Feeling happy while eating healthy food is easier than you think because Ingesting natural and nutritious food makes you immediately feel more energetic.
However, stress, social eating, and old unhealthy eating habits can make it a difficult task.
In this post we will look at different aspects involved in making healthy food choices.
First, we will look at some common problems related to feeling happy while eating healthy food. Then, we will talk about common ways we sabotage our efforts to choose healthy food. Lastly, you will find specific steps that will ensure that you can feel happy while making healthy food choices.
Why is it Difficult to Choose Healthy Food?
For many people making good food choices is a challenge especially when they are under stress.
There are fatty and sugary temptations everywhere and it can feel like we are depriving ourselves when choosing a salad over a hamburger or water instead of a smoothie.
Moreover, our goal of eating nutritious food is challenged everyday by all the convenient but not so healthy food options.
How many times did you start a new diet that was supposed to change your eating habits for the better only to go back to unhealthy eating habits a few days later?
Every time we fail at something, even if it is a little change in our diet we feel discouraged and frustrated.
Furthermore, we think how will I ever achieve anything meaningful in my life if I’m unable to keep my eating habits under control?
Have you been thinking about changing your eating habits? Many people try to:
- eat small portions
- choose healthy snacks
- count calories
- eat more often
- fast for longer periods of time
- try a new diet
- take out one unhealthy item from your diet such as fatty foods, sugar, or carbs
We spend a lot of time analyzing, planning, studying, organizing, and getting ready for a diet.
Later, we think about when to start and how to make it a successful change. We don’t want to start something and then give up feeling like a failure.
Should we start Monday or next month? We need to get ourselves ready, let the people around us know, and make a plan for success.
Then, something happens and we move the starting date further into the future.
Let’s look at an example of what happens to many of us when we decide to lose some weight or adopt healthier eating habits.
You are what you eat, so don’t be fast, cheap, easy, or fake.
Unknown
Susan’s Goal is to Eat Healthy Food and Lose Weight
It’s Wednesday. Susan decides to start a new diet on Monday. Here is how she gets ready:
- Reads about all the benefits of ingesting certain types of food
- Stocks up the refrigerator and pantry with groceries she is allowed to eat
- Keeps the calorie count chart handy
- Researches healthy sweet treats and snacks with low calorie count to enjoy without regrets.
- Prepares some containers to take healthy food to work
- Cuts out pictures of women’s bodies that she would like to have and puts them in places where she will see them frequently and be reminded of her goal
Susan is up to a great start.
Find out How Working on Your Goals Makes You Happy
Then, Life Happens
During the weekend, Susan spends time with family and friends.
As she’s going to start her diet on Monday, she indulges in everything she knows she won’t be eating for a long time. After the party her clothes are tighter and her tummy feels boated.
It’s Monday.
Susan thinks about all the junk food that she loves and won’t be able to eat anymore. But she’s excited to start her day with protein and veggies.
She makes herself two scrambled eggs with a kale salad. She imagines herself in the perfect body she taped on the inside door of the pantry.
This is definitely a new beginning.
After her healthy breakfast, she feels energized and light.
She is ready to start an amazing day.
If you keep good food in your fridge, you will eat good food.
Errick McAdams
Temptations
At the office are big, shiny, chocolate covered, and creme filled donuts to celebrate a coworkers birthday.
Just looking at them, Susan feels her mouth watering. Most people around her, indulge in the sweet treat.
Susan is able to control the impulse to grab one and says no thank you. She would love to try one.
Now, it’s lunch time. The air is filled with all the different fast food smells. Her friend enjoys a sauce dripping meal while Susan nibbles on a salad.
Later, she gets a big cup of coffee to keep herself awake during the afternoon.
After 30 minutes, and some stomach growling, Susan runs to the restroom to find out she has diarrhea. While sitting on the toilet, she concludes that this is not working. She will start a different diet, probably next Monday.
If you want to break the vicious cycle of dieting and overeating follow the steps below.
By choosing healthy over skinny you are choosing self-love over self-judgement.
Steve Maraboli
6 – Steps to Feel Happy While Eating Healthy Food
1 – Anticipate Difficulties
Think back on your life or the life of others. How likely is it that everything will go as planned? Be mentally prepared for difficulties. Use them as a learning experience. There may be:
- Delays in obtaining the desired result. We don’t immediately feel more energetic, light and joyful.
- People who don’t agree, question, or argue about the benefits of our goal. “Sugar can have beneficial effects on your brain.”
- Unexpected events or circumstances that prevent us from moving forward. There is a party we have to attend, the grocery store run out of our favorite food, someone gets sick or has an accident. Our stress level increases and we lose focus on our goal.
- We find out that the plan doesn’t work. Our body is not responding as expected to our new diet. Is it time to adjust our goals?
2 – Take Action Right Now
Don’t wait for Monday, next month, or tomorrow. Start immediately with what you have and wherever you are.
If your goal is to eat healthier or loose weight, ask yourself:
- What choices can I make today to start working on that goal?
- Could I walk away from a situation where everyone is eating unhealthy food?
- What is the healthiest choice?
- What food will make me feel good?
- Why not quench my thirst with water and take a few sips of my favorite sugary beverage instead of gulping down a large cup?
- What about stretching or going for a walk before grabbing a snack?
Above all, don’t wait for everything to be perfect, start now.
3 – Chunk it Down
It’s easy to get discouraged when thinking about all the unhealthy food choices we love and how bad they are for our health.
Start with a little change that doesn’t feel like you are depriving yourself of all the food you love.
For example, if you want to loose 20 pounds in 4 weeks, how many calories do you need to reduce today? How much exercise do you need to complete? What are your daily and weekly objectives to reach your monthly goal?
Healthy eating is a way of life, so it’s important to establish routines that are simple, realistically, and ultimately livable.
Horace
4 – Keep the End Result in Mind
Imagine that you already achieved your goal.
Picture in your mind people congratulating you and asking you how you did it. Feel healthy, energetic, and light right now.
If you need help with this step read How to be Happy Using Visualization.
5 – Keep Going Even if you Stumble
Don’t feel discouraged if you ate a whole bag of chips, enjoyed half of a cake, or gulped down a 500 calorie smoothie.
Nobody is perfect. It’s a learning experience. Let’s keep going.
- If you ate some unhealthy food, think: what will you do next time when you feel the temptation?
- Do you feel nauseated just from looking at broccoli? Is it time to expand your options and explore different types of food?
- Is stress pushing you into bad eating choices? How could you feel more relaxed? Could you sleep or rest more?
- If you indulged in some unhealthy food would some walking or exercising help you release some of that remorse?
Don’t abandon your healthy eating goals just because something went wrong. Think why it happened and what you can change so it won’t happen again.
Life changes and we’ll need to rethink our goals and the steps we need to take to achieve them.
6 – Surround Yourself with Like Minded People
It’s easier to feel happy while achieving your goal of choosing healthy food if other people around you have a similar goal.
You will share recipes, strategies, and tips on what worked for others and what worked for you. Look for at least one person who also wants to improve his/her eating habits.
Enjoy the Day
Finally, no matter what happens, make sure you take actions to be happy eating healthy food.
Find out How to Go From Overwhelmed to Happy
What healthy eating goals are you trying to accomplish? Let me know in the comments below
You are powerful beyond measure, you just need to believe it. Cut out the negative in your life and seek out what inspires you.
#6 is a gem. If you surround yourself with like minded people, more than likely you will be just like them. You are who you surround yourself with!
This is all so true. I have – many times – found myself resolved to eat healthier and exercise more and then… as you said… life happens. But it’s important to just keep trying!
Really good post, practical tips that could support a person during her transition. Eating living food is easy. We just need to attempt it again and again.
These are wonderful tips! For the past few weeks, I’ve dramatically reduced my carb and sugar intake and I have already noticed a positive difference with my health.
Great post we always need to try again and again
I used to be someone who protested changing my eating habits. I realized eating unhealthy food was taking a toll on my heath and healthy eating was the way to shake me to do better. I am happier now anyways because of how I changed my eating habits I feel good eating well.
When your body feels happy with the food – you feel happy as well. Healthy inside and outside – this is the best combination. I love the ideas and tips you’ve put together here.
It’s so awkward to read something about being happy eating healthy food. Because they are just delicious, but yeah, my kids aren’t happy eating veggies but I am not giving up.
Once you get through the phase where you crave unhealthy foods (they’re addicting) you’ll feel so much better!
Great article. I love the 5 steps to feel happy when eating healthy foods. A healthy lifestyle or diet, whatever you call it, can be very hard if you don’t have like minded people around you to support you. Thanks for sharing
It is hard to get into a routine of eating healthy and in my experience, it takes about 2 weeks to do so. After that it gets easier and easier to refuse temptations because your body is not craving sugar anymore.
Yep, I think we’ve all been there. I’ve found that having an app to track my meals with reminders helps a lot. It’s about consistency. And, you mentioned surrounding yourself with like-minded people, but that also goes for your family. If my husband and kids aren’t on board with no more sweets then it’s hard for me to say no when they are in the pantry.
Although all of this is greatly informative, I think 2 and 6 are very important. You can’t keep putting it off until next Monday etc, nor can you expect to get anywhere if you aren’t surrounded by like-minded people.
Keep going even if you stumble!!! Yesss!!! Thank you so much for sharing all these amazing tips, THANK YOU…
these are great tips and i agree with surrounding yourself with like-minded people because they will be the one who will continuously encourage and remind you of your health goals.
I’m a foody person and liked the dish and I hope, I can make the same.
#2 & #3 i think these will work well. When we will start to eat healthy food then if we focus on our goal to lose weight then it will easier to eat healthy food with happiness.
I recently read the f*ck it diet book and it was utterly fascinating. I love it’s outlook on how to approach food. Removing guilt is a huge part of that.
I think anticipation is so important! Keeping foods accessible at all times makes it so much easier to make decisions that are right for you.
I enjoyed the post for sure and overcoming all of the obstacles of dieting is super important for success. Enjoyed the post and bookmarked so I can comes back 🙂
This is such a great post, so relatable! The hardest part for me is temptation. Especially with friends!
i’m such a big healthy food person i really love healthy food because it makes my skin so good and it’s really beneficial in the long run
There are so many great tips here! One I find the most important is to keep going even when you stumble. It’s too easy to give up an entire day after eating one bad thing, but that it not how it should be! Accepting that you made a mistake and moving on is the trick.
These are all sensible tips. Honestly, though, over time your body DOES change and eating less-healthy stuff just doesn’t make you feel GOOD anymore – you feel sluggish, irritable, etc. and you just long for a good plate of fresh veggies. At least I do!
I like that you have touched on this theme because it is a popular idea that healthy food is not good or makes you happy …
It’s definitely a process, but for me, it’s the best decision I ever made. Healthy is the way to go!
Moving forward with the end in mind is what pushes me forward. I love these points.
Surrounding yourself with like-minded people matters a lot. I understand that not everyone is going to understand what you are trying to do, but it’s so refreshing to sit and eat with others who are doing it for their optimum health.
Eating healthy and staying healthy has always been a priority and I think this food is just perfect for my goal. Thanks for sharing this.
These are some great tips! I am trying to gain weight, but completely avoiding junk food. I know junk food can easily help me with weight gain, but eating healthy food is more important ☺
Like any other change in life, you need to want it. Unfortunately with weight loss, there is no simple pill to take. It takes work and patience. Setting goals as discussed helps tremendously as does finding like-minded people. It involves making better decisions. It’s easy to say eat less and workout more. That doesn’t work for everyone.
I need help with this so I am very happy when I saw your latest post, Norma! It is so easy eating fast when you are out and about. Eating nutritious food free from fats and sugars can be hard but this trusted guide is an amazing read.
LOVE everything about this! Eating healthy has always been my biggest weakness. I either do great for months or fall off for months. Its a crazy struggle but now that I have read this a few things here will be put into my daily routine! Thank you!!
I struggle with portion sizes as my husband eats a lot and expects me to too
It’s so important to eat healthily.
No matter what happens, make sure you take action to be happy eating healthy food.
I can so relate to Susan, lol! Totally agree with you to immediately get started and to continue even through stumbles. It’s easy to set goals and keep procrastinating and making excuses but just getting started is so important!
I think it’s really in the mind. If we decide that healthy food choices are delicious and so much better, we will choose them. It’s just like my daughter. She has conditioned herself to think in such a way. So she’s a healthy eater. I wish I can do the same haha
This is a very inspiring post and after reading it, I feel much more motivated to start eating healthier.
I think what I am eating is healthy, but I can still improve a lot and learn much more. Probably I will check out your other posts too, so keep going and don’t lose my motivation.
But I can relate to Susan a lot and sometimes it is difficult not to give in and fall in temptations. For me that happens when I am frustrated or sad.
But if I made a mistake, I can keep going.
Thank you so much for writing this.
It’s very important to keep going after making a mistake or choosing unhealthy food. It’s always a good time to start over and make good and healthy choices.
These are such great tips. I think taking it one meal at a time is the way to go to avoid getting overwhelmed and then it just becomes a habit.
This post reminds me of my college days when I was a ovo-vegetarian. It’s not easy and temptations are everywhere, but on the other hand, it felt good, my stomach felt so light after avoiding meats. But it’s very difficult if you don’t surround yourself with like-minded people who have the same goal.
There are some really good tips here. I love to eat healthy, but tend to stray when I am out and about
This is timely for me! I’ve just started a challenge where I focus on getting 10 servings of fruits and veggies every day (focusing more heavily on vegetables) while also exercising more. It’s tough though because I’m pregnant and have worse cravings and less energy than normal. Love these tips! I’m going to share your blog post as I have a few readers who are also joining me on the “Ruvi” (Roots of Life) challenge I’m doing.
I think both ways are hard. The first way that you described and the second. You are right in that it’s best to start right away. And also to not throw in the towel if you make one mistake. But overall, both ways can feel hard. Especially like those examples at work or, for me, having to buy snacks for the kids. They always get me!
I’m always trying to eat healthier. I can’t do it 100% of the time but I try for at least 90% of the time.
I feel like for me I really need to try again the next day and not wait for another Monday or the next month! It’s tough to stay on track but you made some really good points. Thank you!
I always find that the hardest part for me is trying to live in society with my new eating habits. A lot of social functions gather around food. I drive by and see old places I used to eat and the cravings kick in. What I have learned is to give myself a little leeway so I don’t go overboard and then quit until the next month. I also find that it is easier that way so I can still indulge in cravings a little bit instead of going cold turkey.
Awesome! Indulging once in a while in our cravings helps us to stay on track with our healthy eating habits.
I find it tough to eat healthy because I tend to go for the unhealthy snacks if I’m bored. I need to learn to stop being discouraged when I stumble like you mentioned
Some healthy foods I really enjoy such as salads, I love having salads but other healthy foods like those healthy snack bars I don’t like.
It’s great to start small so as not to feel deprived. Sometimes feeling deprived can backfire and make you binge.