For those who are seriously concerned about their health, the “New Year, new you” motto represents a renewed commitment to their health, including a more healthy diet. However, while the principle is solid, the execution of it for the uninitiated presents a daunting task. They must identify the foods that will best serve their new commitment to health, but they may not know where to start their search for healthier fare. If you count yourself among them, then you may find the three suggestions on this list to be helpful at the start of your journey.
A Word Before We Begin
The purpose of this list is to provide you with a broad range of ideas. That is to say, the purpose of this is to offer you healthy suggestions that meet you where you’re at.
For example, if you’ve eaten most of your meals out over the past five years, then suggesting that you suddenly switch to cooking everything from scratch may be setting you up for failure. You probably don’t have all the necessary ingredients in your cupboards to go from one extreme to another.
Therefore, these suggestions are intended to help you make the transition from how you eat now to how you’d like to eat in the future.
1. Try Meal Kit Delivery
If you like the idea of cooking healthy meals at home, but you don’t have the time nor the ingredients to do it 100% from scratch, joining a meal kit delivery service offers you a practical first step into this way of cooking and eating.
Some of the best meal kits Canada has to offer can come with all of the ingredients necessary for you to cook healthy meals at home. They include all the seasonings and pre-divided portions, and all you have to do is follow the directions and cook. Healthy meal options include recipes, like stuffed peppers, cauliflower tacos, and lentil soup.
2. Shop the Farmer’s Markets Once a Week
When you feel ready to do a bit more of your own cooking and you want to shop sustainably, think about taking a trek to the local farmers market. Aside from allowing you to buy fresh ingredients for your home-cooked fare, the farmers market allows you to buy locally.
This contributes to your health because you are eating unprocessed foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables. It contributes to the health of the local economy because you purchase foods from local outfits. Finally, it supports the health of the planet by cutting down on the emissions that come from hauling foods in a truck over the span of a thousand miles or more.
3. Plan for One or Two Meatless Days per Week
Eating a more plant-based diet, like the Mediterranean diet or even a fully vegetarian or vegan diet, has been shown to have enormous health benefits. However, if you regularly consume animal products, it may be challenging for you to stop eating meat completely.
In light of that, the Harvard Medical School suggests that you set aside one or two days a week where you eat only fresh fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains. Doing this allows you to become accustomed to going whole days without eating meat. However, it doesn’t force you to change your habits overnight, which isn’t sustainable in the long run.
Additionally, taking this approach also allows you to incorporate the other healthy food options that you’ve adopted. That is to say, if you get a completely vegetarian meal kit or have come from the farmers market with an abundance of vegetables, you can tie those foods and ingredients in with your meatless days.
Conclusion
Adopting a healthier way of eating starts with you exploring food options that you may have never tried before. In a perfect world, you would be able to incorporate a completely healthy diet into your life without any kind of transition period. However, this isn’t usually a sustainable approach.
A better bet is to gradually introduce healthy meal options via meal kits, farmer’s market ingredients, and meatless days. Doing this allows you to get used to eating in a healthier way. It also offers you the best chance of long-term success.