Making Eating Healthy a Part of Your Every Day Life Checklist
Eating healthy isn’t as difficult as we make it out to be. Use this checklist to help you make healthy eating part of your everyday life.
Prepare Your Own Meals
Preparing healthy meals isn’t difficult and it doesn’t take a long time to do. The key is to make good choices on a meal-by-meal and a daily basis. Planning how you want to handle meal preparation is a great start to a healthy eating habit.
I take these steps and consider these options to help me prepare everyday meals:
- Write a grocery list
- Determine what I’ll cook and eat at home.
- Consider alternative ideas – ex: try food delivery like the purple carrot or grocery delivery from shipt.com.
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Plan How to Handle Dining Out & Parties
You don’t want to deprive yourself at special events, but if you eat out regularly due to work or your lifestyle, the solution is planning.
I plan to take these steps and actions when faced with dining out and parties:
- Call the restaurant – Ask about options and/or special arrangements.
- Order off the sides menu.
- Bring my own
- Rare events (no more than monthly) eat what you want but plan by eating healthier before and after
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Make Healthy Recipe Substitutes
In order to make healthy recipe substitutes, you first need to read and understand ingredient labels. You also need to know what constitutes a good substitute for your particular needs.
I read labels and understand what the ingredients are. Based on my needs and my diet, I make substitutions in recipes for:
- sugar
- wheat
- milk
- butter
- cheese
- peanut butter
- white flour
- cooking oil
- breadcrumbs
- cream cheese
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Don’t Make It Too Hard
In your zeal to succeed, you may be tempted to “make meals healthy” by taking extreme measures that are inconvenient and don’t really help you in the long run. Keep things simple, especially in the beginning.
I want to make lifestyle changes that I can maintain so I will focus on:
- Using simple ingredients
- Cooking ahead
- Using food delivery, when possible
- Getting support and/or help when needed
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Stay Hydrated
A big part of staying healthy revolves around hydration. If your body doesn’t have enough water to circulate or metabolize your food, “eating healthy” doesn’t do you much good. Include hydration practices throughout the day to set the stage for eating healthy.
I watch my hydration level and take these steps to get enough water:
- Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day
- Drink or take in more water under special conditions such as after exercise
- Eat juicy whole fruit
- Eat more raw veggies
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Eat Enough to Avoid Being Too Hungry
It’s important to be aware of how your body and your moods are affected by hunger. When you can “see the signs,” you can take action to keep your hunger under a healthy control.
I take these precautions and steps to control my hunger:
- Be mindful of where you are on a hunger scale
- Plan snacks
- Recognize my signs of “emotional eating”
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Get Moving
There is more to healthy eating than the “eating” part. There is a close connection between eating healthy and exercise. In a healthy lifestyle, you can’t have one without the other.
As part of my new healthy eating lifestyle, I incorporate these exercises and activities:
- Walking
- Swimming
- Cycling
- Weight-bearing or resistance training
- Stretching
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Making Eating Healthy a Part of Your Every Day Life Worksheet
Set Your Intentions: Ex. what constitutes a healthy diet to you? What do you want to accomplish each day regarding your diet?
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What will you change about your current life to eat healthier?
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What are some foods you eat now that you can substitute?
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
Food: ______________________________ Substitute: ______________________________
What road blocks can you identify that you can plan around?
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How will you change your snacking behavior?
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What is one food you don’t want to give up? How can you make it fit into your life?
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Facebook (or other) Groups you plan join to help find support.
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Cookbooks or websites you think will help you with my choice of lifestyle.
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How do you plan to incentivize yourself to stick to your new healthy eating plan?
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How will you control your portion size?
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What will be the positive results of my efforts?
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When reading labels, these are the top things I need to watch for:
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I tend to snack during (time of day, high stress times, etc.) This is how I plan to combat it (or healthy options I plan to keep on hand).
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ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS
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