• Have fun with the freezer
• Plan and regularly make larger purchases
• Don't go shopping hungry
• Read labels – carefully!
• Cooking for several days

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is no easy task. One of the most important elements is a healthy diet. Initially, it takes time, commitment, and motivation. Bad habits are a shortcut, usually much easier. However, it's worth the effort, because our health, beauty, and figure will thank us. Over time, as we develop the right habits, it becomes much easier. What can be done to ease the transition to the "healthy side of the pack"? Here are 5 practical ideas.

Have fun with the freezer

Freezing is one of the best methods of food preservation, allowing us to preserve the maximum nutritional value of the fresh product. To avoid being surprised by a lack of ideas and ingredients for dinner, buy meat and freeze it in reasonable portions.

Freeze chopped dill and parsley in small boxes. Primarily as a winter storage, but also as a convenience. Adding these vegetables to any dish is recommended. However, let's not forget that hardly anyone wants to wash and chop a small portion every day for a dish. And yes, we take out the box, scoop out the right amount with a spoon, and hide the rest.

You can also freeze ready-made portions of fruit, such as a banana and a jar of strawberries or raspberries, or any other combination. Take it out of the freezer in the evening, add yogurt in the morning, mix, and you have a delicious breakfast.

Also buy frozen foods, which have an unfairly bad reputation. Thanks to them, you can eat cauliflower , Brussels sprouts , green beans, or broad beans even out of season. You can find everything frozen. Sometimes, if you're short on time, you can also use this option during the season. It'll be faster: no washing or chopping. You just steam the vegetables, and they're ready.

Plan and regularly make larger purchases

How do you learn to menu plan? Simply grab a piece of paper and a pen, sit down, and start writing. Set a specific time for it. Plan for the week. Friday is usually the natural time to plan meals, since most people shop on Saturday. But of course, this depends on your lifestyle. Choose a time of the week that works best for you.

Write down each day of the week and all the meals you plan to eat that day on a piece of paper. You can plan to eat the same thing two days in a row—it'll be easier. If you're stuck for some meals, turn on your computer and search for healthy recipe inspiration. Check that you have the necessary items and add the ones you don't have to your shopping list (e.g., in a special phone app).

Such planning initially takes about half an hour, later – 10 minutes. Now it's just shopping, and you save a few pleasant hours during the week that would otherwise be spent running through the shops every day looking for something to eat.

In addition to saving time, we gain something even more valuable: a healthy diet . When we've planned meals and bought products, there's much less room for uncontrollable cravings. Before you go shopping during the week, after a busy day, then plan and prepare a meal, you'll most likely be tempted to indulge in a chocolate bar or some sweets in the meantime. After all, how long can you wait for dinner?! It can be even worse: you give up on shopping and head straight to one of the fast-food chains—because it's hard to come up with a last-minute dinner idea.

It's worth staying one step ahead of hunger, because hunger is an instinct. Once it reaches us, we will only want to satisfy it, and any means to that end will be good. Planning gives us the advantage.

Don't go shopping hungry

Here, too, hunger is an instinct. Even if you follow Rule #2, plan your shopping, but go hungry, you'll probably end up with twice as many items in your basket as on your meticulously prepared shopping list. Everything will seem necessary: ​​maybe guests are coming, or it's been sitting in a cupboard for a rainy day... A million excuses will derail your well-thought-out plan. Shopping requires willpower. It becomes much more difficult to maintain at home when unhealthy snacks beckon from the shelves in the kitchen.

Read labels – carefully!

We often hear advice to read the ingredients of individual products we put in our shopping cart. There's no denying that it's very important, but such purchases can take twice as long. And besides, who would remember all the "e"s we can find on labels and distinguish how harmful they are? This is where phone apps come in handy, usually telling you via a simple icon whether you should add a particular product to your cart or leave it.

However, no base is all-knowing, and you simply won't find many products in it. Besides, manufacturers like to play cat and mouse with us, switching up the lineup from time to time. So what's the fastest and easiest way to get the healthiest products into our shopping cart? Check the length of the composition—the shorter, the better. It's really that simple!

Cooking for several days

The most common excuse for making a healthier lifestyle change is a lack of time. However, it turns out that people with more responsibilities are better able to manage them. The less time we have, the better we can organize ourselves so we have enough time for everything. In one way or another, we all want to save as much time as possible so we can devote it to pleasure. When it comes to meal prep, nothing is easier than cooking ahead of time. Dishes like soups, as well as many others, can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days. This way, you'll have one meal a day "supplied" from Monday to Friday. Just remember to cook a large enough portion.

You can also eat the same thing for two, and sometimes even three, meals a day. Of course, most of us want to eat different dishes with completely different ingredients and maximum variety at each meal. And it would also be the healthiest option, because variety is very important for a healthy lifestyle. But sometimes it's worth choosing the lesser of two evils: eating the same thing several times a day and getting rid of the excuse "I don't have time."