Stop complaining about your weight and get in the best shape of your life with our 24 Tips to Supercharge Your Diet for Optimal Health.
The best weight loss secret is inevitably your diet regime. Effective weight loss is achievable by eating the right foods to help you lose and feel energized. Avoid “fad” diets at all times which may prevent you from reaching your goals. A few fad diets include negative calorie diets, extremely low-calorie diets, low carb diets, and any other type of “fad” diet that is unbalanced.
Changing diet is the best first step to living a healthier lifestyle. Learn all you can about the different foods and nutrition available to help enhance your health. The more you know, the easier it is to implement healthy nutritious tips in your diet.
Here are our top 24 tips to supercharge your diet:
- Consult a professional: As recommended by the World health organization, whenever pursuing any lifestyle changes such as: fitness programs or dietary supplementation; it is always best to consult your healthcare professional before proceeding.
- Start your day with hydration: Being hydrated helps your brain function optimally, curbs cravings and unnecessary snacking by ensuring your body has the fluid it needs and boost your metabolism.
- Drink tea Drinking tea has many health benefits. Green tea contains high levels of polyphenols and catechins, which are antioxidant compounds that help combat free radicals and protect cells from damage. Many teas provide decent amounts of potassium, magnesium and calcium for bone strength as well as B vitamins for energy metabolism
- Include healthy fats: Healthy fats like omega-3s from fatty fish, olive oil, avocados, and nuts help reduce inflammation, lower triglycerides, and decrease risk of heart disease. Foods like fish, walnuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, and olive oil provide omega-3 fats important for cognition
- Choose healthier options: Fast foods or unhealthy snacks are very popular In todays society, making it easier to gain weight. Eating healthy is a choice
- Replace butter or margarine with fruit puree. It’s easy to prepare in a food processor and cuts calories and fat significantly.
- Reduce sugary snacks: Swap sugary snacks like protein bars for naturally sweet alternatives like dark chocolate or fruits. On average, most protein or energy bars contain between 15-45 grams of sugar. Review our top 20 list of foods extremely high in sugar you may want to avoid.
- Review the Nutrition Facts label: The label tells you the amount of total calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, etc. in one serving. Also, comparing Nutrition Facts between similar products helps you to choose the more nutritious option depending on your needs and dietary restrictions.
Exercise after eating to burn more calories. Exercising offers many health benefits for the body and mind. Unfortunately, many people tend to exercise before eating which leads them to consume more than average calories. It is best to exercise after eating and your food has digested. This helps to burn more calories and reduces the amount of fat stored into the body.- Avoid eating while watching TV. If, like most people, you love eating popcorn, pizza, potato chips, or ice cream while watching a movie. It’s easy to get so caught up in the show that you completely forget you’re eating. Bite into pizza slices until you’ve eaten the whole box. Best consumed as a healthy snack or replacement for zero-calorie foods rather than standard. These foods can lead to significant weight gain if you get so caught up in your favorite show that you don’t realize how much you’re eating.
- Stop skipping breakfast. Eat in the morning when your body burns more calories. Water (or fruit drinks) mixed with fructose suppresses appetite more than water (or diet drinks) mixed with glucose. Drink a glass of diluted orange juice 30 minutes to an hour before meals. Always check the nutritional value before drinking orange juice. Fruit juices contain a lot of sugar, which can lead to rapid weight gain.
- Limit trans fats as much as possible. For cooking, use olive or canola oil. Partially hydrogenated oils are trans fats, so avoid products containing them. Switch from whole milk to skim milk. It contains all nutrients without fat. Li9mit trans fat altogether to supercharge your diet
- Snack on unsalted choices: Salt or sodium can raise your blood pressure significantly if consumed in excess. Choose unsalted trail mix, fruit, raw vegetables, rye crisps, or graham crackers. These simple tips to supercharge your diet and help keep your blood pressure at controlled levels
- Remove all fat from meat before cooking. You’ll be amazed at how much you can reduce your fat intake just by taking this small step.
- Replace canned fruits and veggies with fresh fruit and vegetables: Most canned fruits and vegetables are filled with additional sugars, preservatives and coloring to lengthen the shelf life. These may contain between 20-40+ grams of sugar per serving. A popular canned fruit mix sold on the market is Del Monte Chunky mixed fruits which contains 20grams of sugars (High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Corn Syrup). It is always recommended to review the nutrition facts to know what exactly you’re consuming.
- Reduce Processed Foods Consumption: The trans fats, sodium, and preservatives in processed foods negatively impact blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and inflammation which drive heart disease progression. Frequent consumption is linked to increased risk for insulin resistance, high blood sugar, and type 2 diabetes. This is one of the best tips to supercharge your diet.
- Become Creative with smoothies: A great way to enjoy your fruits and vegetables is by juicing them or making smoothies. Some juicers tend to squeeze out the juice only, while leaving the nutritious pulp and remainder of the fruits behind. So, it’s better to blend it all together to enjoy the drink.
- Limit Alcohol Consumption: Drinking alcohol heavily over time can cause fat buildup, inflammation, liver tissue damage, and lead to cirrhosis or liver failure. Also, increases the risk of mouth, throat, esophageal, colon and breast cancer.
Lifestyle tips to supercharge your diet
- Learn how to see food in a new way. Many years ago, meat and potatoes were the American ideal. Now I know that vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and fish are the best. Try new recipes and meal plans. Be creative and take risks. Don’t be afraid of your new diet, enjoy it.
- Sleep is important: Try to get 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. Hormones that control hunger and satiety as well as growth & repair processes require healthy sleep cycles to function properly.
- Make time for change and keep focused on one point a week. Start with breakfast and switch from eggs, bacon, donuts, white toast, or bagels to oatmeal or bran granola, or fruit. If you don’t have 10 minutes to sit down and eat breakfast opt for a high-fiber granola bar instead of a donut or muffin. Next, try a salad, low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese, a tuna or peanut butter sandwich, and fruit for lunch.
- Mental Health Breaks: Practice stress reducing activities like going for a walk, yoga meditation or deep breathing to help reduce your food cravings.
Conclusion
Implementing even a few of these tips to supercharge your diet and lifestyle, especially increasing home cooked meals and consistent exercise, can ignite improved diet outcomes. Use these lifestyle recommendations as daily habits to create ideal conditions for your meals to properly nourish on a cellular level and drive good health. Staying consistent with as many tips as feasible tailored to your needs will yield long term diet transformations. Fuel your body with the right nutrients, embrace mindful eating, and let the positive changes ripple through every aspect of your life.