At Habitlauncher, we view food as information on top of fuel. We believe, feeding proper instructions to the complex machine the body is, is key for successful weight loss. Eat. Real. Food. It helps.
No matter your take on the diet war. Whatever your preferences, improving your diet quality will help you shed the pounds you want to lose.
The best way to do that is to eat real food.
Whenever you can, choose minimally processed ingredients and make your own dish.
We all know that. But as we love to say it’s not the knowing it’s the doing.
Here is the concrete plan we use to make it happen.
Make it stick with new habits.
Here is a short list of habits that will help you improve your diet quality.
– Drink water only
– No sweets in coffee, tea
– Eat unprocessed food based breakfast only
– Pick restaurants with healthy food options.
– If you can’t, pick the healthiest option available, usually a salad.
– Avoid added sugar, refined carbs and veg oil.
– Cook meals at home with minimally processed foods.
– Quality starts at the shop. Shop with intentions, stick to your list.
– Plan your meals, fail to plan is plan to fail.
Some of these habits are hard, we know. Don’t ever beat yourself up. Start easy. Don’t break the chain.
Here is how we concretely improve our diet quality.
We aim for 3 meals, 7 days a week.
If the meals are good, snacking should rarely happen as we are not too physically active. We’re not long distance cyclist, runner, and have no physical work.
Snacking is a potential sign your diet may need a revamp. When snacking, stick to healthy choices, dried meat, veggies, fruits.
Breakfast
Come up with 3 different healthy options that use minimally processed food. Nowadays, most things are somewhat processed. You’ll know when it is minimally processed, no added sugars, no refined flour, no added flavors etc…
Find what works for you.
Ours 3 defaults options are:
Plain Greek yogurt with chia seeds and some honey.
Eggs, sometimes with bacon
Chia seed pudding with fruit (blueberry is our fave)
Lunch
If you can, plan the restaurants you will visit during the week. Ensure they have healthy options and cook with high quality oil. Just ask and they will tell you.
If you can’t choose the place, pick the healthiest option. Usually a salad.
On the week-end, cook at home, make it a tradition.
Hard at first but fun when you get into it and kids love to help.
Develop a few dishes you’ll end up being known for.
Our current favorite are Moroccan lentil soup, Tensuke pork filet, grilled chicken and avocado.
Dinner
To eat real food, whenever you can, cook at home.
It can be a pain, cumbersome but it does not have to be and it brings big benefits.
Make it easy. Find 10min prep recipes that are healthy, real food based and that you love.
Celebrate the good life
As with any new habits, make it easy, integrate into your routine and celebrate. Meals are perfect occasions to celebrate the good life.
Our default meals that take 10min or less to prep.
– Salmon with asparagus
– Paprika chicken
– Cheese omelette
– Tomato mozzarella salad
– Garlic steak bites
– Lentils and eggs
– Avocado with Tuna
Add a salad to these and you’re set.
Diet quality starts at the shop.
Plan your meals, according to your shopping schedule. Make a shopping list, organized by food store sections.
Just buy the quality ingredients that are on your list, nothing else.
Stick to it and celebrate.
To build your system for weight loss, check our e-book, New Habits for Weight Loss here or available on Gumroad here.
