As Kelowna’s natural house cleaners, keeping family homes clean and healthy is something our team fulfills on a daily basis. It’s what we practice, what we research, and what we continuously strive to improve in order to offer you the best eco-friendly cleaning available. We lay the groundwork for a healthy home through our cleaning and sanitizing methods, and then we explore our passion for holistic living to complete the cycle - healthy home, healthy body, healthy mind, and healthy planet.
Our ‘Building Healthy Habits’ blog series is designed to help you build one new habit every month. Overwhelming ourselves and our families in the search for perfection just leads to frustration and reluctance. The key is to make these routines simple and achievable. This week we’re going to be focusing on how you and your family can make simple changes to consistently eat healthier, and feel better.
Diet and nutrition plays a massive role in how we feel. We all know healthy eating habits are important, but they can also be challenging with the busy lifestyles of the modern family.
Here are a few tips that are quick and easy to implement without putting too much stress on the mind or finances.
Meal planning
Think ahead and plan out your meals. This way when hunger strikes, you already have nutritious snacks and meals ready to go. There’s no need to reach for the KD or chips when you’ve got something just as easy in the fridge. My favourite way to do this is to base my meals around local, seasonal produce. This gives you a direction and starting point for your meal planning, and this type of produce is generally a lot cheaper and has a much lower carbon footprint than imported produce.
Not only is this a great way to eat better, but it can also save you a lot of money and cut down on food waste if you plan your meals out to use up ingredients on hand. There are so many great resources for meal planning these days - just take a look through Pinterest for some healthy ideas.
Time your grocery shopping
The old adage about not shopping on an empty stomach is so true! Go after breakfast or lunch and keep your vision of a healthy refrigerator and pantry front and center while you’re in the store. Make sure you bring along your grocery list too and whenever possible, avoid the snack aisle - there’s likely nothing there you need anyway. When you come home loaded with healthy, yet tasty snacks such as fruit, yogurt, nuts, and even some dark chocolate, you won’t have to say ‘No’ quite so often at home. Double Win!
Control the serving size.
Are your eyes bigger than your stomach? I know mine are! I take way more than I need, then I keep eating until it’s gone just because it’s there. One of the easiest ways to avoid over-eating is to simply reduce the size of the plate or bowl. We generally fill our plates to capacity, so reducing the size of the plate naturally reduces the amount we eat.
Eat intentionally and not out of boredom.
Have you ever found yourself standing over the kitchen sink, eating something you thought would be delicious, and then abruptly realizing it was gone and you never tasted any of it? Or watching Netflix and finishing a whole bag of chips or popcorn? You’re not alone. Here’s what we find helps us to avoid eating for entertainment:
Family dinners: One of our family rituals is to eat regular meals together without any distractions. This is great quality time with the fam and it teaches our littles good eating habits too.
Keep your hands busy with other things. Ditch the Netflix/gummy bear habit and consider doing something else with your hands - knitting, drawing, painting your nails - anything that keeps your hands busy without the hand-to-mouth model.
Go to bed early! It’s so easy to mindlessly ingest five hundred empty calories, so if you’re going to eat that second piece of chocolate cake after everyone else is in bed - enjoy every bite! Better yet, go to bed with everyone else and avoid the temptation.
SAVOUR. Food can be a source of pleasure as well as a necessary sustenance, so practice being mindful of every morsel that enters your mouth. Savour it, relish it and appreciate every simple or complex flavour within.
Limit eating out.
This is something that everyone has had pushed upon them due to COVID-19. While we can’t wait to be allowed back out for brunch or drinks (because nobody likes being told they can’t do something), making this a treat rather than the norm will help you save money and eat healthier! Rather than meeting friends for wings or drinks when the doors open back up, maybe agree to meet for a walk instead, and enjoy a nice visit while also getting some outdoor exercise. This is the perfect time to establish a new habit when it comes to dining out!
Hydrate!
Drink water - especially in the morning. You’ll feel more energized and less hungry all day long!
How do you encourage healthy eating habits in your family? We’d love to know! Stay tuned for the next segment of our Healthy Habits series coming in June!