5 Habits Key To Maintaining A Healthy Weight
Top Activities You Can Start Today
- Type 2 diabetes
- Cardiovascular disease
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- One third of New Zealand adults are obese
- 5% of the total population of New Zealand has type 2 diabetes, in part because of high rates of obesity
- Over 42% of Americans are obese
- More than 1 in 10 Americans – over 34 million people – have diabetes
- More than 1 in 3 American adults, that’s 88 million adults, are pre-diabetic but 84% of them don’t even know it.
Alarmingly, the World Health Organization stated the following findings as of 2019:
- 37 percent of American have cardiovascular disease
- 34 percent of U.S. adults have hypertension, a major risk factor for stroke and heart disease
- 36 percent of Americans have prehypertension, higher than normal blood pressure.
So, what does one do to start getting back on track? Start from the beginning. The following activities are readily available to you for maintaining a healthy weight:
1
Put away the electronics
Almost everyone has a cell phone or computer. With busy schedules, often we check our phones when we eat, justifying our behavior by doing two things at once. However, we are being destructive to our health.
The tasteofhome.com reported in a recent article: “Eating while watching an electronic device like television, can lead to overeating or undereating. The brain becomes distracted by the program, and you can lose track of your calorie intake.”
Instead, use your mealtime as a break, both physically and mentally. Allow your mind to catch up with all the information it has received. Find a park bench where you can breathe in the fresh air and digest your meal properly before returning to work.
Eating mindfully – being aware of what you’re eating – is powerful. Try it!
2
Start first thing in the morning
Breakfast is one of the most skipped meals for adults. As life has progressively gotten faster every day, eating is often skipped to get on with the day. Yet, as children, we are taught to always eat our breakfast before we go to school. Coffee is great, but we need more.
If you are jump up and run kind of person, keep a loaf of heavy wholegrain bread beside your toaster with some soft butter and peanut butter. While you are putting on your shoes, toast your bread, put your topping on, and head out. If you are looking for something heartier, make an omelette. If you have time, make porridge or try oat-rich muesli.
3
Don't fall back to old habits on your days off
When we do have a chance to relax and sleep in, old habits tend to creep up. This is the best time to check your food choices. Use this time to try new healthy recipes and incorporate them into your weekly meals. This is also a good time to pack snacks when on the go.
Treat yourself to well-balanced meals. Salmon and asparagus are great on the BBQ. For indoor meals try using your crockpot. A hearty stew with lots of vegetables is always a welcome meal.
EFK QuickStart https://eatforkeeps.com/quickstart/ includes a very popular 14 day food a meal plan with balanced protein fats and healthy carbs.
4
Use smaller plates
When serving your food, put it on a salad plate as opposed to a dinner plate. This convinces the brain that there is more food on the smaller plate, causing you to think you’re full when finished. This is called the Delboeuf illusion. It is the illusion our brains tell our hunger levels. When the same amount of food is presented on large and small plates, the consumer inevitably chooses the smaller plate believing they are getting more food.
Next time you are having a healthy dinner at home, use the smaller plate for your main course and the larger plate for salad or vegetables. When dining out, ask for a side plate for your meal. If you are still hungry later, you will have leftovers to reach for. But if you meal contains enough protein and fat, you probably won’t feel hungry. Our online courses show you how to balance your meals with the right amounts of protein, fat and carb https://eatforkeeps.com/the-efk-method/#
5
Go after the rainbow
This idea works great for salads and snacks. Add as many different colours as you can. For example, when making your next salad, add some red peppers and mushrooms for added colour and protein. When craving something sweet add fresh sliced strawberries, blueberries and apricots to some unsweetened / Greek yogurt. For added crunch add a portion of oats or almond flour based granola. Each week try something new to keep things fresh and interesting.
Fruit – go for firm textured fruit and go easy on soft bananas and other soft fruit as these rapidly convert to sugar which will be stored as body fat. Avoid fruit juice.
Vegetables – go for green vegetables and only eat small quantities of starchy vegetables like potato, parsnip and kumara (sweet potato).
In Conclusion
Make sure you check in with your body when changing your diet. The idea is to change your habits, and way of thinking about food. Before long, you will enjoy the idea of cooking good food and eating healthier. As French Author Francois de La Rochefoucauld once quoted, “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.”
Start Here with our Free Course https://eatforkeeps.com/the-efk-method/ for permanent weight loss and natural blood sugar control.
The Eat For Keeps approach is to treat pre- and type 2 diabetic conditions with the right food and drink combiations, rather than drugs.
