How would you like to have more energy, stabilize your moods, and feel great both physically and emotionally?
You can achieve all of that and more just by changing your eating habits.
The good news is that healthy eating isn’t about starving yourself or even depriving yourself of the foods that you love.
Instead, it’s about making thoughtful changes about what foods you eat throughout the day.
How Does Health Eating Effect Your Emotional Health?
Obviously when you eat a healthy diet, it helps you maintain an optimum weight and avoid health problems. But, did you know that your diet can also have a powerful effect on your overall mood and emotional well-being?
Studies suggest that our typical US diet, filled with fast-food, sugary snacks, and packaged meals, contribute to higher levels of stress, depression, and anxiety.
There are even studies that link unhealthy eating with Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, and increased risk of suicide.
What’s the Solution?
One of the best ways to start eating a healthy diet is to reduce your intake of refined carbohydrates and sugar, and replace those foods with fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.
Although specific foods are beneficial on your emotional health, it’s your overall dietary pattern that has the most important effect on you.
Luckily, you don’t have to be perfect or eliminate all the foods you enjoy. Instead, you just need to be consistent over the long-term with your eating habits.
Set Yourself Up for Success
If you want to ensure that your healthy eating habits will be successful, here are 5 healthy eating habits to help you stay on track:
Prepare Your Own Meals
Instead of picking up fast-food on the way home from work, cook more meals at home so that you are better aware of exactly what you are eating.
Make Smart Changes
When eliminating unhealthy foods from your diet, it’s important to replace them with healthy alternatives. You should replace dangerous trans fats with healthy fats (such as switching French fries for raw nuts) and sugary, processed foods with a natural substitute (such as switching a donut with a banana).
Simplify
Instead of becoming obsessed with counting calories, think of healthy eating in terms of variety, color, and freshness. In addition, you want to avoid packaged and processed foods and eat real foods as much as possible.
Read Labels
Make sure that you are aware of what is in your food. Oftentimes, manufacturers claim that foods are healthy, even when there is a large amount of sugar or unhealthy fat processed within the food.
Drink Water
Most people don’t drink enough water and go through their day dehydrated, which causes low energy, tiredness, and headaches.
In addition, water helps flush toxins and waste from our bodies. So, drink more water consistently throughout the day.
Once you begin implementing these tips into your diet and overall lifestyle, you will notice a variety of results including increased energy, stabilized moods, and better emotional health.
