25 Behavioral Tips For A Healthier Diet
Behavioral changes lead to results. Changing your behavior around food will affect your weight and your health. Here are tips that can help you eat healthier and lose weight. You don’t have to do all these things. Find the changes that resonate with you and implement those. Make changes in small increments, preferably one at a time. As your change becomes routine, add another. Consider changes that are sustainable for the long term. Find what works for you!
- Do not go to the grocery store hungry. You are more likely to “impulse buy.”
- Make a grocery list, bring it to the grocery store, and stick to it.
- Replace sugary sweet snacks with fresh fruit. Decide if you want to implement this change once a day, once a week, or some other option that works for you. Small changes can add up over time.
- Swap out your regular grains (like bread, rice, tortillas, crackers) for whole grains.
- Cut back on your red meat–swap out one day a week with lean fish or poultry, beans, nuts, seeds, tofu. Be open to trying new recipes with unfamiliar ingredients.
- Eat less fast food. Again, try cutting out one day a week. Fast food is prone to containing those awful trans fats. The less fast food, the better your health.
- Cook more. Pack your lunch and snacks instead of purchasing food. Commit to doing this at least one workday per week. As an incentive, use the money saved to treat yourself to something special.
- Read labels and compare the amount of added sugar in the foods you eat. Choose foods with lower added sugar. For example, some peanut butter has sugar added, and others don’t. Swap your high sugar cereal for one with low sugar and add fresh fruit for taste.
- Drink more water. Have a glass of water before you sit down for a meal. This will help you feel full sooner.
- Be kind to yourself during your weight loss journey! It isn’t easy to lose weight, so give yourself credit for your efforts. Try to focus on the positive rather than the negative. Everyone is going to get off track at some point. Pat yourself on the back each time you work on healthy eating. Give yourself a break when you make a mistake. If you focus on the negative, you are more likely to give up on yourself. Focusing on the positive keeps, you headed towards your goals.
- Change the proportion of foods that you eat. Put more vegetables or salad on your plate and less meat.
- Use a slightly smaller plate; this may help you to put less food on your plate.
- Use reduced-fat dairy products. If you drink whole milk, try switching to 2% or low-fat milk. If you can’t do that, mix whole milk and 2%. Dairy products are a significant source of saturated fat. Cutting back to a lower fat product for your milk, yogurt, sour cream, or other dairy products can pay off big.
- Eat more veggies. Eat more vegetables daily. If needed, start with one day per week. Vegetables are low in calories but high in fiber and vitamins. They are good for your health and help you lose weight by filling you with low-calorie food. Avoid putting creamy sauces or butter on your vegetables.
- Choose to bake rather than fry your foods when possible.
- Use vegetable oil instead of butter when cooking. You can substitute just a part, such as using ½ butter and ½ vegetable oil in a dish or recipe.
- Allow yourself a “treat” once in a while. Not often, but infrequently, allow yourself to have a food treat and not feel guilty about it. An occasional treat may make it easier to stick to the diet on a long-term basis. Determine how often you will allow yourself these guiltless treats.
- Reward yourself for effort. Make a plan to reward yourself for completing or trying some of these weight loss ideas. Make the reward non-food, such as making a special purchase, getting a massage, or watching a particular TV show.
- Count Calories. Get an app for calorie counting. This will help you see where your calories are coming from and make it easier to cut back and stay on track.
- Weigh yourself daily, undressed, at the same time of day, using the same scale.
- Develop a buddy system. If you don’t have a weight loss buddy, join a support group.
- Avoid very restrictive diets like fasting diets. The diets that are the most successful are those that you stick with long term. These very restrictive or fasting diets are not sustainable for the long term.
- Drink less soda pop, juice, and other sugary drinks. Swap out one sugary drink a day for water, herbal tea, or flavored but unsweetened mineral water. The average soda has 150 calories. One pound is the equivalent of about 3500 calories. So drinking one less soda a day for a year translates to a 15-pound weight loss. There is power in small changes!
- Practice mindful eating. This means, when you are eating, just eat. Don’t watch TV, read, or text. As you eat, pay attention to what you are experiencing, the smell and taste of the food, and how it feels in your mouth. This doesn’t take any extra time but increases your meal satisfaction and reduces overeating.
- Adopt a mantra! What will you tell yourself when you feel like quitting?
Written by: myObMD team | Editor: Dayna Smith MD | Reviewed: December 18, 2020 Copyright: myObMD, 2020
