5 Quick Fixes For A Healthier Diet

There is so much information surrounding diets online. When to diet, why to diet, how to diet, what type of diet you should be on. Honestly, a lot of it is contradictory and it can be overwhelming and hard to know what to believe.

In this article, I want to keep things real simple and share with you five easy ways that you can improve your diet without a single calorie counter in sight!* These five tips will help you make healthier choices without having to cut out entire food groups and without the extreme side effects that come with a lot of popular diets, such as constantly being hungry, lacking energy and nutrients, and being prone to mood swings.

*The following article is guidance for general population only. Those with specific health concerns or dietary requirements should seek advice from a qualified dietician.

1. Choose your sauces wisely

If there’s one thing I can’t stand its dry food. I love a sauce so I was gutted when I learned that a lot of my favourite sauces are filled with sugar and other nasties. We’re talking ketchup, mayo, pasta sauces, curry sauces, even salad dressings. Sauces are there to serve two purposes – 1) to make your food less dry and 2) to make your food more delicious and it’s for this second reason that sauce manufacturers fill their sauces with all the bad stuff that makes them taste soooo good – so you’ll keep coming back and giving them your money. Think sugar, salt, MSG, thickening agents, artificial colourings, the list goes on.

If you have time, try making your own sauces from scratch or if it’s not an option be sure to check the labels and opt for cleaner versions. A healthy alternative to sugary salad dressings that I love is simply mixing olive oil with balsamic vinegar, or for an alternative to buying a premade marinara sauce for your pasta, go for a can of chopped tomatoes and spice it up with your own seasonings such as paprika, pepper, and even a dash of red wine.

2. Switch to wholemeal

Wholemeal foods such as wholegrain bread, brown pasta and brown rice are those that haven’t had their nutrients stripped away through processing, so they’re much better for you than their white alternatives which we often refer to as ‘empty calories’ due to their lack of nutrients. Wholefoods also require more energy to digest than processed foods, so you’ll actually burn more calories by opting for wholemeal.

I know for a lot of people wholemeal is just… bleugh - I used to have strong feelings about it too(!) - but remember, these sorts of carbs are supposed to form the base of a meal and a base is there to be built upon. Jazz up your pasta or rice dish with roasted veggies to release their natural sweetness, stir in some juicy meats, make a delicious sauce, or add flavourful spices and you’ll hardly notice the switch.

Still not convinced? If in doubt, go halvesies. To this day I still make spaghetti using half white, half brown, for the perfect taste/nutrient balance.

3. Remove temptations

Crisps are my kryptonite. If they’re in the house, I’ll eat a family-sized bag in one sitting. So, one of the best diet decisions I made was to not keep them in the cupboard. Sure, I’ll treat myself to some crisps for a movie night or if I’ve had the worst day ever, but if they aren’t just in the next room and I have to physically go out to the shops to buy them, then I’m much less likely to snack during the week.

4. Cut back on alcohol

Most of us enjoy a few glasses of wine or a couple of pints from time to time but the simple fact of the matter is that alcohol is unfortunately very calorific. Now I’m not here to tell you to stop drinking – that’s How To Lose Your Audience 101 – but making small, manageable tweaks to your alcohol consumption can make a big difference to your overall calorie intake.

Example:

Let’s say you have two glass of red wine in the evenings - one to enjoy with dinner and then another on the sofa as you wind down before bed. On average, a large glass of red wine contains 228 calories, so if you were to skip the second glass before bed you’d save yourself a total of 1,596 calories over the course of a week. For many women that’s in the region of an entire day’s worth of food! How’s that for food for thought?

5. Fill up on veggies

We all know that vegetables are a crucial part of a healthy diet. They are a source of carbohydrate providing us with energy as well as essential vitamins and minerals to keep up healthy inside and out. The good news is that the vast majority of vegetables are extremely low in calories making them a great switch for more fattening carbohydrates such as chips, pastries, and pizzas. It would be difficult to overload on vegetables alone, which means you can pretty much eat as many veggies as you like. However, for a lot of people the difficulty is in finding vegetables that they actually like to eat. For a list of creative ways to jazz up your veggies at home, stay tuned for a new blog post coming soon on How To Make Vegetables Taste Better.

My final top tip?

Steaming is king. I used to boil all of my veg because it was quick and convenient, then one day my mum said to me: “You know all of the nutrients in that broccoli is being boiled into the water and then you’re tipping it down the sink?” …I did not know this. She bought me a steamer the next day and I’ve never looked back.

Gotta keep a hold of those nutrients guys!

Stay happy, stay healthy!

Jay x