How often have you vowed to overhaul your eating habits, only to find yourself reverting to old ways a few days or weeks later? It’s a common story, and too-high expectations are usually to blame.
“People set very ambitious goals and want to change everything, but that’s not realistic,” says UNC Health dietitian Shelly Wegman. “If you try to make a big, immediate switch, it’s overwhelming and then you just quit. It takes time.”
A healthy, well-balanced diet has lots of benefits, from improving the way you feel on a daily basis to reducing your risk for chronic disease, but instead of trying to make drastic changes, you can start to reap rewards with small, manageable steps. While your specific goals might differ depending on your health goals and situation, Wegman shares six ways to get started with healthier eating.
1. Keep a food journal.
Life gets busy, to the point that you may not have the full picture of your recent food choices. Keeping a food journal for even a short period of time, such as a week, can help you understand and prioritize changes you want to make.
“A food journal helps you have that awareness of what the trends are, and then you can use that knowledge to make decisions,” Wegman says. “Look at how often you go out; see if it’s different during the workweek than on the weekends. You can catch all those little things you may not be thinking about—added condiments or a handful from a candy dish.”
A food journal may show you a trend—choosing fast food breakfast when you’re rushed or consuming too many calories from sugary beverages—that will point you toward an actionable goal.
“Pick one thing to change, not everything all at once,” Wegman says. “Break it down into small, realistic steps. Maybe you go from one soda a day to one a week to start.”
2. Plan meals and shop with a list.
Building a healthy diet requires doing some homework. You will have to build in time to research recipes and plan and prep your meals.
“Meal planning and preparation give you more control over what you’re eating,” Wegman says. “Use a weekend to get groceries, prep items ahead of time and put things in your freezer and pantry that will be quick and easy.”
Wegman knows that meal planning can seem daunting; dietitians can help, particularly if you have specific health concerns. She recommends starting with shorter meal plans, two to three meals at a time, and building from there, as well as being realistic about your schedule and skills. If you travel for work or don’t like to cook, then a rigid plan with lots of steps won’t work for you, but you can plan simple meals that will help you from reaching for ultraprocessed food.
Having a plan can keep you on track at the grocery store.
“Even if you’ve only planned a couple of meals, just shop for those meals,” Wegman says. “Buying extra stuff can throw you off. You can get excited, buy all these vegetables, and then something comes up, and you’ll end up throwing food away because you don’t have a plan for how to use them.”
3. Fill half your plate with vegetables.
When you’re planning meals, remember this goal: Half your plate should be non-starchy vegetables, one quarter should be protein (lean meats or beans) and one quarter should be carbs (fruits and grains). This ratio on your plate helps you get the nutrients you need, including vitamins and minerals, proteins, fats and carbs.
Think you don’t like vegetables enough to fill half your plate with them? You may want to check out a local cooking class or a demonstration offered by a dietitian.
“Most people are used to canned or steamed vegetables, but if you change you how cook them, there’s more flavor,” Wegman says, noting that grilled and roasted veggies are favorites for many. “At cooking demos, we show you different recipes and talk about ways to get more vegetables into your meal, like adding them to a soup or a pasta.”
4. Use a smaller plate and eat slowly.
It’s common to struggle with portion sizes and eat more than you need. A change in how you serve your meal can help.
“Start with a smaller plate, and if you’re still hungry after you finish it, you can go back for more,” Wegman says. “I also recommend serving yourself from the stove, and not from the table. It’s easy to keep eating when everything is right in front of you.”
During mealtimes, put down your phone, turn off the television and eat slowly. That will help you to listen to your body and whether it’s full.
“It takes the brain 15 to 20 minutes to release the hormones that you’re full, so if you eat everything in 10 minutes, you’ve probably overeaten,” Wegman says. “Take a few bites, sit and assess how you feel, and then eat some more.”
This approach works best if you don’t wait until you’re ravenous to have a meal. If you let yourself get too hungry, you’re more likely to overeat, so pay attention to your hunger cues throughout the day.
5. Start making swaps rather than eliminations.
Making a decision to eat more healthfully doesn’t require tossing everything in your fridge and pantry and starting over.
“Groceries are too expensive for that,” Wegman says. “Say you have a pound of ground meat to use but you want to cut back on meat. You can mix it with lentils for taco filling, or add veggies for stuffed peppers. You can still eat it, but cut the amount you eat in a serving.”
Review the labels of food items that are in your pantry so that the next time you’re shopping for an item, you can purchase a healthier version of it—swapping your regular chicken broth for a low-sodium version or trying low-carb riced cauliflower instead of white rice, for example.
Totally eliminating any food is likely to backfire, so don’t have an all-or-nothing approach to items like snacks or desserts. Instead, try to be mindful about when and why you partake.
“Studies show that when people deprive themselves of a food, they just think about it more,” Wegman says. “We eat for a lot of reasons and not always because we’re hungry. Are you eating crackers or cookies because you’re stressed or bored or because they’re right there? Maybe put those things away so that you only get them out when you’re hungry. Then, think about how much of that food it will take to satisfy you.”
6. Revisit goals if needed.
It can be disappointing to have a few weeks of making healthy choices only for something to derail us, but it’s normal.
“It’s never a straight line to a goal,” Wegman says. “A lot of things can interfere, so be kind to yourself. Look at what happened and why.”
If you have a busy schedule with many commitments, it’s possible your goal may be too large.
“Start again with a smaller goal, something you can actually do so you get the win,” Wegman says. “Then, when you do extra, it’s a bonus. Start by saying you’re going to do something once or twice a week rather than four or five times a week, and meeting that goal will be positive reinforcement.”
While there may be times you have to radically overhaul your entire diet for health reasons—if you had a heart attack, for example—these small, achievable goals will help you increase your ability to continue to make healthy choices for a lifetime.
“All-or-nothing thinking is diet mentality, and we think of diets as having a beginning and an end,” Wegman says. “Small changes are lifestyle changes. We need small changes to build a healthy life.”
If you have questions about your nutritional needs, talk to your doctor. Need a doctor? Find one near you.