How to Eat Light & Healthy

Eating light and healthy is important to maintain your overall health, and it will also improve the quality of your life. Combined with regular exercise, healthy eating habits can keep you from becoming overweight or obese and keep conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure at bay. By making smart food choices and adjusting your diet, you can incorporate healthy eating into your lifestyle.

Instructions

• 1

  Avoid cutting out entire food groups and going on crash diets to lose weight because you are teaching yourself bad eating habits, putting you in a yo-yo dieting cycle.

• 2

  Eat carbohydrates from complex sources, and limit simple carbohydrates. Choose brown rice instead of white rice and whole-wheat bread over white bread. Look for fiber-rich products that digest slowly. MayoClinic.com recommends you get 45 percent to 65 percent of your daily calories from complex carbs.

• 3

  Read product labels to find out about their nutritional content. Look for heart-healthy unsaturated fats instead of saturated and trans fats that raise bad cholesterol levels. Use olive oil or canola oil when preparing food.

• 4

  Avoid fatty meats, including beef and pork, and replace them with lean sources such as chicken, tuna, fish and turkey. Also include protein from plant sources such as beans and soy in your diet.

• 5

  Fill up on vegetables and fruits because they are low in calories and high in fiber and water, which are all important to maintain your health.

• 6

  Flush toxins out of your body by drinking up to 12 cups of water daily. The Clemson University website states that drinking water is important because it hydrates your body, transports nutrients and keeps your digestive tract healthy.

• 7

  Avoid alcoholic and sugary beverages because they have many calories, no nutritional value and drain your energy. Drink one glass of wine per day if you have to have alcohol.

• 8

  Maintain healthy bones by consuming calcium from low-fat dairy sources such as low-fat milk and yogurt, and from non-dairy sources such as collards, fortified soy milk, bok choy and baked beans.