10 easy ways to eat healthier
Just like that, we find ourselves in another new year, and lots of us tend to have the same idea after the indulgences of Christmas: healthy eating!
Now is a great time to start eating healthier, but it isn’t as difficult as you may think. Instead of a dramatic dietary shift, there are in fact small changes you can make which will make a big difference – as well as being much easier to swallow.
Here are our 10 easy ways to eat healthier this year.
1. Get creative in the kitchen!
We love a takeaway just as much as the next person, but making a conscious effort to cook as much as you can at home is a good starting point to eating healthier. It’s also a satisfying thing to do!
If the thought of creating in the kitchen gives you a cold sweat, there are easy ways to cook tasty and healthy meals with minimal effort.
A slow cooker is a fuss-free way to tasty food. A small amount of prep in the morning, leave it be until the evening, and voila – dinner is served!
These are also great for batch cooking. Simply store leftovers in a container and save for lunches, or pop in the freezer for those days when you don’t have energy to create from scratch.
2. Cut down on fried food
Reducing the amount of fried food we consume is a big step towards eating healthier and is also a great excuse to try out some new recipes and techniques.
Poaching is a gentle cooking method which involves cooking in a pot of gently simmering water. Fish works particularly well with this, and you can flavour the water with lemon, peppercorns, or anything else that takes your fancy!
Roasting is good for larger ingredients, and veggies can be steamed or boiled.
For fast and healthy cooking, you could look at everyone’s favourite kitchen gadget: the air fryer. Although this doesn’t ‘fry’ your food, it saves you time in the kitchen, and the kids may still think it’s fried!
3. Get the fruit and veggies in!
Everyone knows that eating 5 portions of fruit or veg a day is a healthy option, but how many of us actually manage it?
Variety is the spice of life, so mix up your vegetable intake by making soups!
Not only are these incredibly easy to make with dedicated soup makers and blenders, they’re great for freezing, ready to reheat whenever you need a quick and healthy meal.
Another way of getting more fruit and veggies in your life is simply substituting ingredients. Try using spring greens as wraps for a tasty dinner with a healthy kick, and swap out your morning cereal with a sweet and refreshing fruit bowl with chopped nuts.
4. Make your veg go further
Depending on how many people you’re cooking for, it can be difficult sometimes to get through all the veg that you buy. We never want to waste anything, so if there’s too much produce for you to get through, you have options.
A traditional method to preserve fruit and vegetables is pickling. You can pickle just about anything, and they’ll add incredible depth of flavour to whatever you’re serving. If stored properly, they’ll also last for months!
All you need is vinegar, water, salt, a good quality jar, and any other flavourings that you fancy. Make it yours!
You can also freeze most vegetables in food bags to use later. Just chop them up on the day of purchase and take out what you need before boiling or steaming.
5. Stay hydrated
Aim to get through about 6-8 glasses of water a day to avoid dehydration and keep your body fighting fit.
Have a water bottle with you at home or work and remember that tea counts! Treat yourself to a mid-afternoon teapot of herbal or fruit tea for soothing self-care.
6. Slow-release energy
Snacking is the enemy of healthy eating unless you switch it out for fruit. To avoid those snacky cravings, include some starchy carbs in your diet. Some tasty examples of these would be:
- Potatoes
- Brown rice
- Wholemeal bread
- Pasta
Ingredients like these contain half the calories of fat and plenty of fibre to keep you fuller for longer. It’s a win-win!
7. No more boring salads!
There’s no such thing as a boring salad, only boring dressings! You don’t have to go out and buy salad dressing – you can make it easily at home in a clean jar.
Pour a small amount of vinegar (white wine vinegar or cider vinegar is nice) and roughly 3 times as much olive oil – a little Dijon mustard and seasoning makes for a nice and refreshing dressing.
By making it yourself, you can make as much or as little as you like to avoid waste.
8. Swap out saturated fats
It’s okay to indulge every now and again, but try and cut down on saturated fats: things like butter, cream and cheese.
An easy swap would be using veg oil instead of butter for cooking and buying low-fat spread for your mid-morning toast.
Instead of lathering fruit with cream, use yoghurt instead as it’s lower in fat and has healthier properties.
9. Keep an eye on sugar
Sugar is in an alarming amount of the foods we buy, even white bread. What’s it doing in there?!
Getting your sugar intake from fruit is a healthier option, but avoid too much fruit juice. Without the fibre you get from eating fruit, your body ends up taking on a lot more sugar than it should.
10. Get active!
We’re not saying that you need to take up jogging or hot yoga (unless you want to), but exercise goes hand-in-hand and foot-in-shoe with a healthy lifestyle.
Use this opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors. Doing garden work as we prepare for Spring (won’t be long now, honest) or joining the kids on a bike ride will help you stay active and feeling fit!
For more information on healthy living, the NHS has some recommendations of their own here.
We hope you have a happy and healthy new year! For more inspiration for the year ahead, visit us on Facebook, Instagram or X or TikTok.
