Healthy Eating Plan

 Successful weight loss is a balance of long-term lifestyle changes incorporating a healthy eating plan.  It’s also about regular exercise that you enjoy and using strategies to address the emotional and psychological factors that may undermine your good intentions.

With a little pre-planning each morning (or the night before) you can keep yourself healthy and your weight under control. From now on, why not make it your mission to strive for healthy eating plan to give you the best chance of weight loss success.

 

• Start your day with a nutritious breakfast.
• Aim to stick with a healthy daily meal pattern making sure that you are getting a variety of nutritious foods. 
• Have regular meals (ideally three main meals and three high protein snacks) to give you energy, keep your metabolism active and ensure you stay awake and alert throughout the day.
• Try for a variety of healthy foods that are low in fat and salt and high in fibre.
• Limit your carbohydrate intake of complex carbohydrates such as legumes, starchy vegies, corn, grain and rice products to the earlier half of the day); avoiding processed and high GI carbohydrates (eg sugar, baked goods, white bread) at all times.
• Carry nutritious snacks to keep temptation at bay and ensure you eat at least every three hours. They can provide your body with valuable energy, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Limit your carbohydrate intake to complex carbs legumes, starchy vegies, corn, grain and rice products); avoid processed carbs (eg sugar and with flour) at all times.

While it may not look like it, healthy foods are  readily available. It’s just a matter of ignoring the colourful packs of highly processed, high fat, high sugar foods that line the supermarket shelves. Stick to the natural, fresh foods and avoid these other aisles at the supermarket.

Fresh meat, poultry, seafood, fruit, nuts, legumes and vegetables are obvious healthy eating choices but there are many packaged foods that also get our tick of approval including cans of tuna/salmon/sardines, tomatoes and beans/legumes.  Even frozen vegies are a good choice every now and then because they actually have the same nutritional content as fresh ones.  Low-fat cheese like ricotta and cottage cheese are also healthy options and packed full of important calcium while dips like hummus and tzatziki great substitutes to salty, fatty spreads.

Meanwhile, try these healthy eating ideas:

• Avoid anything made with trans fat (commercial biscuits, cakes, takeaway foods). 
• Eat porridge (which is simply rolled oats) over sugary, processed breakfast cereals. 
• Buy wholemeal, sourdough or wholegrain bread over highly processed white varieties. 
• Make your own sauces and condiments rather than buying pre-made versions. 
• Eat fresh fruit instead of fruit juice. 
• Importantly, read the labels on food packaging to ensure the salt, fat and sugar content is low.