6 Small and Simple Changes for a Healthier Diet

When it comes to following a healthy diet, losing weight, or maintaining your current weight, you’re more likely to be successful if you make small changes over time rather than trying to overhaul your entire diet at once. Try these simple changes to work toward a healthier diet.

Eat Breakfast

A nutritious breakfast gets you fueled for the day and helps prevent you from binging later in the day. It’s especially important if you’re planning on running or doing other exercise. Your workout will be much more effective if you give your body some healthy fuel in the morning.

Easy-to-prepare breakfasts that are good for runners include cold cereal with fruit and low-fat milk, whole-wheat toast with peanut butter, yogurt with fruit, or whole-grain waffles.​

Read more:

• 17 Quick and Healthy Breakfast Ideas for Runners
• 10 Delicious and Nutritious Smoothie Recipes for Runners

Remake Favorite Foods

Don’t assume that you have to give up favorite comfort foods like macaroni and cheese when you’re trying to eat healthier and lose weight. Use lower-calorie ingredients or prepare it differently.

For example, if your macaroni and cheese recipe uses whole milk, butter, and full-fat cheese, try remaking it with skim milk, less butter, and light cream cheese. You can add some fresh spinach and tomatoes to make it even healthier.

Look for recipes that are low-calorie versions of your favorite dishes. Just remember to not increase your portion sizes of the lower-cal, low-fat foods.

Watch Portion Sizes

Standard portion sizes may actually be smaller than you think. For example, three ounces of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. One serving size of pasta or rice is about the size of a tennis ball.

Try putting smaller amounts of food on your plate or using smaller plates. If you put more food in front of you, you’ll eat it because it’s there.

Use bags and containers to divide food into small serving sizes as soon as you get it home from the store, so you avoid the temptation to open and finish the entire bag.

Read more: How to Avoid Mindless Eating

Eat Plenty of Veggies, Whole Grains, and Fruits

Try brown rice instead of white rice and whole wheat pasta instead of regular pasta. Aim for five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. You don’t need huge amounts of fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet. A cup of salad counts as one vegetable, so try eating a salad with either lunch or dinner (and choose from the low-calorie, low-fat or fat free dressing options).

Here are some other quick tips for getting more vegetables and fruits in your diet:

• Serve carrots and broccoli with vegetable dip or hummus.
• Put some blueberries or strawberries on top of your cereal or in your yogurt.
• Serve apples and grapes with a yogurt dip.
• Add spinach, peppers, onions, and tomatoes on top of your pizza.
• When making a sandwich, add lots of veggie toppings — lettuce, tomatoes, thinly-sliced cucumbers, and sprouts.
• Use salsa as a topping for a baked potato, instead of butter or sour cream.
• Put extra vegetables — such as onions and peppers — into your tomato sauce for an extra veggie (and flavor) boost.
• Get microwavable bags of frozen vegetables for an easy dinner side dish.

Stock Up on Healthy Snacks

Since runners often get hungry throughout the day, it’s important to make healthy snacks available, especially when you’re at work. Keeping healthy snacks, such as fruits, veggies, granola, or low-fat popcorn, on hand will prevent you from heading to the vending machine for an unhealthy snack.

Choose Lean Cuts of Meat and Poultry

For poultry, the leanest choice is white meat from skinless breast of chicken or turkey. When shopping for beef, look for round, chuck, sirloin or tenderloin. Lean pork choices include tenderloin and loin chops.

More on Healthy Diet for Runners

• 5 Smart Eating Rules for Runners
• Superfoods for Runners
• 5 Common Running Nutrition Mistakes and How to Fix Them

About the author: Christine Luff is a certified RRCA running coach, and certified as a personal trainer, fitness nutrition specialist, and a weight management specialist by the American Council on Exercise. Her book, Run for Good: How to Create a Lifelong Running Habit, is available on Amazon.