Let’s cut to the chase right here and now. Forget about all the advice screaming at you from TV, celebrities, magazines, books, and even bloggers like me. Cut out all of the white noise out there and let’s get to the basics here. Eating healthy is so, so simple. It’s the food companies and food manufacturers who have made it complicated. What am I talking about?
Let’s break it down like this. When you sit down to lunch and look at your plate what do you see? Do you see lettuce, tomato, cucumber? Chances are you have a salad made up of these separate foods. Okay, those are good. Do you have a boiled egg on your plate or in your salad? That’s good, too. That is a food made up of one thing. Do you have pasta on your plate? Ok, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Let’s look at the pasta. Did it come from a blue box? If it came from a blue box, I’m here to tell you it’s not healthy. If it’s pasta that you or someone whipped up from real pasta, real cheese, butter and milk, then you are doing okay. Those are real foods made up of real foods that you can pronounce. They are just combined together.
What else are you eating? An orange? That’s good. It is one food that is made up of one food. A few almonds to go with the orange? Great. That’s more food made up of one food.
Now it’s dinner time. Your plate is full of what? Fish, broccoli, baked sweet potato. That is awesome. Three foods made up of three separate foods! That is a healthy plate. After dinner you find yourself reaching for a couple of cookies out of a package from the store. These cookies are black with a white filling. What foods make up these little sandwich cookies? Do you know? Check out the ingredient list on the package. Hmmmmmmm. I can’t pronounce most of those words. I’m not exactly what real foods are added together to make up these things. So, I’m here to tell you those aren’t real food. That’s not a healthy food.
Do you see what I’m talking about now? Eating healthy is simply looking at your plate and knowing it is filled with real foods made up of real foods. Those foods can be a one food thing, like a potato. Or asparagus. Or quinoa. Or beans. Or they can be real foods combined with other real foods. If you are dying for spaghetti and meat sauce, then make some real spaghetti with some real meat sauce. If you need a bowl of comfort food like macaroni and cheese. Well, by all means make yourself some macaroni and cheese with real ingredients that you pull out of your refrigerator. You know what you are putting in the pot and know what real foods you are combining to make that comfort food. You can make a known unhealthy food into something real and okay to eat!
Getting back to basics with what you put on your plate and taking a minute to think about what that food is and whether it actually is a real food is a really simple way to make sure you are making healthy choices.
Let’s take all the noise and complication out of eating!
And if you want more info on eating simply, intuitively with no drama, you may like my 4 Week Mindful Meals for planning simple, healthy meals for you and your family!
For a group online program helping you create your own healthy balanced lifestyle through whole food nutrition, carb controlling, workout and weekly well-being actions, I’m launching Better & Beyond in September. Check out all the details!
Live Well!
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