Helpful Tips for Healthy Eating

During sports seasons or after exercise in general, I feel compelled to eat healthy. I think this is because after a workout, game or a run you feel really good and don't want to ruin that by diving into a pint of ice cream or eating a cheese burger...Anyways, by no means would I consider myself a health expert, but I thought I would share some of my favorite healthy snacks and meals along with some tips and tricks! Leave some of your tips below and also comment if you would like to see a healthy snacks post!

Eating Organic// Honestly I don't go to the grocery store with my mom all the time, so I don't know what she buys that is organic and what isn't.  However, last year for my bio final project I was assigned organic foods, so I feel pretty well versed in this topic. Obviously, there are many health benefits to eating organic food, but I thought I would share a few that stood out to me when I did my project. Organic food is actually significantly more flavorful than nonorganic foods, although regular fruits and vegetables appear to look "perfect" they are actually fairly bland. In addition to this all organic foods have a much more antioxidants in them, which have many health benefits in your immune system.

Snacking// I'm not going to lie, sometimes I eat when I'm bored, let's face it a lot of people do. I could sit in my kitchen snacking for hours on whatever I see talking (or ranting) to my friends or parents if there is nothing better to do. When it comes to snacking try to eat things that will fill you up and are not horribly unhealthy. I find that eating things with protein work the best for efficient snacking. I love having pretzel crisps with hummus, bananas with peanut butter, chips and salsa and granola bars.  I might write a post about my favorite snacks in a post soon!

Salads// I am such a sucker for a good salad, especially during the warmer months because everything is so fresh. Sometimes I get home super late with my busy schedule and am just not that hungry. A salad is the perfect small dinner, you get lots of different vegetables, protein (if you add chicken to have some sort of bean) and top it off with your favorite dressing for extra flavor! Salads also make a great school lunch!

Well Balanced Meals// Let's start off with breakfast. Sometimes before school at 7:30 in the morning I'm just not particularly hungry, but I always make an effort to eat something. I few months ago I wrote a post about my favorite smoothies, which are a small healthy on the go breakfast. Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day, you have not eaten anything since the night before so you need to get something in your system. There is nothing worse than having to take a test the period before lunch and not being able to concentrate because you are starving. Eating a well balanced lunch and dinner is a very simple way to stay healthy. Make your proportions just right so that you feel full after a meal, this will stop you from compulsively snacking in between meals or late at night.

xoxo,

Catherine

Preppy by the Sea