healthy eating plan

We had a need to produce a healthier diet plan to help us concentrate our attention on making intelligent food choices. So our first rung on the ladder was to investigate our eating habits so we could determine what our healthy eating plan should include.

We made sure to include a Sunday and a Saturday in our research since we eat differently during the weekends than we do during the week. There could be lots of room for improvement!

We realized we had two major areas that needed improvement, as we reviewed our diet plan. The first place in great need of improvement was our range of snacks, and our 2nd improvement project would be to learn how to prepare healthy meals on a regular basis.

We wanted to keep it simple, therefore our program was that whenever we went grocery shopping, we'd evaluate six of those items listed on the Nutrition Facts label of every food item we considered buying.

These “shop smart” policies were simple to remember. When that happened, we’d be seeking large numbers in the fibre and protein types.
Look Wise Principles
Trans-fat (find a low number)
Sodium (seek a low number)
Protein (find a high number)
Fiber (seek a top number)

We liked the ease of creating our food purchase decisions based on our “shop smart” policies.

Since our 'shop smart' the guidelines could help us make healthy food purchasing choices, we then turned our awareness of our two improvement projects: controlling our snack attacks, and learning how to prepare healthy meals on a regular basis.

Treating Those Irritating Snack Problems

First, we chose to undertake treat problems (also called impulse eating for your two people). We knew these snack problems were contributing to a big portion of our junk food consumption - most of which does not fall within the wise food choice category.

We created a list of foods and an “A” list, to help us focus on healthy snacks.

The number is for the snack foods we could have more or less anytime we’re hungry. These are our “go to” foods - we just try to make sure we’re actually hungry before we snack and we watch section size. We discovered fruits, veggies, nuts, and a number of the “healthier” snacks with this list. And we made sure our snack foods fit inside our formerly identified “shop smart” rules.

The “B” list is our list of danger foods - foods we need to avoid. For all of us, this list includes pop, cookies, potato chips, ice-cream, and chocolate. The good news is that the longer we follow our plan, the less we think of these risk foods. It turns out we've developed a taste for your alternatives.

We posted the “A” number in on the fridge in plain sight. Like that we’re reminded to choose from the healthy snacks when a snack attack occurs.

And because we know snacking can be a weak spot for people, we ensure we also have snack foods from our “A” list readily available. This way the healthier snacks are plentiful.

Choosing to Eat Well Balanced Meals

Our 2nd development project was to ensure to choose healthy foods for the meals and to prepare them in a healthy manner. When it found meal preparation, we started off being extremely strict with ourselves and for the initial 4 or 5 months, we did not eat out in any way. It was a major change for people since our past 'MO', mode of operation, included eating out more often than eating in.

Break fast and lunch were simple meals for us to switch in a healthier way. Because our work schedules keep us on the go five days a week, we're OK with eating a limited variety of foods for morning meal and lunch.

Initially, we worried we would maybe not find enough interesting healthy foods as meal choices. Seems that just the reverse is true. As we find out about and attempted healthier eating choices, we found several tasty new foods to enjoy.

We realized that eating in would help us pay closer attention to developing healthier eating habits for everyday living.

Our Healthy Eating Guide was developed by us (see Menu Bar on left), and so we concentrated on our “shop smart” principles when we went food shopping.

 We developed a list of restaurants we may go to occasionally. We just made sure the eateries on our list include some healthy menu alternatives for us to select from.

Interestingly enough, we find we no longer crave those “bad” foods the way we did initially. Once every few days we've an experience time and prepare a completely new healthy meal.
A vegetarian meal was planned by we’ve. We’ve in the offing dinner around appetizers. And we’ve in the offing a wholesome meal from the particular culture including Asian, Mediterranean, Mexican, and French. In our case, once we understood the seriousness of the need for all of us to make smarter food choices, we made a decision to take action as fast as we could.
It had been truly an instance of out with the “old” and in with the “new”.

Remaining Determined
Change often involves the need to stay motivated so that you can stay on track.

Listed below are our top-six motivation ideas.

Most significant is commitment.

When Lary learned how large his cholesterol was, it scared us into making healthy food choices. Then, when he'd his heart-attack and by-pass surgery nearly 3 months later, we realized our commitment to healthier eating could be permanently. We have immersed ourselves in information regarding healthier eating.

Healthy eating has became a hobby for us, and this helps us focus on doing what is right. And it provides us the motivation if we go astray once in a little while to return on course. We don’t think of what we had to give up. Instead, we focus on the satisfaction and pleasure of discovering new foods and how much fun that is for people.We reach out to others.

We all eat - often three times per day and because food has universal appeal, we want to share our journey with others. We laugh about our cooking errors, and get enthusiastic about our cooking successes. We like to ask others to share with you their ideas and suggestions on healthier eating.
We like to have a great time in what we're doing and we enjoy turning our adventure in to a social activity. Success breeds success.Our strategy is working for us.

We speak about the positive changes we’ve made and we’re urged to keep going and to continue increasing. We’re excited to be developing healthy eating habits that will aid us well to the future. We’re on the mission and we’re having fun. Half the fun of our experience is in the exploration and we think we’ve only begun. We have found eating healthy to be a life changing experience. We reach use our ingenuity and imagination every day. We get a kick from customizing our approach as we move ahead.