3 Easy Steps To Spring Clean Your Nutrition

Ready for spring?

Here are 3 strategies for spring cleaning your nutrition and empowering healthier habits— without complicated (or contradictory) nutrition advice.

As much as I love New Year goal setting and planning, my momentum really doesn’t get going until around April. And if you think of the natural cycles of seasons, it makes sense. It is hard starting something in the middle of the winter.

That is also why so many of us feel that natural motivation to spring clean— giving our lives a bit of a reset as the days get longer, we naturally feel more motivated, and are energy mirrors this seasonal shift.

This is also prime time to make lasting changes to our health and wellness. This post will share 3 simple and effective ways to give your nutrition a little TLC and “spring cleaning” so to say.

3 Easy Ways to Spring Clean Your Nutrition

I am all about making wellness simple— so these are all things you can start implementing today for better health and nutrition!

1. Minimize Eating Out

   Ahh… eating out… It is a love/hate relationship over here. I love the idea of going out to eat, trying new foods, and not to mention the convenience. But I also find myself all too often disappointed in the aftermath— not feeling great (probably due to lower-quality ingredients). Not to mention, it is really expensive for my family of four.

   One of the easiest ways to improve your health and nutrition is to minimize eating out (especially fast food options). Here are some strategies we use to make eating at home easier and more convenient:

   • Plan Ahead- I am a biiiiiig fan of a weekly meal rotation. This means week after week my family eats the same meals. When we get tired of a specific recipe, we swap in something else. Usually, this rotation will change every few months— about the time the seasons start to change. For example, when spring rolls around, I am usually starting to crave more fresh foods and less hearty meals that I tend to want in the fall and winter months. It also keeps us from getting bored with a meal rotation. I have a whole blog post about it HERE if you are interested in how I make this work for my family of four.

   • Pack snacks- anytime the kids and I leave the house, I try to pack snacks. This usually looks like some meat sticks, cut-up fruit and veggies, and waters. If we are going to be out for most of the day, I’ll pack us a lunch (usually something simple like sandwiches)

   2. Reading Nutrition Labels

   Just because something looks healthy, doesn’t mean that it actually is. The same is true for branding that doesn’t necessarily “look healthy”— but it could have great ingredients. You really have no idea what is in a package unless you look at the ingredient label and read what is inside. Here are a few general rules of thumb to follow:

   • Generally, the fewer ingredients, the better. As an arbitrary rule of thumb, aim for an ingredient list with no more than 5-10 ingredients. Bonus points if you know what all the ingredients listed are.

   • Ingredients are listed in their order of quantity. So, if an ingredient is very last on the list, it is in smaller quantity than the first and second ingredients.

   • Remember, just because an ingredient is marketed as “healthy” doesn’t mean it is right for you and your personal wellness goals.

   3. Food Prep

   This goes back to the concept of planning ahead.. but really, meal prep can be so so helpful in setting yourself up for acheiving your health and wellness goals! Did you know that your mind always wants to take the path of least resistance? That is why changing your habits is so hard.

   Your brain is literally wanting to continue doing the same habits you have always done— even if they are not the best for you. That is why you need to make your new, desired habit really easy for yourself. Food prep is one way you can do this!

   Here are some strategies my family uses to make food prep really simple-

   • Meal rotations- every week we eat the same thing. On Monday we have x, on Tuesday we have y, etc. We follow this pattern week after week and then will typically refresh the menu seasonally. This prevents decision fatigue, food waste, and makes meal prep really easy because they are meals I am regularly cooking.

   • Cook once, eat twice- I eat leftovers nearly every day for lunch. This saves me so much time prepping lunch every day. I usually will try to double almost every recipe that we make in order to have leftovers. I also will regularly make more so that I can freeze it. Then, on the days I am not wanting to cook, I thaw out a freezer meal and throw it in the oven.

   4. Crowd Out

   Okay, okay, I thought of another tip once I had already written the outline for this post… and I like the sound of “3 steps” than 4.. so, consider this a bonus pointer 🤪

   So often, our society and culture recommend that we cut things out. Cut out gluten, avoid dairy, limit sugar, stay away from processed foods, etc. etc. And while none of those are inherently bad recommendations, they can begin to foster unhealthy eating habits or even disordered eating patterns.

   So instead, I love suggesting the “crowd out” method. This basically means first prioritizing all the good, healthy, beneficial foods in your diet. And in turn, you will naturally “crowd out” the foods that are less supportive to your health goals.

   This can look like prioritizing bioavailable protein and fiber in your dinner, and you will naturally eat fewer processed carbs. This also allows flexibility in your diet and keeps you from feeling “deprived” of foods you enjoy.

Springtime can be filled with so much momentum and life-giving energy. It can also be a great time to make progress on our health and wellness goals, preparing to be strong and energized for summertime activities! What are some of your favorite ways to foster wellness this time of year?

Kaelyn

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