Eating healthy doesn’t have to be overly complicated. In fact, I think it can be quite simple. Here are a few basic rules I personally follow to make eating healthy doable—and worthwhile.   

1. Always Make Time to Eat

Always make time to eat. Always make time to eat. Always make time to eat! I can’t stress enough how important this is. Most of us eat while doing a million other things. And while that is fine on occasion, it shouldn’t be the norm. Eating is meant to be a time when we nourish our bodies, but if we’re in a rush, our bodies can’t absorb all the benefits from the food we’re putting into it. Not to mention, eating while stressed can often lead to indigestion, bloating and gas. If you’re going to gain optimal health from your food, you need to rest in order to digest. Because you’re not as healthy as the foods you eat—you’re only as healthy as the foods you digest.

Try to eat the majority of your meals sitting at a table with little to no distractions. If this is impossible in your household, try to at least eat free of working, phones, television and laptops. Try to make it a pleasant, relaxing experience as often as you can.

2. Eat Lots of Produce

Fruits and vegetables are some of the healthiest foods we can eat. They’re loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. You literally cannot get enough of these amazing foods.

Try to eat a lot of produce, and often. I personally make it a habit to have a fruit or veggie every time I sit down to eat. I also make sure that during lunch and dinner at least half of my plate is made up of veggies. It’s smart to eat a mixture of fruits and veggies—ideally, you want more veggies in your day than fruits, but don’t exclude fruits altogether. A reasonable goal is 2 servings of fruit and 3-5+ servings of veggies per day.

3. Don’t Buy Things You Don’t Want to Eat

It’s simple: if you have crap in your kitchen, chances are you’ll eat it. If you want to eat healthy, you have to fill your house with nutritious foods. The trick is to make these foods just as convenient as junk food.

Buying healthy food (and passing on the junk) is the first step. The second step is to make sure the healthy food is grab-and-go ready. An easy way to do this is pre-chopping your veggies, preparing a healthy dip in advance or cutting up a bunch of fresh fruit to have on-hand. Your body will thank you later!

If ditching the junk completely is unrealistic for you, don’t sweat it. Just focus on having healthy options too that are accessible. It’s a lot easier to grab a bag of chips over an unpeeled orange or a whole bell pepper. Taking the time to do the prep work will make your life a lot easier, and save you a bunch of empty calories.

4. Always Have a Plan

Having a general idea of what you’re planning to eat throughout the week is key to keeping your meals healthy. If you don’t have a plan, it’s really easy to order takeout or grab junk food because that’s faster than whipping up a healthy meal on the fly. But, if you have a plan, even a loose one, it makes eating well throughout the week manageable!

Try to sit down once a week and spend 10-15 minutes writing down what you are going to eat in the days ahead. Ideally, you want to create a weekly plan and put it somewhere you can see it, like on the refrigerator. When making your plan, think about what your schedule is like—are you going to be eating out, having people over, etc?

If you know you’ll be dining out, plan for that as well. A tip I like to tell clients is on the days you know you’ll be eating out for one meal, bring your lunch or make dinner at home for the other meal. Balance is everything.

I don’t personally write down every single meal for the week but I do write out our family dinners and post it on the fridge. This takes the guesswork out of my grocery shopping and also means we rarely ever waste food.

Do you have any meal prep tips you’d like to share? Visit us on Facebook to leave a comment!