7 Ridiculously Easy Hacks for Healthier Eating Habits

You have every intention of forming healthier eating habits, but actually changing them seems like such a daunting task.

Especially with everything else floating around inside your brain.

You spend so much energy on everything else in your day like work, your personal life, family, friends. Because of that, it’s understandable that the idea of putting energy or willpower into changing your eating habits can be overwhelming.

The idea of it can be overwhelming, however that’s just your brain wanting to keep everything the same, because that’s easier.

The reality is that it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It’s actually not overwhelming at all if you have some guidance on some easy steps to take.

Which is why I’m going to share 7 ridiculously easy hacks for healthier eating habits that you can literally start now. They’re so easy that your brain is never going to associate “changing your eating habits” and “overwhelming” with each other ever again.

#1 Set Your Intention and Make It Visible

If you decide that you want to develop healthier eating habits, you’re going to want to pick something specific to start with.

For example, you may want to stop eating ice cream every night. Or, you may want to eat more fruit.

Whatever your intention is, write it down on a piece of paper. Preferably, on a brightly colored piece of paper or with a brightly colored pen or marker. Something that will catch your attention.

You’re then going to put this little piece of paper with your intended healthier eating habit in the location that you feel will serve your intentions best.

Meaning, a visible spot where seeing it, will remind you to either NOT doing the eating behavior/action you wish to avoid, or DO the eating behavior/action you want to do more of.

Just seeing this note will force your brain to acknowledge your intention and you’ll be more likely to go through with it.

You can even take it one step further and write down exact details such as date, time, frequency, etc that you want to either start or stop doing a certain eating behavior.

When you do this, it’s called an Implementation Intention. Implementation Intentions increase the success that someone moves in the right direction of their goal. There are numerous articles and studies on this if you want to read further.

It’s such an easy action to take, so why not increase your likelihood of success with a little piece of paper and pen?

#2 Reframe Your Thoughts

A ridiculously easy hack for healthier eating habits is to re-frame (and literally re-word) “I can’t eat that” or “I shouldn’t eat that” to “I don’t eat that” or “I choose not to eat that.”

When you re-frame your thought, it elicits a different feeling. It feels less restrictive and more empowering. It means you have the control, no one else.

For example, if you think “I can’t eat that hamburger and fries,” try changing it to “I choose not to eat that hamburger and fries tonight.”

Re-framing it like this gives you your power back and helps to remind you that you are practicing constraint because you want to.

Ultimately, you are doing it so you can reach your goals that you have set for yourself. Whether that be lowering your risk for cardiovascular disease, losing weight, improving your energy levels, etc.

#3 Divide Packaged Food Into Individual Servings

As soon as you set your groceries on the kitchen counter to put away, set your packaged foods (snacks and such) aside. Take some Tupperware containers or plastic baggies and divide the contents up until individual servings. (You can reuse the plastic baggies, so you don’t feel wasteful.)

This lets you avoid endlessly reaching into the bag or box when you are hungry, and overeating the not-so-nutritious packaged, processed food.

Instead, you will snack on an individual serving and will have to put some effort in if you want to get up to get another serving from the pantry. Especially if that means you’ll have to wash two Tupperware containers.

• Related: Should You Break Your Habit of Snacking at Night?
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This easy hack will also help to get you in the habit of eating one serving, then stopping. The more you practice this, the more likely it will become habit to eat just the right amount.

Like anything, practice makes perfect, but particularly with developing healthier eating habits. Since you eat often, it’s easier to get the repetition in if you want to.

#4 Make Healthy Food Very Visible

You may have heard me say this one before, but when you make healthy food visible, it serves as a visual cue and also makes it easier to perform the desired behavior.

Just a reminder, a visual cue is also known as a trigger, or activator. It is more specifically an external activator, meaning an activator outside of you, as opposed to an internal activator like a feeling of hunger.

An example of making a healthy food visible would be if it’s your intention to eat more fruit, then put some fruit in a beautiful bowl on your kitchen counter.

Or, if you would like to eat more salads for dinner, then put the lettuce, tomatoes, and other salad toppings front and center at eye level in your refrigerator.

You can see how this would serve as an activator to perform the desired behavior. It also makes it easy to perform the desired behavior, because those salad ingredients are now very easy to grab.

For developing healthier eating habits, or any habits, you must have that activator and the behavior must be easy. Otherwise, you won’t do the behavior and your brain will never form the connection, ultimately creating a neuropathway.

#5 Hide Unhealthy Food

Just as you would make healthy food visible, you’re going to want to make unhealthy not very visible.

To do this, I recommend hiding it in the back of the fridge, freezer, pantry, cabinets, wherever. You can even go so far as to hide something you really don’t want to eat frequently (like candy), in the basement or in between extra sets of sheets in the closet.

You might say well, just don’t buy it then. Yes, that’s true, however you could only buy vegetables and nothing else, but there wouldn’t be much joy in never treating yourself. Unless of course, carrots taste like candy to you.

#6 Fill Up a Small Plate

Anytime you are eating an actual meal, fill up a small plate of food, rather than putting the same amount on a large plate.

The reason has to do with abundance and lack.

When you fill a small plate completely or almost completely, it is now perceived as abundant with food. This will encourage the thought in your brain that you have enough food on your plate.

• Related: 5 Clever Ways to End Overeating
• Related: How to Avoid Overeating During the Holidays

(Just a note, you might have enough food on your plate, or you might not. You’ll know after you finish that plate of food if you’re still very hungry or if you are satisfied.)

If you put the same amount of food on a large plate, it looks like the plate is half empty. This can lead to the perception of a lack of food, which can lead to deciding before you’ve even finished that food, that it won’t be enough.

#7 Put Snacks in a Cup or Ramekin Instead of a Bowl

Similar to #3, you can put snacks in a cup or ramekin instead of a cereal bowl or worse yet, just reaching into the bag, box, or package when you’re hungry for a snack.

• Related: 15 Healthy Snacking Habits to Start Right Now

My husband, Paul, and I do this all of the time. We put our small amount of nuts (or sometimes dark chocolate chips) in little ramekins when it’s snack-time. That way, we each have our own that the other can’t steal from, and we have a finite amount.

I don’t know about him, but it makes me savor it more, knowing that I have a small amount to enjoy. It’s a win-win.

Final Thoughts

The important thing about forming healthier eating habits is defining what “healthy” means to you. It may mean eating more whole foods, less refined sugar and flour, or just less food in general.

It may also mean eating more food if you don’t feel like you are eating enough to support your daily needs.

Whatever it is, it’s for you to determine. These hacks for healthier eating habits are about showing you how you can be more successful in whatever healthier eating habit you choose, rather than telling you what your healthy eating habits should be.

It’s all about you and what your goals are. That’s what is most important.