Is it time you took up a healthier diet? Finding the motivation to eat healthy isn’t easy. Here are just several ways in which you can encourage yourself to eat less junk.

Reprogram your brain’s idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ food

Many unhealthy foods containing high amounts of sugar, salt and fat can release feelgood endorphins that cause us to associate these foods as ‘good’ foods – even if we know that they lack any nutritional value. To eat healthy, you need to start associating these foods as ‘bad’, while associating healthier foods as good. Hypnotherapy can be a way of creating negative associations with junk food and positive associations with healthy food – you can click here for more information on such services. Another option could be to slowly wean your way off of unhealthy foods by mixing these with healthier foods until you start associating healthier foods with being tasty. Researching the health risks and benefits of certain food could also help to re-evaluate how much you enjoy certain foods.

Invest in tools to make preparing healthy meals easier

People can often be put off of healthy meals because they take more effort to prepare. However, this isn’t always the case. Nowadays there are electric appliances that can dice vegetables for you to save you the chore of chopping (as found at this link). There are also appliances like slow-cookers that can be left to simmer all day without any need for intervention. You don’t have to slave away for hours every evening to eat healthy.

Plan meals ahead

Resist the urge to buy a last-minute take-out meal by planning out the week’s meals in advance. If you aren’t even sure where to begin, you can get 4 weeks of done-for-you meal plan with our meal planning program. If you’re using fresh ingredients, keeping to your meal plan could be essential for ensuring that things don’t run out of date. You can also prep meals in advance – some people prepare their entire week’s meals on a Sunday night to save the hassle of cooking every evening.

Try healthy ready meals

There are also a growing number of healthy ready meals out there, some of which can be easily cooked in a microwave. If you really don’t like cooking, these meals could be options to consider. On top of ready meals, there are also meal kits in which certain ingredients come pre-portioned and pre-chopped (suitable for those that don’t mind cooking but don’t like prepping).

Allow yourself some unhealthy treats

Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean giving up all junk food forever. It simply means reducing your intake of junk food so that the majority of your meals and snacks are healthy. Crash diets are usually never a good idea – they’re boring and they’re not long-term (even if you succeed in losing weight, you’re likely to put it back on again when you return to your old diet afterwards). Instead, start a sustainable diet that allows you a few unhealthy foods per week to keep you motivated.