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How To Make Healthy Eating A Habit? – 9 Simple Steps

Healthy food is of course very important for your body. Especially now that food is abundant in the ‘rich’ parts of the world and many people are overweight. However, if you are in a pattern of unhealthy eating, it can be difficult to switch to a healthy diet. Such a switch requires time, in this article we will teach you exactly step by step how you can make this switch!

Table of Contents

eating healthy

Step 1: Track your nutrition

The first step is a fairly simple one; you don’t have to change anything about your diet here. The goal of this step is to become aware of what you eat in a day. Many people have the feeling that they eat quite healthy, but if they keep track of everything, they find out that they often grab more unhealthy snacks in a day than they thought.

In this step you write down exactly what you eat in a day, I would do this for at least 1 week. The easiest way to do this is with an app where you can enter the food. There are many different apps for this, so see for yourself which one you like! These apps automatically provide the macros so this is a handy addition. You can of course also write it manually if you prefer! If you want to learn more about how to track your nutrition click here.

At the end of this step, you know exactly what you usually eat in a day, so you will gain insight into what you can improve.

Step 2: Eat slowly and mindfully

This step will probably sound a bit strange to most, but this is a very important step. In addition to becoming aware of what you eat, you also need to become aware of the eating itself. Maybe you recognize the situation; you are watching a video on e.g. YouTube and you have a bag of chocolates next to you. In the end, the bag of chocolate is suddenly empty…

This is an example of eating unconsciously/without attention. Besides that the situation described above will occur less often if you eat slowly and with attention, the psychological process also ensures that you will eat less if this is your goal.

So after steps 1 and 2, you are now aware of what you eat and the eating itself.

Step 3: Let the people around you help you

Before you actually start changing your eating pattern, it is important to inform the people around you. Hopefully, they can support you at times when you are having a hard time because it will not be easy! The best thing is if these are people who also eat healthy themselves or are also making the switch.

It is easier for you to go along with the behavior of the people around you. If the people around you are all eating unhealthy food, it will be much more difficult for you to make the switch to healthy eating. Your environment is very important so think carefully about how you are going to approach this! Keep the people around you informed of the steps you are taking so that they know where you are in the process.

After this step, you have gathered people around you who can support you in the process.

Step 4: Make sure there is not too much temptation

This is the first step in which you will actually adjust your diet. And this starts with making sure there isn’t too much temptation. For example, if you have a bowl of chocolate on the dining table, it will be very difficult to hold back.

So make sure that the unhealthy food is properly stored in the house, so that you have to take a number of actions to get to the unhealthy food. This is a fairly simple and automatic way to improve your diet. In addition, it is also good not to have too much unhealthy food in the house in general. In this step, on the other hand, it is not at all a problem if you sometimes eat an unhealthy snack or meal, so you do not have to remove all unhealthy food from the house right away.

After this step, you will snack less often, because you are no longer easily tempted to do so.

Step 5: Remove unhealthy food from your diet in small steps

Now you are going to take some more steps, you will use your noted eating pattern to see how you can remove some unhealthy food from your diet. Keep the steps small; For example, did you snack 3 times a day before? Try to snack twice a day for a few weeks. Did you previously order pizza twice a week? Then try ordering pizza once a week for a few weeks.

Why is it so important to take small steps? We as humans are ‘creatures of habit’, which means that we easily persist in habits, but we have a hard time switching habits. If you take too big a step, there is a good chance that you will fall back into old habits and you don’t want this!

So it is not a problem at all if you are working on this step for several months. At the end of this step, make sure that at least 80% of the meals and snacks you consume are healthy, preferably 90%. You don’t have to focus too much on how to put together a good healthy meal, try to remove the unhealthy meals and snacks from your diet.

After this step, you will therefore only have a very small part of your diet consisting of unhealthy food.

healthy meal

Step 6: Divide your meals into 3 moments

Snacks provoke unhealthy eating behavior. With a snack, you often want to grab something quickly and in general, unhealthy food is quickly available, while a healthy snack often takes some time to prepare. So try to divide your meals over 3 moments, possibly 4 if you like this, but no more.

By dividing your meals over 3 moments, there is a good chance that you will consciously eat healthier. And of course; an unhealthy snack every now and then is not bad at all, but don’t make a habit of this!

After this step, you will generally eat 3 healthy meals a day.

Step 7: Choose a good distribution between the nutrients

Now it is also important to take a closer look at your healthy diet. The line between healthy and unhealthy is not as easy as many people think. It is useful to look at the proportion of a certain nutrient as a percentage of the whole. A healthy diet consists of:

  • 50-65% carbohydrates
  • 15-25% proteins
  • 20-30% fats

If you exercise a lot, you should consider getting a slightly higher percentage of proteins. Also, make sure you don’t get too many saturated fats.

After this step, you are aware of how you can put together a healthy and balanced diet.

Step 8: Try to drink only water as much as possible

This is something many people overlook when trying to eat healthier; drinks. It is best to get as few calories as possible from drinking, so try to drink as much water as possible. Soft drinks in particular are very bad for your body.

And I can tell you from personal experience; it’s like most habits. It’s hard to drink just water once you’re used to soda, but once you get into the habit of drinking almost nothing but water, you won’t miss the soda.

And here again; Of course, you can sometimes drink soft drinks when you go out to dinner or are at a party, but don’t make it a habit. The same applies to switching from soft drink or, for example, alcohol to water; take small steps! For example, did you previously drink 3 glasses of soda a day? Drink 2 now for the next few weeks and then reduce the amount again.

After this step, you will almost only drink water, with a few exceptions.

Step 9: Reward yourself when things go well

We have arrived at the last step. Did you succeed in all the steps before? Then I’m proud of you, you won’t regret making this switch! You may not notice very much in the short term, but if you look back over a longer period of time you will notice that you feel better and fitter compared to the time when you had many unhealthy eating habits.

The last step is about rewarding yourself. This is a step that you absolutely must not forget! If you have eaten healthy for a while, it is fine to order pizzas or eat ice cream once in a while. Just make sure you stay in control and don’t fall back into old habits!

After this step, you have completed the switch to a healthy diet! Now you can look forward to the effect it will have on your body!