The Top Activities You Can Start Today
Trying to maintain a healthy weight can be challenging. With fast food restaurants readily available, busy schedules, and family, eating a solid, nutritional meal goes by the wayside.
Alarmingly, the World Health Organization stated the following findings as of 2019:
- Thirty-seven percent of Americans have cardiovascular disease.
- Thirty-four percent of U.S. adults have hypertension, a significant risk factor for stroke and heart disease.
- Thirty-six percent of Americans have prehypertension, higher than normal blood pressure.
So, what does one do to start getting back on track? Start from the beginning. The following activities are readily available to you for maintaining a healthy weight:
- Put away the electronics. In today’s society, almost everyone has a cell phone or computer. With busy schedules, we often check our phones when we eat, justifying our behavior by doing two things simultaneously. However, we are damaging our health.
- Tasteofhome.com reported in a recent article, “Eating while watching an electronic device like the television can lead to overeating or undereating. The program distracts the brain, and you can lose track of your calorie intake.”
Instead, use your mealtime as a break, both physically and mentally. Allow your mind to catch up with all the information it has received. Find a park bench where you can breathe fresh air and digest your meal properly before returning to work.
- Start first thing in the morning – Breakfast is among American adults’ most skipped meals. As life has progressively gotten faster every day, eating is often skipped to get on with the day. Yet, as children, we are taught to eat breakfast before school. Coffee is excellent, but we need more.
If you jump up and run, keep a loaf of bread or bagels beside your toaster with soft butter or sugar-free jam. While putting on your shoes, toast your bread, put your topping on, and head out. If you are looking for something heartier, make breakfast burritos. Include veggies and eggs for added protein. This is also a great activity to do with the children. Create an assembly line and make enough for the week. Now, the kids can tell their friends they made their breakfast. It is a win-win.
- Do not fall back into old habits on your days off. When we do have a chance to relax and sleep in, old habits tend to creep up. This is the best time to check your diet. Use this time to try new healthy recipes and incorporate them into your weekly meals. This is also a good time to pack snacks when on the go.
Treat yourself to a well-balanced meal a few times a week. Salmon and asparagus are excellent for BBQ. For indoor meals, try using your crockpot. A hearty stew with lots of vegetables is always a welcome meal.
- Use smaller plates – When plating your food, put it on a salad plate instead of a dinner plate. This convinces the brain that more food is on the smaller plate, causing you to think you’re full when finished. This is called the Delboeuf illusion. It is the illusion our brains tell our hunger levels. When the same amount of food on large and small plates is presented to the consumer, the consumer inevitably chooses the smaller plate, believing they are getting more food.
Next time you have a healthy dinner at home, use the smaller plate for your main course and the larger plate for salad or vegetables. When dining out, ask for a side plate for your meal. If you are still hungry later, you will have leftovers to reach for.
- Go after the rainbow—This idea works great on salads and snacks. The Centers for Disease Control recommends “that …federal guidelines recommend that adults eat at least 1.5 to 2 cups per day of fruit and 2 to 3 cups per day of vegetables.”
When making your next salad, add red peppers and mushrooms for protein. When craving something sweet, make yourself a fruit bar. Add fresh sliced strawberries, blueberries, and bananas to Greek yogurt. For added crunch, add some low-fat granola. Each week, try something new and begin enjoying fruits and vegetables again.
In Conclusion
Make sure you check in with your body when changing your diet. The idea is to change your habits and way of thinking about food. Before long, you will enjoy cooking good food and eating healthier. French Author Francois de LaRochefoucauld once said, “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.”