12 Ways to Better Eating - A Mental Approach

It seems like everywhere we turn people are trying to eat better. Trying to lose some extra pounds they gained on their holiday, trying to slim down before they jet off somewhere sunny. 

But eating better can be hard and many people get frustrated, feel like they're failing and give up.

Here are some key ways to help you stick to your better eating plans.

1. SET GOALS

It starts by having clear and realistic goals. 

Write a list of things you want to change about your diet. Also think about goals that you may have regarding your body and use those to plan your diet around them. I recommend setting present goals, short term, and long term goals (so say in a week, in a month, in 3 months). 

If you try and do everything all at once you can be overwhelmed and want to quit. Take it one goal at a time if need be, and one day at a time. This isn’t a race. 

I also recommend writing reasons WHY you want to make a change in your eating habits. You might feel able to share your goals with others who will help you meet them. You can put your goals where others can see them like on the fridge, or somewhere at work to motivate you to work harder. 

This will also get others behind you and involved in your new routine.

As you achieve your goals, tick them off! This will give you a sense of accomplishment and add excitement leading to your next goal.

2. HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Any diet plan needs to work with you and not against you. 

You need to be realistic when setting up the parameters of your new diet. Your plan needs to work for you and your situation. It needs to fit your schedule and your budget. If you don’t follow your budget, your cooking costs will get too high and you will have to pull out from the diet you set up. If you don’t cook for your schedule and your eating times you will find yourself without food and scrambling around to find a healthy choice. 

So be realistic with time, and give yourself extra time to prepare food, or have food pre-packed. Also know that obstacles can and will come into your path from time to time to derail you and your progress, so don’t think that everything will be easy and will just happen. This takes work.

3. BE PROACTIVE

Make a list of healthy foods you enjoy, and what foods you can take with you to work, in the car, school, etc. You can create entire menus revolving around where you will be at what time of the day. Never give yourself an excuse to not have something available for you to eat, no matter where you are when you are supposed to have a meal. Always keep healthy foods on hand. If you don’t you will probably eat whatever is available at the time whether it be fast food, office treats, etc. This can throw off a diet plan and get you in the habit of making bad food choices and eat whatever is fast and convenient. Know where you will be at what time of the day, when you are open to cook, to eat, to shop for groceries, and plan accordingly. When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

4. CONSISTENCY IS KEY

Most people respond well to consistency. Make a plan and stick to it. Try to eat at around the same times every day and keep to the same portion size and caloric intake. Your body will recognize this pattern and in turn keep your metabolism burning and your energy levels will stay high. You will feel better, and get in a healthy routine. It is easy to sabotage yourself by grabbing crappy snacks to meet uncontrolled cravings. The time you spend on planning and consistency is a true investment that will benefit you for the rest of your life.

5. BE FLEXIBLE

Of course, even the best plans fall short at times. Life can sometimes get the best of all of us. Sometimes your eating routines need to change. Where you can, try to plan ahead for these events and have items on hand you can take with you when you’re in a rush or are eating out. Examples are bag of raw unsalted almonds, whole food bars, shakes, fresh fruit. 

Also educate yourself on nutrition through the internet, books, and magazines. You can use this knowledge to help you improvise and find foods that are compatible with your diet. For example, if you are out with friends or stuck with no time to cook. Find items that are less time consuming that you can take with you in a pinch.

6. DON'T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF

Nobody is perfect all the time. If you mess up, miss a few meals, or even have a bad couple of days, just pick yourself up and get back on track!

You’re doing this for you, and the added stress of not living up to your own expectations can lead to a total diet derailment. Being healthy and eating healthily does not mean you can’t enjoy foods that aren't on your meal plan. So don’t be so hard on yourself. YOU CAN DO IT!


7. STICK WITH YOUR PLAN

It takes time to develop healthy behaviours. After about a month of eating better consistently, you will have developed a habit. You will find that everything you initially may have had a hard time doing becomes more effortless and be a normal part of your day to day life.

8. HAVE FUN!

Eating right takes dedication, commitment and sacrifice. Don’t stress yourself out over small bumps in the road. You have the power to change any negative into a positive, and you have the choice to have a positive outlook regarding any situation you find yourself in. Find fun ways to keep yourself motivated. Get friends and family involved. Set challenges at home, with friends, or at work to start eating healthier. Take the time to cook and try new and interesting recipes. You are making a change for the better, so why not make it enjoyable?!

9. GIVE YOURSELF PRAISE

You are not a dog so don’t reward yourself with treats. RealiSe that changing your eating habits can be a daunting task for anyone. Just think how long you have had your current habits and know that changing those habits will not happen overnight, but with time. 

Congratulate yourself on any healthy changes you make, because you deserve the praise! Praise builds confidence and makes you feel good about the healthy choices you are making, and in turn will help keep you on your path to betterment.

10. DON'T RUSH INTO THIS

People always start with the best of intentions and will try and do everything at once. They get overwhelmed and quit before they really even started. Small changes add up and can make a huge difference. Work on one thing at a time and keep adding to it. Before you know it you will have many healthy habits that incorporate together to make a healthy lifestyle and a healthier and happier you.

11. FOCUS ON THE JOURNEY AND NOT THE DESTINATION

To live a healthy lifestyle is never easy. In order to enjoy this lifestyle with all it's ups and downs, we must enjoy the process and the journey on the way to our destination. Once we hit our destination we immediately look to the next mountain top and we either want more, or worst case scenario we think that we have accomplished all we need to and we relax on all of the things that got us there in the first place. Take pride in small victories along the way. They add up.


12. MEASURE SUCCESS AND SET NEW GOALS

Making successful changes means measuring your progress towards your goals and recognising your accomplishments. As you meet short-term goals, you can plan the next steps with more confidence. Constantly re-strategising your goals takes long-term visualisation. That long-term vision needs to be broken down into do-able steps.

Now go out and make a difference in your life today!! 

 Did you enjoy this article? Would you like to receive more support from me on a daily basis?! Ask me about my next challenge group! Together we can set goals and achieve them!!

Pre-Planning Healthy Snacks

We all struggle with finding the time to pack our healthy snacks everyday especially when you are a busy mum or have a full time job. Well you don’t have to resort to vending machines and the local bakery or sweet shop. There is a way to stay on track and eat healthy while on the go. It just takes a little planning. I’ve outlined some healthy snacks and have created a video for you so that you can see exactly how I prep my weeks. I spend a few hours each week baking chicken breasts for wraps and salads, cutting up fruits and veggies and portioning it into containers or food bags, along with nuts and houmous to make a complete snack. The key to sustaining your energy and blood sugar all day long is to pair healthy complex carbs (fruits and veggies) with a protein (nuts, houmous, cottage cheese) at each meal. This prevents the crash in blood sugar which can lead to bingeing!

I always sit down with my dry-wipe board and plan out all my meals for my family and then use that list to go food shopping. I’ll then spend a couple of hours preparing my snacks and getting organised for the week.

I love to browse the web for clean eating ideas, I find a lot of my recipes this way. Some of my favourite websites for recipes are the Gracious Pantry and Eat Yourself Skinny.

I have included a list of some healthy snack ideas for you to use!

1. 20 grapes and 1 low fat string cheese.
2. 2 cupped handfuls of strawberries and 10 raw unsalted cashews
3. Handful of cut up carrots and cucumber and 1 tbsp low fat houmous.
4. 2 whole wheat rice cakes (no salt added) with 1 tbsp all natural peanut butter (look at the label, it should say dry roasted peanuts only) and 1 tbsp raisins on top
5. 1 cup (285g or 16tbsp) plain greek yogurt, 1 orange cut up with 1 tbsp almonds. If it’s too tart for you add a tiny bit of honey or agave nectar.
6. 1/2 cup (100g) cottage cheese and a handful of fresh berries.
7. 1 small banana with 1 tbsp all natural nut butter
8. 1 apple with 1 tbsp nut butter or a small handful of raw unsalted almonds.

If you ever need help with meal planning please email me and I’d love to work with you to come up with some healthy alternatives! This is my passion and I love helping other people!

You can do this, you can change your life and feel amazing!

Dishing the Dirt on Eating Clean

I'm often asked what I mean when I say I'm into clean eating. Today I'm going to go through the basics for you.
Eating clean is a very simple concept but it has big benefits. Our nutrition is massively important in how our body looks and feels. If you eat rubbish your body will show it. It's said that 80% of what our body looks like is down to what we eat, 10% is down to exercise and 10% is genetic. You've heard it before but you really are what you eat.

Clean eating is simply the practice of limiting processed and refined foods and basing your diet on whole foods. It bases itself on the concept of food as fuel to nourish your body. It's not complicated, you just need to understand the basics.
Eating clean is not a fad diet. There is no calorie counting or deprivation. It doesn't eliminate food groups. You get to eat plenty of food, just the good stuff! It is a permanent lifestyle change where you go back to basic healthy eating principles.

There are lots of online resources you can use to find out more about clean eating. The concept can be open to interpretation and some people have different thoughts on it. This is my take on it and how I practice clean eating principles in my life. This suits me and my family and has helped us become healthier. We all have our own opinions and you may feel differently than me so I strongly encourage you to do what is right for you and your family.

Eat real, whole foods that come from nature:

• A variety of fruit and vegetables. Vegetables in particular are low in calories but are packed with fibre and lots of vitamins and minerals
• Wholegrains. Replace refined grains with whole ones to ensure you're getting all the lovely nutrients and fibre that are in them. Choose steel cut oats, brown/wild/black rice, quinoa, freekeh, etc. There are loads of options. 
• Lean meats
• Fish
• Dairy
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthy fats and oils (such as avocado, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil)

Limit processed foods:

• This is anything that has been 'tampered with' to make it into it's current state
• Avoid added sugars, salt and fats
• Avoid refined sugars. Refined sugar = empty calories. It has no nutritional benefit at all.
• Avoid refined white flours and replace them with wholemeal flour.
• Avoid anything with preservatives, additives or artificial sweeteners.
• Read ingredients lists carefully. Anything with lots of ingredients will generally mean it's not 'clean'
• A rule of thumb is if you can't pronounce one of the ingredients then you shouldn't buy it!

Clean Eating Principles:

• Eat breakfast every day to boost your metabolism
• Eat regularly. Every 2 and a half to 3 hours. This also keeps your metabolism firing on all cylinders and will reduce the chance of you needing to snack on something bad in between meals
• Cook from scratch. It's easier than you might think. I've enjoyed learning how to cook with lots of fabulous fresh ingredients. I've got some really quick and easy recipes that I'll be sharing with you
• Adhere to proper portion sizes (see below) 
• Combine lean protein with complex carbohydrates in your meals. This keeps you feeling fuller for longer and helps with your metabolism to burn fat more effectively
• Limit caffeine and alcohol. Use both in moderation
• Keep hydrated!
• Stay flexible!!!!! More about this below.....

Correct Portion Sizes:

• Protein = size of palm
• Complex carbohydrates = one cupped hand
• Fruit and veg = 2 cupped hands
• Cooking oils and healthy fats = 1 tablespoon

Benefits of Clean Eating:

• Easier to maintain a healthy weight thereby reducing the risk of health problems
• A diet full of variety ensures you're getting lots of nutrients
• Whole foods are great at keeping the digestive system regular
• A healthy diet makes you stronger so you can stay more active for longer.

The Really Important Bit!!!

It's vitally important to be flexible when you're eating clean. Clean eating 100% of the time is not very realistic. It's completely OK to enjoy a treat every now and then. It's not cheating! It's just making a conscious, informed choice to enjoy something different every once in a while. All you need to do is be comfortable with your choices. For me, I'll often have artificial sweeteners in my tea or coffee. That's fine by me - it's a choice I've made and I'm comfortable with it. We enjoy making homemade pizza, and my dough recipe uses white flour. That's OK with me! We only have it once in a while. The key is balance.

Lots to take on board? I know, I felt the same way. What's great is that you can take this slowly switching out ingredients as you go along. It's taken me a while to learn what I have so far, and I'm still learning. It's a work in progress!

Clean eating will change your body from the inside out. So eat like you love your body. I promise you you'll feel better for it!