Kitchen Designers





HEALTHY EATING









To get on the healthy eating track, pay attention to what you eat.

To get on the healthy eating track, pay attention to what you eat, what you snack on, what the nutrition labels say, how you prepare foods and how you handle hunger.

What You Eat
It is often against our instincts to make a meal that revolves around rice and vegetables rather than meat and potatoes, but it is important to go beyond your first instinct to plan a healthy meal. Try to keep track of the meals you've eaten during the week, if it seems that you've been eating an inordinate amount of foods from the meat and cheese group, make an extra effort to round out your next few meals with foods from the remaining groups. Meal planning is an excellent way to stay on the healthy eating track. Plan meals in advance and keep your cupboards stocked with foods that can be made into quick well-balanced meals on days when there isn't time or energy to plan.

What You Snack On
Put fruits and vegetables on your snacks list. Rather than grabbing a bag of crisps while you're in the office, keep a supply of dried fruit and vegetables at your desk, this way you'll cut extra, unplanned fat and sodium from your diet.

Read the Labels
Be sure to read the nutritional labels on the foods you buy. Find out if the foods you eat daily actually have the nutritional elements that you expect, want and need. Note that the "serving size" on each label doesn't mean that is how much you should eat. Instead, it is telling you the size of food that has been used to determine how much fats, vitamins, and minerals are in a certain amount of the food under scrutiny.

How You Prepare Your Food
Use cooking methods that maintain your healthy objectives. Boil, steam, fry in a non-stick pan, roast, or bake your dishes. Instead of using oil when sautéing vegetables, use 2 tablespoons of water. Place the water and vegetables in the pan and saute as if you were using oil. Your vegetables will cook without any added fat!

Remember that Hunger is the Ultimate Bad Influence
If you put off eating for too long, not only will your body not have the energy that it needs to make it through the day, but you will be more likely to forego healthy eating in favour of a quick snack or a fatty meal from a fast food restaurant. When you put off grocery shopping until you are really hungry, you are more likely to buy foods that you wouldn't, if you had been thinking clearly. Try and shop when you have a full stomach!