The 7 “Healthy Eating” Mistakes That Are Secretly Making Everything Harder

For years I thought I was “bad” at eating healthy.

I’d save 20 different “clean recipes”, buy half the supermarket, cook one sad casserole… and then end up eating toast with cheese at 10 p.m. again because I was hungry and annoyed.

When I started working with real people (not Instagram people), I realised something:

Most of us don’t fail because we’re weak.
We fail because the system we use is broken.

So let’s talk about the most common mistakes I see around recipes, meal plans and “healthy eating” — and what to do instead, like an actual adult who has a life.

Mistake 1. Turning Food Into a Math Exam

You open a recipe and immediately think:

• How many calories?
• Is this macro-balanced?
• Can I make it more “perfect”?

Here’s the problem: your brain is not a calculator.
If every meal becomes a numbers puzzle, you will eventually rebel. And by “rebel” I mean eat random snacks over the sink and think you “have no willpower”.

What to do instead

Use simple plate formulas, not math:

• Half the plate: vegetables / salad
• Quarter: protein (beans, lentils, tofu, fish, eggs, etc.)
• Quarter: carbs (rice, pasta, potatoes, bread) + a bit of fat for flavour

Pick recipes that roughly fit this shape. That’s it.
Science backs this structure for fullness, blood sugar, and long-term weight management. Your brain backs it because it’s simple enough to follow on a tired Tuesday.

Mistake 2. Cooking “Diet Food” You Don’t Even Like

You know that recipe that looks so “fit” and so pretty… and so completely unlike anything you actually enjoy?

Yeah. That one.

We print out these super clean bowls with quinoa, seeds, and three types of sprouts, cook them once, choke them down, and then quietly go back to pasta.

What to do instead

Start from foods you already eat and nudge them in a smarter direction:

• Love pasta? Add veggies into the sauce, use a bit less pasta and a bit more protein.
• Love potatoes? Roast them with a mountain of vegetables and chickpeas on the same tray.
• Love wraps? Fill them with beans, veggies and a normal amount of cheese.

If you wouldn’t want the recipe even without the word “healthy” on it, it has no business in your weekly rotation.

Mistake 3. Building Meals With No Protein

Here’s a classic “healthy” plate I see:

• big salad,
• some bread,
• maybe a few chickpeas on top “for health”.

Looks wholesome. Feels wholesome.
Leaves you hunting for chocolate an hour later.

Protein is not just for gym bros in stringer tanks. It’s what keeps your hunger and your blood sugar from running the show.

What to do instead

Make every main meal answer this question clearly:

“What is my protein here?”

Examples:

• lentils or beans in soups and stews;
• tofu, tempeh, eggs in stir-fries and salads;
• Greek yogurt or cottage cheese in breakfasts and snacks;
• fish or chicken if you’re not vegetarian.

You don’t need insane amounts. You just need enough so that your meal isn’t all carbs and vibes.

Mistake 4. Overcomplicating Recipes (And Burning Out)

You save a “healthy recipe” that includes:

• 17 ingredients,
• 4 separate sauces,
• 2 gadgets you don’t own.

Spoiler: you will not make this on a Wednesday after work.

Complex recipes have their place, but they are terrible foundations for everyday habits. When “eating well” always equals “huge effort”, your brain will pick “screw it, I’ll order something” every time.

What to do instead

Use a 3-part filter for weekday recipes:

1. One pan / one pot / one tray if possible
2. No more than 1 “special” ingredient
3. You can imagine yourself cooking it when you’re tired

If a recipe fails this test, it goes into the “maybe Sunday” folder, not the “Monday survival” folder.

Mistake 5. Forgetting About Leftovers (Cook Once, Eat Twice)

Diet culture secretly teaches you that every meal must be fresh, aesthetic and new. Real life teaches you… the opposite.

If you cook from scratch three times a day, seven days a week, while working, parenting, studying and existing — that’s not wellness, that’s a full-time job.

What to do instead

Adopt the rule:

Dinner today = Dinner + tomorrow’s lunch.

Every time you cook:

• make 1.5–2× the portion;
• put half straight into containers before you start eating;
• tomorrow’s you gets a ready meal instead of a crisis.

Same with breakfasts: overnight oats, chia pudding, baked oatmeal — anything you can make for 2–3 days at once.

Leftovers are not a failure of your inner housewife.
They are a survival strategy.

Mistake 6. All-or-Nothing Thinking (“Since I Ate a Cookie…”)

You plan a perfect day of clean meals.
At 4 p.m. you eat two cookies from the office kitchen.
Your brain: “Day is ruined. Let’s order pizza.”

One small detour turns into a full crash, not because of the cookie, but because of the story you tell yourself after.

What to do instead

Decide in advance that:

• Treats are allowed.
• One unplanned snack does not cancel the rest of the day.
• You can eat pizza and still be someone who cares about health.

Practically, it looks like this:

You have the cookie. You enjoy it.
Next meal? You still use your normal plate formula. No compensation, no punishment, no “I’ll starve tomorrow”.

Your body needs consistency, not perfection.

Mistake 7. Copy-Pasting Someone Else’s Needs Onto Your Life

You see a “What I Eat in a Day” from a 23-year-old fitness influencer who works out two hours a day and has a completely different body, schedule and metabolism.

And somehow, you decide that should be your template.

No wonder it doesn’t stick.

What to do instead

Use other people’s meals as inspiration, not instruction.

Ask:

• What part of this actually fits my life?
• How hungry am I between meals?
• How much time do I realistically have to cook?

Then build your own simple system:

• 1–2 breakfasts you rotate
• 3–5 easy lunches/dinners you repeat
• a few snack options you know keep you steady

Boring is good. Boring is sustainable. Boring is adult.

The Bottom Line (No, Not Your Waistline)

Most “Common Mistakes” in healthy eating are not about willpower.
They’re about trying to live inside a system that was never designed for real humans with real schedules.

When you:

• stop chasing perfect macros,
• stop cooking food you secretly hate,
• stop pretending leftovers are illegal,
• and stop calling one cookie a disaster,

you make space for something wild:
a way of eating that supports your body and your life at the same time.

That’s the SashaHealthy version of “eating better”.
Science-backed. Human-proven. Zero drama.