What are your best healthy eating habits?
I don’t follow a complicated diet. Most of my healthy eating habits are quite ordinary.
One of the simplest is that I try not to eat something just because it is there.
Rice, for example, is served with almost every meal in our Dining Hall. I like rice, but I usually pass on it and have salad with the main dish instead. It is just one small way of watching my weight. I don’t need to eat something simply because it happens to be available.
My breakfast is fairly predictable: oats and homemade muesli, followed by some figs and yoghurt. Lunch is usually modest, with small servings. At dinner I have the main course and leave it at that. No dessert. And I don’t tend to snack between meals.
I also rarely eat fast food. In fact, the last time I can remember having it was about twenty-five years ago. I was staying with a friend and her young child was very keen that we should. So we did. Since then, fast food has simply never become part of my normal routine.
What strikes me is that none of this feels especially disciplined. I am not constantly saying no to myself. The habits are just there.
Perhaps that is the real secret for me. Healthy eating is easier when you don’t have to make a new decision every time food appears. You get used to a rhythm. You work out what is enough. You enjoy what you eat, but you don’t feel the need to eat more simply because more is on offer.
For me, healthy eating is fairly simple. Eat what you need. Enjoy it. And don’t eat by default.
What are your best healthy eating habits?
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