Happy New Year!
This month Dr. Hagel and I teamed up to help you get started on your post-holiday wellness habits. You can start small (this often works the best) and build in more healthy habits over time as you get more experience with it.
My article will give you an introduction to thinking about how to create healthy habits for your overall lifestyle, which can be applied to any area of your life you want to work on.
Dr. Hagel’s article discusses how to deal with nutrition habits and get back on track after holidays full of eating decadent foods high in sugars, refined grains and unhealthy fats. Outside of turkey and our faithful nutcrackers, we often see the dietary ratio of processed foods and sugar to outweigh our intake of healthy proteins, fats and green vegetables.
Health Tips Calgary
4 Steps to Bring Routine to Healthy Eating
Dr Michelle Hagel BSc, ND
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be difficult, which is why many people yo-yo. Here are 4 steps to ensure that you maintain your healthy eating routines.
Meal prep. The number one problem with having people stick to healthy eating is people don’t have time. If you get into the habit of planning and prepping your meals ahead of time, you won’t have to hit the drive thru during your crazy week. Pick a day and time, I generally suggest Sunday morning or evening. Prepare a shopping list, stick to it. (this will save your time, money and waist line) Then spend a couple hours making some food for the busy week ahead. Also get the whole family involved especially the kids. Make it a time in the week you look forward to. Play some music, and assign each person a task. Even let the kids make some food suggestions like snacks.
Snacks. Speaking of Snacks make sure they are good ones! I am a big advocate of healthy fats and proteins. If your meals are well balanced with good fats and proteins your blood sugar will be stabilized and your meals will sustain you until the next. Meaning you will not feel that crash after a meal or before the next meal. You also won’t be tempted to reach for the potato chips or chocolate bar to sustain your energy levels. In the event that you do get hungry between meals, prepare some healthy snacks. Nuts and seeds are some of my favourites, veggies and hummus, kale chips or homemade protein balls with nut butters.
Kick the sugar. In my experience even the cookie monster can kick sugar if he is able to eliminate it for a 3 week period. Sugar causes highs and lows in our blood glucose levels which can affect our mood, energy and overall health. If you are able to completely eliminate sugar (even some fruits) for a good chunk of time your tastebuds will adapt and you will start tasting your food again, not just the sugar. You will appreciate other flavours and that sugar doesn’t taste as good as you once thought. Again my favourite tool to kick the sugar is to satisfy your appetite with healthy fats and protein.
Take out temptation. I generally recommend a cleanse every 6 months for most people. But, now I’m talking about cleansing your house of those tempting items. If they aren’t there you won’t think about them. Chocolate, chips, sugar, corn syrup, processed foods get them out of your house. If these things aren’t good for you they aren’t good for your family. For healthy routines it is best if you get the entire family on board with these changes not just one person. You can do it step by step it doesn’t have to be a huge leap.
Create a healthy mindset and start your year towards healthy living. Contact Us for more info about healthy habits.