How To Start Eating Healthy

Have you ever wondered how to start eating healthy? Have you tried diets and failed?

The Standard American Diet (or the SAD diet) is a rough one for our bodies, and frankly our brains too. With 600,000+ food products available to us, and 80% of them containing added sugar, and potentially toxic ingredients like pesticide residue, and other random nondigestible food additives, it’s easy to see why we feel like CRAP!

When you walk down the main aisle of any standard grocery store in the U.S. all you’ll see are sugar-filled items… look around the next time you go… to me, at this point, it actually feels like walking through a war zone. It’s scary!

You’ll see soft drinks, sports drinks, chips, candy, fried foods, and “healthy” snacks which when you turn the package over are usually 50% sugar… it’s endless!

So it’s no wonder why you and so many other people are wondering about how to start eating healthy when it feels like a nearly impossible task.

How To Start Eating Healthy

How do beginners start eating healthy?

It’s really a lot simpler than you’d expect. I’ve broken it out into a few simple rules to follow:

  1. Eat more whole real food – avoid as many processed foods as possible.
    1. Organic fruits and veggies
    2. Grass-fed meats
    3. Pasture-raised chickens/eggs
    4. Whole grains
  2. Reduce the amount of sugar you eat per day. – Avoiding processed foods will really help with this.
  3. When eating processed foods, avoid ingredients like artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, and other potentially toxic chemicals. This list is too long to include here. A general rule of thumb is if it’s not an identifiable ingredient avoid it. Ex: Garlic ✔, Salt ✔ vs Monosodium Glutamate ✖, TBHQ ✖.
  4. Drink lots of water daily.

What are the 5 steps to eating healthy?

Step 1 – Learn what’s actually “healthier” because there is a lot of misinformation out there. A good place to start is by looking through the articles on this website. You can also hire a Functional Medicine Health Coach or Functional Nutrition Counselor who can walk you through nutrition and behavior changes that will make a huge difference.

Step 2 – Give yourself time to change. Getting healthy doesn’t happen overnight. Plus being healthy isn’t a destination, it’s an ongoing journey. You don’t just get healthy one day, you must continue to work on your health until the day you die.

Step 3 – Learn what works for you. We are all different and there is no specific diet that works for everyone (well except for generally clean food) but what types of clean food will vary drastically between individuals, and that’s perfectly okay.

Step 4 – Start! There is no time like the present to start eating a little better, making healthier choices, or moving your body.

Step 5 – Start small! Buy a bag of raw almonds and eat a handful of them. Just one simple step can lead to another and another. Learn more about the health benefits of almonds here.

How can I teach myself to eat healthily?

The biggest thing to know about eating healthy is that it must become a habit it. You have to build it into your daily routine, and stick with it. It will not happen perfectly overnight, but by working at it each day, you’ll start to see noticeable improvements over time. The goal is not perfection, but growth in the right direction. To learn more about creating healthy habits check out Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Being healthy is a lifestyle

As I just mentioned above, one of the best things you can do to start eating healthy is to make it a habit.

Habits are the backbone of the type of lifestyle you have. We as humans like to run on autopilot. This gives us the ability to reserve brainpower for big decisions throughout the day.

Once you find healthy foods you like, make it a habit to eat them regularly. Eat the same type of food over and over again. An example might be drinking lemon water and eating blueberries first thing in the morning every day. For a snack eat a handful of raw almonds and a little bit of dark chocolate.

Get in the habit of eating clean and you’ll start to do it on autopilot!

How To Start Eating Healthy

What is the best way to get healthy foods in stores?

My goal is to change how hard it can be to find healthy foods in our stores. Did you know the power to do so is actually in our hands right now? It’s a power that’s even greater than voting and government policies… the power is in our buying habits. You dictate what companies create and sell by buying specific brands and products. If you want to see healthier food options in stores, start purchasing more healthier options, and purchase them more often.

Xx,

~Nika

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