Here is how to be smart when buying treats

Dan Donohue, of Fitness Formation, writes about making eating healthy a habit, rather than a chore.
Monitoring treatsMonitoring treats
Monitoring treats

In one of our most recent columns, we discussed the various elements that dictate energy expenditure and how we burn calories.

Healthier living and, more importantly, healthier eating habits are taking top priority in many households around the country right now.

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As we are in the second month of the year, February often sees many people fall off that wagon and back into unhealthy eating habits, and one of the downfalls can often be eating with family.

Dan DonohueDan Donohue
Dan Donohue

In this week’s column, we’re going to look at some of the ways that you can make eating well together a habit that lasts a lifetime, rather than one month or so at the beginning of each year.

Humans tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to what we eat.

We’ll often find ourselves eating the same foods, maybe changing it up from time to time in how we cook it.

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The same can be said of foods within the household, if it’s there, we’ll eat it.

As you’ll know by now, we’re huge advocates of flexible dieting, so by no means are we saying that there shouldn’t be treats in the house, especially if you have children, but think of smarter ways to buy them.

When buying things like chocolate, buy them in single bars instead of multi-packs.

Swap unhealthy snacks like crisps for fruit or vegetable batons and a small dip such as humous (a favourite in our household).

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Avoid the possibility to self-sabotage, and cook from scratch as much as humanly possible.

This way, you are in control of what goes into what you are consuming.

On the odd occasion, go as far as prepping things like pizza bases from scratch and get the kids involved, so they can see the process that their foods go through before they are put in front of them.

Ensure you get a good portion of protein and a good amount of vegetables into as many meals as you can.

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Any leftovers can be used on further days, but avoid the temptation to pick at the leftovers that others may leave, as this will obviously cause your calories to increase.

Referring back to an earlier point is to get the kids involved in the cooking process.

Our daughter is always asking to join in, so we let her.

It’s a great way of teaching your children something new, not to mention they see what is going into their meals.

There is the upside of learning a valuable skill at a young age whilst helping to reduce the possibility of them refusing to eat what is placed in front of them because they haven’t been a part of the preparation and cooking process.

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Teaching children from a young age about the foods that they eat and the processes that they go through can be of huge benefit to them in later life.

A valuable habit instilled at a young age can only be a good thing for those that we love the most.