I think, by now, most of us know that how we eat is connected to our health…both physical and mental. BUT have you ever tried drastically changing the way you eat when you’re physically and mentally exhausted, stressed, anxious, and living in survival mode? It’s not easy!

“When you’re trying to make big life changes while you’re struggling with mental health, it’s like there’s a disconnect between your knowledge and your willpower.”

When you’re trying to make big life changes while you’re struggling with mental health, it’s like there’s a disconnect between your knowledge and your willpower. You know what you have to do, and you WANT to do it. However, life circumstances make it hard.

You’re running late for work, so you skip breakfast or grab a donut instead of making an egg. You’re tired in the afternoon, so you look for that little sugar or caffeine boost. You tell yourself it’s necessary to get your work done. You’re tired and don’t have much time between kids’ sports schedules in the evening, so you go through the drive-thru or throw in a pizza instead of cooking AGAIN. You know these aren’t the healthiest choices, but it feels impossible to change like the system is working against you. And it is! The world moves so fast in our culture these days.

So how do we implement healthy habits when we feel trapped in our old ways? Let me be honest, there’s no quick fix or easy answer. It takes hard work and intentionality. Here are 3 tips for creating healthy eating habits while you’re struggling with mental health:

1.       Take baby steps.

Be realistic. Only you know what you can handle right now. Start with something small that fits into your day, and build off that. Instead of saying ok tomorrow I am going to quit eating sweets, stop drinking coffee, and start eating healthy, pick one goal to start with. Then, choose a specific, smaller goal that works toward that goal. Do that for a week then adjust. For example, if you choose start eating healthy as your goal, make your first baby step something like, eat protein with each meal or pack a healthy lunch for work instead of getting take-out. If you choose stop drinking coffee, instead of quitting cold turkey start by limiting yourself to two cups of coffee for the week. If you choose quit eating sweets, maybe you could substitute desserts with a healthier sweet alternative such as your favorite fruits. Don’t expect immediate perfection from yourself.

2.       Plan ahead.

Come up with a game plan as to how you are going to make these changes. Don’t just wing it. Find some healthy recipes. Make sure you have the ingredients. Make a meal plan. Look, I know some people get way into this meal-planning thing, and it seems so complicated and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. One way of doing it that has helped me is just making a list on a whiteboard or paper that hangs on the fridge of the meals I have the ingredients to make. I make sure there are at least a few quick meals on there. That way, I can peek at the list and choose what to make each night based on the amount of time I have and what I feel like having. I don’t forget what I bought because it’s shoved to the back of the cabinet or the bottom of the freezer, but it’s also not a rigid meal plan where I have to spend time mapping it out on a calendar and feeling like I need to follow it exactly as-is.

3.       Make sure healthy foods live in your house.

If you don’t have healthy foods in your fridge and pantry, the likelihood that you will eat well is slim to none. Remove the awful things from your pantry and go grocery shopping. If you hate salads, don’t buy salad stuff. The goal isn’t to torture yourself. Buy healthy foods that you will actually eat. Anyways, that salad will just rot in the bottom of your fridge if you hate it. Good intentions won’t force the food in your mouth.

My main point is to keep it simple. If you overwhelm yourself, that’s not good for your mental health and will get you nowhere with making improvements. Don’t expect perfection and beat yourself up when you don’t meet your own impossible expectations. I get it, I tend to be an all-or-nothing kind of person myself. Learning to live in that in-between area doesn’t come naturally for all of us. Do what you can, and let that be good enough.

Meet the Author

Megan grew up in rural Wisconsin, where she was always known as the quiet girl with a book in her hands. Now Megan is working on her lifelong dream of becoming the author of her very own book. Out of her own struggle with trauma and mental health, she created the Jordan Crossings Blog to empower those who are healing from trauma and educate Christians on how to minister to those who are hurting.

Would you like to read more about mental health and eating well?

Visit my friend Nichole Suvar’s blog post The Hidden Benefits of Kitchen Therapy. Nichole writes about her struggles with mental health and how being intentional in the kitchen helps her through it.