How to 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.
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
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- Eat at the dinner table with family or friends if possible.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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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.
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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