5 Easy Steps to Healthier Eating

There are literally hundreds of tips you could follow to eat more healthfully—some super easy, others more challenging. Here, we’ve gathered five tips that deliver huge payoffs yet require practically no effort. If you’re looking to take your diet to the next level any one of these tips can help enormously.

 

1.  Eat oatmeal for breakfast. Make a big bowl of oatmeal every morning. This fiber-filled meal will keep you feeling full until lunch. It will also replace high-fat, high-cholesterol breakfast foods like bacon and eggs. You can make old-fashioned rolled oats in just a few minutes. Steel-cut oats take significantly longer to cook than rolled oats, but you may find the texture superior. You can keep your oatmeal exciting by constantly changing up the chopped fruits you serve it with, or adding spices like cinnamon and natural sweeteners like maple syrup. In the winter or when fresh fruit isn’t readily available, you can also cook a small amount of chopped dried fruit along with your oatmeal for added sweetness and flavor.
2.  Pack your own lunch. By packing your lunch you take control of what you’ll be eating and snacking on during the day. We have a few easy vegan lunch ideas for you here. This is the best way to avoid restaurant, fast food, and vending machine temptations.
3.  Drink more smoothies. Smoothies are a delicious way to pack in a high concentration of nutrients while also keeping you hydrated and energized. You can throw a handful of spinach or kale into a fruit smoothie to create a green smoothie that still tastes like paradise.
4.  Always carry fruit and nuts. These nutritious snacks will keep you from grabbing a bag of chips or a candy bar when the late-afternoon munchies strike. You can always turn to an apple, banana, grapes, almonds, pistachios, or cashews for a no-guilt snack. Just choose nuts that are raw or have been dry roasted (not roasted in oil).
5.  Replace ice cream with banana soft serve. Ice cream is loaded with fat, sugar, and often a lengthy list of processed ingredients. It makes for a delicious treat, but not a healthy one. However, you can make your own soft-serve out of frozen bananas that is both creamy and nutritious. Give it a try and you’ll never turn back!

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