When it comes to eating, maybe you often get bored of what you’re eating and then revert to more palatable yet not-so-healthy foods. On occasion, this is ok if you have hit that mark on your journey, but too often and that is just a recipe for disaster. If you’re always on the lookout for new recipes or ways to change up some of your faves, or for easy shortcuts to prevent boredom, here are some tips to get you started:

1. Add Art to Your Meals – Colorful fruits and vegetables (just like a beautiful painting yes) quickly decorate your favourite recipes and make your food appear much more appetizing. Look for deep greens in spinach, vibrant reds in tomatoes, and a rainbow of colors in peppers to add to your favourite home-cooked dishes.

2. Swap Schtuff  – It may surprise you to learn serving meals on smaller plates (or in smaller bowls) encourages people to eat less food. So downsize what you serve your meals on, and you might find your family eating the proper portions.  Eating with smaller utensils can help too as you will be forced to slow down your eating and thus will likely trigger your “I’m full” hormones sooner.

3. Change Your Take-Out and Delivery Menus- If you have a stack of take-out/delivery menus in your home, replace them with meal planner services. Having a planner will help you arrange a weekly grocery shopping list and save you time and money by limiting the number of nights you eat out. There are so many options as far as being able to get these delivered, daily, weekly or monthly as well as the option of buying pre-cooked healthy portioned meals to pick up. The number of healthy “fast-food” joint nowadays too removes major barriers as well.

4. Flip Off the TV and Couch – No I am not advising you to take gymnastics, or wait, maybe I AM! Instead of plopping on the couch in front of the tv after dinner, go for a walk and help shuttle the nutrients from the foods you just ate into the right places 😉

5. Vary the Ingredients – If you already have family-favorite recipes, look them over to see if there are ways to swap healthier ingredients in place of others. Varying your foods, ingredients, and so forth is actually a great way to prevent food aversions, ensure you get a wide spectrum of micronutrients that are essential for health, fat loss, muscle building, performance, mental health….are you getting the picture 😉 Variety also helps to prevent certain intolerances and allergies too.

If you are a newbie, and even if you’re not, these little changes can make a big difference and when they do, please share them! You can, and totally SHOULD, keep adding to your toolbox. Start with small habits and changes each week. Add more nutrient-dense foods, and a whole buttload of variety of them, instead of always “taking away” and you will no doubt look, feel and perform better in all aspects of life.