HOW TO EAT HEALTHIER

on Jan 22, 2009

Hey! I am sorry for not updating after promising I would write the second part soon. I had stuff to do which I will probably also blog about soon too.

There are a lot of opinions out there about diets and detoxing and what you should be eating and not be eating, green smoothies, ra
dical approaches etc. I don't want to make this post about that, because google has enough information as it is, but I do want to say what works for me. But I also want to note that I am aware that what works for me may not work for you, so by no means think this is the only way of doing things.

For me, the best way to approach eating healthier is to treat it like exercise: Start with something doable and build up from there. You can't go from being a couch potato to running a marathon overnight right? You have to slowly train yor body to respond, and grow and enjoy the movement, and I have found that the same thing goes for food. Slowly.


The first thing I would do is reduce the amount of preservatives in my diet.
Most processed food in American Countries (America is a Continent) is just chuck full of additives. In my opinion, it's worse to eat a small low fat, low cal, full of unpronounceables microvaved meal than to eat a huge organic steak with potatoes and loads of butter. Preservatives are designed to take the life out of food -so it lasts longer on the shelf- which benefits supermarkets and NOT consumers. I don't want to make a scandal of this as many others out there are doing, but if you are trying to eat healthier, shop in the perimeter of the supermarket -or better yet, go to a farmers market- rather than the center isles. Read the labels. For me, if I don't recognize the ingredients on a label, then it's not food. It may be something that entertains your mouth and calms your anxiety but it is not food and therefore, not very healthy.


Once I am used to cooking more, and my palate starts to wake up to the wonders of real food, I would strive for my 5 a day.
In reality, you should go for 3 vegetable portions (80 grams or 3 ounces per portion) and two fruit portions of the same size. (Please note potatoes are NOT vegetables) I have discovered if I plan my meals around this, there is not much room for other not-so-healthy food left.

I try to eat one fruit with breakfast and one for a snack, and one portion of vegetables at lunch and two at dinner. I do not always manage it, not because I don't like vegetables but because Husband thinks they are boring and too much (or actually, because I use Husband as an excuse not to go through the trouble of including the veg, and excluding something else) For me, this is the best way to eat healthier. Just strive for two portions of vegetables at dinner. Have you seen what 6oz of vegetables look like? It's a LOT of veg. Sometimes I make the vegetable the star of the main meal: stuffed tomatoes! with salad! Vegetable soup! Stir fry!

Whoa! Look at me all righteous and rambling like last time! I think this post has gotten too long, so I will cut it here, and make a second part tomorrow. Hopefully you'll still be interested?


1 comments:

Anonymous said...

MMmmmm, fruit and veggies. I LOVE them. Eat them all the time. The only downside to eating a lot of fruit is the natural sugar in them. Obvs, it's not as bad as corn syrup or processed sugar, but too much of it can add weight to you.