A healthy body is a guest-chamber for the soul; a sick body is a prison.

– Francis Bacon

A healthy lifestyle begins with proper care of the physical body, including eating and drinking foods and beverages with appropriate nutritional content. Ultimately, your eating habits are up to you. You have control over what you eat and you have some control over what others (especially your children) eat. Maybe obesity and overeating are not a problem for you or your family; perhaps you just want to be healthier. We can all stand to be a little healthier. If you want to improve the good eating habits you already have, there are several easy ways to make changes that may not be noticeable to you every day, but which can make a dramatic impact on your future.

Top Ten Healthy Eating Strategies

Every day we’re told about some new secret to a healthy life, and it can be difficult to keep up with the changes in food trends and figure out what actually works. But regardless of your eating history or your goals for your eating habits there are timeless strategies that can be applied across the board. The following are the basics that are general, simple, and easy to apply to any current lifestyle.

1. Eat when you’re hungry, not for recreation.
2. Minimize portions.
3. Eat natural, flavorful foods. Enjoy every bite!
4. Eat mindfully and intelligently.
5. Focus on the food when you are eating, not on the television.
6. Diversify your diet.
7. Shop smart.
8. Don’t deprive yourself¾eat a little bit of everything.
9. Indulge occasionally.
10. Use food-free self-rewards.

The overall takeaway of this list is to be more conscious of what you are eating. When you increase your awareness of everyday habits, they can be much easier to analyze and modify. If you learn to listen to your body, you will know when you are hungry, when you are not, why you eat what you do, how feelings affect when and what you eat, and how you can start making other small changes to improve overall health. Increased awareness is the basis for healing and growth.

Top Ten Grocery Shopping Strategies

Obviously, grocery shopping plays an extremely important part in healthy eating. Most of us shop at least once or twice a week. We’re always running to the store to grab that jug of milk, a loaf of bread, or the one item that’s missing from the recipe we want to cook for dinner. Large chain grocery stores are great because they have almost everything you could ever imagine in every flavor, in every size, and in many different brands. But these stores have made it difficult to avoid temptation. If you’re like me, you probably go shopping for a list of items and return home with a trunk full of unnecessary (but tasty) items that you just had to have. The following simple strategies can help focus your grocery shopping on the right kinds of choices—healthy choices—with a few indulgent items.

1. Never grocery shop when you’re hungry.
2. Choose something new and healthy each time.
3. Read and compare nutrition labels.
4. Choose one specialty item (for example, ethnic food, sauces, and spices).
5. Splurge a little (for example, quinoa pasta, Kobe beef, or a gourmet cheese).
6. Stock up on kitchen staples (for example, tuna, beans, pasta, and rice).
7. Plan ahead and shop for the whole week (consider what to do with leftovers).
8. Focus on fresh (fill the cart with fruits and veggies).
9. Choose in-season produce for the best flavor.
10. Look for prepared shortcuts (for example, chicken, tuna, breads, and proteins).

Some of these strategies may seem obvious, but I know that it takes discipline and practice not to get sucked into putting goodies that are not really good for you into your cart. Changing your shopping habits does not have to be difficult. Start with a well-planned list, make room for your splurge item, and focus on healthy food. We do not always have time to read nutrition labels, but if you focus on one product type each time you shop, soon you’ll learn which product is best for you. Being aware of new options and new shortcut ideas can cut down on shopping and cooking time and can help keep you focused on healthy choices.

Top Six Foods That Fight Fat

Some people focus on the fat and calorie content when they think of food. It’s only natural; we’ve been programmed to be conscious of weight and the foods that pack on the pounds. We continue to look for ways to cut the fat from our diets so that we can be healthier. There is a plethora of information about healthy eating and how to fight fat. Here are six simple foods that can be incorporated into your diet to help fight fat:

1. Nuts. Fiber keeps you full.
2. Fat-free milk. As calcium increases, body fat decreases.
3. Oatmeal. It helps curb your appetite.
4. Green tea. It boosts your metabolism.
5. Vegetable juice. Drink it before meals and you will eat fewer calories.
6. Eggs. Eating them early in the day means you will eat less throughout the day.

These foods can be helpful in combating the negative effects of other foods, and many of these foods are on the list of healthy foods to add to your diet anyway. Adding them to your diet is easy. There is instant oatmeal, mini packets of nuts, lots of easy ways to prepare eggs, flavored green tea in cold and hot varieties, and prepared vegetable juices that taste like fruit juice.

Healthy Eating Strategies by Food Group

Overall eating strategies can serve as a general guide, but sometimes we want to make more specific changes in the way we eat. The next few strategies include more detailed ways that we can modify our choices within each of the five food groups as well as some other specific strategies.

Proteins

• Substitute lean meats for full fat meats.
• Use beans, tofu, fish, and other proteins more often.
• A three-ounce portion of meat is about the size of the palm of your hand; a portion the size of your thumb is one ounce.
• Get enough protein (for example, fish, poultry, lean meat, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, and lean meats) because a protein-rich diet will help your exercise plan because protein revs up your metabolism.
• Check the sodium level, especially in processed meats such as lunchmeat or ham.

Fruits and Vegetables

• Eat five to nine servings per day of colorful vegetables and fruits.
• Focus on super foods (for example, blueberries, acai and goji berries, nuts, and beans).
• Add one salad per day to increase vegetable intake.
• Make smoothies and drink your daily servings of fruit.
• Add a slice of lemon to your water to help curb your appetite.
• Add some broccoli to your diet to protect your heart and help your eyesight.
• Consume some citrus to fight cancer.
• Leafy greens are good for your eyes.
• When cooking vegetables, do not boil out the nutrients; microwave, steam, or go raw instead. Boiled broccoli retains only half of its Vitamin C, whereas steamed broccoli retains up to one hundred percent.

Dairy

• Milk may help prevent colon cancer.
• Try low-fat, fat-free, or soy milk.
• Choose active-culture yogurt to maintain healthy bacteria in the gut.
• Focus on whole grain products.
• Wheat bran is good for regularity.
• Buy brown rice (be mindful to wash it multiple times prior to cooking to rid it of possibly harmful arsenic), crackers, multigrain bread, and other grain products. White variations mean they have been more processed and have lost some nutrients.

Other Food Strategies

• Enjoy some dark chocolate for its antioxidant benefits.
• Use good fats such as avocado, nuts, olives, fish, and veggies.
• Use olive oil instead of vegetable oil to increase consumption of good fats.
• Choose red wine to help lower heart disease risk and boost good cholesterol.
• Drink tea (especially green teas) to fight viruses.
• Consume high-fiber foods to cut your blood pressure and fight hypertension.
• Measure and eat the correct serving size.
• Keep some fats in your diet. Good fats trigger gene activity in the liver, which spurs metabolism.
• When you’re watching what you eat, it’s okay to snack on calcium-rich foods, fiber-rich foods, or naturally sweet and low-calorie fruit. You should not feel hungry during a diet.
• Focus on your food. Snacking in front of the television leads to excessive recreational eating.
• Eliminate sugary drinks, including juice, and replace them with water, non-caloric beverages, and low-fat or skim milk.
• Restrict calories enough to produce mild negative energy balance.
• Reduce intake of saturated fats, salty snacks, and high-glycemic foods, including candy, white bread, white rice, pasta, and potatoes.
• Create a balanced diet containing vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, fiber, lean meat, fish, and low-fat dairy products