How to Eat Healthy For Noobs: Tips If You Never Tried a Healthy DietBefore and Don't Know Where to Start

After a good friend of mine suggested this topic to me, I thought for a while where to begin, then I procrastinated and finally late one night it hit me. If you have never really tried eating healthy before how should you begin? Replacements!

What if you aren't a health-conscious eater, but you want to be? Maybe you never have been successful with dieting or you haven't had the desire to and now you think it's time to get healthy. You may want to eventually go all out, but you're new to this and you need to start small. 

The easiest way to start is with the simple act of replacing. This means slowly switching out your current food and life choices for slightly more healthy versions one-by-one until you reach your health goals.

It may seem simple, but too many people try to start being healthy by going straight for the latest diet or trying to change everything at once. We are bombarded by all the latest health claims and diet fads. Many of us get overwhelmed and guilted into thinking we should be doing what every health guru claims. But you needn't become just like your vegan friend who only shops at Whole Foods and runs 5 miles everyday in order to get healthy. You can, but take it one step at a time.

 If you really want to be more healthy you have to create healthy habits. Habits are formed over time, but broken easily. This means it's best to focus on building only a few at a time. 

That's why replacing can be so effective. Rather than changing every thing you do or eat overnight, try exchanging a few things at a time. Instead of ordering soda with your meals switch it for tea or water. Instead of coming home straight from work everyday, chose one day to stop by the gym or park for a walk. Instead of heating up a TV dinner, cook a frozen pizza from CPK. The last one is a baby step, but there is still less sodium and processing in a gourmet frozen pizza than the typical TV dinner.

(Instead of this greasy slice of wasted calories...)

(...try something a little more lean and redeeming)

Just focus on a few small exchanges at a time. This will increase your success rate and after a few weeks you will be feeling so accomplished it will fuel you to make more good habits. You might increase the walk/gym trip to 2 times a week instead of 1 time. After upgrading to frozen pizza, you may take the next step to frozen veggies. Who knows? 

The point is when you start with small choices towards healthy eating you are much more likely to be successful. When you make that slightly more healthy choice you feel good about yourself and that postivitey spurs you to make more healthy replacements in your life. 

Compare that to the usual New Years Resolution to work out 3 x a week and have 4 serving of veggies every day, never mind the fact that you usually don't exercise or eat veggies at all. In those scenarios we usually are gung-Ho for 1-2 weeks then fizzle out. You don't have to change all at once. Give yourself freedom to make small changes over time. Little victories lead to great ones.

Good luck and happy replacing!

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Extra tips:

For good ideas on eating out healthier check out the "Eat This Not That" book series

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002M3SP6O?pc_redir=1402653839&robot_redir=1

If you aren't sure where to start on your replacements try make a list of your end goals such as "going to the gym 4 times a week" or "being able to run a 5k".Then break those goals into a few smaller steps like "run 1 mile straight." Write out whatever steps would be reasonably attainable for you and start finding how to fit them into your schedule one at a time. 

For example instead of the 30 minutes you usually spend checking your e-mail after work, go for a 20 min run. That can be step 1 to work your way up to that 5k goal. 

Replacement Food Ideas Starting Small:

Replace: 

- White bread with whole wheat

- Reg Pasta with whole grain

- Sugary cereals with oatmeal, grape nuts or whole grain cereal

- Instant Oatmeal with Steele-cut oats

- Pancakes with syrup for Whole wheat pancakes with sugar-free syrup 

(Pretty much any carbs can have a whole wheat version which is usually better. Sometimes they trick you and try to hide white flour in whole wheat, so read labels. For simplicity sake though, just know in general whole wheat leaves you fuller and is full of more fiber and vitamins. ) 

- Beef burger with turkey burger

- Thick cut bacon with thin cut or turkey bacon (obviously not everytime, please allow yourself to have regular bacon now and then!)

- Red meat with white meat or fish

(In general there is less artery clogging fat in leaner white meats and fish than red. Though red meat is great for iron, it is best in moderation so replace with white more often.)

- Mayonnaise and butter with rosemary and olive oil 

- Fried anything with grilled or baked version

- Juice with tea or fresh squeezed juice (most juices have a ton of added sugar. How much is a ton? If your juice says 12-26 grams, that's a lot of sugar. Fruit naturally has a lot of sugar, but juice companies tend to add more for some reason. Probably because it's cheaper to add more sugar and water than to add more fruit, but I digress. Just read the labels carefully on juice to check for added sugars. It's probably better to make it yourself, get it from a health food store or just stick to tea and water.

(For more info on juice nutrition specifically I found a great article that shows how juice can be just as bad as drinking soda if you don't get the right kind. 

Check it out here : http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/weight-loss/weight-loss-myth-dont-drink-juice-its-full-of-too-much-sugar.html#b)