Healthy eating: the struggle to stay clean

Tonight, I made mexi-bowls for dinner. It’s one of my go-to meals; healthy, fast, easy, and delicious. It’s a pretty standard mix: grains, beans/meat, tomatoes, mushrooms, lettuce, some sort of salsa…flexible. As I was eating it, I mused to myself about food. Last week, I ate almost an entire loaf of bread. I didn’t even realize it until the whole damn loaf was almost gone. I ate a whole container of fruit pastries. Why? I like vegetables and fruits. Why is it so hard to stick to healthy eating, even when you like the things that are healthy?

Barriers to healthy eating

I can only truly speak to myself, but I think that many of the barriers to healthy eating are mostly universal and understood. It’s easy. It’s cheap. It’s fast. It makes us feel good. But really, logically, most of us know that that is only on the surface. We feel good for a moment (before feeling guilty). It’s easy until we have 30 extra pounds and need all new clothes, or worse–a doctor’s visit. It’s cheap if you don’t count medical bills or gym memberships. So why do we still do it? Why will I eat a loaf of bread even if while I’m eating it I know I’ll regret it?

Eating for health shouldn’t be that hard. For me, the answer comes down to pure planning. I won’t snack on bread if I have other healthy snacks. I won’t snack on bread if my meals are timed out. If I don’t buy candy bars, turns out I won’t eat them! Holy smokes, what a revelation. I’m lucky in that I’m not much of an emotional eater, but unlucky in that I can eat a whole loaf of bread without realizing it. You win some, you lose some, I guess. 

But if I plan things out, I do much better. I’m busy, so I’m now a stalwart user of meal planning, and prep ingredients ahead of time so I have things to pull from. It helps that if I don’t make healthy food for my bf he will definitely eat only fried things. 

What do you do to stay on track? How do you keep healthy eating a priority? (TELL ME. T.T)