How do I Develop Healthy Eating Habits?

Developing healthy eating habits isn't always an easy task, especially since snacking on fat and calorie-laden foods is often difficult to avoid today. Many parts of the world feature a variety of fast food restaurants as well as grocery store aisles loaded with cookies, candy and fried foods. Eating some of these non-nutritional foods can still usually be part of a healthy diet if they are eaten in small portions once in awhile. Sticking to your favorite foods, both in daily nutritious ones and in occasional treats, can help you develop healthy eating habits.

By limiting your treats to only those you really love, you can often reduce the amount of high calorie, high fat foods you consume. Doing this can aid you in your goal to eat healthier because it reminds you to enjoy your very favorite treats rather than just consume extra fat, sugar or starch mindlessly. Trying to eat more of your favorite healthy foods in your diet can also edge out a lot of the unhealthy ones.

Keeping a food journal that begins with lists of all of your favorite foods and drinks along with their calorie and fat counts can help you consciously develop healthy eating habits. If your doctor informs you that you need to watch your sodium, carbohydrate or other food values, keeping track of the daily numbers in a journal is a good way to monitor your health. The record can be handy to bring to medical appointments as well, especially if you note your blood pressure or other numbers the doctor had asked you to record.

If you're not sure of the calorie and other amounts of food values you should be getting each day in your diet in order to be your healthiest, mentioning this to your doctor is a good idea. He or she is likely to recommend you to healthy eating habits classes or for an appointment with a nutritionist. It's the balance of different kinds of foods that creates health and achieving this isn't easy for many people. Nutritionists help individuals with eating plans that fit each person's unique health needs.

Healthy eating isn't only the balance of the right foods though. It's also about portion control since too much of even the most nutritious foods may lead to weight gain or other problems. Developing healthy eating habits in terms of portion control is often easiest if you begin by using smaller plates and serving food not at the table, but before you sit down to eat. The amount of food you should have will appear larger on a smaller plate; a beautiful design and color you like can enhance the look of portion sizes. Also eat slowly and enjoy your food as this can make smaller portions taste more satisfying.