Lifestyle Nov. 2013 | Page 29

26 Healthy Eating “To enjoy good health we should cultivate good habits and maintain discipline. Only then we will be able to enjoy the pleasures of life. Undoubtedly good health is very important. It is a blessing indeed.” Food, from the ancient times to modern age, has always been an important part of human life. Man cannot live without it, because it is the basic need of human being. In this modern age, food has become very easy to prepare with the help of technology, and it takes less time to prepare a variety of food than it took in the past. One can easily buy preprocessed food from the market and it saves time. Unfortunately, these canned foods should not replace the healthy food. Healthy food is essential for human being, because it has basic effects on people's life and their behavior. Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it‟s about feeling great, having more energy, stabilizing your mood, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible—all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty, healthy diet. Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself for success big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think. Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety, and freshness. This way it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious. Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn‟t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet. Every change you make to improve your diet mat- To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one ters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to