole week, you’ll get the chance to make healthier options instead of getting a fast and not so healthy meal just because you are lacking time. Also, you’ll save money since you’ll get to do the listing of the need and avoid waste.
Also, you can always take your lunch to the work, making healthier choices than when you eat out at a restaurant and make lunch for your kids to take to school.
6. Keep Your Kids Healthy
Kids tend to copy their parents’ habits since they are their biggest example. So, take your kids shopping, encourage them to choose fruits and vegetables with you, explain them the importance of some goods to their health and the benefits of a balanced diet. Let them know that healthy eating is necessary for a longer and better life. Don’t forbid them of eating some cookies, chips or junk food at all. Explain them that those foods should be avoided since there aren’t balanced, but can be eaten from time to time. Even though the teenagers usually don’t follow their parents’ advice, in the future they’ll have your advice in consideration.
7. Eat Healthy Portions
Portions are a important part of a healthy diet since they keep you from over-eating. Sometimes it is hard to define how much and adult or a child could eat, but one easier way to implement lower portions is using smaller plates. With this slight change you’ll end up eating less and tricking your brain that you’ve had enough food on the meal.
If you have kids, you can help the by teaching the importance of eating healthy amounts of food. Besides, try to read the labels to choose the right amounts of each food according to your needs.
8. Make “To-Go Meals”
Eating out can be a pleasant experience but you can’t totally control what you are eating. Some so-called healthy foods are not so healthy and have lots of hidden calories, fats and sugars that will unbalance your diet. A clever way to avoid this is making your meals at home and taking them with you when you go to work or out. Planning and taking main meals and healthy snacks with you will help you being healthier.
9. Avoid Junk food
Everyone knows that junk food is crunchy, tasty and makes you crave. But aside those cravings and desires junk food should be avoided since in contains lots of trans fats and salt, discouraging healthy lifestyles. If you have kids, you’ll know the struggle of keeping the from eating junk food after tasting it. You should never ban it completely since it’ll get to a bigger desire and the child will tend to look for it when you are not around. Explain them the importance of a balanced diet and that those foods should only be eaten in special occasions.
10. Have a Strict Meal Schedule
Nowadays with strict work and classes schedules it might be a little hard to do all the meals you should for your day. But not doing them is a way to get an unhealthier lifestyle since you’ll need to eat more on the main meals to fell satisfied and you’ll end up choosing unhealthy options to fulfill all your needs. To avoid these problems, you should define three main meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and at least 2 snacks (in the middle of the morning and afternoon) and plan them ahead, with the food and time to be done so your body gets used to this routine and you’ll feel better at the end of the day.
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