Beating old habits, one trade-off at the time

From www.junkfoodforlife.com

Trying to find a nutritional and effective meal plan to have energy in a natural way is not easy. I used to have the worst eating and sleeping habits, and by making small trade-offs with my self, I have figured out what eating right means.

When I started to sleep at more regular hours and avoiding power naps during the afternoon, I felt the need to improve my high-carb, junk food, and sugar-smacked snack diet. Who could say no, to a Twix and a can of classic (yes classic, the diet version tastes horrible) Coke for a pick-me-up at 3pm?

Whenever you’re on a quest to improve your health and habits, remember to start with little steps. It’ll be a lot easier to move forward once you are used to the little changes, rather than deciding to turn your life upside down or upside up, all at once. By doing basic research, I realized that my energy drops in the afternoon and trouble sleeping well, were linked to a diet rich in carbohydrates, low in protein, and don’t even ask me about veggies. Although, I always liked fruit.

So to start small, let me give you some ideas for snacks rich in protein vs. our beloved sugary and starchy bites of joy:

From uk.askmen.com

• Blueberries and Cottage cheese
• Raw Nuts (Almonds, cashews, pistachios, etc)
• Greek (style yogurt)
• Baby carrots in hummus dip
• Smoked salmon and goat cheese

These are very simple ideas that besides giving you a natural pick-up, might also help you if you want to lose weight, or keep your weight, or just being healthy in general. By no means I’d advice you to completely cut carbs, our bodies need them as much as they need fat, protein, and water; you just have to learn how to balance them for an improved version of you!

Once you start to slowly incorporating these snacks in your diet by trading them for your old sugary and starchy ones, your body will thank you for it, you’ll feel the difference and will want to move on to the next step.