How Can We Maintain A Healthy Weight?

 How do we ensure that when we lose weight, we do not resume our old dietary habits, only to find that we have gained weight again. The solution lies in establishing a healthy lifestyle, develop good  eating habits and maintain those habits for all time. In general, once a habit is established, it becomes second nature and easier to follow.

It goes without saying that making a habit of eating healthy foods will go a long way in maintaining a healthy weight.  Eat mainly low fat diet.  A diet is considered low fat if 30% or less of calories comes from fat. Consuming low fat diet has several benefits. Apart from weight loss, low fat diet improves cardiovascular health and reduces the risk of diabetes and some other medical conditions such as cancer.

Eating healthy foods does not have to be that boring or difficult to achieve. There are everyday measures we can adopt to make it easier on us.

One of such measures is to make our grocery list with healthy eating in mind. Make fresh produce the biggest section of your grocery list and include whole foods as much as possible.  Whole foods are highly rated for maintaining a healthy weight, as they do not contain additives, preservatives or other substances that may derail our efforts to maintain a healthy weight.

 An additional benefit of whole foods is that some of the unwanted calories will be expended during the process of preparing the meal. An economic benefit of buying whole foods is that they tend to cost much less since high fat foods such as potato chips tend to be pre-packaged, which adds to their cost.

It is advisable to plan meals ahead, as this helps in compiling a healthy grocery list. This would give us the opportunity to plan ahead and cut back on unhealthy foods, while including healthy foods that we might otherwise not have thought of. We can also avoid the last minute purchase of convenience foods such as fatty ground beef, hot dogs and other such unhealthy meals.

In establishing a habit of eating healthy foods, it is advisable to cut back on eating out, as we do not have control on the exclusion of unhealthy fats in the foods we order. It may be a good idea to visit only restaurants which provide information on the calorie content of the foods they serve.

Eating healthy foods has to be part of a healthy lifestyle. If we consume alcohol, we should do so in moderation.  Regular exercise and getting enough sleep should form part of our habits so that we can maintain a healthy weight that will last a lifetime.