Top 15 Habits for a Healthy Lifestyle

By Stephen McKenzie Weaver

Habits can be helpful or they can be obstacles in our way. These tips can help you develop new empowering habits to achieve the Healthy Life style you deserve.

1. Look for high fibre foods that will fill you better and give your inside a workout.


2. When cooking, consider grilling or dry roasting versus frying your food.


3. Graze. Eating smaller meals more frequently helps reduce hunger as well as keeping your metabolic rate more consistently higher.


4. Begin reading food labels. Select foods that show a less than 10 grams of fat component per 100 grams - that means less than 10% of it will be fat.


5. Invest in a pocket-sized fat and fibre counter. Get familiar with what the fat content of your favourite foods is and look for lesser fat options generally.


6. Reduce your overall food intake when you are trying to lose weight. Even with good food choices, if you eat enough volume and don't use it, your body will store it as fat.


7. Develop a kitty of low fat snacks and plan to keep them at hand. It is when snacking that we often end up going for the high fat convenience nibbles.


8. Eat slowly. This is not only great for your digestion but also means you usually eat less than when you try to break records. Aim to chew each mouthful 20 or more times.


9. When you feel hungry, start by taking a few deep belly breaths and drinking a glass of fresh water. Notice if you still feel hungry. Often, our body will confuse its need for more oxygen or water with a hunger signal and if we respond each time, we may be eating more than we need.


10. Consult a dietician to establish your specific energy requirements and nutrient needs. This will take into account your activity levels and stage of life etc


11. Don't do anything you can't do for a lifetime - so avoid diets. The very notion of restriction leads us to want to break free from it. Think about balance and moderation for long term success.


12. If you have an event coming up that may have you indulging a little bit more - seek to balance it out by upping your activity levels to use up the additional energy and consider having a plan going into it, like, asking for smaller portions, or choosing vegetables instead of fattier foods, maybe skip the dessert.


13. If you fail, congratulations you are human. The big thing is ask the question, "how can I prevent this in the future?". Then act on the answer.


14. Look into the future, see yourself living a low-fat lifestyle and all the benefits that will bring. Write down what it will be like in a letter to yourself dated one year out. I know it sounds crazy but it works by convincing your sub conscious mind which in turn moves you to the desired outcome.


15. Find a professional coach who can help you develop new empowering habits. Coaches are not just for top end sports athletes.