Everyone understands the importance of healthy eating, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to achieve. When you’re trying to eat healthily you might feel that there are some barriers in the way. 

What are the common barriers to healthy eating?

Many people feel that lack of time is a healthy eating barrier, when you’re in a rush it can be tempting to grab something quick and unhealthy. What’s more, eating healthy involves a planning process, you might need to find recipes and plan your meals. Another key barrier is feeling stressed, many of us tend to crave unhealthy drinks and foods when we are feeling stressed out. Overcoming these barriers takes time and a process of trial and error. 

Luckily, there are plenty of resources and tips which can help you to get into a good routine. Let’s explore a few options.

Healthy Eating Tips

1. Establish your reasons

Sometimes it can be hard to motivate yourself to eat healthily. It can be useful to establish your reasons, think about why you are seeking to improve your diet in the first place? Perhaps you’re looking to lose weight and get in shape? Maybe you’re looking to improve your nutritional health? You might be interested in boosting your immune system or eating to improve your mood. Figuring out your reasons can help you to stay focused and on the right track.

2. Put easy goals in place

When you’re looking to eat healthier it can help to set yourself healthy goals. It’s best to set goals that are fairly easy (goals that are too hard will only demotivate you). Here are a few examples to give you some inspiration:

• Eat fully healthy 5 days a week with 2 cheat days.
• Learn a healthy recipe every weekend.
• Plan your shopping every Sunday evening, to help you stay organized.
• Eat at least 5 different veggies a day.
• Combine your healthy eating plan with exercising at least 3 times a week.

3. Improve your cooking skills

If you want to eat healthier it can be useful to improve your cooking skills. When you improve your cooking skills you’re likely to enjoy cooking more, (which can help to motivate you)! There are plenty of different ways that you can improve your cooking skills, including:

• Try cooking apps and listen to cookery podcasts.
• Take a cooking class or a course.
• Treat yourself to some new culinary tools.
• Host more dinner parties and get feedback.
• Read cooking blogs and get tips.

4. Supplements to help

There are lots of different supplements which can support a healthy eating regime. If you’re looking to boost your immune system you can try supplements like vitamin D, vitamin C, elderberry, or echinacea.

Perhaps you’re looking to lose weight? If so there are many supplements that can help here too. According to WebMD Green tea extract is useful to ‘curb your appetite and raise calorie and fat metabolism’. B vitamins are also helpful to boost your metabolism, these vitamins help the body to metabolize fats, proteins, and carbs. The Dao Drops brand has some great natural supplements to support weight loss. Try the Skinny Drops these are made with green tea, dandelion root, nettle leaf, and more.

5. Avoid being too strict

When you’re trying to be healthy, being too strict on yourself can be demotivating. You’ll want to allow yourself a few ‘days off’ where you can eat whatever you like! Moderation is the way forward, and it’s fine to indulge in a few treats from time to time.

Resources for eating healthier 

6 . Food Monster

Food Monster is an application with thousands of vegan recipes, there are new offerings added each day. There are plenty of categories and filters, so it’s easy to find the dishes you’ll love. It’s not just an app for vegans, if you’re looking to eat more green foods  these recipes are just perfect. Call yourself a flexitarian and try a few tasty vegan meals a week! There’s a useful meal plan feature where you can find selected recipes, arranged according to diet type. There are so many benefits to eating more vegetables, from boosting the immune system to improving energy levels. If you’re interested in plant-based cooking this is the app for you.

7. FoodPrint

The FoodPrint app prompts users to input their medical profile, preferences, and goals. Using this info, the app helps you to determine what you should be eating. The health coach feature will support you to track your diet and learn more about health and nutrition. The application offers a breakdown of your habits, lifestyle, and nutritional health, and provides suggestions for improvement. Using FoodPrint you can take pictures of your meals and track your progress. On the app, you’ll find healthy recipes, a barcode scanner, and personalized tips.

8. Epicurious 

The Epicurious app has plenty of food videos, covering all the healthy and delicious dishes you could dream of. There are lots of cool features to check out including culinary tips, shopping lists, a smart timer, and an ingredients toggle. You can use the app to find seasonal ingredients and foods sourced from nearby farms. The app has a range of tasty recipe ideas on offer whether you’re looking for gluten-free, vegan, or meat recipes.

9. LifeSUM

LifeSUM is a handy app that can help you to find healthy recipes and track your diet. A few of the main features include a food diary, diet plan, calorie counter, and macro calculator. There are plenty of different diet plans to choose from whether you’re looking for a paleo diet, keto diet, sugar-free or vegan. Whether you’re losing weight or improving your nutritional health, this application is the perfect tool. 

Using the food planner you can choose from a huge range of healthy recipes, and set yourself healthy eating goals. The app also features a barcode scanner, so it’s easy to log what you eat.

10. Dishing Up Nutrition

For an amazing healthy eating podcast, tune in to ‘Dishing Up Nutrition’ here you’ll learn about the connection between the foods you eat and how you feel. In these episodes, you’ll get practical and actionable advice from dietitians and licensed nutritionists. Here you’ll find out how foods can decrease inflammation, restore digestion, reboot metabolism, increase energy, and more. Each week the hosts answer listener’s questions, expect discussions on supplements, cooking nutrition issues, and more.

11. The Love Food Podcast

If your relationship with food feels a little complicated, then this is the podcast for you. The show focuses on healthy eating tips and helping people to improve their relationship with food. A few of the topics covered include mindful eating, non diet approaches, weight concerts, emotional eating, and food addiction. Episodes on the show have discussed, ‘Top 3 Reasons Your Diet Is Failing’ and ‘Sustainable Food Journeys’. The Love Food Podcast will help you to reevaluate your eating habits, and make positive changes.

12. The Food Heaven Podcast

The Food Heaven Podcast was created by Wendy Lopez and Jessica Jones. On every show they chat with nutritional experts, here you’ll learn plenty about leading healthier styles. Many different topics are covered on the show, from food and culture to body image and mental health. Need some ideas for eating healthy on a budget? Looking to learn about the importance of BMI? Here you’ll get all the great healthy eating tips you’ll need. 

With any luck, these resources and tips will help you to perfect your healthy eating regime. Once you establish a few healthy habits, you’ll soon get into the swing of things.