13 simple steps to switch to proper nutrition

Many people have a negative attitude towards proper nutrition, believing that life is not given to limit oneself in tasty food. But proper nutrition and diet are completely different things, and you don’t have to give up your favorite foods. Correctly selected recipes for dishes, as well as combinations of products, will allow you to create for yourself not only a healthy, but also a tasty menu for a long time. How to switch to proper nutrition, where to start?

The most important thing is not to switch to proper nutrition in one day. Here you need to act quietly and carefully, move towards the intended goal in small steps, otherwise a breakdown will inevitably follow. You can easily trick your brain into trying to persuade you to eat cake, croutons and kebab at the same time if you follow our recommendations.

How to start eating right

The environment has a direct impact on our behavior and habits. Even a slight transformation of it will help to radically change your lifestyle. In this case, it does not matter at all what specific area we are talking about.

For example, you can change the way you eat without much effort if you follow a few simple recommendations. Let's talk about little secrets that will allow you to develop a healthy habit of eating right.

Switching to proper nutrition: where to start.

The right path to beauty and health is proper nutrition. However, giving up your favorite buns and burgers is not so easy! In addition, the transition to PN is invariably accompanied by a restructuring of metabolism and the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. BeautyHack shares the secrets of switching to proper nutrition.

On the way to the cherished goal

1. Eat breakfast yourself
   . In winter, with a lack of sunlight, waking up in the morning is especially difficult. The consequence of this is skipped breakfast and a double portion of calories at lunch.

If you ignore your morning meal, reduced performance during the day is guaranteed. So start your journey to healthy eating with a daily breakfast. And if waking up in the morning when the alarm rings seems like an impossible mission for you, put it where your hand can’t reach - you’ll still have to get up to turn it off.

1. Don't give dinner to the enemy
   . Dinner is the same mandatory meal as breakfast. Many PP adherents urge not to eat after 18.00. However, nutritionists say that this rule is not entirely true and the last meal should be three hours before bedtime.

Skipping dinner can cause poor sleep and food breakdowns at two in the morning. Another thing is that it must be correct. Eat more simple protein for dinner, pairing it with vegetables (ideally half raw, half steamed). The latter should be twice as much as the protein product.

1. "Dear Diary".
   Keep a food diary. A regular notepad is quite suitable for these purposes. But if writing is not your option, download an application with a user-friendly interface. Write down in your food diary not only all the foods you eat during the day, but also plan your menu for the coming week - this way you will have every chance of not eating too much.

1. Balance
   . Eating healthy does not mean giving up carbohydrates and fats, as some people think. Proper nutrition is the daily maintenance of a balance of BJU (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) in a ratio of 1:1:4 for an adult. If you are exercising, your fat percentage should be reduced to 0.7, due to hypoxia (lack of oxygen). A complete refusal of lipids or carbohydrates can cause serious illnesses.

1. Rule 5 servings
   . American scientists conducted studies involving more than 830 thousand people, during which it was found that increasing the consumption of vegetables and fruits significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular, cancer and other diseases. The recommended daily intake is 5 servings. Vegetables and fruits are rich in fiber, which removes toxins from the body and improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. Start by adding fruit to your cereal in the morning. Then replace the side dish with a salad and don't forget about snacks! But remember that fruits are high in carbohydrates, so you shouldn’t load up on them at dinner.

1. List
   . Make it a habit to make a grocery list before every trip to the store. This will save you not only from extra costs, but also from extra calories in your grocery basket. Think through the menu in advance! Otherwise, some of the products may be useless.

1. The simpler the better
   . Avoid complex dishes. One meal should include no more than 4 ingredients, otherwise the food will become a serious burden on the stomach. The simpler the dish, the faster and better it is digested. At the same time, the daily diet should be varied: a mono-diet and PP are two different things.

1. Simple scheme
   . We are sharing a simple and, most importantly, universal scheme for proper nutrition. Breakfast: complex carbohydrate + protein. First snack: nuts, whole grain bread, dried fruits or cottage cheese. Lunch: proteins + carbohydrates + fiber (for example, a salad of one type of vegetable, buckwheat and chicken breast). Second snack: proteins + a small amount of carbohydrates (1 apple, for example) Dinner: fiber + protein.

Don't forget that everything needs to be done gradually.
If just yesterday you ate fried potatoes, washing it down with cola, do not expect that you will immediately begin to enjoy baked vegetables - your taste buds and gastrointestinal tract need to adapt to a new mode of operation. Start with the right breakfast. After a week, replace the complex side dish. Drink one more glass of water every day. And don't forget about snacks and menu planning. Text: Natalia Kapitsa

Bottom line

When you start putting the above recommendations into practice, you will notice that they all boil down to one simple rule: you need to add extra steps between the unwanted habit and yourself, and between yourself and good, useful behavior - get rid of the intermediate steps.

For example, using small dishes adds one step between you and the habit of serving yourself large portions. If you want to eat more, you will need to come to the kitchen again and fill your plate with food. This approach can easily be used in other areas of life.

Material updated 03/31/2020 at 21:14

Possible causes of eating disorders

It’s not worth considering single breakdowns with special attention - having a breakdown once a week, a month, or any other period set in your thoughts is acceptable for everyone. One single sweet for a few days will not affect proper nutrition in any way, especially if you manage to eat it at the right time, and not at night, before bed.

But regular breakdowns that put an end to almost all thoughtful nutrition, evening overeating, constant consumption of forbidden foods and other signs of a completely uncontrolled appetite - this is a real problem, the solution to which must be sought with special persistence.

The main reason is usually the choice of the wrong diet or too strict an eating regimen. Strong restrictions, unusual for ordinary life, significantly influence the non-acceptance of a new diet, which truly “forces” you to “break away” from it and return to normal eating and an already established meal schedule.

Overly complex diets with multi-faceted recipes are also not suitable for weight loss or health improvement, since such complex meals are difficult to combine with work and study time. As a result, skipping meals occurs, subsequent “eating up” of the missing calories and a complete refusal of the chosen regimen.

A reasonable diet should be distinguished by a gentle change in the diet during its initiation, as well as a gentle return to the usual diet. It is also worth considering possible indulgences and delicacies typical of the previous diet in order to brighten up the abrupt transition that accompanies the unexpected decision to start losing weight.

Why do many people fail when switching to PP?

Statistics show that in 90% of cases, breakdowns occur precisely at the initial stage of the transition to a healthy diet. The first two months are considered the most difficult. At this time, there is a change in eating habits, which is quite difficult for many people to say goodbye to. However, after 3 months, your body will completely get used to the new lifestyle, which will no longer cause you any discomfort.

Nutritionists identify a number of the most common causes of eating disorders:

1. Abrupt refusal of favorite treats. The transition to PP should be smooth and gradual. You should not set strict restrictions on the dishes you eat daily from the first day. This will certainly lead to a breakdown. Start by reducing the serving size. For example, you are used to eating 6 candies a day. This means that today it is permissible to eat as many as 5 pieces, tomorrow 4, the day after tomorrow 3, and so on until the harmful, but such a favorite delicacy completely disappears from your diet. Please note that in this case, giving up eating habits will be safe and painless for the psyche.
2. Same type menu. The diet should be rich and varied. Due to high busyness, it is difficult for a modern person to find time to create a menu, so it turns out to be of the same type, reminiscent of a mono-diet. At a certain point, you will get bored with such a diet, and you will quickly switch to prohibited foods. If you cannot find time to create your personal menu, then use the ready-made option presented in this article.
3. Not replenishing water balance. Water plays an important role in a healthy lifestyle. Its deficiency will negatively affect the body and general condition of a person, which will provoke a breakdown. Please note that PP involves drinking 2 liters of water per day. Nutritionists recommend starting the day with a glass of clean water and always keeping a bottle of mineral water without gases on hand.
4. Lack of motivation. It is she who is the driving force of the entire process. Without it, the new way of life can quickly become boring. It is important to come up with a really powerful incentive for yourself that will force you to move forward when you are especially close to a breakdown.
5. Wrong attitude and imposing someone else's opinion. “Proper nutrition is not tasty!” - the most common phrase that people hear when switching to PP from others. You should not get hung up on the opinion of a person who has nothing to do with a healthy lifestyle. Do you have lunch with your colleagues and are afraid of judgmental or mocking looks? It is common for a team to change. New employees are replacing the old ones, but you have only one body, and first of all you should take care and listen to it.
6. Stress and lack of sleep. Poor sleep has a direct impact on a person's nutrition. Scientists have proven that lack of sleep leads to rapid fatigue, and to stay alert, 70% of people around the world choose energy drinks and coffee with chocolate. The same applies to a bad mood. Sleep at least 7-8 hours a day. Avoid stressful situations, which most often involve eating sweets or drinking alcohol.
7. Incorrect power system. Do not neglect breakfast, otherwise in the evening the body will certainly require to replace all the microelements not received in the first half of the day. Hunger strikes are also prohibited. Your diet should consist of 3 meals and 2 snacks.

If you follow the rules of proper nutrition developed by world nutritionists, you will be able to avoid breakdowns and quickly switch to proper nutrition. If a breakdown has already happened, then you should not despair. Start all over again, but strictly following the recommendations of nutritionists.

Methods of cooking on PP

Even healthy foods can harm your figure and body if they are not prepared correctly. Deep-fried or oil-fried fish will contain the same amount of dangerous trans fats as illegal French fries. Therefore, we recommend that everyone who has firmly decided to switch to PP learn alternative methods of cooking - boiling, stewing, cooking in a double boiler, baking in the oven, frying on the grill or in a dry frying pan without adding oil.

We told you how to switch to PP with minimal losses, and then everything depends entirely on you. The Greenportal team wishes you delicious and healthy discoveries!

12Let healthy food be visible.

Fruits, vegetables, healthy cereal cookies, nuts - something that is suitable for a snack, something that can quickly satisfy your hunger with health benefits, let them always be in your sight - in the center of the table, in a visible place in the refrigerator. Then the temptation to eat the wrong way will be much less.

By adhering to these twelve basic rules, you will eat right, which means that in the end you will feel improvements in your body, the functioning of all systems and internal organs will improve. It is not necessary to immediately take and start implementing all these 12 points. Follow these recommendations gradually step by step and your body will also gradually adapt to a new system of proper nutrition.

How to switch to proper nutrition

What scares you the most in the weight loss phase is giving up what you love most. But this is optional.

There is advice on how you can overcome the difficulties of losing weight, avoid health complications, and stay in good shape.

All “harmful” foods can be eaten, but only before 12 noon and in reasonable quantities.

Has the meaning! You need to take it as a rule - the serving size should be the same (you can have a special plate), only the set of products changes.

Fatty, sweet and bread should be excluded from the lunch diet. Combine meat and fish only with buckwheat or rice.

Attention! Never use potatoes or pasta.

Dinner should be light. You can eat something of your choice:

• meat or chicken;
• rice or buckwheat with vegetables;
• cottage cheese with fruits or vegetables;
• fruits with yogurt.

It is advisable to include cabbage in your menu more often - it has many beneficial properties and reduces the risk of cancer.

Bring snacks with you

There will be times during the day when you feel hungry, but lunch or dinner is still far away. And in order not to go crazy on buns, muffins and cookies, it’s worth taking several trays of food with you. This will not only satisfy your hunger, but will also help you avoid eating the wrong foods.

Here are some ideas of what you can take with you:

1. Almonds, cashews or other nuts (avoid their salty and sweet counterparts).
2. Boiled eggs.
3. Protein shake (can be mixed with water, milk or juice).
4. Apples, oranges, grapes or other fruits.
5. Protein bars (not very common here, but if you try, you can find them or make them yourself).