How Will You Enjoy Your Healthy Meals?

Congratulations on making it through the Lark DPP mission on enjoying healthy foods. The various check-ins offered suggestions for making healthy foods delicious and easy to choose, and some of these ideas may have appealed to you. Here are some suggestions to think about.

Making Healthy Choices Taste Great

It is easier to make the "right" choice when it is also the tasty choice. Trying new foods and recipes, using a variety of spices, and making small swaps in traditional recipes can lay the foundation for making a whole delicious-tasting world of nutrient-dense, weight loss-promoting foods.

Fighting Feeling Hangry

People who are feeling hangry can lash out at others, pick fights, find supposedly-easy tasks too difficult, and get frustrated easily. Eating regular meals and snacks that include fiber and protein and staying hydrated can help prevent feeling hangry, which is a combination of hunger and anger. It is also good to know the warning signs so you can get a quick snack before doing too much damage.

Putting Healthy Foods within Reach

Our busy lives can make us lean towards choosing anything that is more convenient and faster. That can spell trouble when it comes to food because "convenience" and "speed" often translate to processed, packaged, and fast foods, which do not bode well for losing weight and lowering diabetes risk. Preparing healthier foods can make better choices easier, so it is helpful to have healthy snacks on hand and nutritious meals planned or prepped ahead of time.

Enjoying Guilty Pleasures without Guilt

Everyone deserves a treat sometimes, and the occasional treat can fit into a diet for losing weight and lowering diabetes risk. Along with keeping them occasional rather than everyday, and keeping portions in check, it can help to think carefully about which treats you really want and which less-healthy foods you may be choosing simply out of habit or convenience. In those cases, it helps to have healthier alternatives more readily available.

Which of these do you think you might be able use as you keep tweaking your healthy eating plan? The more strategies you try, the better you will become at learning to love healthy foods. Lark DPP is happy to be on the journey with you!