Happy New Year! We hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. To say goodbye to the plethora of holiday cocktail parties, baked goods, and culinary opulence, and hello to a fresh, healthy 2012, we’re making a New Year’s resolution to Eat Consciously. We’re all so busy all the time, and too often our meals are an afterthought. Start off this year right with a few tips to help you make healthy choices.
1. Don’t skip meals. Just don’t do it. It makes you cranky. It slows your body down. It leads to binging later and all sorts of other other things that are just not good.
2. Plan your meals. Try not to fall into the habit of grabbing a bagel on your way out the door to work, getting fast food or hitting up the vending machine for lunch, and being too tired to think about dinner, which turns into yet another quick, calorie laden meal. Wake up a few minutes early to have a good breakfast and pack a lunch for later. Once a week, plan out your dinners and shop accordingly, so that you always have the ingredients for healthy meals on hand. These habits will save money and your figure ; )
3. Don’t snack mindlessly. Don’t reach into the candy bowl every time you pass by it. Craving chips? Eat a portion, but don’t demolish the whole bag. Keep healthy snacks on hand like fresh fruit, yogurt, and trail mix (check out my favorite here!) so that when hunger strikes, you are properly armed.
4. Be present when you eat. While you are eating, think about why you are eating. Are you hungry or bored? Are you continuing to eat after you are satisfied? Do you know what is in your food? Be aware of your portion size. You don’t have to clean your plate. It’s okay to eat half now, and save half for later. Be accountable to yourself. If you need help, try downloading a calorie counting app and checking out websites such as EatingWell and CookingLight for a ton of recipe ideas.
5. Taste the rainbow. No, not the candy kind. We’re talking fruits and veggies and bright, wholesome foods full of vitamins. Avoid eating all brown or white meals, which tend to be heavy in starch and fat, and try to get in your greens (and reds and purples and oranges!).
We hope these tips help you to Eat Consciously, and we hope that you enjoy doing it! To keep the momentum going, we’ll be bringing you weekly recipes to help keep your healthy diets delicious! Check back with us every Tasty Tuesday.
