5 Keys to Successfully Eating Healthy

Have you ever wondered what you can do to minimize your waistline? It all starts at the grocery store. In order to eat healthy, we need to start buying the right foods and prepare it for success. Here are some tips to help you plan accordingly:

Try the Rule of 2: Rotate through 2 breakfasts/2 lunches and 2 suppers per week (keeps grocery shopping easy and meal planning shorter)
Do a Cart check: is half of your cart produce? ½ protein? ¼ carbohydrates?
Organize a Fridge re-do: don’t put uncut unprepared veggies in the bottom drawer to rot, instead cut them right away or buy the pre-cut and put them at eye level in your fridge, put your less healthy condiments etc in the crisper drawer
Complete a Kitchen makeover: put pretty bowls of fresh fruit on the counter, put less healthy items in a really hard to reach area (out of sight out of mind)

6 tips for label reading:
1. How many servings are in the entire container? It is important to make note of how much one serving is and that all of the nutrition facts listed are based on ONE serving not the whole container.
2. How many calories? Snacks should be 100-200 calories; meals should be 300-600
3. Fat- try to find items that have <20% saturated fat and 0g of trans fat
4. Sodium-shoot for <500 mg/serving
5. Fiber- 3-5 grams is good 5 grams or more is excellent
6. Ingredients… are they REAL foods, things you have in your kitchen and can pronounce?
Remember 5% is low 20% is high. Aim low in saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, cholesterol and sodium. Aim for more fiber, potassium, vitamin D, calcium and iron.
Time it right: Pair a lean protein with a veggie for supper so you wake up feeling HUNGRY. Many people eat too late at night and don’t realize that is why they do not feel hungry in the morning.