We are bombarded with messages about healthy eating from every angle. Sometimes it can feel so overwhelming that we end up giving up at the first hurdle. Often, this column is inspired by the wise words of my clients, and this week is a big one.
‘It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to be good all the time!’.
Changing your diet for the better takes time and sometimes, despite all our best intentions, it can be tricky to make a healthy choice. Sometimes making a good-enough choice is enough. An OK choice is better than skipping meals, grabbing a quick fix of junk food or fuelling your day on caffeine and sugar to get you through.
When it comes to making healthier choices in your diet, it’s the simple things that matter. September is a time of transition between seasons and it can be a good opportunity to make some positive, healthy changes to your routine.
It can also be a busy time of year, so here are some ideas to help give yourself some grace and ease you gently into a healthier way of eating.
- Take it one meal at a time. One meal, one snack, one day or even one week of less than perfect eating isn’t a deal breaker for your health. It doesn’t mean you’ve gone off the rails or fallen off your diet. Good nutrition is all about balance. If most of your diet is packed with nutritious foods, then the occasional high fat, high sugar, or less nutrient-dense food or meal is not a game changer. Just take it one meal at a time and balance things out at your next meal. This can be a more empowering way to look at things than telling yourself that you have failed miserably because you’ve had something that doesn’t conform to a perfectly healthy diet.
- Make the best choice you can. No matter whether you are eating out, grabbing lunch on the go or making a dinner at home, take a moment to consider your options. How could you choose something slightly healthier? Sometimes this can just mean picking up a piece of fruit to have with your sandwich, other times it will be choosing a super salad. Consider your options and see if there something you could add to your meal that would pop a few extra nutrients on your plate. It can be useful to think ‘bad, better, best’. What are your options? Sometimes better is good enough.
- Consistency is key. Creating healthy habits takes time, but it’s the habits that stick that really make a difference to your long-term health, Forget fad diets and quick fixes and make some simple tweaks to your routine that you know you will stick to. Drink that extra glass of water, add an extra vegetable to dinner, or slow it down and eat more mindfully. It’s the little things that count.
- Get your day off to a good start. It can make all the difference to your food choices for the rest of the day. Pick up some ingredients to make a decent breakfast – overnight oats, low sugar granola with Greek yoghurt, porridge with nuts and seeds, or eggs for an omelette. It is ok to eat the same thing for breakfast every day, as long as it is nutritious and fuelling you well.
- Make it easy! Keeping a few simple ingredients in the fridge, freezer or cupboard that allow you to throw a quick, satisfying and fairly healthy meal together can be a game changer. Wholemeal pittas in the frezeer, tinned fish in the cupboard and a few salad ingredients from the bottom of the fridge makes a good enough lunch. A decent curry sauce, some chickpeas or leftover chicken and frozen veg will make a decent curry in a hurry.
