7 Simple Healthy Eating Habits to start today!

Are you battling with eating healthy? Do you find your kids only want the sugary treats or processed snacks? Do you want to take action on that new years resolution and start creating healthy eating habits. Try these 7 simple healthy eating habits to help your family start eating healthier today!

1. Healthy eating habit – Eat as a family

Healthy eating habit of sitting at the table and eating as a family is a dying tradition for many people. But really it’s an integral part of family life. Eating as a family and sitting around a table is so much more than routine or tradition. Creating positive experiences surrounding food and spending time without distraction during meals is so important for establishing healthy habits. Eating together promotes:

• Positive interaction and understanding of food.
• Helps children and adults to purposefully eat instead of mindlessly eating without understanding what you are really putting in your body.
• Social learning – children understand what to think of healthy food and how to explore food from their parents.
• Distraction free eating – no technology or toys that distract from food and family time.
• Accountability – eating as a family especially as a couple or as your children are older is essential for accountability. If you all work together to eat healthy you will achieve your goals so much faster!

2. HEALTHY EATING HABIT – Snackable snacks

How are we supposed to eat heathy if the food isn’t there? Snacking is a major factor of your health. You might have 3 nourishing meals a day but are packing on the pounds with the regular trips to the chocolate stash. “guilty” I know if I don’t have easy, accessible snacks on hand I will wind up eating processed, packaged food straight away!

Easy

Ensure you house is stocked up with easy healthy snacks like cut up fruit or vegetables, homemade baking, granola bars, frozen yoghurt popsicles, nuts, fruit, yoghurt, muffins etc. Set aside 1 hour at the beginning of each week to prep your snack stock. Bake muffins, loafs, granola bars in bulk and freeze taking out what you need. Try making your own gut healthy gummies as a treat. Experiment with raw slices and bliss balls. Try new recipes and keep your pantry and fridge stocked with these so you don’t return to your unhealthy habits.

Some suggestions for healthy, grab and go snacks include:

• Popcorn – homemade or lightly salted
• Nuts
• Fruit/vegetables
• Healthy baking – muffins, loaves, biscuits and granola bars.
• Yoghurt (try putting it into little containers at the beginning of the week.
• Rice crackers with avocado or tomato and cheese
• Frozen yoghurt smoothie popsicles – pour your leftover smoothie mix straight into the moulds for a rainy day snack. see a version from Farmhouse on Boone here.
• Probiotic snacks like – fizzy fermented carrot sticks, gut health gummies. (Stacy Clare Health Coach)

Accessible

A part of keeping snacks easy is making sure they are accessible. Designating a snack section in your pantry, fridge and freezer that you and your family know you can grab from. Clearly label containers in your fridge with “Snacks” and ensure it remains stocked with all the goodies.

Package Free

Try to limit snacks from packaging. The more from scratch it is generally the healthier it will be! However, there are some snacks that can come from packaging so lets figure out the best way to eat them.

If you do buy some snacks from packages it is important to remove the packaging when presenting the food to your kids. Kids relate to food based on the way it looks. Food from packaging in predictable by how it is presented whereas homemade food will always look slightly different each time. Try to limit repeating the same type of processed snack for weeks on end. Serve snacks from packaging on a plate with a range of other whole food options so it is not seen as the only food available.

3. HEALTHY EATING HABIT – Set routines and limit grazing habits

The healthy eating habit of routine is so important for our body function. Eating meals and snacks within a routine helps our body regulate and digest properly. Have you heard of intermittent fasting? Well, way back in the day this is how they all ate. Food was not so accessible and so meals were spread apart naturally. This allowed our body to properly process and digest the food. And also encouraged healthy appetite. Did you know, appetite is not an instinctive response after the first 6 weeks after birth. We learn and can teach our bodies healthy appetite by spreading our our food so we are actually hungry at the next meal.

Being hungry helps you eat a wider range of foods. We all know when we are hungry ‘anything’ tastes good right. Well, it’s the same here, especially for kids. You are much more likely to finish your plate and naturally want to try new and healthy foods if you are hungry! It also helps when the only thing that is offered is a range of healthy, delicious snacks or meal so you either eat this or feel even more hungry. Sneaky right but so important. Don’t revert to offering an alternative if you child isn’t eating the current meal. Yes there can be exceptions and there may be some foods that even after trying many times your child does not prefer. However, you want to focus on eating within the choices you provide.

This is the key as homemaker/mother/wife you have an important job. You create the menu and supply the choice. If you want to encourage healthy eating in your family take this seriously and apply the tips suggested here into your everyday! This is a big responsibility yes, but also an amazing opportunity to serve your family with nourishing food! NOW thats exciting!

4. HEALTHY EATING HABIT – eat the rainbow

A simple tip for mealtimes and snacks to ensure you have a good variety of food is to focus on colour. Eating the “rainbow of food colours”. This tip actually comes from my nana who always says “there has to be at least 4-5 different colours at each dinner time”.

Creating colourful food is also more appealing to the eye! Bland looking food is often less appealing to eat. And if you have sensory sensitive kids in the house ensuring there is lots of variety in the food.

5. HEALTHY EATING HABIT – Cook as a family

I’ve said this before and I’ll probably say it many times from now but get the family in the kitchen! Not only is this a fun way to spend time together you are also reducing your work load by employing the help of your family members.

Create meals with creativity in mind. E.g. family pizza night where each family member can design their own mini pizza! Teaching your whole family including your husband about healthy food and getting them excited about whats for dinner is a great way to naturally encourage healthy eating!

6. HEALTHY EATING HABIT – Don’t Force it

Simple but true. Stress and pressure create negative associations with food. If you are constantly yelling at the kids at the table or every meal time ends in tears we have a problem! We want our kids to eat but there are so many healthy ways to do this!

Make it fun: crack jokes, talk about the food. Play masterchef food critic and score each course out of 10. Talk about your day, put the technology away! Enjoy mealtimes with your family. You will be surprised how much more eating gets done when kids are happy!

A little note here: Dinner time in our western culture is often the meal we spend the most time preparing and is packed with the most nutrients. However, it is also the mealtime where the family is most fatigued and will be heading to bed soon. Rethink your day. Put more emphasis on nutritional intake during breakfast and lunch if you can and remove the pressure of eating from the dinner table.

7. HEALTHY EATING HABIT – Shopping challenge

Ok let’s finish up here with a fun little shopping challenge. Creating healthy eating habits starts with what food you have in the house. So your grocery shopping trip is critical to helping your family! I am going to give you three rules to follow on your next shopping trip and lets see if you notice a change in healthy eating habits in your home.

5 Processed foods challenge

1. Challenge yourself to maximum of 5 processed foods in your trolley. This includes pre-made sauces, breads, snacks and sweats. This does not include packaged whole foods like vegetables, nuts, milk or butter. Let us know how you went.

Shop at the fresh fruit and vegetable market

2. Try shopping at the local fresh fruit and vegetable market or store this week. Only get the essentials from your large grocery store. I guarantee you will save money and your trolley will look a whole lot different.

Create snackable spots

3. Set aside at least 20min on your shopping day to create snack drawers, containers or spots in your pantry fridge and freezer and label them clearly so your family knows what is approved to grab!

Are you inspired?

Did these simple strategies help you kickstart your healthy eating habits? Are you ready to change? I hope that through the simply wholesome home community you can find support, inspiration and encouragement for your wholesome journey! Comment below what healthy eating habit you are going to start today!

PIn it for later!