Improving your diet has so many benefits, when you eat better you’ll find that your mood improves and that you have lots more energy. You’ll support your immune system and potentially lose weight. To start improving your diet now, check out these ten pointers.
1 . Try healthy food apps
If you want to improve your diet there are many healthy food apps which can help you out. Here are some ideas to explore:
Lifesum: This app includes lots of healthy recipes, and habit tracking features, to monitor your progress. The app helps you to track the foods you eat, track your weight, save recipes, and set goals. You can even scan barcodes to learn more info about the foods you buy.
Healthy Recipes App: If you need ideas for new recipes, you’ll find plenty on offer here. The app will give you delicious ideas, and you can create shopping lists and learn about nutrition. These recipes are simple to follow, (so it doesn’t matter if you’re a newbie cook or a talented chef)!
2. Focus on clean eating
When you’re looking to improve your diet you should focus on clean eating. What do we mean by clean eating? According to the Mayo Clinic, “The fundamentals of eating clean encourage you to consume more whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats.” This will also act as a decent GERD treatment, and will ensure that you have many fewer such digestive problems on the whole. Here are a few simple tips to help you eat clean:
- Avoid overly processed foods or unhealthy fast foods.
- Avoid foods with added fat, sugar, or salt.
- Up your intake of vegetables, (especially raw veggies).
3. Plan out your groceries
When you’re trying to improve your diet, it helps to get nice and organized. Choose the recipes you’re going to cook before you go shopping, so you’re only buying the healthy ingredients you need. Going to a busy store without a shopping list is a bad idea! It’s on these occasions where you might end up buying too many unhealthy ‘convenience foods’.
4. Improve your cooking skills
If you start to enjoy cooking, it’s easier to eat healthy and nutritious meals. To enjoy cooking you’ve got to focus on improving your cooking skills. There are many ways that you can improve your skills, you might buy a few new cookery books or join a cookery course? Sites like ‘MeetUp’ often have themed cooking groups and classes, whether it’s Italian cooking or African cooking. Classes like these are a great way to enhance your culinary skills and make new social connections.
5. Check out healthy supplements
After you’ve worked on improving your diet, you might want to look into health supplements. Depending on your health needs there are many different supplements that you can try:
For anxiety & sleep : St John’s Wort, Valerian, Passionflower, or CBD Oil.
For boosting the immune system: Ashwagandha, Vitamin E, Echinacea, Elderberry.
For weight loss: lipodrene ephedra, green tea extract, or spirulina.
6. Try new restaurants
When you’re trying to eat healthily, you may need to choose specific restaurants. We all have our favorite restaurants, but every once in a while it’s great to try something new. To help you find healthy restaurants in your neighborhood, try a few of these apps:
HealthyOut: This app helps you to search for healthy restaurants close by. You can use different tags to search whether it’s calorie tags, paleo, vegan, or certain cuisines.
Find Me Gluten Free: Using this application you can search for gluten-free restaurant options nearby. Users can choose from various filters, get reviews, and access directions.
7. Grow your own veggies
Growing your own foods is an amazing way to improve your diet. You can grow lots of nutritious fruits and vegetables, and live a greener lifestyle. When you grow your own foods, you’ll reduce your grocery bill, and pick up some great new skills. To help you make a start, these books are incredibly useful:
The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C.Smith
This helpful book will teach you how to use the best organic gardening methods. Here you’ll find all you need to know about growing your own veggies. The book covers all the herbs and vegetables you could dream of, including lots of detailed tips.
The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener By Niki Jabbour:
This book includes some excellent techniques, to help you grow veggies for the whole year. Niki includes a timeline so you’ll know exactly when to plant all your vegetables.
8. Keep a food diary
Improving your diet can be a process of trial and error, to stay on the right track it can be very useful to keep a food diary. A food diary can help you to record what you eat, write up recipes, and track food goals. When you’re keeping a food diary, it’s also helpful to track your mood. You might find that eating certain foods has more of a positive effect on your mood? There are plenty of mood-boosting foods that you can try, including fermented foods, dark chocolate, fish, oats, berries, and bananas.
9. Work with a nutritionist
Working with a nutritionist is a great way to improve your diet. A nutritionist will ask you various questions about your lifestyle and help you to create a personalized plan. There are many benefits to working with a nutritionist including:
- You can get advice on self-image, weight, and allergies.
- A nutritionist can help you to set food goals, and learn about nutrition.
- You’ll get a plan that’s tailored to your needs.
- Support to manage diseases.
- Maintain good health overall.
10. Join a healthy group
Lastly, if you’re looking to be more healthy, you might consider joining a healthy group? There are various social groups online that focus on wellness, cookery, or hiking. While a fitness group doesn’t focus on food specifically, fitness activities can help us to establish a healthier routine.
With the help of these ten simple tips, you’ll soon create a healthy lifestyle that works for you. Remember we all deserve a few treats now and then, being too strict with your diet can make it difficult to stay on a healthy track.
I live in a small Georgia town that you most likely have never heard of and I LOVE it! My house is more than full as I am a single mother of four & caregiver to my aging mother and uncle. Lover of all things Outlander. Goes to the beat of her own drum woman.