Overcome healthy eating hurdles with these six top tips. Whichever food protocol best suits you, incorporating a whole-food approach is one of the best ways to support your health, weight management, and active lifestyle. However, establishing healthy eating habits comes with its challenges. From sourcing balanced whole food options to navigating social situations and temptations, there will be obstacles to work through. These six solid strategies are some of my and my clients’ best ways to avoid falling back into eating habits that no longer serve them.

Learn what makes up a delicious wholefood diet

Tip number 1 to overcome healthy eating hurdles is education. When establishing a balanced whole-food approach, it’s essential to educate yourself about a wide variety of delicious whole foods. One of the main difficulties in overcoming hurdles with healthy eating is not knowing the basics about nutrition. Healthy does not have to mean boring. And you’re more likely to stick to a change if you enjoy the taste! Embrace the abundance of in-season fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds available. At the supermarket, whole foods tend to be on the outside sections. Discover the unique flavors, textures, and nutritional benefits they offer, allowing you to create a diverse and satisfying eating plan.

There are several reputable websites that offer reliable information about the nutritional benefits of various foods. Here are a few trusted sources:

One reputable website to learn about the nutritional benefits of foods is Healthline. It offers evidence-based articles written and reviewed by qualified experts in the field of nutrition and health. Healthline’s nutrition articles provide comprehensive information about various foods, explaining their nutritional profiles, health benefits, potential side effects, and how they can fit into a balanced diet. The website also includes references to scientific studies, ensuring credibility and accuracy in the information provided. Additionally, Healthline provides recipes, meal plans, and dietary recommendations to support individuals in making informed choices for their overall well-being.

The Nutrition Source – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is another excellent resource. This website from the Harvard School of Public Health offers evidence-based information on nutrition and healthy eating. It provides comprehensive resources on food groups, nutrients, and their impacts on health. It even has a visual Kids Healthy Eating guide to help encourage the little ones.

Eat Right by the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics offers information on nutrition and health, from meal planning and prep to choices that can help prevent or manage health conditions. They also include daily tips to improve diet quality, resources for nutrition information, and fact sheets on many nutrition-related topics.

Plan meals to overcome your healthy eating hurdles

If you want to overcome healthy eating hurdles, then meal planning is super helpful when adopting a balanced whole-food approach. This helps you to ensure your meals include a variety of whole foods, such as colorful vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. If you are incorporating snacks into your routine then making sure you have wholefood options at hand helps you stick with your intentions. Choose from fruits, vegetables, nuts, or high-protein dairy products like Greek yogurt or cottage cheese to keep you satisfied throughout the day.

Meal planning is quite simple, really. But it takes a bit of concentrated time for you to think things through with your weekly calendar. If a whole week is too overwhelming, start with half a week, or just do a couple of days at a time.

For days when you know you will be quite hectic, or on the go, strategize around how you will tackle not being able to be fully in control of all your meal choices. I have a friend who has quite a lot of business lunches in restaurants. To keep things simple and take the thinking out of it she always asks for a chicken salad. She gets the dressing on the side, and an extra portion of chicken if it’s not a large amount.

Spending some time thinking ahead of the week about what and how you will make your food choices, also sets an intention that aligns with your goals. This can help to create an internal buffer, to steady you in impulsive moments when everyone else around you is ordering burgers. For some people having a plan worked out ahead of time helps them feel in control.

When it comes to minimizing temptation, especially at home the plan can help. Another tool is getting organized in your kitchen. If there are sugary treat foods easily accessible every time you open the fridge or cupboard, you’re making things hard on yourself. Our brains are hardwired to want high-energy foods. Especially when we’re stressed. If you can, get rid of these junk foods, or give them away. If you have occasional treats for kids or family members, find another way to make them less tempting. Such as putting them in an opaque container up on a hard-to-reach shelf. The fact you can’t see them and the extra effort of getting them can be enough to summon your willpower in those crucial moments of stress.

Experiment and try new recipes to support your new healthy habits

Expand your culinary horizons by trying new recipes that focus on whole foods. The benefit of a low-human-interference food approach, or non-refind food approach is that the food is full of flavour and nutrients. Explore different cooking methods, spices, and combinations to make your meals exciting and enjoyable. There are plenty of websites, cookbooks, and food blogs dedicated to whole-food recipes that can inspire your creativity in the kitchen. If you follow wholefood blogs for recipe inspiration, you can also pick up a lot of education on the nutrition of the food too. Expanding and exploring new ingredients has a novelty element that helps with establishing a new habit. Here are some of my favourites:

Clean Eating Kitchen – this website is dedicated to easy gluten & dairy-free recipes. It’s packed with information about the recipes too as it’s written by Carrie Forrest, who has a master’s degree in public health, specializing in nutrition. She has personal insight into dealing with PCOS, autoimmune disease and dealing with thyroid cancer. This overnight protein oats recipe wins me over on several fronts – A good dose of protein to start the day, prepping the night before makes it easy and more likely to start the day sticking to my intentions.

Fit Foodie Finds – featuring thousands of recipes that you can select by diet type, meal-type, and method. Their focus is on balance, lifestyle, and food freedom. They also have loads of articles on mental health, wellness and workouts. One of my new favourite quick workouts was this find – a 24 minute-no-equipment- body-weight workout (with video).

When I have to cater to vegan friends I like to check out Running on Real Food – a whole-food vegan-based website that has recipes, nutritional articles and categorized workouts.

Another way to discover new ideas for recipes is to ask your friends what their favourite healthy recipes are. A bonus with this is that it opens the conversation up to widen your accountability circle.

Pinterest is also an amazing visual resource when it comes to researching new lifestyle ideas. Searching for whole-food recipes then brings up further filtering options, like ‘Easy’, ‘Vegan’, Paleo’, etc. And you can create a particular board to pin them to. Just be careful to not spend too much time on there, getting overwhelmed.

Meal prep for success in forming your healthy habit

Meal prepping and cooking large batches can help overcome impulsive decisions when you’re tired after a stressful day or are short on time. Of course, it can take some planning and a chunk of time once a week. Although, the sense of achievement once you have several meals made in advance, is worth it. I love knowing that I’ve made the main dinner dish with four servings, which saves time three other nights. It also frees up thinking about ‘What to make for dinner!’

Partial prepping is another trick – Prepping ingredients like chopped vegetables or cooked quinoa can save time during busy weekdays. This can be one of the mental hurdles we can’t face when squeezed for time. At the start of the week, or weekend prepare extra salad greens, or grate several carrots and store in the fridge with a paper towel in an airtight container. The paper towel absorbs extra moisture and keeps them fresh. Prepare extra protein sources and store them in the fridge for a few days, like boiled eggs, or sliced chicken. Putting together a quick lunch from your containers is easy. Check out online breakfasts that can be prepped overnight, or batch-cook a savory breakfast bake.

These websites have made meal prepping their specialty:

• Budget Bytes: Beth Moncel has created recipes and methods that don’t break the bank, and don’t waste an ounce.
• Sweet Peas & Saffron: The inciting reason for Denise to create this website was to make cooking less stressful.
• The Girl on Bloor: The meal prep and recipes on Taylor’s website focus on making healthy choices easier and balancing a busy life.

The advantage of prepping your food, means you get to stay in control of your food choices most of the time. Keeping yourself on track with your healthy intentions builds your momentum and confidence that you can make a healthy lifestyle change. Which in turn adds to the sustainability of your efforts.

Manage social situations to maintain your healthy habit

Social events can be one of the biggest challenges to overcoming healthy eating hurdles when implementing a change. This can lead to moments of temptation that knock you into an ‘All or nothing’ mindset. Or you don’t want to seem difficult by requesting something different or rejecting what’s on offer. However, you can use this as an opportunity to learn how to integrate your new approach into a more sustainable way of being in the world, with your friends and family.

If the social occasion is at a restaurant, many have their menus available online to look at ahead of time. You can plan ahead for an option that aligns with your goals. Or you can even contact the restaurant directly and enquire about special dietary needs if you have a specific health restriction. This avoids having to make an obvious fuss with the rest of your guests if that is what you’re worried about.

If you’re worried about giving into temptation and then being triggered by the thought, ‘ Well I’ve undone all my good work, I may as well go all in’, then maybe that’s a sign that you are being too restrictive on yourself. It’s okay to enjoy occasions and treats now and then. If you’re going to be with family and friends and you know you’re likely to be tempted by sugary desserts or delicious cheese-boards, then why not make a mental strategy that allows you to have some?

Can you mentally prepare yourself beforehand? For example, you decide what a reasonable amount to drink is – an amount that hits the sweet spot of enjoying yourself but won’t impact your efforts. Or deciding beforehand that you will enjoy a dessert, but you’ll share it with a partner, or friend. Mental preparation strategies lessen the feeling of being too restricted and prevent you from having an ‘all or nothing’ binge.

Seek support and accountability when building a healthy habit

We’re a tribal evolved species. There are many studies and papers that have shown the ways in which our well-being depends on us being connected. One of the strongest tools you can employ to establish a new lifestyle change is creating a community around you. Having a support system is beneficial regardless of the eating plan you choose. Connect with friends, family, or online communities that share a similar interest in a whole food approach. Exchange recipes, share tips, and offer encouragement to stay motivated on your journey.

Working with a health coach to support you make lifestyle changes is a great choice. We help you drill down into your motivations, action plan for success and help hold you accountable.

Work with me to help establish your healthy eating style

As a PreKure Health Coach, I am trained in integrating lifestyle medicine. This incorporates a whole food nutritional approach, fitness, mental health, stress management, and sleep improvement knowledge. As your health coach, I can bring clarity to what your deeper motivation behind your goals is. We will collaborate on action plans, finding resources, and more to get where you want to go. It’s a personalized approach that suits you.

Good health for me isn’t about eating the ‘right things’, doing the ‘best workout’, or how many steps you do. It’s about the bigger picture of feeling like you’re enabling yourself to do amazing things, fueling yourself to go on huge adventures, and training your body so you can feel strong, capable, and confident for many years to come. I’d love to help you discover this bigger picture.