Eating healthier doesn’t have to be boring, and you can still enjoy the foods you love with simple techniques and swaps that won’t affect flavour. Furthermore, I don’t believe in diets because let’s face it… they never work long-term. As soon as you start eating properly again, you put all the weight you’ve lost (if not more) back on. Therefore, long-term healthy food swaps are a far better option for lasting change in your diet.

Starving your body of a balanced diet, the food it craves and the foods it needs to function properly will just put your body into starvation mode. Therefore, your body will store what food you eat as backup (fat). So, I find that just making simple changes to your eating habits that aren’t drastic is the best way to control your weight management and eat healthier. Moreover, adapting regular recipes and the food I love to eat to healthier versions is really easy.

Restaurant Meals

I love eating out in restaurants, it’s one of my favourite things to do. However, since lockdown, I’ve realised how much I was spending/wasting on going out for meals several times a week. Therefore, I decided to experiment with recipes in the house and create some of my favourite restaurant chain meals at home, at a fraction of the price.

It’s great to cook these dishes from home as well, as you can adapt them to make them slightly healthier. Or, you can add or take things out of the dishes. I have created loads of recipes inspired by some of my favourite restaurants that are quick and easy to master at home. Simply check out my recipe section for some inspiration.

Takeaways

Like restaurant meals, takeaways are super easy to recreate at home.  Whether it’s pizza, fried chicken, Indian, Chinese, fish and chips, kebabs etc, you can make really tasty dishes that are a lot kinder on your stomach.

It’s easier to make fakeaways than you might think, and it’s fun experimenting with dishes that you love to eat. Check out my recipe section for some of your favourite classic takeaway recipes that you can enjoy from your kitchen.

My recipe section is updated regularly with new dishes, and you can leave a comment if there are any recipes you’d like me to recreate in the future from your favourite takeaway or restaurant.

Cocktails/Alcoholic Drinks

As well as being a massive food lover, I am also a huge drinks fan. I love socialising with my friends and indulging in alcoholic drinks, especially cocktails and cider. However, alcoholic drinks can be really high in calories, but I don’t think you should restrict yourself from enjoying a few drinks when you like.

Therefore, if you want to reduce your intake of empty calories from drinking, then there are a few swaps you can make whilst still enjoying yourself and unwinding.

Here are a few simple swaps you can make to your drink choices…

• Lager- Coors Light beer
• Gin and tonic- gin and slimline tonic
• Sangria- Pimms and diet lemonade
• A glass of white wine- a glass of prosecco
• Long Island iced tea- cosmopolitan
• Margarita- Moscow mule

Ingredients: Healthy Food Swaps

Making a few simple changes to the ingredients you use whilst cooking can also have a big impact on the amount of calories you’re ingesting and can make healthier versions of your meals. Healthy food swaps are an excellent way of still enjoying the meals you love but as a healthier version.

I’m not a big fan of dried fruits, tofu, muesli, oats, etc, so my substitutions are a lot more subtle and less drastic than changing your diet massively. Because let’s face it, if you diet or restrict yourself too much, you’ll just be craving the foods you love and will be more likely to snack or quit your diet.

Switches for Healthy Food Swaps

Here’s a list of some simple substitutions you can add to your eating habits and healthy food swaps you can add to your diet…

• Sour cream for plain/Greek yoghurt
• Pasta for courgette ribbons/whole grain pasta
• White rice for cauliflower rice/couscous/brown rice
• Milk for almond/soya milk
• Vegetable oil for coconut/avocado oil
• White sugar for honey/maple syrup
• Crisps for popcorn
• Milk chocolate bar for dark chocolate
• Mayonnaise for avocado
• Full-fat cheese for low-fat cheese
• Mince for reduced-fat mince
• Potato for sweet potato
• Chicken wings/drumsticks for skinless chicken breast
• Deep-pan pizza for thin-crust pizza
• Soy sauce for reduced-salt soy sauce
• Creamy sauces for tomato-based sauces
• Creamy salad dressing for olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• Hamburger for grilled chicken salad sandwich
• Butter for a lower-fat spread
• Salt for herbs/spices

Vegan Meals

Also, try healthy vegan meals which are high in healthy fats. You may be thinking vegan meals are bland and have the general view that all vegans eat are salads and vegetables. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth!

I challenged myself to try a vegan diet for one month and found it a lot easier than I thought. It’s great for your energy levels and is healthy if you cook your meals from scratch. Furthermore, it’s a lot easier to eat vegan than you may think… and guess what!?… “vegan food” is just food.

I shared a lot of my dishes on my social media and got great feedback from my friends and family on how good the food looked, and that they didn’t know vegan food could be as exciting.

Even if you eat just a couple of vegan meals a week, it will have a positive effect on your body and your health. So, check out some of my vegan recipes on the recipe page of my blog, including my Cauliflower Katsu Curry recipe.

Portion Control

The last way I try to eat healthier is through portion control. However, this took a while for me to master, especially when cooking for my partner. I  would make massive portions of food and would over-eat constantly. However, one simple way of helping this was to cut back on our rice and pasta portions.

I realised we didn’t need nearly as much as the recommended serving suggestions on the packet. Therefore, I cut down our rice to 50g each and added a load of vegetables to our dishes. This helped us still be satisfied with the portion sizes, and I didn’t even notice the reduction in rice.

It’s also helpful to use smaller plates/bowls when plating up your food. It tricks your mind into thinking that there is more food, which makes you subconsciously feel more fulfilled. Also, adding healthy sides such as salads and vegetables is a great way of bulking up your dishes and adding more nutrition to your meals!

“Don’t start a diet that has an expiration date. Develop a healthy lifestyle that will last forever.”– Unknown

Summary

Remember, life is for living, and you shouldn’t waste it being miserable, eating unrealistic and unsustainable diets. Therefore, healthy food swaps are a quick and simple way for lasting change.

Making simple daily swaps to your eating habits is a far more attainable and effective method. Furthermore, you’re far less likely to binge eat or relapse into bad eating habits.

Everything should be eaten in moderation, and if you want a cupcake or a biscuit, just eat one. Restricting yourself on fad diets will only make you binge eat more when you’ve had enough of being hungry, irritable and low on energy for a while. Therefore, healthy food swaps are an easy and sustainable way to become healthier.

“Eat healthy, feel healthy. Eat bad, feel bad.”– Unknown

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