You want to eat healthfully, but what’s the best way to do it? Some of today’s popular diets say to cut sugar while others restrict fat. With so many diet books and bloggers, it can be easy to become confused. But no matter the fad diet of the moment, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean protein foods will always prevail.
Making healthy decisions about what you eat and drink, how active you are, and how much sleep you get is a great place to start. Here you’ll learn
- How your body works—how your body uses the food and drinks you consume and how being active may help your body “burn” calories?
- How to choose healthy foods and drinks?
- How to get moving and stay active?
- How getting enough sleep is important to staying healthy?
- How to ease into healthy habits and keep them up?
- How to plan healthy meals and physical activities that fit your lifestyle?
Your body needs the energy to function and grow. Calories from food and drinks give you that energy. Think of food as energy to charge up your battery for the day. Throughout the day, you use energy from the battery to think and move, so you need to eat and drink to stay powered up. Balancing the energy you take in through food and beverages with the energy you use for growth, activity, and daily living is called “energy balance.” Energy balance may help you stay a healthy weight.
A Healthy Eating Pattern
Rather than eating an exclusively low-fat or low-sugar diet, focus on your overall eating pattern. One meal does not make or break one’s health; rather, it’s what people do most of the time that has a significant impact. Eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, seafood, and nuts. Meanwhile, eat less red and processed meats, sweetened drinks, desserts, and refined grains.
Vegetables and fruits should take up the most space when filling your plate (roughly half). Fill the remainder with whole grains and lean protein foods. While not every plate requires each food group, pairing at least two or three different foods will increase your satisfaction and deliver more nutrients. And don’t forget to pay attention to your body’s hunger and fullness signals.
Don’t Skip Meals
Skipping meals might seem like an easy way to lose weight, but it actually may lead to weight gain if you eat later to make up for it. Even if you’re really busy with school and activities, it’s important to try not to skip meals. Follow these tips to keep your body charged up all day and to stay healthy:
- Eat breakfast every day. Breakfast helps your body get going. If you’re short on time in the morning, grab something to go, like an apple or banana.
- Pack your lunch on school days. Packing your lunch may help you control your food and beverage portions and increases the chances that you will eat it because you made it.
- Eat dinner with your family. When you eat home-cooked meals with your family, you are more likely to consume healthy foods. Having meals together also gives you a chance to reconnect with each other and share news about your day.
- Get involved in grocery shopping and meal planning at home. Going food shopping and planning and preparing meals with family members or friends can be fun. Not only can you choose a favorite grocery store, and healthy foods and recipes, you also have a chance to help others in your family eat healthy too.
Take Your Time
Changing your habits can be hard. And developing new habits takes time. Use the tips below and the checklist under “Be a health champion” to stay motivated and meet your goals. You can do it!
Make changes slowly. Don’t expect to change your eating, drinking, or activity habits overnight. Changing too much too fast may hurt your chances of success.
Figure out what’s holding you back. Are there unhealthy snack foods at home that are too tempting? Are the foods and drinks you’re choosing at your school cafeteria too high in fat and sugar? How can you change these habits?
Set a few realistic goals. If you’re a soda drinker, try replacing a couple of sodas with water. Once you are drinking less soda for a while, try cutting out all soda. Then set another goal, like getting more physical activity each day. Once you have reached one goal, add another.
Get a buddy at school or someone at home to support your new habits. Ask a friend, brother or sister, parent, or guardian to help you make changes and stick with your new habits.
Planning Healthy Meals and Physical Activities Just for You
Being healthy sounds like it could be a lot of work, right? Well, it doesn’t have to be. A free, online tool called the My Plate Daily Checklist can help you create a daily food plan. All you have to do is type in whether you are male or female, your weight, height, and how much physical activity you get each day. The checklist will tell you how many daily calories you should take in and what amounts of fruit, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy you should eat to stay within your calorie target.
- Breakfast: a banana, a slice of whole-grain bread with avocado or tomato, and fat-free or low-fat milk
- Lunch: a turkey sandwich with dark leafy lettuce, tomato, and red peppers on whole-wheat bread
- Dinner: two whole-grain taco shells with chicken or black beans, fat-free or low-fat cheese, and romaine lettuce
- Snack: an apple, banana, or air-popped popcorn.