5 Nutrition Mistakes You Should Avoid for A Healthier Diet

Going on a diet is not always guaranteed to be a successful experience, even for the people who master the tricks and hacks of healthy nutrition. Developing a healthier diet is rather a continuous journey of gaining a deeper knowledge of food, its ingredients, and the impact of each substance on the body and its functioning.

This is only to highlight that making nutrition mistakes is common and completely normal. It is never something that should make you feel bad or set you back on your mission to build healthier eating habits.

That being said, we noticed some mistakes are more common than others, the solution to overcome each one, simply because pointing out the problem is not enough. We feel it is also our responsibility to suggest potential solutions to raise our community’s awareness of these mistakes.

1.    Your smoothy may be high in nutritional value, but it can be high in calories too

We often get tempted to include as many ingredients as possible in our smoothies, taking into consideration their nutritional value only. We forget that ingredients like seeds, cashew butter, and bananas are a source of calories too, which quickly transforms our delicious and nutritious smoothie to a major source of calories. The trick in this situation is not to eliminate some ingredients-we know how tasty they are, but rather to reduce the portions, especially when it comes to nuts and seeds that are high in calories.

2.    Skipping your post-workout meal

Having a pre-workout meal is good, enjoying an effective workout session is good, but what is great is doing these two, followed by a post-workout meal, otherwise the progress you are going after will not occur any time soon. We understand it can be difficult to find time to sit down and eat properly after a workout, particularly when you still have to attend classes or go to work. Nevertheless, the post-workout meal is as essential to your wellbeing as the workout you performed. So, the next time you are planning your workout session, take into account 15 or 20 minutes and dedicate it to your post-workout meal.

3.    Mixing supplements with beverages

Coffee (or tea) is a great beverage. It is not only delicious but low in calories too, which technically does not break the rules of a nutritious diet. However, mixing supplements with your coffee or tea can completely cancel the positive effects you are trying to get through the supplements since the caffeine can reduce your body's ability to absorb some minerals and vitamins. 

But don’t worry, you don’t have to exclude coffee or tea from your diet once and of all. Instead, try having it separately, an hour or two before taking the supplements. Additionally, for an optimized effect and to avoid any other side-effects, take your supplements with water only. It will also serve as a good chance to hydrate your body!

4.    You only eat when you are really hungry

To many, it might seem counterintuitive to eat when you are not really hungry, especially when you are on a diet. But if you pay close attention to your behavior when eating on an empty stomach compared to when you are not that hungry, you will notice how too much hunger only makes you eat more. Then you would get too full to the point where sitting on a chair would feel too uncomfortable that you need to lay down immediately.

This is not the right way to go when you are trying to build healthy eating habits and feel good about yourself. The next time you start feeling some small hunger cues, do not restraint yourself from having a meal. Thus, the cues will be shut down, and you will feel light instead of lazy or slouchy.

5.    Putting too many restrictions on yourself

We fully agree that going on a diet is all about developing good eating habits. However, we believe what is more important than that is the self-mastery the dieting journey can give you. You will begin to appreciate this value when you will start learning that this new lifestyle no longer feels limiting anymore because it never was in the first place!

Dieting is not a set of restrictions you put on yourself, but rather a reminder that you still keep the same freedom you had before. The only difference there is right now is that you are mastering the amount you eat of each type of food, and the frequency as well. So, you no longer lose control over yourself and binge-eat a meal when it was originally meant to be a small cheat snack or an occasional treat.