First of all, I’d like to sincerely apologize for jinxing the weather this week by writing about how nice it was last week. It looks like I may be the sole reason winter is back – my bad y’all! Hopefully Mother Nature finds her cool here pretty soon.

Anyway, I’d like to talk about healthy eating habits a little bit this week. For those of you who read my blog regularly, know I’m a pretty big exercise fanatic. I work really hard at what I do, and I sincerely believe that incoporating even a few minutes of exercise daily is extremely important. But being healthy is only 20% exercise – the rest is what you put in your body.

For those of you who also know me very well, know that I LIVE to eat. I can easily out-eat Dan and there are very few foods I won’t eat. And while I am very good about exercising and working off a lot of what I put in my body, I’ve also developed some eating habits that help keep me nice and healthy, and I’d like to share some of those with you.

Keep in mind, that just because it works for me, doesn’t mean it’s going to work for everyone! You know your own body better than anyone, and you know what’s best for you.

Drink more water. This probably seems obvious and I’m sure you’ve heard it a bunch of times, but it’s so true. Other than coffee, I pretty much only drink water on a daily basis. I’m not always good about getting exactly the right amount of water you should intake every day, but I try my best. One trick my dad showed me, is that if you drink a full 16 ounce glass of water before you eat a meal, you will feel full quicker, and therefore you won’t over indulge with food. Give it a try, it works!

Set limits for yourselves. Even if you’re trying to lose weight, that doesn’t mean you can’t still have the delicious food that’s not good for you. It just means that you need to watch how much of it you eat. One of my all time favorite foods is chocolate chip cookies. I would eat the whole freaking pan if I could, but I set myself a limit. Growing up, we were never allowed to have more than two cookies at a crack. Now that I’m an adult and I make my own rules, I could easily break that and eat as many cookies as I wanted, but I still stick to that two cookie rule. I’m able to enjoy my favorite foods, while at the same time, I’m not just filling up on the junk food.

PROTEIN!! This is huge. Whether you eat meat or not, make sure you are incoporating some kind of protein into your diet. Not only is it good for you, but it keeps you full longer. Eating salads is fine and dandy, but if it doesn’t have meat, eggs, nuts, or some other kind of protein in it, you’re going to be hungry again in an hour, and you’ll just end up eating even more food. We eat a lot of chicken at my house, for example. It’s a lean meat that’s super healthy, fills you up, and keeps you filled up. I’ve got a lot of chicke recipes if you ever want to try any!

Finally, I try not to eat out very often. I know it’s sometimes easier just to pick something up, especially if you have kids to run around, but it’s usually much healthier to make your own meals. I try to limit myself to eating out only once a week, and then I plan my meals out ahead of time for the week, planning for leftovers on the days I know I won’t have as much time to cook. I don’t personally spend a day a week meal prepping, but I know many people who do. This could be a great way to avoid eating out as well!

I’m sure I have more tips up my sleeve, but I’ll save them for another blog later down the road. 😉 Remember, healthy habits take time, and you are not going to see results over night. Work hard, eat right, and you’ll be on your way to a healthier you!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger