Meeting your weight loss goals may be the focal point of your diet, but it’s important to do it healthily. A healthy weight loss plan is the best way to achieve long-term weight loss that you won’t have to revisit a year or two from now.
If you drastically change how you eat, don’t think you can’t make it tasty. Healthy doesn’t mean boring. There are many ways to add flavour, from spices to low-fat or low-calorie alternatives, switching to healthier oils such as olive oil, adding more ingredients in dishes, pulling from vegetables more often and keeping things interesting to taste.
Fortunately, there are many ways to eat without compromising your diet plan and keeping your appetite at bay. Check out these ten healthy food ideas for weight loss.
Idea #1: Eat at home
Firstly, if you want to eat healthier and incur weight loss, great advice is to stop eating out. When we eat out, at restaurants and the like, few of us choose the healthiest or most low-calorie option on the menu. We want what we crave and will eat more than we need. By eating at home, you control what and how much you eat.
Idea #2: Portion control
An important part of healthy eating for weight loss is controlling portions. A portion shouldn’t exceed a plate’s worth of food for a single meal. Approximately half of that plate should be vegetables as well.
If you’re still hungry after a plate, wait about an hour to see if your appetite settles before getting more food. Set the timer even. This is a fine strategy to eat less.
Idea #3: Add a healthy twist to your food
Another healthy food idea for weight loss is to opt for a healthier twist on your favourites. For example, pizza you’d normally eat can be prepared at home with zucchini or cauliflower as the crust. That can save you a ton of calories and still allow you to eat pizza. Look for similar alternatives to your favourite dishes that blend in many of the same tastes.
Idea #4: Make homemade protein bars
Protein bars are costly, but you can make them at home. You can make many recipes, from peanut and oat bars to cherry pie bars, chocolate-cashew protein bars, etc. Protein is a major component of any weight loss plan as it feeds the appetite and is a building block for muscles.
Idea #5: Make spicy soups
Soups are a fun, filling way to play with tastes and get some very healthy meals. A simple noodle soup, something with rice, or a super easy basic soup recipe are great places to start. Customize according to the tastes you like.
You don’t necessarily need to eat things you don’t like. However, you can find many easy-to-make soup recipes that can lead to weight loss when eaten carefully according to portion size.
Idea #6: Pre-plan with meal delivery services
Pre-planning meals is the best way to keep calories down, eat healthily, and lose weight. Food preparation is everything, but not all of us have the time. Healthy meal delivery services are a solid alternative, easy to arrange and can be delivered to your front door. Select a meal delivery service with healthy, weight loss-friendly options.
Idea #7: Be careful eating carbs
Our bodies need carbs for energy, but too many will convert to weight. Be very careful eating carbs in things like pasta and rice. Although these are cheap, filling meals, too much of these will cut down on how much weight you lose. It’s also deceptive because overeating these foods is quite common due to how carb-dense the dishes are.
Idea #8: Eat plant-based foods
You don’t have to eat plant-based or go vegetarian to lose weight. Not at all. However, plant-based alternatives are often less in calories. Some more processed plant-based foods – i.e. Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat – can be calorie-dense and highly processed and don’t necessarily equate to a healthier choice.
Idea #9: Don’t skip breakfast
Breakfast is an important meal for weight loss. As important as any other. You’ve woken up after essentially fasting during sleep. You need to get food in your tummy.
People who skip breakfast are more likely to overeat later in the day. They end up starving themselves in the interim. Have a medium-to-large breakfast with some protein, some veggies, and a small number of carbs.
Idea #10: Pre-make salads and have leftovers ready
Pre-make healthy salads and keep them in the fridge for snacks. When cooking meals on the stove or in the oven, cook a little extra and set it aside for leftovers for the next day or next few days. When you have these things ready, you always have a meal ready and can plan your scheduled eating ahead of time and are less likely to eat unhealthily.
