HEALTHY EATING

3 Tips To Eat Healthy This Fall!

It’s that time of the year again! With children now back at school, our work situation is changing again and life takes on some patterns of being a more regular routine.

Having a routine is important to stay on track with your goals, and that includes your health goals! We all know how busy life can get, which makes it ever more crucial to have a solid plan when it comes to our nutrition habits.

Fall is the season of ever-changing leaves colors (well, maybe not in Miami) and colorful vegetables! Let’s take advantage of this time to add some more color to our plates. Here are three tips to eating healthier this fall:

1. Add color to your plate! Think of pumpkins (obviously), squash, beets, carrots, cauliflower, radishes, brussels sprouts, sweet potato… The more colorful your plate is, the more nutrients and vitamins you will be eating! Eating nutrient dense foods will make you feel fuller and give you more energy throughout the day. Always make sure you have plenty of colorful vegetables, some complex carbs, healthy fats and protein at every meal.

2. Count the ingredients in your products! This one might be confusing at first, but let me make it simple. When you buy a pre-mixed fruit juice at the supermarket, read the label. How many ingredients are listed?

If there is anything more than fruit, for example sugar
or high fructose corn syrup and other unpronounceable preservatives, you should stay away. That would be around

4 to 10 ingredients. If you make juice at home, how many ingredients are in it? Most likely 1 to 4, and it’s all fruit. The fewer ingredients are in your food, the better, especially when they’re ingredients you can actually pronounce and know what they are.

3. Plan your meals! Take 2 hours once a week to plan your meals. Decide what you are going to eat 80% of the time. Always leave 20% of your meals unplanned if you go out with friends/family, or decide to order your favorite takeout. Then plan which ingredients to buy, and prep your food in advance. This should not take more than 2-3 hours and can be done on Sunday morning. If you do this, you can have 8 meals prepped and ready to eat from Monday to Thursday! Keep it simple, not every meal has to be an elaborate dish. If you are not a cook, you can still do this. Simply plan what you will eat, buy it in advance, and you won’t find yourself starving at mealtime and buying what’s most convenient (junk food). You can also purchase food through a meal prep company, like Earth Meal Plans. You can choose your meals every week from a rotating menu, and the meals are delivered straight to your door. Meals from meal prep companies are often healthier and “cleaner” than your typical takeout.

Just like you plan your day or your workload, planning your meals and making them fun is key to sticking to a routine throughout the year. Take advantage of this fall season and its delicious fresh vegetables to make your meals more delicious than ever!