#Blogchatterprojects #HealthisDiamond - 10 Realistic ways to eat healthy with a busy lifestyle

“To eat is a necessity but to eat intelligently is an art- Francois Rocheyoulavid”

Very well said. it is true that healthy eating is one of the major components of the healthy lifestyle. And every day thousands of people (like us) make the decision to start eating better and healthy to make their lifestyle healthy as well as happy but often faced some common obstacles to adopt a healthy lifestyle .

 I also had a similar story like most of the mom, when I had struggled really hard to follow a healthy diet routine (because of pressure of multiple responsibilities)

Here is my story:

My story

Being grew up in a typical vegetarian Indian family, we had a settled meal routine as full Indian platter (Dal, rice, chapatti, sabzi, salad etc.), since childhood. And during those days, eat a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet was not a struggle for us (and I think most of us who grew up in that era, would agree with me). In fact, I had followed a good diet routine without any discomfort for long years. But my real struggle gets started after being a mommy, especially after the birth of my second child, I got too stressed with multiple responsibilities and this pressure has affected my diet routine so adversely. I wouldn’t be able to follow my timing and other things like previously. I had skipped breakfast; I had eaten only leftover food from kids. In fact, sometimes I had no desire to eat because of lack of sleep, tension and anxiety.

I believed it is a common scenario that happens with most of the women after being a mom. No doubt, being a mom is the most beautiful experience of any women’s life, another side after being a mom, we always had tons of responsibilities it becomes difficult to maintain a strict diet, exercise or any self-care routine like we had done before.

By the way, coming back to the recent topic, healthy eating and after having a long period of struggle, I had observed that healthy eating is all about the making small changes. And here I am sharing some realistic ways that have helped me a lot to eat healthy even during busiest days.

And before making any diet changes it is very important to win the mind game.

Win the mind game and adopt healthy eating as a way of living

When we start a healthy diet in the form any strict diet change or diet plan, it becomes really hard to follow the same pattern for a long time. After some time, we get a sense of over temptation and get back to the old habits. Instead, when we try to adopt a way of living with a positive and optimistic attitude, it is more likely that we would be better able to make these changes as a part of our life.

Advance menu planning- of course, if we want to eat healthy food during hectic weekdays, it is must to pre-plan our weekday’s menu during weekends.  Adopting healthy eating habits just got easier with the help of advance menu planning.  And when we cook with an advanced pre-preparation for our self and our family, we shall likely wind up eating fewer calories, reducing saturated fats and sodium and increasing the number of fruits and vegetables.

  Shop smartly- build a healthy diet with smart shopping is the second important strategy that makes your healthy eating a little easier... making the healthiest food choices when shopping and eating out is a key to consuming a well-balanced and healthy diet. Healthy food choices do not only help in stay within your calorie needs; they will also help in weight management as well.  make a shopping list with healthy ingredients, avoid buying unhealthy packaged foods,  read labels and select the appropriate product are some simple steps that help in healthy shopping.

Healthy makeover of your favourite recipes

  Select recipes according to taste preference of your family and you can do a “healthy makeover” to create a healthy recipe. In fact, the ingredient substitution talents can help transform many unhealthy recipes into healthy recipes. We can use our creativity and imagination to find other ways to create healthy recipes

Never skip the breakfast

You may be tired of hearing about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But it is a scientifically proven fact, that eating a healthy and nutritious breakfast not only help you get a jump start on your day with positive mood and uplifting energy, it plays an important role in the prevention of various metabolic and lifestyle disorders such as diabetes, heart diseases as well.

Add more fruits and vegetables to your diet

Of course, fruits and vegetables are the great source of nutrition and include more fruits and vegetables in your diet, will help you in eating healthy. Here are the two simple way to do that.

Start the main meal with a vegetable platter- this is another simple but effective way to include more vegetables in your routine diet.  Start your main meal with an attractive vegetable platter (preferably raw) with some healthy dressing. This step allows us to fill up sooner and help in eat less in the following meal. It is a simple way to maintain our vegetable requirement for the day. It helps in adding fibre in the diet and also a great source for healthy weight management.

Healthy snacking with fresh fruits and dry fruit- no doubt, unhealthy and processed food snack is the major cause of unnecessary calorie intake and may cause obesity and metabolic disorders at the young age. Eating a nutritious and healthy snack can boost your daily intakes of essential nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. Always prepare some healthy snakes to carries for on the go, is a great way to avoid consumption of unhealthy and processed foods.

Replace the white bread and white rice with brown bread and brown rice- scientific studies suggested that brown rice and brown bread both are the finest source of vitamin B-complex, fibers and proteins. While white bread and white rice made with the refined flours. Refined carbohydrates are low in essential nutrients and have been linked with the range of health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and obesity. So why not replace the white bread and white rice with brown bread and brown rice? It is a healthier option and helps us feel full for a longer period of time. 

Pay more attention to method of cooking

Apart from maintaining nutritional requirements, it is equally important to use a healthy method of cooking. Deep frying or overcooking often destroys nutritional elements of healthy cooking ingredients. So, try to use alternative healthy ways of cooking (such as steaming or stir-frying) is a great way to keep nutritional value of cooking ingredients intact.

Do not overeat

 Avoid overeating. Overeating not only causes weight gain, but it also slows down the digestion and makes you prone to serious metabolic disorders. Instead, try to eat in every three hours will help to keep your blood sugar study and decrease overeating at meal times.

These are just some small but smart changes that can make a big difference. Still, I am in the learning phase and trying to incorporate the more healthy habits in my everyday life. I would definitely to learn more from experience. How did you manage a healthy eating pattern for you and your family, while dealing with multiple responsibilities? What are your secret weapons that help you eat better during hectic days? Please share with us!

This post is a part of #blogchatterprojects. And I would love to say again #healthisDiamond, #healthiswealth, let’s make health is a first priority.

this post is also a part of #supemomcontest hosted by http://healthwealthbridge.com/ and http://kreativemommy.com/5-things-motherhood-no-one-told/

also, the post is a part of #Mondaymusings hosted by everydaygyaan.com