How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits

How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits

develop healthy eating habits

 

Changing a bad habit is really REALLY HARD! I’m sure most of us have one or two bad habits at least. What about your eating habits…are you struggling with your health and weight loss goals? Have you found yourself putting on weight without knowing how?

Perhaps it’s time to consider what’s contributing to these changes. What are your eating habits these days? When we develop healthy eating habits, the routine, awareness and knowledge help you become more aware of what your not-so-good habits are and establish a positive lifelong relationship with food.

Let’s take a look at possible consequences of unhealthy eating habits.

Unhealthy Eating Habits?

Have you ever found yourself reaching or buying something you know is unhealthy but you do it so automatically that you don’t even realise you’ve bought it until you’re driving away and look at what’s in your hand? This happened to a friend of mine. He’s trying to reduce his sugar intake, however is on autopilot when it comes to his fave soft drink.

Breaking these habits will help you gain control back in your life.develop healthy eating habits

When we have developed unhealthy eating habits, it affects many aspects of our lives. Things like not having enough energy to run after the kids or grandkids, have trouble walking around the shops or even doing housework and every day activities. Unhealthy eating habits generally contribute to excessive weight gain and poor health. It also contributes to how we feel emotionally.

Once established, it’s quite challenging to make the necessary changes without feeling overwhelmed. This can make you want to quit before you get started.

Warning signs

Weight gain, lethargic, tingling in the hands and or feet. There’s a lot of health issues that occur when we put on weight. Our bodies become inflamed making our organs unable to function as effectively as they should. The increasing incidence of Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzeimer’s Disease, neuropathy and mental health are all signs of our body telling us that things aren’t right any more. These are all lifestyle related conditions caused by unhealthy eating habits. To address these conditions among a variety of other health concerns, something needs to change.

Tips for changing your eating habits

  1. Eat at the dinner table with family or friends if possible.
  2. Practice mindfulness when eating so you can focus on your eating process. This can also help you feel fuller quicker than if you don’t think about what you are eating.
  3. Research – Learn what you can about what the food you eat is doing to your body. Find out what the effects of sugar are for instance and what makes it an unhealthy ingredient in your lifestyle. What is in our foods for instance chemicals added, artificial additives, pesticides etc.
  4. Get a good night’s sleep. your body releases important hormones while you sleep that assist with the feeling of fullness known as leptin,  and control of your hunger known as grehlin. When we don’t sleep for long enough, we struggle to control our appetite, and don’t have the hormones present to give us the signal that we’re full, so we end up over eating.
  5. What’s your goals – your own internal motivation – don’t rely on anyone else’s measure of what’s healthy. Recognise what your own level of healthy is, for example, when you feel good. Listen to your body’s signals.
  6. Meal plan – life gets busy so when we are stressed and time poor, it’s harder to make healthy choices for meal times. Knowing what you’re going to put together for dinner can make a big difference in establishing healthy eating habits.

It’s okay to get some guidance in being able to change your eating habits. Get access to your own ‘take anywhere’ ebook below.

 

 

Establishing good healthy habits makes a difference to your health and well being. Changing eating habits however can be a struggle which can sabotage your health goals before you even begin.

If you want to know how to develop informed healthy eating habits, consider the wealth of knowledge and guidance through a program called Changing Habits compiled by Cyndi O’Meara and 29 other health professionals.

 

So which habit is holding you back on your wellness journey? I would love to hear more about it, share your experience below in the comments.

 

17 thoughts on “How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits

  1. Learning to eat slowly and eat less than you are used to eating are two tips that you can implement to improve your eating habits. Overall though it is about what you eat and for me when I switched to a vegan diet then my health drastically improved. What kind of diet has improved your health?

  2. Dear Kat,

    Thanks a lot for the insightful and informative article.

    To be honest recently I am thinking a lot on my eating habits. Often do some research online on eating habits and I found your post very useful with helpful insights.

    In my childhood days, my grandma often use to say we need to be very careful on what we put into our mouth and mind. Those are words of wisdom which I realize the deep meaning in it now.

    Recently I want to lose my belly fat and also get into good eating habits. As a result I take more vegetables and fruits and stopped eating junk foods. The tips you provided on eating habits is helpful and when you said we need to do research on food we eat, it made me to think more on the subject (Nowadays air, water and food are becoming toxic). 

    Healthy eating habits is a must for everyone. Food is our medicine and medicine is our food!

    Paul

  3. Hello, I really appreciate your time and effort on writing about developing a healthy eating plan which is something I definitely need to establish right away because of my deteriorating health and obesity.

    The list of tips is perfect and informative, I never knew that getting a good night of sleep is related to changing eating habits, I guess hormones play a big role in our everyday life and functions. I notice that I've been gaining weight ever since I started working night shifts, that could be a reason. Anyway, thanks for this article.

  4. I feel the same way Kat!

    Been trying to eat and drink healthy but I get mad driven when I see a Cocacola vanilla, I tend to buy a huge bottle of it! I think it's okay right, to make it into a goal? Like if I manage to eat healthy the whole week, I get to drink my huge Coke as a reward which will prompt me into going full throttle healthy, would that be an okay plan? 

    1. Hi Riaz, thanks for stopping by. So you're working on being healthy, and making positive choices for your health, and wondering if it's okay to indulge every once in a while hey? If it helps you feel like you're not missing out, and you can limit it to only a reward on a weekly basis, then I think that would be find. It would help you feel like you're not missing out because you know that at the end of the week you'll be able to have that one thing you miss when being healthy. So, if you think you could work this into a healthy week and be committed to being healthy throughout the whole week, then a reward is a great way to help motivate you to be healthy the rest of the time. Cheers and good luck.
  5. Thanks for sharing this information. I found that eating with friends and families tend to bring the best result for changing my eating habit. I let them know that I want to make some changes for my eating habit (more vegetables, more roasted food, etc), so they are always teasing me if I accidentally break the habit. Having a goal is certainly good, so I won't lose my motivation to eat healthy.

  6. Hi Kat, Thank you for making me more aware of bad habits when it comes to shopping. One of the things I learned a long time ago was not to shop on an empty tummy as one tends to buy things you don't need. I have been looking to go onto the Keto diet as my daughter is doing it and has found she has lost weight and feels good at the same time.
  7. These are all really great ideas to help people develop healthy eating habits. I think we all have good intentions when it comes to losing weight, but sometimes the most difficult part is changing a habit that we have had for years. But it can be done. Its about staying committed and remembering your reason for losing weight and getting healthy. I'm so glad you mentioned sleep because I think it is probably one of the most important things. Our body needs rest in order to burn fat.

    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Wendy. I think changing one's habits is a really challenging thing to do. I do hope this post can help people in getting their head around what needs to change for them and get on the road to a healthier life. It definitely can be done, it's also having something that can motivate us that can be the key to sticking to changing. Cheers.

    2. Hi Wendy, thanks for sharing your thoughts. The idea of changing a habit is very real in the process of losing weight. There's so much more to it. I think sleep is undervalued by so many, but yes, it's valuable in helping restore our bodies in so many ways which can also help us manage how we change our habits to work towards our goals. All the best on your own journey 

  8. I was happy to see you mentioned meal planning.This saves me a lot of time and the best part of planning is that I eat better on the days when my meals were planned and prepared ahead of time.I also love the idea of eating with loved ones as this provides an opportunity to spend quality time and also they help me to make more sound choices. Great article. Thanks for sharing.
  9. I like your site. I also teach or taught weight management only after Growing to a size 22 and 227 pounds, I had to figure out food or die a fat lady. hehe You KNOW U FAT when Someone embarrasses themselves and you by asking. ": When are You Due? You statement about mindfulness and eating it very true. I Love to eat, so in my system, I always look at my food As if it were my gas(energy) and if I were a motor could I run on this? And oh, those hidden sugars. I once helped a group ditch their sweet favorite drink, Your Not a Hummingbird You don't need that! My results 7 women lost 71 pounds in 12 weeks, Just ditching bad habits. I also know personally that mindfulness is more than just our eating. No, you can not keep a "Fat Lady" set of outfits in the closet. I spend 1 day a week after shopping prepping for the week, Fast food is always around Good Fast food. Thank you so much for trying to help those that are struggling.
    1. How rewarding for you to support and help others also reach their weight goals and join with them on their health journey. I love your metaphor to a hummingbird lol! So true! Raising awareness is so powerful when people feel stuck or find themselves at a stall. Thanks also for being a light for the women you worked with. I'm sure they valued your insights and support too.
  10. Hi Kat I have never come across very powerful brief and insightful health feeding content like this... Ihave learnt alotin a shortest time and feel your notes are a sweet read!!! Am going to start practicing these wonderful lessons really to manage my weight... Thank slot... Keep me signed in...
    1. Hi George, thanks for commenting. I'm happy to hear that you've found this site of value and have been able to learn new info :). I would love to know how you go with your health journey. Keep me updated on how you're doing. All the best.
  11. Hi there, I love the feature image at the top, so cool! The content of this post is also very informative. I think my major takeaway is point #3. I know lots of stuff are bad for me but actually understanding would surely help me stop eating it or limit my intake. I was listening to something on Youtube where the guy said that a doctor told his mum who has cancer to cut out sugar as it could have a negative effect on the cancer cells and that really brought it home to me like wow! So a very practical and obvious way for me to see the negative consequence in that particular example. The key though is to stop it before you reach desperate times.
    1. Hi Tamika, thanks for stopping by. I'm glad you've been able to connect with the idea of doing your own research. Being proactive in our own learning is by far a very valuable asset to our own health and wellness. If we keep doing what we've always done, despite hearing things but then ignoring it, then we really have nothing to go on if we end up with significant health concerns. I'm glad you've been able to take something of this post away for you to ponder :). Cheers

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