Anyone who has ever tried to gain new energy through a change in diet, to live a healthier life and perhaps even to get rid of a few kilos through eating, knows that it is not so easy to acquire healthy eating habits in the long term.
The good will is there, and the first hurdle has been overcome, but ultimately the plan fails step by step after a few weeks of discipline.
To give you new courage for healthy eating and to support you in your project, here you will learn everything you need to know about the change in diet and how you can celebrate long-term success with healthy food.
What are the effects of a change in diet?
To better understand what the diet change is all about, you can compare your body to a car . Your food is the fuel for your body, so to speak and your digestion is the engine. If you constantly fill your car with rubbish, it will eventually break down. Just as the car slowly loses performance, your body also becomes slower and a step slower if you constantly feed it unhealthy food.
However, if you 
A tip: Would you like to lose weight? Changing your diet is not only healthy for your body, but can also help you lose weight. Thanks to the long-term adapted habits and the tips you get from us, it is possible to lose weight and make your ideas come true.
What does healthy eating look like?
There is no universally applicable definition for switching to or for healthy eating . However, one thing is clear: eating well is important .
A balanced diet is when the body is supplied with sufficient micro- and macronutrients . If you are planning a change in diet, you should also know the basics of nutrition. Eating healthy also means knowing about the diet and changing the diet as well as acquiring the body.
What are macronutrients?
Macronutrients include carbohydrates, protein, and fat . They form the basic building blocks of our food and provide us with energy. The energy we supply to our body with food is measured in calories. To be more precise, the original definition of calories was the unit of measure of the amount of heat needed to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.
According to the Austrian Nutrition Society, a healthy distribution of macronutrients is composed as follows:
- Carbohydrates: At least 50% of your daily calorie intake should consist of carbohydrates.
- Protein: The protein content should be 8-10% of the total calories consumed daily.
- Fat: The daily requirement for fat is about 30% of the total calories consumed.
When eating, it is important to make sure that the macronutrients are best obtained from healthy, good sources.
A tip: It is therefore best to cover your daily carbohydrate requirements with multiple sugars or complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, whole grains, or the all-rounder oats . While the complex carbohydrates (e.g. oatmeal ) keep you full for a long time and keep your blood sugar level constant, simple carbohydrates do just the opposite. In addition, complex carbohydrates, such as oatmeal, are very healthy, as they are high in fiber and help the body lose weight through a lasting feeling of satiety.
When it comes to protein, it is important to combine plant and animal protein intelligently. This way, your body is supplied with all the important amino acids through food.
When it comes to fat, you should add as much of it as possible in the form of unsaturated fatty acids to the body. These include, for example, omega-3 fatty acids . They help you lower your body's blood lipid levels, especially the “bad” LDL cholesterol.
Saturated fatty acids, on the other hand, should be incorporated into your eating habits less often when changing your diet because they cause your cholesterol levels to rise. The "bad" LDL cholesterol level in the body increases, and so does the risk of cardiovascular disease.
What are micronutrients?
When we talk about micronutrients , we are talking about vitamins and minerals . They are vital for humans and are best found daily in the diet.
Since they are mainly found in fruits and vegetables , the Society for Nutrition recommends eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Specifically, these are 400 grams of vegetables and 250 grams of fruit.
In addition, fruits and vegetables can help with weight loss , as these foods have comparatively few calories per 100 grams. In other words, they have a high volume, so they are also full in the right nutritional combination and are healthy or essential for the body.
How does the diet change work?
Although it may well be that you lose weight when changing your diet, it is actually not a diet. Rather, it is about replacing food step by step with healthier alternatives and thus establishing healthy eating habits and a healthy diet permanently.
A diet as a change in diet is often not the right approach. Diets have the advantage of radically changing habits within a few days. Therefore, it is also possible for the body to change externally in a short time.
Diet trends, such as the low-carb diet, the zero-sugar diet, the protein diet, or intermittent fasting will always remain more or less present. However, if you want to work on your diet in the long term, such short diets are less useful. In addition, some diets are not designed for a healthy diet but aim to lose weight as quickly as possible. However, various intermittent fasting plans and methods can also be applied in the long term.
Before you start changing your diet, you should ask yourself why you want to eat healthier. What is your goal?
The bikini season is just around the corner; your Instagram feed is overflowing with pictures of healthy food; your colleague has just started her basic diet; the beginning of the year... There are many reasons that motivate us to make a change in diet.
The question is, do you really want it? So really, with all the consequences?
There is no shame in admitting that the motivation for healthy eating comes from the outside and is not really present in yourself. In fact, it's honest and can save you a lot of frustration. Because if you do not want to change your diet at all , you will most likely find it difficult to successfully implement your dietary change.
If you know your goals and know for sure that you want to make your diet healthy on your own, then read on, because with our three steps you will create a solid basis for a successful diet change in the long term:
Step 1: Question your eating habits
The first step to a successful, healthy dietary change is to become aware of your own eating habits and to question them.
Often, habits become so routine that we no longer doubt them and recognize them as unhealthy. That's why it's not so easy to incorporate new eating habits into your healthy diet and leave your usual diet behind over time.
Here's the tip: In the first step, write down what foods you eat and in what quantities . Watch yourself for a few days and pay attention to the little things. For example, how much sugar goes into the coffee? Do you “need” a candy bar after every meal? And what about sodas?
In this way, you will discover which unhealthy eating habits have crept into you over time , and where you can find healthier, new alternatives.
Step 2: Set small goals
Even if you are now possibly full of motivation to change your diet and would like to do everything right, take your time . Usually, a too radical approach quickly causes frustration and you quickly fall back into old patterns.
Instead, set small goals and gradually replace your usual foods with healthier alternatives. As soon as you have achieved a goal and feel comfortable with it, you tackle the next one. Give your body and head plenty of time!
Review your eating habits from step 1 and think about how you can make them healthier. How to find your way to a successful diet change step by step.
Try new things: for example, start drinking sodas only on weekends or start cooking a new, healthy recipe once a week . Cooking food yourself can help you quickly build up more knowledge about nutrition.
Especially when it comes to a healthy breakfast , we can help. For example, how about our oatmeal with berry mirror as your first healthy breakfast recipe ? Since hot breakfast is already at the operating temperature of our body, it is considered easier to digest and is therefore healthier for the body. In addition, we only use natural ingredients for the porridge.
Have you never cooked porridge yourself before? Don't worry, nothing can go wrong with our recipe. Cooking porridge is child's play!
Oatmeal with berry mirror
Accessories
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Blender
Ingredients
- 50 g oatmeal
- 250 ml milk or plant drink
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tsp agave syrup
- 150 g berries (fresh or frozen)
Preparation
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First put the oatmeal in a pot with the pinch of salt and the milk or plant drink and let it boil briefly. Stir briefly over and over again.
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Then remove the pot from the heat and add the teaspoon of agave syrup.
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Let the oatmeal steep for about 2-3 minutes.
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In the meantime, wash the berries well and then put them in a bowl and puree with a hand blender. Alternatively, you can puree the berries in a regular blender.
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Then put the oatmeal in a bowl and add half of the pureed berries and stir well. Then pour the remaining berries over the oatmeal to create a berry level. Of course, you can also round off the porridge with other fresh fruits.
Nutritional values
Step 3: Plan your meals
To prevent yourself from wandering haphazardly down the aisles while shopping, make a plan in advance .
Think about what you want to eat for the next week and shop accordingly. To make it easier for you, it helps to create a meal plan . Enter your planned meals and the food you need to do it, and you'll have a ready-made shopping list. To make this step easier and to help you, we've created a weekly plan template that you can download here:
Don't forget to include tasty, healthy snacks.
When planning your meals, it is now important to find new, healthy alternatives for your usual foods week after week or to cook completely new dishes.
Our table below is designed to give you a few ideas on what foods you can gradually replace with healthier options – and this table can also help you lose weight:
| Food | Alternative foods |
| sweetened breakfast cereals, chocolate pops, cornflakes, sweetened muesli | Muesli and porridge without added sugar, homemade Bircher granola |
| Wheat noodles | Whole-wheat pasta, zucchini noodles, pasta alternatives from legumes such as lentils or chickpeas |
| white rice, couscous | Millet, quinoa, wild rice |
| French fries, croquettes, fried potatoes | Baked potatoes, boiled potatoes |
| white bread and pastries, croissants | Wholemeal pastries and bread, spelt pastries and bread |
| Lemonade, fruit juice | freshly squeezed juice, lemon water, unsweetened fruit tea |
| Whole milk chocolate | Dark chocolate |
| Chips, popcorn, salt sticks | Vegetable sticks |
| Ice cream | Frozen yoghurt, vegan chocolate nicecream with hazelnuts |
| Whole milk | Semi-fat milk, plant-based drinks |
| white sugar | Birch sugar, coconut blossom sugar |
| Salami, bacon, extra sausage or mortadella | Turkey breast, smoked ham |
| Fish fingers, herring, mackerel | steamed fish, saithe |
Also, make sure to incorporate fresh and unprocessed foods into your diet as much as possible. The more processing steps required for a product, the more additives and flavor enhancers it contains. Which in turn is not so healthy for the body.
Finished products that appear healthy at first glance often contain preservatives, colorants and preservatives , as well as stabilizers.
To avoid finished products, you can try our recipes for different varieties of porridge, homemade granola or Bircher muesli !
Do you already know your BMI value?
With the Verival BMI calculator , you can quickly and easily calculate your BMI. It does not matter whether you want to lose weight, just want to do something for your health, or are currently engaged in muscle building training. The Body Mass Index is often the first measurement that shows you where your body weight stands.
Here you can calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index ) in a few seconds and find out the background to this value.
