Nourish Your Body Right in 6 Easy Steps
Two of the most common complaints I hear from people about healthy eating are; 1) eating healthy is too expensive and time consuming and; 2) I have no idea what it means to eat healthy anymore, it’s so confusing.
The first thing I tell them is, keep it simple. When you overcomplicate things, you get overwhelmed which will inevitably lead to confusion and giving up.
The next thing I tell them is that they need to shift their mindset. Healthy eating shouldn’t be a chore or feel like a punishment, healthy eating should be a way of life. How you nourish your body is the ultimate gesture of self love and self respect.
Today, I’m sharing my 6 step process to make healthy eating a way of life. It’s easy to follow and it’s really really simple. A back to basics way of building a strong foundation to help you cultivate healthy eating habits for life.
#1 Drink plenty of water
It’s no secret that water is the elixir of life and youth. Water regultes our body temperature, keeps our skin glowing, aids with digestion, elmination and nutrient absorption and is essential to our blood oxygen circulation, lubricates our joints and tissues and promotes overall health.
Start your day with a hot (but not boiling) cup of filtered water to encourage waste and toxin elimination and get your digestive system moving.
#2 Stock up on local seasonal vegetables
Eat a variety of local, seasonal and possibly organic vegetables and fruits. Aim to add as much colour as possible to your meals to benefit from the full spectrum of the vitamins and minerals that the plant kindgom has to offer. As they say, eat the rainbow!
When it comes to organic, I’m not fixated on “certified organic” labelling. I know all too well that small local producers and farmers don’t always have the budgets required to get certified. The other important thing to remember is that fresh produce, even if organic, will lose a lot of nutrients in transportation, so local is far better in that regard. It also reduces your carbon foot print and helps you support local business, which is something to feel good about.
#3 Stock your pantry with whole foods
A well stocked pantry is your ticket to healthy made easy. Fill your cabinets with whole grains, beans, legumes, your favourite dired herbs and spices and a variety of nuts, seeds and nut butters. The more healthy whole food ingredients you have on hand, the more prepared you will be to get cooking.
Stay away from overly processed foods. When you are buying packaged and processed foods make sure to read the ingredient labels and avoid the ones with long lists of ingredients that are hard to pronounce. Stick to products with ingredients that you know and that are easy to come by and keep in your kitchen.
#4 Plan your weekly meals
When it comes to work, you would never walk into a meeting unprepared. Chances are, you’d spend the morning, or at least a part of it preparing for your afternoon meeting. When it comes to meal time, most of us are unprepared, we wait until we’re hungry or worst “hangry” to decide what to eat and well that’s a recipe for disaster. Having a weekly plan not only helps you eat better, it also saves you money and prevents food waste.
Chose a day of the week to take inventory of the ingredients you have on hand, then do some recipe research, use your books, magazines and favourite websites and make a list of the things you’d like to make, taking your on hand ingredients into consideration. Then, fill in the gaps with a trip to the supermarket and when you get home, do as much washing, chopping and prepping as you can to get you ahead for the week. If you’d like to go a step further, set aside a few hours one day to prepare and store all your meals for the week. A few hours of work one day will save you time and energy the other days.
Check out The HolisticNiss Pantry Guide for my step by step approach to mindful meal planning that will leave you feeling nourished & satisfied, without food rules & restrictions.
#5 Get Cooking
There’s a commone misconception that cooking is time consuming. Of course, yes, it takes more time than opening up a jar or grabbing a pizza, but it doesn’t have to be an hours long affair. You don’t need to cook a gourmet meal every night, or ever if you don’t want to. If you stock your refrigerator and pantry and plan out your weekly meals according to what you have on hand, then cooking almost takes care of itself. If you’re not creative in the kitchen, keep it very very simple, start by following recipes from your favourite cookbooks or bloggers and the more you cook, the more you’ll start improvising and the easier the whole thing will become. Trust me on this one, I’ve been there.
It may feel like a huge task upfront, but nothing worth doing ever comes easy. Once you get organized and have a plan in place, things become infinitely easier and over time it becomes second nature. Before you know it, you’ll be whipping up delicious, nutritious meals and treats the whole family will enjoy. I can’t think of a better way to care for yourself and your loved ones. Can you?
#6 Balance Your Meals
Ensure you're including all the essential macronutrients in your meals, when possible and aim to cover at least half your plate with greens and/or non starchy vegetables, then fill out the rest with other complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and proteins. Find my tips for creating balanced meals without a recipe, here.