Outlining Your Basic Daily Nutrition

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With so many different diet options and so much differing nutritional advice out there, it can be difficult to know what works and what doesn’t. Some people will tell you eating a balanced diet is important. Others will tell you that it doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you eat the right number of calories. Regardless of what you’ve heard, here are some tried and true tips to help you develop the right daily habits for good nutrition.

SEE ALSO: 10 Important Do’s And Don’ts For A Healthy Lifestyle

Eat whole foods

First, eating real food goes a long way in helping you develop good habits. This means avoiding processed foods. To avoid processed foods, look for foods placed on the exterior aisles of the grocery store, rather than those that are stored in interior aisles. A lot of times, these foods are going to have one or just a couple ingredients, which means less processing. Consuming these foods will give you a better balance of fiber and micronutrients. Both should be important priorities in your diet.

Eat micronutrients

If you’re unfamiliar with the term micronutrients, it’s simply the vitamins and minerals in your food. Your body uses these in different ways, including cell health, fighting diseases and in hormone regulation. This means they’re important.

You should eat a variety of foods to make sure you’re getting the right micronutrients. If you ever find you’re having trouble eating a balanced diet full of fruits and veggies, or if blood work has shown a deficit in certain vitamins, you may want to consider a supplement, like the Thrive Patch. This patch delivers vitamins and antioxidants to your body on a time release, making it easier for your body to use and process them.

Don’t eat empty carbs

When talking about micronutrients, it’s important to talk about empty carbs. Empty carbohydrates are heavily processed, refined foods that lack essential nutrients. Simply put, they have no real health benefits. Great example of empty carbs are sugary drinks. A soda can contain 40 or more carbs in one drink. Since your body processes liquid differently than solid foods, your body will still feel hungry after drinking, so you’re more likely to eat even more empty carbs. If you’re in the mood for soda, try a carbonated, flavored water instead.

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Count your macronutrients

Another reason to avoid empty carbs is that consuming a lot of empty carbs throws your macronutrient balance out of whack. To stay balanced, you should eat a balance of protein, fat and carbs, the macronutrients. Your diet should be about 30% protein, 30% fat and 40% carbs. If you consume carb-based, sugary beverages, this is not going to be easy to achieve. The reason you need to keep your macronutrients in balance is to maintain weight, build muscle and keep energy high. If you’ve ever crashed around 2 or 3 p.m., it’s likely that your macros are out of balance ,because you ate something very sugary or fatty early in the day.

Cook and eat your own meals

To make sure you’re eating the right balance of foods, prioritize cooking and eating your own meals. It’s a lot easier to control what you’re putting in your body if you’re the one making it. If you don’t have a lot of time during the week, consider food prepping on the weekend. Spend a couple of hours on Sunday making food for the week. Then, stick to eating it. This is efficient and it helps encourage good health.

Drink water

In addition to eating meals you’ve cooked at home, it’s important to drink a lot of water. In part, focusing on drinking water helps you avoid those sugary drinks. It can also keep you from overeating. A lot of times, your body signals that you need something, and you assume it’s food. It could actually be that you’re thirsty. Drinking a glass of water could potentially take away those food cravings. Water also protects your spinal cord and joints, along with being good for gut health and regulating body temperature.

From eating well balanced meals to drinking water, this is only the start of good healthy habits. But everyone has to start somewhere!

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