How to Eat Healthier When You’re Cooped Up at Home
People commonly complain about eating unhealthily when they’re on vacation, at the office, or otherwise away from home. But as many have discovered this year, eating healthy at home can be a struggle too.
If you find it difficult to eat healthy at home, you may find the following tips useful –
1. Delete Food Delivery Apps
Food delivery apps like Uber Eats, Postmates, Grubhub, and Doordash are awesome and convenient. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack, you can have food delivered to you in a matter of minutes. You don’t even have to go through the inconvenience of getting in your car and driving to the restaurant. And it’s this convenience factor that makes them so dangerous.
Unless you’re a rare exception, you aren’t using food delivery apps to order healthy meals. You’re using them to grab fast food burgers, pizza, and fried goodness. The best solution is to delete these apps from your phone so you aren’t tempted by their promised tastiness.
2. Buy Groceries Online
While ordering delivery via an app typically leads to unhealthy dietary habits, online grocery shopping is smart. When you shop for groceries online (pick up or delivery), you’re able to systematically go through your shopping list and select only the items you need without being swayed by samples, aromas, and in-store marketing. This makes it easier to buy healthy foods.
3. Declutter Your Kitchen
There’s an element of healthy eating that’s purely psychological. If your kitchen is cluttered and disorganized, you’ll feel stressed. As a result, you’re much more likely to engage in unhealthy eating patterns. By decluttering and organizing your kitchen, you can restore clarity and increase your chances of eating well.
As part of your kitchen decluttering project, get rid of all pre-packaged meals and as many boxed and bagged foods as possible. (This includes potato chips, cookies, ice cream, frozen pizza, etc.)
4. Keep Healthy Snacks In Stock
You’re going to eat what’s in your house, so make it a point to keep only healthy snacks in stock. Fruits, vegetables, and nuts make for great snacks. Sugary foods, bread, and crackers don’t. In general, the focus should be on real food.
“Focus on protein, fiber, healthy fats, fruits, and veggies,” Cleveland Clinic suggests.
Planning a menu ahead of time will make it easier to avoid noshing on whatever looks tastiest and quickest in the moment.
Balanced, nutritious food makes you more productive and focused. It also keeps you fuller longer, which lowers your likelihood of overeating and consuming more calories than your body needs.
5. Drink Plenty of Water
Not only does water keep you hydrated and healthy, but it also fills you up and satiates hunger cravings. Continuously drinking water throughout the day will lower your chances of overeating. Keep a water bottle by your side at all times.
On a related note, stay away from sugary drinks like soda, juice, and certain teas. If you need to flavor your water in order to drink more of it, use flavor packets that are sugar-free.
6. Don’t Work Near the Kitchen
If you work from home, it’s highly recommended that you avoid working in or near the kitchen. Doing so will only increase the convenience of eating and heighten your chances of consuming excessive amounts of food. The kitchen should be reserved for cooking and eating. Set aside a dedicated office where you have to go out of your way to get to the kitchen.
7. Portion Out Meals
Never eat out of a bag or container. Doing so makes it very hard to control how much food you eat. The better strategy is to portion out your meals ahead of time and clean up any leftovers prior to eating. (This makes it less likely that you’ll go back for the second.)
If you’re working from home, try preparing your lunches ahead of time so that you simply pull them out of the refrigerator and eat by heating up. Once again, this makes it easier to control the amount of food you consume.
Eat Healthy, Live Healthy
Healthy eating solves a host of problems. It helps you lose weight, improves your physical health, enhances mental clarity and focus, reduces chronic pain, and simply makes you feel better. By prioritizing healthy eating regardless of where you are, you can ensure you continue to live well in all circumstances.
