No matter what your starting point is, the following 9 life-changing tips PLUS this FREE downloadable Healthy Eating Guide are guaranteed to help you change your eating habits in less time and with less effort!
Health is wealth. When you change how you eat every day, you change your life – for better or worse.
Your personal circumstances, health, and budget all play a role in how you’ll make healthy eating work for you.
Building a healthy eating habit is about progress, not perfection.
The secret to building a life-changing healthy eating habit is finding new ways to make healthy eating easier for YOU.
And that’s where these 9 life-changing tips can help. Keep reading (or skip ahead) to learn simple ways to incorporate more healthy food into your diet, so you can transform your eating habits and change your life for the better!
Skip Ahead | Healthy Eating Tips Summary
- Know THIS…
- Invest In Yourself
- Make Every Minute In The Kitchen Count
- Practice One Recipe At A Time
- Focus On One Meal Or Macro At A Time
- Keep Pre-Cooked Protein On Hand When Possible
- If You Buy It In Bulk, Cook It In Bulk
- Add (Or Hide) Extra Vegetables To Existing Recipes
- Swap Standard Ingredients With More Nutritious Ones
- (BONUS TIP) Love The Food You Eat
1. Know THIS…
The first step is recognizing that good habits take time to develop. Giving yourself the space and time to learn, have off days and eat cookies (like these ones) is essential for healthy habit-building.
As you start or continue on your healthy eating journey, remember the following:
- Door Dashing a pizza or going out for nachos and drinks with friends isn’t a step backwards. It’s balance.
- Doing what makes you feel best will look different from one day to the next.
- Listen to your body and be at peace with your decisions.
- Stay as consistent with your healthy eating efforts as you can in your current season of life.
- Reframe setbacks as opportunities for personal growth.
- Practicing self-kindness is just as beneficial to your health as eating a kale salad every day.
Be consistent, but realistic. Show up for yourself whenever you can and forgive yourself when you can’t. It’s about progress, not perfection.
2. Invest In Yourself
The fastest way to develop a lifelong healthy eating habit is to invest time and energy in building your meal prep skills. Learning to meal prep food in a health-supportive way will always give you the greatest return on investment in the healthy eating department.
Most of us are on a time and money budget, which is why learning to meal prep is not only a game changer but a healthy living life saver!
But what if you’ve never meal-prepped before and feel overwhelmed with where to begin? Thankfully, this Free Healthy Eating Guide for Beginners has you covered. Just try one of the seven game-changing, easy-to-follow tips, and start building your healthy eating and meal prep confidence right away!
3. Make every minute in the kitchen count
Food made from scratch will always be more nutritious (and delicious) than its store-bought counterpart. But what do you do when you have little time to spend in the kitchen and a healthy eating intention you want to stick with?
Simply put, make the most of every minute you spend in the kitchen!
If you’re already in the kitchen 1 to 2 times a day, make the most of that time. Use those precious minutes to meal prep something that takes little effort to get started and have it cook passively on the stove or in the oven.
Just make sure to set a timer so what you’re cooking in tandem doesn’t burn.
For specific examples of low-maintenance, easy-to-start foods, download your Free Healthy Eating Guide, and boost your kitchen productivity immediately!
4. Practice one recipe at a time
Start slow and invest your time learning one healthy recipe at a time. Your return on investment will be far greater than challenging yourself to prepare multiple new recipes in one go.
Cooking is just like any useful skill. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
Those people you see online or on social media, who seem to effortlessly prepare a week’s worth of meals or a month’s worth of dinners in one day, are usually preparing recipes they’ve made many, many times over.
Practice makes for quicker meal prep and gives you time and energy to master more recipes over time.
5. Focus on one meal or macro at a time
Which meal of the day do you find the most challenging to make healthy? Or maybe it’s not a meal but a specific nutrient you want to eat more of.
Narrowing in on what meal or macronutrient you want to focus your efforts on will make it easier to plan which recipes and ingredients you want to try meal prepping first. Again, it all comes down to maximizing your return on investment.
You only have so many dollars and hours in the week to dedicate to healthy eating and meal prep.
Find your focus by choosing the one meal or macronutrient that will help your body and mind the most. Focusing your efforts on a single healthy eating intention will save you time, money and energy in the long run.
6. Keep pre-cooked protein on hand when possible
Having pre-cooked, budget-friendly protein in the fridge, freezer, or pantry shelf is a healthy eating lifesaver! It’s super versatile and will stay fresh (and delicious) for five days or three months in the freezer.
This will look different for everyone, but here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Cooked lentils or legumes and brown rice, which combined make a complete plant protein
- Various types of meat (check out the meal prep hack below)
- Tofu or tempeh
- Sausage, meatballs, burgers and bacon (yes, bacon has a place in healthy eating!)
- Cooked quinoa
- Canned fish like tuna, salmon and sardines
- Canned legumes like chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), kidney beans, pinto beans and cannellini beans
- Canned corn and black beans, which combined make a complete plant protein
Your meal options are endless when you have delicious protein-packed meal starters on hand!
If you know you’ll have little time to cook throughout the week, prioritize 30-40 minutes at the beginning of the week to prep some protein. Protein is the backbone of any nourishing meal and will cut your everyday meal assembly time in half.
7. If you buy it in bulk, cook it in bulk
If you’re budget-conscious and a fan of buying your meat at Costco or in bulk form, you’ll love this next tip! Instead of portioning your raw meat for the freezer, cook it all at once first and then portion it out to freeze.
This is an excellent example of prepping smarter, not harder!
It takes the same amount of effort to cook 10 chicken breasts in the oven as it does 2. As discussed in the previous tip, having cooked protein on hand is a huge mealtime saver. And cooking up a few weeks worth for the freezer in a single kitchen session is a huge meal prep win!
For more ideas of what meats you can cook in bulk and different ways to easily incorporate them into your everyday meals or meal prep, download your Free Healthy Eating Guide, and start saving time and money on meal prep today!
8. Add (or hide) extra vegetables to existing recipes
I know, I know…”Just eat more veggies” is such a cliche, but I promise it has the goods to back it up.
Adding more veggies to your diet is one of the most reliable ways to improve your overall health and digestion. And that is because they are so jammed packed with essential nutrients like fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Eating just one or two extra servings daily will:
- Increase your energy
- Improve digestion
- Sharpen your mental acuity
- Help balance blood sugars
- Strengthen your ability to fight off viruses
- Help prevent chronic diseases
But what if you don’t like the taste of veggies? Thankfully your Healthy Eating Guide has you covered. Download your free copy for some delicious hacks that are both picky-eater and kid-approved!
9. Swap standard ingredients with More Nutritious ones
Maybe you already have a handful of recipes you love and currently make on a regular rotation. If so, substituting a few of the ingredients with more nutritious alternatives is the perfect way to introduce some extra nutrients into your current routine! Again, it’s all about cooking and prepping smarter, not harder!
And to make life easier for you, I’ve also included a FREE Ingredients Substitution Guide you can download to keep on hand for quick and easy reference. It includes a master list of healthy, easy-to-find replacements for various pantry staples, nutrition facts and tips to get you started.
You can download it below on its own, or as part of the FREE Healthy Eating Guide PDF. Keep it on your phone or tablet, or print and post it somewhere in your kitchen for easy reference!
10. (BONUS TIP) Love The Food You Eat
The last piece of advice I want to share with you is something I didn’t figure out until four years into my healthy eating journey.
Only make the food you love to eat. Forcing yourself to eat food you hate makes healthy eating harder.
When I was in nutrition school, the emphasis was on making food as nutritious as humanly possible and less on taste.
As a former fast-food addict, I know firsthand balance and tasty food are essential for building a healthy habit that lasts.
Want to learn more about the important role tasty food plays in building healthy eating habits? Check out this post and feel empowered to choose flavour over Instagram-perfect superfood trends!
Need some extra motivation? Check out: 21 POWERFUL HEALTHY EATING QUOTES TO INSPIRE YOUR HEALTHIEST LIFE
I can’t wait to hear all about your healthy eating journey and what you’ve been cooking! Please comment below or share your successes with me on Instagram @nourashnutrition so that I can celebrate you and your healthy eating milestones!
Also, if you have any questions about the topic and information you’ve learned today, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send me an Instagram direct message! ✨
Sending you strength and confidence today to fuel your healthiest tomorrow!
Ever since I read this article, eating healthy has been way easier! Thank you Ash!
You’re more than welcome, Sia! I’m so happy you found it helpful!🙏