How to Become To Be The Bst Of Your “Future Self”

How to Become Your “Future Self”

If you look at your present and future selves as two different people, then your likelihood of making better decisions here and now will improve.

Why is this?  According to research done by Dr. Daniel Gilbert of Harvard, people are really bad at predicting who they will be in the future. The reason is simple: it’s far easier to remember the past than to imagine the future.

Because we don’t take the time to imagine the future, we assume that things will pretty much be the same in ten years as they are now. We even erroneously believe we will be the same person in ten years as we are right now. Gilbert and others call this The End of History Illusion, and what it means is this:

• We recognize that we’ve gone through some big changes in our past
• We see our current selves as the finished and evolved version of ourselves
• We assume that in the future, we will mostly be who we are now

If you look back on who you were ten years ago, you will likely see some differences. You were probably in a different situation. You probably had different goals. You likely had different friends and hobbies. Of course, some of what you were doing is probably still the same as ten years ago.

As people get older, they tend to change less over ten year periods of time.

From age 15 to 25, you’re going to see some big change.

From 25 to 35, you’re likely to see some big changes as well.

But from 35 to 45, the rapidity of change tends to slow down for most people.

Why?

According to research on the Big 5 Factors of personality, as people age, they tend to become less and less open to new experiences. They stop seeking novelty and change. They stop imagining a bigger future. Their past becomes increasingly prevalent in predicting who they are and will be. Their life becomes increasingly routine.

Although routines are good for momentum, over time they are very bad for the brain. The brain thrives on novelty, newness, and challenge. As someone seeking rapid growth and progress in your life, you have to balance these two conflicts. You need routines to move forward, but your routines need to continually involve pushing beyond them. Your routine needs to be continually challenging yourself beyond what you’ve ever done before.

The only way to create confidence is by pursuing what you’ve never done before.

As Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, said, “Personal confidence comes from making progress toward goals that are far bigger than your present capabilities.”

So, with that backdrop, it’s time to start imagining a bigger and better future. It’s time to stop attaching yourself so much to the person you think you are. It’s time to let go of the notion that your future self is going to be the same as your present self.

It’s just not true.

Your future self will be a different person regardless of effort and intention. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. Moreover, as Dr. Gilbert explains, remembering is easier than imagining.

Albert Einstein said that

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

So the question is, how much imagination are you willing to create in your life?

The rest of this article will provide five powerful strategies for imagining and creating your desired future:

• Imagine Who You Want To Be In Three Years
• Feel, Deeply, What It Would Feel Like To Truly Be That Person
• Shift As Much In Your Current Life To Reflect Your Future Self
• Expect Everything, Attach To Nothing
• Measure The Gain, Not The Gap

Let’s start:

Imagine Who You Want to Be in Three Years

“Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have. Without having a goal it’s difficult to score.”

– Paul Arden

There is a growing body of research in psychology examining the difference between our current and our future selves. What the research shows is that:

• Your current and future selves are indeed two different people
• Viewing your future self as a fundamentally different person allows you to think about what they would want

This is where vision comes in.

What is your vision for your future?

How detailed is your vision?

Without having a vision, you will have little meaning in your life. According to the late psychiatrist, Gordon Livingston M.D., humans need three things to be happy:

• Something to do
• Someone to love
• Something to look forward to

If you don’t have something to look forward to, for which are you exerting conscious and daily effort to create, then you cannot have happiness. Without vision, the people perish, the Bible states.

When you create a new vision for your life, you immediately begin to see your whole life in light of that new vision. It becomes the context of your life. Changing the context changes the meaning and possibility.

So, let’s get clear on your vision. According to the business author and expert Cameron Herold, you should have both a personal and professional Vivid Vision.

In this vivid vision, you should not focus on how you’re going to achieve the vision. You simply want to get very, very clear on what you want three years from now.

So, pull out your calendar and put a big X three years in the future.

What does your life look like?

What do you look like?

What does your environment look like?

Who are the main people in your life, and on your team?

What types of clients or people are you working with?

What is the overall experience you’re having?

What does your typical day look like?

How much money are you making?

What is important to you?

Where is your focus?

Remember, your job right now is not to determine how any of this stuff is going to happen. Your first job is simply to get clear on your vision. The more clear your vision is, the more obvious and easy will be the execution.

According to Herold, you should ideally have a five-page vivid vision written down which you begin sharing with EVERYONE!

Why share with everyone?

A few reasons:

• When you share it with others, they will begin holding you accountable to it
• Hearing yourself say it will cause you to believe it more - Your thoughts should become words, words should become actions, actions habits, and habits your personality and destiny.

There are mixed science and opinions as to sharing your goals publicly. The question is: if you’re 100% committed to your goals, then why wouldn’t you?

People talk about how publicly sharing goals decreases motivation because you feel like you’ve already achieved something by simply saying it. This argument is a strawman for one important reason: if you’re trying to figure out how motivated you are toward a goal, you probably aren’t committed to it.

Once you get committed to something:

• Then you stop worrying about what people think about you
• You begin orienting your entire life and environment to create that thing
• You stop over-attaching to failures along the way - In other words, you embrace imperfectionism.

So, create your five-page document.

Where will you be in three years from now?

Then, begin sharing it with EVERYONE. Watch what happens. You’ll begin to repel the wrong people from your life and attract the right people.

The question is: are you really ready to do that?

If you’re committed, then the answer must be yes. If you’re not, then stop reading this article.

Feel, Deeply, What It Would Feel Like To Truly Be That Person

“According to research on mental rehearsal, once we immerse ourselves in that scene, changes begin to take place in our brain. Therefore, each time we do this, we’re laying down new neurological tracks (in the present moment) that literally change our brain to look like the brain of our future. In other words, the brain starts to look like the future we want to create has already happened.” – Dr. Joe Dispenza

Once you’ve committed to something, your job is to shift your brain, mindset, and identity to match that future reality.

You do this through

• Visualization/journaling
• Environment design, and
• Courageous action

During your morning meditation/visualization, you want to see your future goals. You want to see yourself where you ideally want to be. This is an important distinction. All goals are not really desired outcomes but desired versions of yourself.

That’s all a goal is: a new you.

Your body is a chemical machine that becomes addicted to and accustomed to various emotional states. Your body then subconsciously acts in ways to reproduce the emotions it has become habituated to.

So, before you know it, you grab your cellphone and are back scrolling the newsfeeds. You didn’t consciously choose to do this. Your body impulsively did it because when you engage in that particular behavior, your body gets the chemicals it has become addicted to.

If you want a new future and new you, then you need new chemicals.

This occurs through:

• Emotion-based visualization
• Fresh environments/experiences, and
• Bold new behaviors

Each of these produces emotions. The new emotions can reset your subconscious normal. You want and need a new normal because your sense of normal is your identity and reality.

Every day, you need to produce the desired emotions of your future self. This is what visualization is all about.

How often do you visualize?

It turns out only 3% of Americans have written goals. Only 1% write their goals down daily. My guess is far far less than 1% have a vivid vision which they share with everyone. Far less than 1% trigger the emotional state of their future self. Far less than 1% courageously pursue their future dreams, right here and now.

Will you?

Shift As Much in Your Current Life to Reflect Your Future Self

“Design crushes willpower.”– Dr. Bj Fogg

Visualization isn’t enough. You need to begin seeing evidence throughout your life that you’re serious about this. One of the most powerful ways to create evidence of your future dreams is to begin investing money in those dreams.

Recently, my friend Draye and I invested $800 to sign up for an Ironman Triathlon in July of 2020. To be honest, I’d only vaguely thought about doing such an event over the years. It wasn’t something I was committed to or really thinking about.

But then, Draye and I were super pumped up after some big stuff happened in our businesses. So we decided to just sign up for an Ironman together.

It’s really interesting what has happened, psychologically, to me in the past two weeks since we made that spontaneous investment. I’ve begun seeing myself complete the Ironman, in my head, much more lately. In other words, the investment triggered a great deal of imagination.

I’ve been thinking about it and visualizing myself doing this Ironman much more. I’ve also begun listening to audiobooks about endurance sports. I’ve been doing way more cardio and changing my diet.

It’s totally shifted everything related to my fitness. But the effects have also spilled over into my other goals. My whole life is becoming more active and excited. My body is changing, as are my behaviors and routines. This is positively impacting my relationship with my kids and my work as a writer and entrepreneur.

When you begin making powerful decisions in your life, you are then enabled to prioritize your life. You can determine who you want in and out. You can determine what success looks like, for you. You can stop playing other people’s games and reset your brain to expect very different and unexpected results.

How much do your current life, environment, and behavior match your desired future?

Expect Everything, Attach to Nothing

“Expect everything and attach to nothing.” – Carrie Campbell

One of the most common platitudes is to lower your expectations so you don’t get hurt.

Why are we so afraid of getting hurt?

According to the Expectancy Theory of Motivation, your expectations play a huge role not only in your motivation but in your results in life. According to the theory, there are three prerequisites to being motivated:

• You have to actually want the outcome in question
• You have to have some knowledge or competency as to how to get it
• You have to believe you can do whatever is involved in achieving that goal

Now, the more evolved you become, the less you are the one to do everything involved. You increase your confidence by teaming-up with other capable people. You increase confidence by making progress.

Often, people fail to make progress and instead procrastinate because they don’t know what to do. They have a goal but have little skill or knowledge. So, the goal becomes a dream unfulfilled.

When you begin taking action toward the dream, investing in that dream, and building a team around you - then you’ll start making progress. This progress will increase anticipation and expectation that you’ll succeed.

It’s your choice, really, if you succeed or fail. It’s up to you how bold and committed you will be. It’s up to you how motivated you will be.

Of course, you’re going to face painful moments. If the future you’re pursuing is boldly bigger and different from your present, then you’re going to fall flat on your face a lot.

It’s going to hurt. You should get used to that.

It’s going to be complex and confusing. You should and can get used to that. It just takes repeated exposure, increased knowledge, commitment, and support.

Lots of self-help writers these days argue you shouldn’t have goals because they make you feel horrible. You feel bad if you fail and you’re disappointed when you succeed.

This is total nonsense. Without purpose, you perish. The problem isn’t goals or expectations. The problem is an emotional attachment to the outcomes you’ll experience along the way.

Get used to pain and failure and nothing can stop you.

Measure the Gain, Not the Gap

“The way to measure your progress is backward against where you started, not against your ideal.” – Dan Sullivan, THE GAIN AND THE GAP

Every 30 or 90 days, a solid practice that Dan Sullivan teaches his entrepreneurs in the Strategic Coach program is to Measure the gain.

Here’s how it works:

Every 30 or 90 days, answer these questions:

• What were the five biggest wins?
• What about your current situation gives you the most confidence and excitement?
• What are the five jumps or wins in the next 30 to 90 days that will create the biggest impact?

That first question may be the most important. It helps you frame your past in a positive way. It helps you selectively attend to the progress you’re making. Most people, regardless of their success, focus on the gap. They only see lack. They only see what they’re not doing well.

Of course, having high expectations can be good for performance. But a relentless insistence that nothing is good enough is also bad for joy and even confidence.

You can keep moving forward in your life while at the same time enjoying the process. In fact, research shows that happiness bolsters motivation and success. Other research on endurance athletes shows that how they feel while performing determines how long they can go. If their jaw is clenched and they feel they are exerting lots of effort, they will burn out faster than those with a loose jaw who feel calm.

This is a picture of the inside cover of my journal. Every 30 days, I complete a new journal. Every time I open my journal to write, I start by looking at this first page.

On this first page are the following questions:

• Where am I now?
• What were the wins from the past 90 days?
• What are the wins from the next 90 days I want?
• Where do I want to be in three years? (vivid vision)
• Where do I want to be in one year?

These questions trigger and frame my journal writing. They help me remember what I’m trying to accomplish. They keep me living in the gain all the time.

Life becomes a lot of fun. Success becomes much easier. I become much happier. Are you in the gap or the gain? Are you emotionally attached to outcomes along the way? Are you incessantly negative, despite your success? Is happiness always somewhere in the future, and never here and now

Conclusion Success is a joyful process. Change is a joyful process. Without purpose, you will perish. These five steps will help you achieve your dreams and find joy along the way.

Enjoy. Resource: https://benjaminhardy.com/how-to-become-your-future-self/

Affiliate Guide, Your Road Map to Success as an Affiliate.

Affiliate Guide, Your Road Map to Success as an Affiliate.

Today as an affiliate, having your own blog is key to a stable online income. Write articles on a regular schedule, once a week or so is a good pace. Work on giving your readers useful information about your niche. Give them ideas and methods that are actionable. By doing this, your readers will begin to trust you when you recommend products. Let’s face it ; One of the key lessons Mark Ling teaches is that email marketing makes more money than banner advertisements on websites. Emailing a subscriber an offer creates a “warm” prospect. You should use opt-in forms to an email subscriber list. ” By giving people an incentive to join your mailing list (e.g. free eBook) then sending out emails that contain useful information, you effectively create a “pre-warmed” prospect. These “warm prospects have a much higher rate of conversion. They are already interested in your niche. They just need to be given opportunity to buy a suggested product.
So just to review, these are the key take-away points for you; Develop a Blog to provide meaningful advice and create a following that trusts you as a source; Build a subscriber base from the readers of your blog; Make product suggestions to your subscribers; Use Email marketing over banner ads for a higher conversion rate; Optimize your pages using the Google Keyword Planner to get ranked higher in the search.

Affiliate Road Map

Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative business. There are a huge number of affiliates earning full-time incomes and make money online from affiliate marketing. You can definitely make money at Affiliate Marketing, but believe me; it’s not going to happen overnight. You will need to find an honest, legitimate company that provides a comprehensive mentoring/ coaching program or you can make it in your way and by yourself by learning step by step, by reading, writing and action.

However, you should know several important things before you get started with affiliate marketing. First of all, you should know that you shouldn’t approach affiliate marketing as a “get rich quick” scheme.

However, you should know several important things before you get started with affiliate marketing. First of all, you should know that you shouldn’t approach affiliate marketing as a “get rich quick” scheme. Whether it’s a side income or your mainstream income, affiliate marketing should be taken as seriously as any other business. If you really want to be successful, you’re going to have to set time-based goals and bust your ass to achieve them. Second, you should know that unless you have a decent source of incoming free traffic, you’re going to have to spend some money to get people to come to you. It won’t kill you to start with less and it definitely won’t hurt to start with more, but just keep this number in mind when you start out. Third, you may have heard somewhere that affiliate marketing is autopilot. I’ll tell you right up front; there is absolutely nothing autopilot about this business.

One of the essential skills needed for effective Affiliate Marketing is the ability to drive large numbers of internet traffic to your website. You need great marketing skills and you need to know the secrets that the “big guys” know. Yes, Affiliate Marketing is fun, interesting, and lucrative, but it can also be very challenging. Unfortunately, there is about a 95% failure rate in this business. Do not worry the real thing in all kind of business it is like that. Only 1 – 5 % that really can make success and the other just having survivors.

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Why Should You Eat Organic Cereals?

Why Should You Eat Organic Cereals?

 By Karthik Guduru 

What has made cereals enter the mainstream of food and why is every food marketer jumping on the bandwagon? There must be something significant that is making every food category vying to include this element in some form or the other. From products made for kids to items intended for adults hitting the gym or sports-ring, they are a part of every package today.

The interesting twist is that food marketers in our households have been selling us this power-source for many years, but we have not been listening carefully. Cereals like Upma, Poha provide not only taste but also immense health benefits. Nowadays you can access ready to cook Upma mix.

Foxtail Millets Upma Mix: Regular use of foxtail is a good guard against coronary diseases and reduces chances of cardiac arrest and fatalities. Being a diabetic friendly food, it contains a fair amount of phenolic (a strong anti-oxidant) used to get rid of toxins in the body. People who cannot consume wheat are left with very few options as most of the products in the market like biscuits, bakery items like bread, etc., are made from Wheat. As a gluten free diet, foxtail millet is a perfect food for people suffering from Celiac, promoting digestion, increases energy levels and helping in maintaining cholesterol levels.

Sooji Rava Upma Mix: Sooji is very good for diabetics or those who wish to lose weight. Sooji is made from the durum wheat and is slow to digest, thus sustaining energy for a longer period of time. Wheat Daliya Upma Mix: An excellent source of dietary fiber, Daliya is one of the best alternatives to wheat. It aids in weight loss, diabetes and prevents constipation. It is also used as a weaning food, to transition babies from breast milk to semi-solid food. Being rich in proteins it helps in building muscles.

Cereals need not be equated to Oats. Cereals like puffed paddy are simply store-houses of health. When one has to control weight without starving too much and without letting the stomach run empty, the best way is to eat a good organic cereal like puffed paddy, also called nel pori or aralu in the local language. It is a very good source of potassium, zinc, copper, thiamin, niacin, Vitamin B6 pantothenic acid, iron, magnesium, phosphorous and manganese. The presence of magnesium aids in enzyme function, energy boosters, strengthening heart muscles, preventing strokes and avoiding heart attacks. Magnesium is also linked to treatment of depression. You can make Bhel Puri with this puffed paddy.

Many recipes that are usually sacrificed by weight-conscious people can be easily remade with cereals like Wheat Daliya, Foxtail Millets, Rava Sooji and Puffed Paddy.

It is an added advantage when the cereals are organic. Organic crops are not exposed to synthetic pesticides, GMOs, and fertilizers that are petroleum-based or sewage sludge-based. Organic farming practices include the usage of natural fertilizers such as compost and manure to feed soil and plants. Crop rotation, mulching and tilling are used to control weeds, while insects are controlled using natural methods such as traps and birds.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Karthik_Guduru/2129455

Enrich Your Well Being - Eat Better Food

Enrich Your Well Being - Eat Better Food

By Josef Bichler 

All of this starts at the moment you go shopping. Shopping smart is the beginning for better health. What you don't buy or bring home you can't eat. There you have your choice, it can become a lower weight shopping basket, or a lower blood pressure or an anti arthritis shopping basket etc. These are our choices, everything has a beginning in life, such as good health, bad health, and how we manage it. Most of the time these are our own choices. It is known through numerous researches that food can become our medicine and food becomes our healer.

But there is also another link to a healthy body - your mind, because mind over matter matters. That's right, your mind. It's called the mind-body connection. In a nutshell, what you believe in your mind can influence things in your body. Anxiety can make any illness worse or is even the starting point of it. Anxiety can make pain feel worse, lower defences and immune system that allows any virus or illness take hold and can aid in raising your blood pressure. A simple act of relaxing can do wonders for your health which is all part of the mind and body connection.

Combination Of Health And Well Being

Using the power of positive thinking and relaxing techniques including healthy eating will certainly help with any treatment of illness. Because of high depletion in food it is more important now than ever before to make the right choices when it comes to your diet. Your body can only stay healthy when it gets all the right nutrients it needs and all of that comes from the food we buy and prepare. But you may say: I'm taking my vitamins every day. Which are totally useless if your diet isn't right in the first place. The body's health reacts from many things which include all the minerals and vitamins that must work with each other; one or two on its own will have no positive effect.

The many fast foods which have become a quick, lazy and cheap way to have a meal does not give the body what it needs to stay healthy. Denying your body the right food that includes good nutrients for a long time will without any doubt become a serious health issue. To have a healthy body means having a diet rich in many mineral and vitamins every day and not just on occasions.

Medical research has discovered literally thousands of healing nutrients in foods. One type of phytonutrient found in vegetables has been known reducing cancer and other illnesses by as much as 44 percent. Many vegetables contain a substance called carotenoids; as well beta carotene, lutein and lycopene are all different varieties of carotenoids. They all have a strong amount of antioxidants that help the body fight disease.

Case Histories Of Remarkable Healing

Nature provides us with its remarkable healing power. Unfortunately, in many cases this been ignored not only because of disbelieve but more often because of lack of knowledge. There always be different opinions as well as disbelieves and wrong information. Many people continue to suffer from misguided wrong advice over the last several decades and still leading to poor health today. Some unscientific bureaucrats still have this backward stance that healthy food could have the power to prevent a number of chronic diseases, as well as obesity.

Although there is overwhelming scientific evidence that just the opposite is the case. It comes down to what you eat; you can trace every disease and illness to a mineral and vitamin deficiency. Even at the lowest level of deficiency in various nutrients will alter your body's immunity and blood levels. The problem here is it has become harder to select a nutrient rich diet. The quality in our vegetables and fruits has reduced on average around 40 to 50 percent since the seventies because depletion of soil and the use of artificial fertilizers.

The healing powers are found in different vitamins and minerals such as zinc, selenium, copper, magnesium; these are just some of the many our body needs a percentage of every day and not just some times. Using supplements to overcome any shortfall, select carefully, many being made from synthetics and not natural ingredients.

My name is Josef Bichler. I have a passion for wellness and showing others how to live healthy lives. I have corrected my own health problems with the use of alternatives only. I have helped many others to achieve their health objectives through lifestyle changes. Recommending the right supplementation, and through understanding the benefits of selecting foods to fix the problem. For more ongoing health information subscribe to my free weekly newsletter; this also gives you the opportunity for comments, suggestions and questions you may have, as well download my free e-book to help making better food choices: http://www.healthythenaturalway.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Josef_Bichler/582776

Why Should You Buy Organic Food?

Why Should You Buy Organic Food?

 By Daisy Bell 

What Does Organic Mean?

Agricultural products that are naturally grown and processed are termed as organic foods. The organic crops, in general, are grown without the use of chemicals, synthetic pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, bioengineered genes or sewage sludge-based fertilizers. Even when it comes to dairy products, meat or eggs, the livestock will be given access to organic feed. Antibiotics, by-products, and growth hormones are rigidly not encouraged.

Why Choose Organic?

A maze of foods labeled organic will claim to be beneficial but is it really so? Does the popularity of organic food outweigh the advantages? If you've ever wondered about what is essentially good for your physical and mental health, you're on the right path. Organically grown foods often contain more nutrients in the form of antioxidants and prevent or reduce allergies when compared to conventionally grown counterparts. It is free of harmful chemicals, contains more taste and sustainable sustenance while being a great choice for personal and planetary well-being.

Why Is It Important?

Organic foods contain fewer chemicals and pesticides but consumption of organically grown food is one of the ways to avoid the chemically intoxicated foods in the current market. Over 600 active chemicals are registered with heavy pesticide exposure that can contribute to serious ailments, impairments, malfunctions and neurological issues. Organic meat and dairy contain synthetic hormones that have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. Alternatively, due to zero pesticide levels, the fertilization techniques are less likely to cause toxic heavy metals that usually accumulate in the kidneys and liver.

Advantages of Organic Food

Organic products such as meat and milk contain 50% of omega-3 fatty acids which is a type of unsaturated healthy fat that does not increase the overall calories.

Sustainable practices for growing crops yield foods with more nutrients including minerals, vitamins, micro-nutrients, and enzymes.

Organic foods grown in a well-balanced soil automatically taste better than conventionally grown crops.

No synthetic hormones or antibiotics are fed to livestock making organic foods intrinsically safer to consume.

Organic products have higher antioxidant content and pose no risk of harmful pesticides or other potentially harmful chemicals.

They contain essential nutrients as soon as they are harvested and must be consumed relatively quickly

Lower risk of water or soil contamination brings a positive effect on human well-being as well as the environment.

Organic foods cannot be altered from the point of their DNA in order to be pesticide free or produce insecticides. It is free of (GMO) genetically modified organisms or in other words genetically engineered

Organic farming plays a positive role in the environment as it reduces pollution and soil erosion, increases the soil fertility, conserves water and uses less energy

It is hard to overlook the problems arising from toxic exposures of conventionally grown foods. The wake of factors such as birth defects, obesity, learning disabilities and water pollution is stimulating a valuable change for delivering organic labels to the market. The growth in this dynamic sector can be contributed to protecting the environment and stabilizing health living.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Daisy_Bell/2472579

7 Principles of Healthy Eating

7 Principles of Healthy Eating

By Sally Solo

The remedy for eating better isn’t deprivation, blandness, or a rigid diet―it’s incorporating good habits into your life

Con Poulos

The key to eating right and maintaining weight is a plan that fits your life. Consider these points: 

1. Know yourself. Some people revel in the art of food preparation. For others, the microwave is a lifesaver. What matters is that you find a healthy way to cook and eat that works for you. If you love a large, sit-down dinner, for example, ignore conventional wisdom that says it's best to eat lots of small meals (just be sure not to snack all day if you plan to feast at night). Knowing yourself also means planning for pitfalls. If, say, you often nosh while you work, keep food as far from your desk as possible or bring in a healthy snack from home. If your downfall is salty junk food, don't eat directly from a multiserving package; take out a handful and put the rest away. Slight changes don't feel like sacrifice, says Brian Wansink, a professor of marketing and nutritional science at Cornell University, but they do make a difference: "Eating 200 fewer calories a day can mean 20 pounds of weight lost in a year." 
2. Give peas (and peaches) a chance. It's easy to say "Eat more vegetables," but what about people who don't like spinach and broccoli? With a little attention to food prep, even vegephobes should be able to find greens (and oranges and reds) that are appealing. "People, when they cook, focus on the recipe for meat," says Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Then they serve plain steamed broccoli on the side. And that's boring. You need to put the same care into vegetables." Wootan suggests dipping Brussels sprouts in Dijon mustard or sautéing spinach, collards, or Swiss chard with garlic―or bacon.
 "Why can't we add some of the fat in our diet to our vegetables, or some sweetener to our fruit?" she says. "What's wrong with a little bit of sugar left clinging to a peach?"Think about using leftover or fresh vegetables in risottos, soups, casseroles, and stews and putting leftovers in breakfast frittatas or pureeing them with olive oil to make a spread or a dip for a sandwich or an appetizer, suggests Laura Pensiero, who cowrote The Strang Cancer Prevention Cookbook ($17, amazon.com) and owns the Gigi Trattoria, in Rhinebeck, New York. 

Another benefit of piling on the vegetables is that you can pump up the volume of a meal, even as you trim calories. People tend to eat the same weight of food, not the same number of calories, over the course of a day, says Barbara Rolls, a professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University, in University Park. By adding water-rich vegetables and fruits and substituting leaner cuts of meat in a recipe, you can create lower-calorie, healthier meals--and trick yourself into thinking you're eating as much as you always have.

Finally, if chopping broccoli or picking through raspberries isn't your thing, buy frozen. You get the same nutrients without the hassle.

3. Eat less meat. The mainstays of a healthy diet should be grains, nuts, and seeds, as well as nonstarchy vegetables and fruits, rather than meat. Whole grains (oatmeal, brown rice, whole-wheat bread) provide fiber, which aids the digestive system and makes you feel fuller, and B vitamins, which can boost energy and aid metabolism. Nuts and seeds contain nutrients, such as vitamin E in almonds and sunflower seeds, that are otherwise hard to come by. Legumes―including beans, soybeans, peanuts, and lentils―provide fiber, too, along with protein, iron, folate, and other nutrients. Replacing meat with legumes as a protein source is a good strategy for reducing saturated-fat intake.It's easier than you think to work these foods into your day. Open up a can of kidney beans or chickpeas and add them to soup, chili, or pasta. Or try a bowl of fortified breakfast cereal, 1 1/2 ounces of shelled sunflower seeds on a salad, or two ounces of almonds. You'll be one of the less than 3 percent of Americans who get the recommended daily dose of vitamin E.

4. Separate your fats. When it comes to fats, there's perhaps no other area of nutrition in which researchers have learned so much and confused so many consumers in the process. What you need to know is this: Fat has more calories per gram than carbohydrates or protein, so if you're trying to maintain or lose weight, limit the amount of fat you eat. That said, not all fats affect the body equally. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are the "good" fats; they're found in nut and vegetable oils and oily fish, such as salmon, trout, and herring. They don't raise blood cholesterol levels and may even reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems. According to the American Heart Association, eating seafood with omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon and sardines, twice a week may reduce the risk of certain forms of heart disease.

Saturated and trans fats, also known as the "bad" fats, are found in dairy and beef products and palm and coconut oils. The more of them you eat, the higher your risk of cardiovascular disease. Trans fats are also found in French fries and many commercially baked products, such as cookies and crackers, but are becoming less common. After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated that companies list trans fats on food labels, some restaurants, like Wendy's and Red Lobster, reduced their use, and many manufacturers have reformulated products to get rid of trans fats altogether. (Be aware, however, that many of those products now contain saturated fats instead.)

5. Watch those portions. Even as you try to eat foods that are loaded with nutrients, pay attention to the overall amount you consume. Brian Wansink, a professor of marketing and nutritional science at Cornell University, explains that people have three measures of satiety: starving, could eat more, and full. "Most of the time, we're in the middle," he says. "We're neither hungry nor full, but if something is put in front of us, we'll eat it." He suggests announcing out loud, "I'm not really hungry, but I'm going to eat this anyway." This could be enough to deter you, or to inspire you to eat less.

Restaurants bring challenges, because portions are huge and tend to be high in fat and sodium. "Eating out has become a big part of our diet, about a third of our calories," says Wootan. "When eating out, we should apply the same strategies we do at home―not on your birthday, but on a Tuesday night when there's no time to cook." One strategy: Share an entrée. You'll eat a healthier portion size and also save money.

6. Eat, don't drink, your calories. Beverages don't fill you up in the same way that foods do: Studies have shown that people eat the same amount whether or not they wash down their food with a 150-calorie drink. And most beverages don't contribute many nutrients.

In fact, all you really need is water, says Barry Popkin, head of the division of nutrition epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill. "In a historical context," says Popkin, aside from breast milk, "we drank only water in the first 190,000 years of our existence.

7. Limit packaged foods and read labels. Many nutritionists recommend shopping the perimeter of a supermarket, where fresh foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are usually sold, and avoiding highly processed foods, which tend to be found in boxes in the center aisles. But you may find it hard to resist the core of the store, with its convenient treats and processed foods. Just be aware that three-quarters of the sodium and most of the trans fats and added sugar Americans ingest come from packaged foods.

The trick is to turn a blind eye to all the enticing claims on the fronts of packages―low-fat, low-net-carbs, zero trans fats!―as some are empty, some are unregulated, and some are misleading. Instead, cast a critical eye over the nutrition-facts box. Look first at calories, saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium. Saturated fat and sodium are presented in grams and milligrams, respectively, and as a percentage of the recommended limit of what we should eat in a day; calories and trans fats are listed simply as amounts. If the numbers seem high, check out a few competing products to see if you can do better. Note that you may need to multiply if there's more than one serving in a package and you realistically expect to eat two or three servings. Also read the figures for fiber, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and E. These are the nutrients you need to be eating more of every day.

(Sources : https://www.realsimple.com/health/nutrition-diet/healthy-eating/7-principles-healthy-eating)