What’s Your Style? // Sweet Potato and Orange Salad

Did you know that there is more than one way to eat healthy? With no cut and dry way to do it, it can vary person to person. It is important to find your healthy eating style. Eat healthy for you, not somebody else! MyPlate explains that your style should reflect your preferences, culture, traditions, and budget.

No matter your preferences, culture, traditions, and budget, there are a few key things that will help guide you in making your eating style more healthy.

1. Everything matters. What you eat, the amount you eat, the amount of nutrition in food, the other ingredients foods contain, and physical activity all play an important role in a healthy lifestyle. Tracking both food intake and exercise will help you see the balance needed. Tracking can be something as simple as writing it down on a notepad or as complex as an app for your smartphone. Pick the option that suits you and your lifestyle. MyPlate offers Supertracker, a free resource to help you track food and exercise. You can find it by clicking here.
2. Watch the fat, added sugar, and sodium. Both food and drink may contain these items. Sometimes they are found naturally, sometimes they are added during processing. Read more about each one and how they might affect you:
   • Fat
     • The Skinny on Fat
     • MyPlate
   • Added Sugars
     • American Heart Association
     • MyPlate
   • Sodium
     • Halt the Salt
     • MyPlate
3. Start small. Rome wasn’t built in a day! Think of your healthy eating style the same way. Build small parts of your plan over time. It is easier to tackle one small task at a time than to do a complete 180, changing everything all at once. Some small steps to consider are: drinking more water and less soda or sugary drinks, aim for 30 minutes of exercise each day, get 3 servings of vegetables a day, and swap treats for fruit.

It is hard to know where to start if you don’t understand what the designation should be. Check out this post to guide you in the amounts and servings you should getting each day.

A new recipe is always great motivation for a healthy meal. Give Sweet Potato and Orange Salad a try. 

It’s perfect for the winter season and gives you a serving of both fruits and vegetables. Enjoy!

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