Want to Make it Easier to Eat Healthily?

Make your healthy food CAN – Convenient, Attractive and Normal

According to researchers at Cornell University, doing this is more effective than being told, or reading about, eating healthily. 

Since healthy eating and long term, sustainable weight loss go hand in hand, it makes sense to put these three tactics into action.

Here’s Some Ideas:

• Make a shopping list – include all the healthy foods you think you should be eating. Get it delivered or shop for it. You can’t eat healthy stuff if you don’t have any in your cupboards or fridge. (See below for our tips on what constitutes healthy.)
• Carry healthy snacks in your handbag, manbag or glove box. Grabbing something from there when you’re hungry will be more convenient than nipping to the shop or stopping at a petrol station.
• Keep a bowl of fruit on the way to your front door and nab whatever takes your fancy on your way out.
• Put wholemeal bread next to your toaster and hide your white bread at the back of a high cupboard.
• Pack your lunch, it doesn’t take long and will make it much more convenient the next day – you’ll be able to spend your lunch break doing something you enjoy instead of queuing at the local fast food shop.
• Invest in some plastic containers to keep your lunches fresh and attractive. Rummaging through kitchen draws for a lid that fits is hassle.
• Plan your evening meals. You don’t have to enjoy cooking to eat a healthy evening meal. Canned and frozen vegetables are just as nutritious as their fresh counterparts, and quick to prepare.
• A fairly low calorie ready meal, supplemented with some veg or salad, will be healthier than a takeaway.
• Keep healthy snacks in your desk draw, and a piece of fruit on the top.

You can play around with different ideas and produce shopping lists with the planning tools in WLR, try them free

What are healthier options?

It depends . . . on where you're starting from

If you’re a person who eats 40g grab bags of crisps from the nearest shop then a 25g bag from a supermarket multipack would be a healthier option. Better still, keep a tub of sliced up peppers/carrots/celery and a pot of light dip (salsa or yoghurt based dips are good) close by for when you fancy a savoury snack.

If your favourite nibble is a chocolate bar, then half the bar or a lower calorie cereal type bar would be a better option. (To make your half-bars of chocolate more convenient, cut them up and rewrap them in halves as soon as you get them home.)

An even healthier choice would be to get your chocolate hit from square or two of a high (70%+) cocoa variety, and eat fruit or yoghurt

• A dinner of frozen pizza and a salad is better than a takeaway pizza and chips.
• A bowl of cereal, or some wholemeal toast and jam, or even a cereal bar is better than a bacon buttie from the food van or station cafe.
• A handful of nuts is better than a sugary snack – nuts also fill you up more so you won’t need another snack 30 minutes later.
• Take a look at dietitian Julliette Kellow’s 84 ideas for snacks that won’t break the calorie bank.

You’ll find thousands more healthy meal and snack ideas inside WLR, you can try it free