What are your best healthy eating habits?
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This question makes a pretty bold assumption.
It assumes I have healthy eating habits.
Does Cook-Out count? Taco Bell? Fried chicken? I feel like I need to know the grading rubric before I answer.
The truth is that healthy eating has never been one of my great areas of discipline. I know what I’m supposed to eat. I know vegetables are good for me. I understand that grilled chicken is generally a better nutritional choice than fried chicken. None of this information has been hidden from me.
The problem is that knowing and doing have always been two very different things.
Lately, Daryl has been cooking more, and she does a good job of trying to make meals that are balanced and healthy. That helps because the easiest way for me to eat better is apparently to have somebody else put better food in front of me.
Time is probably the biggest obstacle. When life gets busy, convenience tends to win, and convenience does not always come with broccoli. Fast food exists for a reason, and unfortunately, I have frequently been that reason.
So lately, my healthiest habits have been less about transforming my diet and more about managing it better.
One of the biggest changes has been portion size. Eating less is not nearly as glamorous as some elaborate nutrition plan, but portion control matters. You can improve a meal considerably just by not eating enough of it to feed a small offensive line.
I’ve also cut back considerably on snacking. That may actually be one of the better things I’ve done. It’s easy to eat hundreds of extra calories without really noticing when you’re grabbing something between meals, especially when the snack was never something you were particularly hungry for in the first place.
And when Daryl cooks a balanced meal, I try to actually eat the balanced meal instead of treating the vegetables as decorative garnish.
I’m probably never going to become the guy who gets excited about kale, chia seeds or anything described as a “power bowl.” I’m also not going to pretend that fried chicken has suddenly lost its appeal.
But I am learning that healthy eating does not always require a complete personality transplant.
Sometimes it means eating a little less. Sometimes it means skipping the snack you don’t really need. Sometimes it means eating the vegetables that are already sitting on your plate. And sometimes it means admitting that Taco Bell probably does not qualify as a wellness program.
Progress comes in many forms.
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Copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt
