With spring on the horizon, it’s the perfect time to revitalize your diet, feel healthy and gain the energy you need to enjoy the summer months ahead.
Let’s start spring cleaning your diet with these five tips and get a fresh reset for the season.
Keep it simple
Toss the packaged meals and processed foods and replace them with basic, simple home cooked meals using fresh ingredients.
Basic whole foods have much more vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial nutrients for typically fewer calories. It might take some pre-planning (meal prep is a good habit to adopt!), but by making everything yourself, you’ll save money as well as extra calories, fat, sodium, sugar, and other ingredients often found in processed foods.
Hydrate
Like processed foods, you’re going to want to pass on sweetened beverages. Milk, pitchers of water, and even sparkling water should be front and centre drink choices in your home. You can add a lemon, lime, orange slices, or some mint leaves to your water for some added freshness and flavour.
Think light, think green
Known as the ‘food of kings’ thanks to Louis XIV of France, asparagus’ nutritional profile is royal-level.
Low in fat and high in fiber, this tender produce is a strong source of iron, B vitamins, and vitamin C. Asparagus is in its prime from March through June, so now’s the time to stock (stalk?) up!
They’re mighty flexible, too, being delicious when roasted, grilled, or lightly sauteed in olive oil and garlic.
Add colour to your plate
Fill half your plate with veggies, one quarter with grain and the final quarter with lean meats, fish, poultry or meat alternatives like legumes.
Related: How to find a diet that works for you
Healthy, hearty snacks
Stock up on fresh, healthy snack foods like hard-boiled eggs, cut veggies and fruit, bean dips and plain yogurt.
Keep the cupboards packed with healthier snacks like raw nuts, seeds and plain, ready-to-pop popcorn.
We suggest trying a combo of chia seeds, shelled hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds — making for a snack packed with protein, fiber and essential fatty acids — help keep you satiated.
Photo Credit: Kiian Oksana/Shutterstock.com; Elena Veselova/Shutterstock.com
