Creating a healthy diet is about more than just opting for broccoli over pizza, it’s about creating healthy habits that fit your lifestyle that you can keep for the long term. This is something I talk about a lot with clients or in my workshops because it is truly the hardest part about creating a healthy lifestyle, and changing the habits you have established over the past 10, 20, or 30-plus years.

The temptation to go all in and change everything at once is big. Although the “rip it off like a band-aid” method may work for some people, for many it will have them crawling back to their old habits before the sun has set on day one. Rather, when creating change it is important to make choices and create healthy habits that work for YOU. What works for Jane Doe will not necessarily work for Joe Blow, and that is totally acceptable. Creating healthy habits takes time and requires trial and error. What you think will work often does not, and things you think will never work for you often do, but that’s the fun of it.

So these are 5 healthy habits that I do every day that work for me. You are more than welcome to try and incorporate some into your daily routine or take inspiration from mine to help you create your own.

1. Workout or Get Active

I have always been an active person, so working outcomes naturally to me. I love the feeling of pushing my body and seeing what it can do; be it lifting heavy weights or going for a run. No matter how busy my schedule gets, I always make working out a priority in my day and ensure never falls off my to-do list. At the start of every week, I create a rough workout schedule in my head so I know what days I will workout where and when, so it is worked right into my week. I used to be an evening workout kind of girl, but in recent years I have moved my workouts to the morning to ensure there is no reason to miss them. Most days of the week I wake up at 5:30 am and I am in the gym for a 6:00 am workout. This time is really important to me; it allows me to start my day doing something I love, helps me clear my head, and energizes my body for the rest of my day. I typically go to the gym 5 or 6 days per week, but on the days that I don’t I always ensure there is some form of activity in my day; be it a walk outside or something simple that gets me up and active. I think it goes without saying that movement is one of the most important healthy habits you can implement, so you just need to find the type that works for you.

2. Drink Water Before Anything Else

I am a coffee drinker, and I look forward to my cup of Joe every morning, but it is never the first thing that I drink in the morning. Every morning I make sure that the first thing I drink is a big glass of water. I used to make fun of people who carried a water bottle everywhere, but that is actually exactly what I do now. Every night when I go to bed, my bottle of water comes with me and sits on my bedside table so it is the first thing I reach for in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, I get up, make my bed, and all that jazz, but in the process, I am sipping from my bottle of water before I head to the gym, or while I am making my morning cup of coffee. This is a really simple healthy habit that can have a huge impact.

3. Eat Something Green

When I was learning to eat better, I was absolutely obsessed with adding more greens to my diet. If I made a dish that didn’t have something green in it, I would always add a side salad to ensure that there was something green going into my mouth. Leafy greens and green vegetables are incredibly nutritionally dense, rich in fiber, and great sources of vitamins and minerals. As my cooking skills have evolved I’ve certainly found more ways to add greens to my diet, and there is never a day that passes where I don’t eat green veggies during (at least) one meal.

4. Digital Detox Before Bed

Screens have become a big part of our everyday life, there is no way around it or out of it. Like many, I enjoy spending time on my phone, browsing online on my computer, and watching a bit of TV. In fact, I used to fall asleep watching TV and bring my phone into bed with me all of the time; a screen was the last thing I looked at before I fell asleep and the first thing I would grab in the morning. A couple of years ago we implemented a rule that we could no longer bring our phones into the bedroom, and recently I’ve stopped using my phone at 8:00 pm to help me “digitally detox” before I go to sleep. Research shows that digital screens emit blue light that actually suppresses melatonin production (your sleep hormone), making it harder for us to fall asleep and fall into a deep sleep. Adding this digital detox to my daily routine has dramatically increased my sleep habits and, in turn, my energy levels!

5. Take Some Me Time

As far as healthy habits go, I think this one is one of the most important. We live in a culture of “go, go, go” and “more is better”. Like many Type A people, I am always adding things to my to-do list, saying yes to opportunities, and keeping my days filled with things to do. Whether it is working on a blog post, going to the gym, running errands, or hanging out with friends I always seem to find time to fill my schedule with things. Although I might seem like an extrovert to some, I am mostly an introvert and I recharge by being alone and doing something for myself. Every day I try and find a little time to do something for myself that helps me keep my balance and helps to recharge my batteries for the next day. Although it would be lovely to treat myself to a massage or pedicure daily, that is certainly not realistic for time or money! So instead I try and keep it simple; be it enjoying a coffee in a local coffee shop, reading a book, going for a walk, or simply cooking my favorite meal, doing something for me helps me maintain my balance and makes me a happier and healthier person.

When it comes to healthy eating, failing to plan is planning to fail. Knowing what to eat is one thing, but the execution is the most important part of the battle. Luckily, a little forward planning can go a very long way in ensuring that you are set up for a week of successful meals, and meal planning 101 is an important key to your success.

Meal planning, or meal prep, means different things to different people, but when you break it all down, it is whatever way you choose to organize your meals for a week ahead. It might mean creating a grocery list, batch-cooking one dish, or making a week’s or month’s worth of meals prepped, labelled and ready to go. However you chose to execute is totally up to you, as there is no one size fits all solution, the important thing is that you are doing the work. It might take a little trial and error to figure out the system that works best for you, but once you do you will find a routine that suits you and your meal-planning style.

Why meal plan?

The benefits of meal planning are plenty, but here are my top 3 reasons why I think it is important for everyone to practice some form of meal planning.

1. Time Saver: Although it might seem like an investment of time in the short-run, in the long-run meal prepping will save you hours in the kitchen. If you are able to invest a couple of hours on the weekend, it will make weekday mornings and evenings a breeze with less time spent thinking about what to buy or cook, and less time spent stressing over what to pack for tomorrow’s lunch.
2. Money Saver: Meal prepping can also help you pinch your pennies as it enables you to buy in bulk, and being organized ensures you only buy what you need so you limit your food waste. Grocery shopping without a plan forces you to grab random items you may, or may not, need. When they go unused they end up in the trash and inevitably so does the money you spent on them.
3. Health Saver: The more your meals are planned and prepared in advance, the less likely you will be to grab the nearest calorie bomb convenience food. Prepping your meals helps to ensure that breakfasts, lunches and dinners are healthy no-brainers that can be headed up faster than you can call for delivery.

How to Meal Plan

Coming up with an effective strategy is key to your success. As I mentioned, it might take a little trial and error for you to find your wheelhouse but here are some great tips that everyone can implement.

• Make Time: It is important that you carve out time in your week to dedicate time spent in the kitchen. How much time you can dedicate to meal planning is completely up to you; you can dedicate a whole day to preparing every single meal for the week, or merely a couple of hours to batch-cook an extra dish or two. How much meal prep you need to do might vary from week to week, but remember even a little bit goes a long way.
• Make a List: Organize yourself based on how many recipes you need to make for the week and stick to the plan. Make a list of the specific ingredients you need to buy for those specific recipes and don’t add anything else to your cart. The more organized you are when you go into the grocery store, the less likely you will be to buy extra fruits and veggies that will just go to waste.
• Learn to Multitask: Remember that you can cook lots of different things at the same time, and the more efficient you can be the less time meal prep will take you. You can use your oven and your stovetop at the same time, and even cook multiple items at once. You can easily roast potatoes, while you bake chicken, steam vegetables, hard-boil eggs and pack containers of nuts. If you are able to multitask you can easily cut your prep time in half if not more.
• Prep for Later: Just because you are meal prepping, it doesn’t mean you need to cook every single meal in that one moment. Pre-chopping veggies for a weeknight stir-fry or pre-marinating meats to freeze for a later date are great ways to get ahead without cooking everything at once. Pre-bagging smoothie ingredients and freezing them for later can also help speed things up the mornings you are short on time.
• Double It: Whenever you make a recipe, double the batch. Make 8 chicken breasts instead of 4, make two batches of stew instead of one, and hard boil 12 eggs instead of 6. The more work you can do upfront, the less work you will need to do in the long run. If you make a double batch of your favourite soup one week, freeze the other half and save it for the following week, this will cut down on prep time later on.
• Store It: Ensuring you have the right types and sizes of storage containers is imperative to making good use of your meal prepping. Invest in some good quality glass containers of all different shapes and sizes; you can easily buy these at any local dollar store to help cut down on costs. Glass containers are the best to store food as they are non-toxic, can easily be stored in the fridge or freezer, or heated up at the office for lunch.

What to meal prep?

When it comes to meal prep, the ideas are endless. Essentially any recipe that stores or freezes well is a good option.

• Breakfasts, Mains & Snacks: If you are not one to individually pack every meal for the week, try simply making 1 breakfast item, 1 snack item and 1 main course item for your week. Making one item for different meals of the day helps to cut down on prep time for all times of the day. For example, baking a batch of Spinach Breakfast Casserole, along with a Slow Cooker Moroccan Chicken and cutting carrots sticks for hummus helps you cover your bases for breakfast, lunch and snacks for the week.
• Starches, Proteins & Veggies: If lunches and dinners are more of a concern for you, try cooking up some of the components so when the time comes putting meals together is simple. Cook some rice, grill some chicken and roast some veggies and store them all in separate containers in the fridge. When the time comes you can use all, or some, of the ingredients to put a meal together for lunch or dinner. Alternatively, cooked chicken can easily be added to top a salad, while roasted veggies can be added to your morning omelette.
• Simple Snacks: Having simple snacks on hand is incredibly helpful for days when you are on the go or don’t have time to eat a full sit-down meal. There are certainly some recipes you can make at home, but for the most part, the simpler you keep your snacks the better they will be for you. Plus, it means less time spent in the kitchen! Opt for handheld fruits like apples or pears that require no chopping or peeling, or simple handfuls of nuts and seeds for a little boost of protein and healthy fats. Snack time is also a great way to add more veggies to the diet, so pre-chopping carrots, cucumbers or peppers can be very helpful, and don’t be shy to buy them pre-chopped at the grocery store. Meal prep is all about efficiency so the more you can save yourself time, the easier and more pleasant it will be.

Meal Planning Recipe Ideas

There are endless recipe ideas for meal prep meals, but here are my go-to recipes for meal prepping for breakfast, lunches, dinners, and snacks. Hope you find them as handy as I do!

Breakfast:

• Spinach Breakfast Casserole
• Blueberry Baked Oatmeal Bars
• Overnight Chia Seed Pudding
• Breakfast Egg Bake
• Nut & Seed Granola

Lunch:

• Chopped Chicken Salad
• Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Curried Honey Mustard Chicken
• Salmon Salad Nicoise
• Sticky Korean Chicken

Dinner:

• Spanish Tray Bake Chicken
• Slow Cooker Shredded Beef
• Mexican Stuffed Peppers
• Slow Cooker Butter Chicken
• Beef & Bean Chilli

Snacks:

• No Bake Granola Bars
• Plantain Chips
• Chocolate Zucchini Bread
• Banana Bread Bites

Carbohydrates, or “carbs”, have a bad rap. For years they have been demonized, we’ve been told to limit them in our diets, and they’ve been labeled as the enemy. As it turns out, they are not the demons they have been made out to be, and learning about the various types of carbohydrates and how to incorporate them into our diet is important for our health.

What are Carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of fuel.  In the body, carbohydrates are broken down into glucose (sugar) to be used as a source of energy to help fuel our day, as a source of energy for our brains, and a source of energy for muscle function. Much like a car runs on gas, our bodies run primarily on carbohydrates. When consumed, carbohydrates are broken down by our digestive system into gas (glucose) and stored in our body’s gas tanks (liver and muscles). When consumed in appropriate amounts, carbohydrate help to adequately fuel our gas tank. However, when carbohydrates are consumed in excess, we have the potential to overflow our gas tanks which can lead to high blood sugar, weight gain, fatigue, and many other issues.

Carbohydrates are one of three macronutrients, along with protein and fat, and they are made up of sugar, starch, and fiber. In fact, any food composed of sugar, starch, or fiber is considered a carbohydrate, and this includes everything from fruits and vegetables, to potatoes and grains. Structurally speaking, carbohydrates can be broken down into two separate categories; simple and complex. Put simply, complex carbohydrates are more complex than simple carbohydrates.

Types of Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates are those composed of two or more sugar molecules, while simple carbohydrates are composed of two or fewer sugar molecules. All carbohydrates, regardless of the form in which we consume them, be it potato or white sugar, are digested into simple sugars before being absorbed in our digestive tract. Complex carbohydrates are merely more complex because they are made up of larger sugar molecules that take longer to be broken down in the digestive tract and therefore take longer to reach our bloodstream. Simple sugars are already in their basic format (glucose) and therefore can be absorbed very quickly into the bloodstream.

How carbohydrates react in the body is heavily dependent on their composition. Carbohydrates are made up of sugars, starches, and fiber, but it is the quantity of each within a food that determines how useful (or useless) they are in filling up or overflowing your gas tank. So how do we know which is which? Let’s take a deeper look at complex vs. simple carbohydrates.

Simple Carbohydrates

Examples: Fruit, fruit juice, honey, maple syrup, dairy, white sugar

Simple carbohydrates only contain 1 or 2 sugar molecules. The simplest form of sugar is glucose, the body’s primary source of energy, while other simple forms of sugar include fructose and galactose. When combined, these sugars can create other forms of simple carbohydrates such as sucrose (glucose + fructose) found in table sugar, or lactose (glucose + galactose) found in milk. Examples of natural forms of simple carbohydrates include fruit, honey, and maple syrup. In addition to these natural simple carbohydrates, you can also find simple carbohydrates in refined forms such as pastries, candy, sweets, desserts, or anything made with white sugar. Although these foods all contain simple carbohydrates, unlike natural versions, refined versions contain no vitamins or minerals, nor do they contain any fiber to slow down digestion, and therefore overflow our gas tanks much faster than natural simple carbohydrates.

Starchy Complex Carbohydrates

Examples: Potatoes, rice, grains, beans, lentils

Starchy carbohydrates are carbohydrates made up of long chains of sugars, and more starch than simple carbohydrates. Common sources of starchy complex carbohydrates include; oatmeal, potatoes, rice, grains, beans, and lentils. Starchy complex carbohydrates eventually break down into glucose in the body, and can therefore serve as a good source of energy. Compared to simple carbohydrates, starchy carbohydrate takes longer to digest, and therefore their energy release is slower. However, one of the major concerns with these types of carbohydrates is not that they are high in starch, but rather that they are typically found in refined grain formats such as white bread, crackers, noodles, and pastries. The reason for this concern is that starchy carbohydrates like grains when made into flour contain 10,000 times more surface area than the actual whole grain itself (think rice vs. rice noodles or steel-cut oatmeal vs. granola bar). This means that they are digested more like a simple carbohydrate than a starchy one. These types of refined foods are more quickly digested and sugars are absorbed into the bloodstream faster. Therefore it is important to focus on starchy complex carbohydrates in their whole format, over those made out of their flours.

Fibrous Complex Carbohydrates

Examples: Most vegetables

Fibrous complex carbohydrates are the most forgotten form of carbohydrate and include most forms of vegetables, and as the name implies, are rich sources of fiber. Fiber is the indigestible carbohydrate and is the structural material in the leaves, stems, and roots of plants, so it is found mostly in vegetables. Some starchy carbohydrates, such as potatoes and squashes, contain fiber as well, but are not predominantly made up of fiber and, therefore, don’t fall into this category. Unlike starch, fiber has little effect on blood sugar, so fibrous carbohydrates can actually help to slow the absorption of starch to the bloodstream, helping you feel full and also helping to support healthy digestion. Examples of fibrous complex carbohydrates include; broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, lettuce, mushrooms, etc…

So, when it comes to carbohydrates, the simple rule of thumb is that the more processed or refined a carbohydrate is the worse it is for you. Not all simple carbs are “bad”, and starchy carbs are “good”. Rather, it is the format, type, and quantity in which we consume them that makes them an ideal choice or not.

So, what types of carbohydrates should you eat?

Here are some simple guidelines to keep in mind when it comes to carbohydrates:

1. Focus on natural simple sugars (fresh fruit) over refined, simple, or added sugars (white sugar).
2. Eat more complex carbohydrates (vegetables/legumes/grains) than simple carbohydrates (fruit).
3. Eat more fibrous carbohydrates (vegetables) than starchy carbohydrates (grains/legumes).
4. Focus on whole grains in their whole format (rice/oats) and limit those made of flour (noodles/crackers).

The Bottom Line

Remember, carbs are not unhealthy, they simply need to be consumed in their most natural format, and in reasonable amounts. The goal is simply to keep your gas tank fuelled in proportion to your level of activity, and the rest will take care of itself.