We’ll tell you how to make your eating behavior healthier step by step and how to persevere with the change in diet in the long term.
Less chocolate, no fast food and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Have you already (often) decided to change your diet and finally eat healthier? Commendable, but unfortunately we rarely put our good intentions into practice.
There are many excuses and one of them always fits: stress at work, lovesickness, family obligations or once again an empty refrigerator. Sweets and ready-made products are not only comforting for the soul, but above all a convenient alternative. Until the guilty conscience comes. “Then tomorrow I’ll start eating more healthily,” they often say. Or next week. That’s enough of that!
The best time to change your diet is NOW.
Are you in? So let it begin. Good cue, because where exactly should you start? And what is actually “healthy”? Vegan, Low Carb or Paleo? Unfortunately, there is no form of nutrition. Every body works differently and has different needs. Not even science is unanimous and is constantly delivering new results. But that is by no means a reason not to try it.
How can I change my diet?
Of course, we know the problem with changing your diet: It’s always easier said than done. And throwing old eating habits overboard overnight and banning everything you love – including the daily ration of chocolate – from your life is in most cases doomed to failure.
Regardless of whether you just want to eat healthier, lose weight or build muscle: There is no success with a diet that you cannot stick to. The better solution: Don’t change everything at once, just feel your way step by step. A change in diet needs one thing above all: time.
What tips can help you eat healthier?
Even for our 6 tips, you don’t have to implement all of them at once. One after the other. Take your time. And you will see, eating healthy is not that difficult at all.
1. Drink more water
You can implement this tip immediately: drink enough, i.e. 2 to 3 liters a day! No, not juice or cola, but simply still water or unsweetened tea. Your body doesn’t need anything else. Do you find it difficult to drink enough daily?
Water also provides an unbeatable 0 calories. Even a water loss of only half a percent (based on your weight) triggers thirst. Thirst is a warning signal from the body to alert you to a deficit. It’s best not to let it get that far in the first place. This is the only way to ensure that, for example, your muscles are adequately supplied with oxygen and amino acids during training and can regenerate optimally afterwards.
2. Eat “real” foods
Bye-bye fix bags and cardboard schnitzel from the toaster: Ready-made products with long lists of ingredients that are more reminiscent of a chemical construction kit than food should not end up in your shopping basket, but directly in the trash. Your body can do without it, because it does not benefit from artificial flavors or preservatives.
Instead, opt for clean eating and eat natural, unprocessed foods as much as possible, such as plenty of vegetables, fruit, nuts.
3. Cook yourself and become a meal prepper
If you buy fresh food, you also have to process it. That’s why it’s now: cook yourself. And preferably not just for one meal, but for 2, 3 or 10. Keyword: Meal Prep – or better known as pre-cooking. Simply cook a large pot of curry, pasta, rice or quinoa with meat and vegetables and take it to work the next day. Proper meal preppers spend hours shopping, cooking, and preparing and freezing all meals for the week.
Sounds stressful at first, but remember: You always have a healthy meal with you at lunchtime – for example in such a nice box – and you are not dependent on what the canteen has to offer. Alternatively, you can eat your pre-cooked food in the evening. The advantage: When you come home hungry in the evening, a finished meal is waiting for you in the refrigerator, which you just have to warm up.
4. Breakfast – but rich in protein, please!
A quick toast with Nutella or jam is always possible, even when time is short. But a sweet breakfast provides your body with lots of empty calories. Means: Your blood sugar level rises rapidly due to wheat toast and sugary spreads. An hour later, however, not only that, but also your mood is in the basement. In addition, those who are not really focused on eating or who devour their food while walking often do not get what and how much they eat.
The solution: plan more time for breakfast and rely on the protein-rich variant. Eating a protein-rich breakfast is healthy, helps you lose weight (since protein saturates you for a long time) and promotes muscle building. It is also important to replenish your empty energy stores in the morning in order to start the day optimally and to avoid cravings until lunch. Eggs in any form are allowed in the morning, as well as milk, quark or yoghurt with muesli.
5. Eat less sugar
This point may not be implementable from now on. But the fact is: Sugar not only makes you addicted in the long term, it also makes you fat and sick. For our body, sugary foods are just empty calories with no added value.
As a sugar junkie, you step into the blood sugar roller coaster every day. Chocolate bars in, blood sugar and insulin levels up = quick energy. An hour later you can no longer feel the energy kick and the next sugar boom is due. Otherwise the mood will drop and cravings will arise. Get off the hamster wheel and reduce your sugar consumption! Slowly. Week after week.
6. Eat more vegetables instead of grains
After giving up sugar, there is now your personal “boss”: Most people find it very difficult to eat less grain. The reason: noodles, rice or bread are eaten with almost every meal, if they are not the main ingredient. However, especially when losing weight, it makes sense to reduce grains in the diet plan. No, not because of the gluten. Grains – whether whole grains or not – consist largely of carbohydrates, in other words: sugar components. Carbohydrates are the number 1 energy source in the body and are therefore important. It only becomes problematic if you constantly overeat.
Because: Excess carbs that you do not use directly for energy production are converted into fat and stored for “bad times”. They also cause our blood sugar levels to rise (and fall) rapidly. In contrast to vegetables, cereals also contain around ten times more calories. The way out of the carb trap: Our low-carb nutrition plan.
So, as the last step in your diet, try to replace grains with vegetables more often. Of course, you don’t have to radically delete your beloved pasta. But maybe you just replace them with vegetable noodles at one or the other meal. Would you like more recipe ideas?
- Zoodles instead of normal noodles
- Baked eggplant instead of baked potato
- Vegetable pan instead of rice pan
- Scrambled eggs with vegetables or bacon instead of rolls with jam
- Sweet potato and tuna muffins instead of chocolate muffins
- Cauliflower rice instead of normal rice as a side dish
- Cauliflower pizza dough instead of wheat flour
How important are cheat days for a change in diet?
As absurd as it sounds: A little inconsistency makes you more consistent. The change in diet will only have long-term success if you don’t forbid yourself from the start. Okay, almost nothing. You have to pull yourself together a little to eat healthier, but don’t be too strict with yourself. The sentence “From now on I will not eat so often and so much pizza” sounds much more pleasant (and more realistic) than “I will never eat pizza again from now on”, doesn’t it?
The ban would put you under so much pressure that sooner or later you would fail. That’s human. Therefore, consistently implement our dietary change tips as best you can, but regularly have a cheat day! In other words: treat yourself occasionally to something that is not on the agenda.
A change in diet is feasible, it requires discipline and a planned approach. You can gradually integrate our little tips into your everyday life. And treat yourself to an exception to the rules every now and then.
