5 Ways to Make 2018 Your Healthiest Year Yet

In the last few years, the top 3 resolutions made by Americans have related to living a healthier life: losing weight, eating healthier food, and exercising more. 

At La Española, we think that eating healthier food should be a top goal, especially since eating healthier will help you lose weight and give you the energy you need to exercise more. Eating a healthy diet is fundamental to making 2018 your BEST and HEALTHIEST YEAR YET!

Here are our 5 tips for making your eating habits extra healthy:

1) Start meals with a salad:

Weather it’s lunch or dinner if you start your meal with a fresh salad, or alternatively raw vegetables, such as carrot sticks and bell peppers, you will fill your stomach with healthy, vitamin rich, low calorie food. For breakfasts, start with a fruit salad or a few pieces of raw fresh fruit. After your salad, you will have a smaller appetite and eat less of your other dishes.

2) Use olive oil in place of butter:

In almost all instances butter can be replaced by olive oil. For example, freshly toasted bread can have a light brush of classic olive oil instead of butter spread on it. Pie pastries and cookies can be made with olive oil instead of butter and so on. Replacing butter with olive oil is a simple way to make your diet healthier and lower in calories. No matter what your recipe, if you search “how to replace butter with olive oil” on Google, you’ll get all the substitution information you need. Even better, you can bookmark the Conversion Chart that we developed for adapting recipes. Find it here .

3) Drink more water:

Fresh water, up to 8 glasses a day, is critical to good health and weight loss. Most people know this tip and yet they rarely implement it for themselves. Drink more water, your energy, skin and  waistline will thank you!

4) Switch processed foods for whole foods:

Eliminate or cut back on processed foods, such as pastas, and replace them with whole foods, such as rice or quinoa. Whole foods tend to be lower in calorie and, yet, also leave you feeling more satisfied and full for longer. 

5) Control your treats in terms of portion:

Most people have a hard time completely eliminating their favorite treats and unhealthy foods. As a strategy, if you let yourself indulge, don’t eat a lot, just have a half of a normal portion or less, this way you won’t feel deprived, but you’ll also be cutting back on the unhealthy parts of your diet. 

Follow these 5 tips and you’ll have your healthiest year yet!