Healthy alternatives for high fat indulgences

We all have our favourite indulgences that we just can’t seem to shake. When making an effort to eat right, the thought of these snacks and greasy meal items often lead to strong cravings which threaten to throw the whole eating healthy plan right off the rails. We take some of the most common culprits and give suggestions for a healthier substitute. We’re not going to tell you to ditch the chips and eat celery instead, these swaps taste good and are actually reasonable.

The culprits:

Nachos. Switch it for taco salad. By doing this, you get to keep all the good stuff and tasty toppings and therefore keeping a similar flavour but you’re swapping out chips for fresh, crunchy lettuce, arugula or spinach. Ditch mounds of greasy cheese and go for light feta or just a smaller sprinkling of your favourite cheddar. Need ideas? This Mexican grilled chicken salad should hit the spot.   

Pizza. When trying to keep weight off, stuffing a couple slices of cheesy, carby pizza down the hatch is just a waste of the effort put in while training. Pizza is delicious, we get it. But luckily there are swaps where the bad-for-you ingredients can be done away with and replaced with something healthy. Zucchini seems to be the solution for a lot of Italian food diet problems lately and these zucchini pizza bites are no different. Get rid of the dough and get a serving of vegetables instead. Another alternative is pizza stuffed peppers where the toppings and sauce stays the same or this sunflower seed pizza crust pizza (our own recipe!) which is incredibly fun to make and well worth the effort.

Macaroni. Two good tips for making any pasta dish healthier are to shrink the amount of cheese added to the recipe and replace a good-sized amount of the pasta with a load of vegetables instead. With this chicken broccoli macaroni dish, broccoli adds nutrients and flavour and the cheese used is a light one. Eat this and feels energized rather than sluggish!   

Fries. Homemade fries are much better than deep-fried restaurant fries. When craving these guys, chop up a potato and sprinkle with celery salt, pepper, paprika and a light drizzle of oil and bake. Really wanting to switch it up? Try these asparagus fries.