From a young age, we are told about the advantages of healthy eating. Moreover, we know that healthy eating strengthens our immune system and that we should always eat green vegetables. Nonetheless, we still often prefer junk food.
Preferring junk food over a healthy home-cooked meal can happen for various reasons such as mindset, taste, time constraints, etc.
As we grow older, we get busy with our jobs and personal lives. Hence, we often don’t find the time to cook 3 meals. Additionally, we believe that healthy food doesn’t taste good. Due to this, we usually prefer eating food from outside.
I believe healthy eating is easy; all it requires is effort, commitment, and determination. Hence, in this blog, we will discuss how to tackle barriers to eating healthy, and how to make healthy eating taste better through meal planning.
Barriers To Healthy Eating Habits
1. Reward Behaviour
Ever since we were young, we would be rewarded with junk food for a job well done. For example, you are rewarded with a meal from McDonald’s because you scored good marks in your exam. Have you ever heard a parent saying “If you complete your homework on time, I will make you a salad”? I believe not.
Due to this, we deeply believe that unhealthy food is better than healthy food. However, that is not true.
Overcoming this challenge is quite tricky as it is instilled in our mindset. However, one thing we can do to prevent this is to reward children with non-food-related items. For example, 1 hour more screen time, getting them one thing of their choice such as a toy, dress, etc.
2. Lack Of Time To Prepare
As a working individual, one may not have time to prepare 3 meals a day. Due to this, people often tend to skip meals or order something online. However, these habits will cause trouble in the long run.
A simple solution to this is meal planning, we will learn more about this in the blog.
3. Financial Constraints
It is a sad reality that healthy food is more expensive than junk food. Hence, people with financial constraints find it difficult to afford some items.
Navigating through financial constraints can be tricky because everyone has their limitations. However, I always tell myself, “Hospital bills are more expensive than the price of healthy food”. If you have poor eating habits, it can lead to health conditions.
A solution to this is to research foods that are both healthy and affordable. To help with your research here are 28 Healthy Foods That Are Incredibly Cheap.
4. Taste Of Unhealthy Food
We all can agree that unhealthy food such as waffles, burgers, cookies, pizza, etc are undeniably delicious.
Over time, we have built a mindset that healthy foods are boring, plain. However, this is not true. Many easy-to-cook recipes are healthy and will surely satisfy your craving. Additionally, another solution to this is to add healthy alternatives. For example, you can use millets for pancakes instead of regular flour, or add pure honey instead of sugar.
These simple alterations in your meals will help you take small steps towards healthy eating and will help minimise cravings.
5. Temptations
Cravings are quite common, we crave sugary or chocolaty foods often. While giving in to these cravings once in a while is okay, having such foods regularly is an unhealthy choice.
Some ways to overcome temptations and cravings are:
a) Keep Yourself Busy: If your mind is craving certain things, you can try to keep yourself busy and distract yourself. While this may be a temporary solution, it will help reduce your cravings to a certain extent.
b) Strong Determination: Determination is one of the most important mindsets you must have to achieve any goals. Along with determination you must be consistent, and have a strong will.
c) Have Dry Fruits: Dry fruits are a healthy and amazing snack. When I crave munching snacks, dry fruits such as almonds, pistachios, salted cashews, etc have been my go-to. They are high in calories, fill you up faster, and are highly nutritious.
Note: I do not recommend having dry fruits if you have a nut allergy.
d) Eat In Low Quantity: There are days that no matter how hard you try, you end up giving in to your craving. You must remember that this is normal, listen to your body and don’t deny what it needs. A trick I use for this is to have my snack in a low quantity.
For example, if you are craving a chocolate bar, you can buy one and just have 2 pieces and save the rest for later!
Also read: Important Life Lessons For Young Adults
How Meal Planning Will Help You Develop Healthy Eating Habits
As mentioned earlier, many working individuals do not have time to prepare 3 meals a day. Additionally, thinking about what to cook every day can be quite tedious. Hence, a simple solution to this is meal planning. In simple words, meal planning is a process in which you can plan and organise your meals in advance.
A common practice is to create a weekly meal plan. This helps save time and allows you to have highly nourishing food. Additionally, you will be able to plan highly nutritious meals, and this will allow you to stick to a healthy eating habit.
Another benefit of planning is you will buy groceries in advance. Sometimes, buying in bulk is significantly cheaper than buying in small quantities. Moreover, the chances of you compulsively buying something are lower, especially if you are on a budget.
How To Get Started With Meal Planning
First and foremost, start with planning how often you want to prepare meals. It could be either weekly or monthly.
Next, start with writing down a list of meals that are highly nutritious and easy to make. After this, plan what you are going to make for the next week or month, and take a trip to the grocery store if you need any ingredients.
Chop your vegetables and store them in a container, it will help you save the time you would take to chop veggies. If rice is included in your staple meal, cooked rice can be stored for up to 2-4 days in the refrigerator. Moreover, foods like lentils can also easily be stored in the refrigerator.
Apart from these, you can also invest in canned foods such as beans, soup, salad, etc. Additionally, you can cook overnight meals for breakfast which will allow you to enjoy fresh and nutritious meals in the morning. My favourite breakfast is overnight chocolate oats!
Often, people believe that meal planning is boring as it requires eating the same food every week. However, this is not true, your meal plan can be customised according to your needs. You need to allow yourself to be flexible and keep experimenting with new recipes.
Conclusion
We often tend to pick junk food over healthy food because we believe healthy food doesn’t taste good. However, this is not true. All one needs to do is to have determination and make healthy choices. Things like switching from flour to millet may seem like a small step, yet it is a healthy choice one is taking to nourish the body and the mind.
As we grow older, we often don’t prioritise healthy eating. This happens due to several reasons such as lack of time, financial constraints, etc. However, meal planning can help to overcome these problems. Meal planning helps remove the hassle of planning what to cook, reduces the time required to cook, and allows you to have home-cooked meals no matter how busy you may be.
If you are determined enough and have the willpower to make healthy choices, nothing is impossible. As long as you take small steps towards healthy choices and stick to them, you will reach your goal of eating healthy.