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How to Change Eating Habits Slowly

Healthy Eating Habits

Most people should and need to change their eating habits. Many times, when people attempt to change them, they fail, but why? Usually, it is because they went to extremes. That’s why it is best to change eating habits slowly. People need time to adjust to change. How does a person start their change for better eating habits and better health?

Reducing Within Reason

The first way to change your habits would be to cut their worst foods down to half. If your worst food is ice cream, eat half the number of scoops you normally would. If you eat ice cream every day, cut that down to once every other day.

Do this for about 3 weeks then repeat the procedure again until you are down to eating your worst foods only once a month or once every couple of months. Do this with all your junk foods.

Replacement Therapy

Your favorite foods often have a healthier alternative. You can Google search online or look on Instagram or Pinterest for your favorite healthy alternatives. When cutting something out of your diet you should try and replace it with something healthy.

If you were to begin cutting out ice cream, you could replace it with healthy frozen yogurt with mixed berries. If you were cutting out frozen pizza’s you could replace those with a healthy vegetable stir fry with vegetable medley and chicken. The healthy possibilities are endless. Doing this over time will change your eating habits slowly and you will be more likely to stick with them.

Five Fruits and Veggies Per Day

While you are in the change process, your ultimate goal should be to get your fantastic five. Get to five or more servings of fruits or vegetables. It is important to have at least five servings of fruits and vegetables for a healthy lifestyle and a healthy digestive system.

The more color variety in your fruits and vegetables the more health benefits and nutrients you will get. Working up to your fantastic five gradually will allow you to not feel so much like you are forcing yourself to eat super strict, but more like you are eating these things because you want to and because you like them.

When people abruptly change their eating habits and go to extremes, they tend to fall off the wagon very quickly. It is important when changing any habits to work at it gradually to prevent failure. You can change your eating habits slowly and up your chances of success significantly.

Don’t Deprive Yourself

While you may be changing your eating habits slowly over time, this doesn’t mean that you can never have the foods you used to love the most.  Even if your favorite dish broke all the rules of your weight management strategy, it doesn’t mean you’ve had it for the last time.  Yes, you will need to gradually reduce the frequency that you eat it, but that also means you can save it to have it as a treat.

Instead of making it a weekly standard, make it a monthly or even seasonal treat.  You’ll find that you enjoy it all the more when you eat it.  Moreover, by saving it for special times, you will never feel deprived of it. Feelings of deprivation are among the fastest ways to spoil an effort to take on healthier eating habits.  If you continually feel deprived, your efforts will be nearly guaranteed to be only short-term.

People can change anything if they take it one step at a time. Replacing good habits and good foods with bad ones will make this transition easier and healthier.

Looking for new ideas to start better eating habits? Check out this article: “Could Eating Peanuts Boost Your Health and Weight Loss Efforts?