Happy New Year! I hope you all have been thinking about change this week. I am on a tangent about change and want to share my thoughts and ideas with you. Food tends to be a big one for new year resolutions, so we will start there.
In previous posts we have talked about change and how to start making plans to create positive change. Have you done your journaling? Have you made your lists? Are you ready to move forward? If this is your first post read, please go back and read the previous posts. They will get you in the right frame of mind for today’s post.
I will hop up on my soap box for just a few minutes to reiterate a couple things. Sugar is bad. It promotes disease and weakens the body. Processed foods are bad as they are filled with preservatives, artificial colors, and artificial flavors. Like sugar they break down the body’s immune system and compromise our health. Learn to cook for yourself – it is relaxing and a fun way to share things with your partner or children or both!
Ok. Enough of that. Let’s get started.
Crowding Out. Have you heard this term before? I’ve used it a couple times, but you may not be aware of what it means. When you begin to make food changes, you are doing so because you want to lose weight, eat better, live longer, etc… right? Those changes mean you have to set aside things that are not good for you, or things you eat to excess and need to reduce your consumption. Crowding out means that you will eat more fresh fruits and vegetables to replace the junk food you ate before. Prep vegetables and fruit and leave it in the fridge to nibble on when hungry. If the good food is easily accessible, you will learn to grab for it first, crowding out the bad stuff you are trying to reduce or replace. Having a salad prepared every day also helps crowd out the bad things.
Shop the outer isles. When you shop, you should stay to the outer ring of the store for 90% of your groceries. Fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, milk, yogurt, meats are all items found in the outer ring. Your processed foods are found down the aisles. Stay out of the candy and chip aisles along with the frozen meal sections.
Small plates. Another healthy change is to change the size of your plates. Instead of huge dinner plates, find smaller ones that will reduce what your plate looks like. Surprisingly, a full smaller plate will start your head thinking you are full before a moderately full larger plate. 2/3 of your plate should be fruits and vegetables, ¼ protein, ¼ bread / cheese / oils. Most people truly don’t need meat every day – 1 – 2 days per week will suffice, especially if you include beans / legumes to your diet.
Not all good food is good for you. What!?! How is that so? If you drink juice, you typically are drinking the sugar from the fruit in 3 times the amount you would consume if you had the fruit. Additionally, you lose the pulp which is the fiber of the fruit. Thereby losing a good portion of the beneficial parts. We should all be eating the 80% rule which means you eat until you are 80% full. If you are eating until you are stuffed, no matter what you are eating, it isn’t good for you.
Start from scratch. My girls have always been good eaters. Our rule was that they had to try anything new in the house. And there was a LOT of new in our house! If they didn’t like it, they didn’t have to eat it again. One of the best ways I found to get them to enjoy trying new things was to have them choose something new from the store once a month. They had to learn about that one thing – where it was grown, how it was prepared, etc. Then, they were responsible for finding a recipe and helping with the preparation. This got them involved and taught them how to cook. I started this with them when they were 5 – 6 and have passed it along to the grandbabies as well. When you cook from scratch, you know what is in your food. Few if any preservatives, artificial flavors or colors. You can decide how spicy you want something or how sweet. Don’t feel that you must 100% follow a recipe. You will quickly find that you can tweak things to suit your palate.
Raw / Sautéed foods. Many foods taste differently raw versus cooked. You should always try new foods both ways (if they can be consumed raw). Where possible you should only lightly sauté your vegetables. Vegetables will “brighten” when they have been cooked enough. Medium heat, with onion, garlic and whatever herbs you want to try. Sautéing the vegetables retains the nutritional value of them and breaks down the cell walls of the vegetables releasing more nutrients.
Drink water. Water is vital to our well-being. It flushes our bodies of toxins and other unwanted things. If you do not drink enough water, your body suffers and you will start to have other health issues – arthritis, heart disease, organ failures, etc.
Wishing you a healthy new year!
Blessings – E