We all have habits which serve us well (like brushing our teeth), and also some which do not (that chai and muffin at 3 pm). Habits are what keep us going when motivation leaves us, and are the cornerstone to creating a way of eating which we can stick to long term.
Food preparation is a habit which is important to form, however, it’s one which can take the most work. Take the time to check-in with yourself, figure out what some of your less helpful habits are, and begin to work at changing one at a time. You will then be able to clear the way and replace them with more helpful, and healthful ones!
Here are some tips for building good food habits:
- Be clear on WHY you want to get healthy in the first place. If the reason is a good enough one, then it is less likely that you will fall back into old habits when the going gets tough. Write it down and keep it on hand for when you are feeling off track.
- Start with one mealtime, the one you struggle with most, and commit to preparing it every day for 2 weeks, you can prepare in bulk, or do day by day- whatever suits your lifestyle best.
- Audit your time and habits. The ‘I don’t have time’ line might be correct, but writing down how much time you spend doing a daily task can challenge whether this is true or not. More than an hour of TV per day, or spending excess time on social media means you probably have more time than you think, but just need to learn to redistribute it.
- Have healthy back-ups. We always have the option! Even if you are at the petrol station about to gnaw your arm off after work, tubs of natural yoghurt, nuts and fruit are always on offer, the trick is to have predetermined back-ups, so when you are starving and lose rationality, your default setting is a healthier choice.
- You are going to slip up, probably more than once, but you don’t fail unless you completely give up. Acknowledge the slip-up, ask why it happened and if you could do something differently next time, then get back to it. As you are working with habits of a lifetime, don’t put pressure on yourself to think it will be fixed in 2 weeks, or a month. Be curious but not judgemental of yourself. Life is too short to beat yourself up, but also too short not to make changes to feel better!
