Many individuals clean their house for spring with hopes of a fresh start to the new season. Pantries need to be cleaned out too! If you have strayed from your New Year’s Resolution of eating healthier, it is not too late. Here are some tips to help you with cleaning up your nutrition and pantry:
1. Get rid of your chips! Chips and other types of crunchy snack like cracker provide very little nutritional value. They contain high numbers of calories and a big percentage of your recommended fat intake. Try making your own “chips” in the oven by roasting very thinly sliced potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash. You’ll still get to enjoy the salty and crunchy snack, but you have eliminated the excess calories of a fried version.
2. Ditch the soft drinks! There are a number of other types of drinks that you can enjoy without adding all of the extra calories. Try infusing water with fruits and berries. You can also brew tea and infuse the tea with fruit.
3. Remove all tempting foods that nobody is going to eat. This includes the leftover Halloween from 5 months ago! You are not a human garbage can!
4. Make simple swaps from simple sugars to complex carbs. This could include using sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. Or using brown rice in place of white rice. You can get creative and try a new food each week. There are many rice substitutes that can be swapped. Riced cauliflower and frozen mixed vegetables are popular choices. There are also many different types of grains that work well too. Quinoa and farro are hailed as super foods in the running community for their unique contents of both protein and fiber.
5. Meal prepping is also a great way to get exactly only what we intend to use. Meal prepping will also save time and money. You save money by not having to take the family out for dinner.
As you can see, you don’t have to make large changes to start cleaning up your nutrition. Now is the best time. Start today!
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