New Year, New Food Plan!
With the new year well under way for many it is the chance for a fresh start, eating healthy, exercising and changing their lifestyle with new focus for the rest of the year.
This can be difficult with many distractions in the way, busy lifestyles promote snacking and often on the wrong things. Also the tendency to eat out, have a takeaway or even skip meals and binge in one go. This doesn’t have to be the case as food and drink in moderation is fine but most of it comes down to planning.
If you plan your food a week in advance of going shopping and you’re more likely to stick to your healthy eating plan; it’s like making a food to-do list.
Anyone following a diet, doing any sort of exercise and training, eating a structured diet will help maximise your weight loses or weight gains depending on your goals.
Before you shop, write a shopping list to cover all days, this will avoid you picking up any cheat meals or thinking you can just get by that day. Keep lots of fruit and vegetables in your diet, along with lean proteins like chicken, fish and pulses.
Brown rice and sweet potato are good forms of carbohydrates to keep you energised for longer, then supplement you meals with healthy snacks like nuts, peanut butter and natural yoghurt.
You are going to want to split your meals into 3rds between protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. Once you have these plans in place and can follow them for a couple of weeks, it will be much easier to stick to as you’ll form new routines and get used to the meals you are preparing.
One main thing to keep in mind is sugar levels, many foods talk about being low fat or low calories but they still have really high sugar. This will not help keep a balanced diet and also will spike your sugar levels and make you crave the foods you’ve been trying to avoid.
This may sound expensive or hassle but in general once you have the basics in your cupboards you can cook batches and freeze portions, rice, sweet potatoes and vegetables are not expensive, especially if you are using them regular and this food will prove cheaper than the ready meal or eating out alternatives and at least you’ll know exactly what has gone into your meal. Also look at seasonal produce as the costs will be lower.
Thanks to Thomas Ali of Carlton business Freshly Spiced who prepared these healthy eating tips.
His firm offer spice blend recipe kits. This allows you to plan your week and have natural, fresh spice blends to give maximum flavour.
You can visit their website http://www.freshlyspiced.co.uk/ for more information
