How To Make Healthy Eating A Reality
“I know WHAT to eat, but HOW do I actually eat healthily?”
Friend,
If you’re reading this, I already feel like I know you a little:
You care about your health and eating well
You feel like you have a good baseline knowledge of what foods are most beneficial and what your body is not a fan of
You are BUSY! You work dang hard at that job, maybe you’re a BA mama, taking care of all those around you, and yourself.
You know that you need to prioritize your health in order to live the life you want.
You can cook a meal or two but don’t feel all that confident in the kitchen.
You eat out more often (and spend more money) than you’d like because it’s a time saver!
All the Insta-perfect food photos you see look amazing but it feels like a lot to live up to.
Can you relate?
Gurl, (and dudes), I feel you! I want to help.
Let’s talk about a few simple ways to not just know what healthy is, but actually make it a reality.
1. Name what matters (stealing this concept from The Lazy Genius).
When everything matters, you’ll be stressed, overwhelmed, and ultimately disappointed for not meeting all your expectations. Narrowing in on what matters most can help guide decisions. I put this as #1 because this is SO important in order to make eating healthy work FOR YOU. Everyone is going to be different here. That’s why I am not giving you a meal plan or a list of To-Dos. Instead, I want to give you the space to name it and then from there take steps to cater your actions towards what matters most to you. To get you started, here are some things that might matter to you (pick 1-3):
Cooking as little as possible, having leftovers, having all meals planned out, only grocery shopping once a week, eating meals with certain flavors/culture (i.e. Thai, Mexican, Greek), recipes that are family-friendly, cooking seasonally/locally, cooking everyday quick meals, meals for the go/travel, having cooking feel easy/stress-free, etc.
Did you pick one?!
Proud of you, it can be hard to narrow down!
The following tips are carefully chosen because I think it will be helpful for most people, BUT take what you need based on what matters to you, and leave the rest :)
2. Keep it STUPID easy.
Your meals do not need to have 10 ingredients and 15 steps. Excluding salt and pepper, MANY meals can be just 3-5 ingredients and only a few steps. I’m not kidding you! Think of what a healthy balanced meal needs: Protein + healthy fat+ carbs with fiber. Here are a couple of stupid easy meals that are balanced and SIMPLE AF:
Meal #1
o Roasted sweet potato + broccoli cooked in avocado oil and seasoned with S+P, and a seasoning blend.
o Roasted chicken thighs on the SAME sheet pan seasoned with the SAME seasoning blend.
o Roast at 425F until cooked. You may need to put the sweet potato in there first and the 10-15min later add the chicken and broc.
Meal #2
o Form grass-fed ground beef into patties, season with S+P and cook like burgers on a pan or grill.
o Roast potatoes, carrots, or any root veg in a 425F oven with S+P
o Serve burgers over arugula and add any burger toppings you like such as onion, tomato, pickles, etc.
Your meals do not need to look a certain way, photograph well, or feel complicated just for the sake of feeling challenging. That being said, if you are someone who gets inspired by aesthetics, presentation, table scaping, etc., and that MATTERS to you, then making a meal look a little photogenic is def something I would encourage.
Easy ways to make meals look pretty: drizzle olive oil on top, roughly chop or hand-tear any herbs to garnish with, put an egg on it, add colorful components like colorful fruit and veggies. Use cutting boards to serve on for presentation.
3. Pre-make staples
If you’re not a big meal prepper like me or don’t really want to eat the same two things every day for a week, another way to save time in the kitchen but have more flexibility with meals is to prep staple foods like proteins, starches, dressings/sauces, breakfast, and snacks. Starches and proteins are often what takes the longest to cook so this can be a huge time saver! Here are some examples:
If you already have the oven on for your sheet-pan dinner, throw in some extra cut-up butternut squash, beets, or potatoes to throw into salads, omelets, or dinner bowls for the week.
If you are already making rice, quinoa, or beans, make double and have it for leftovers.
Pro tip: leftover starches like rice and potatoes develop resistant starch that acts as prebiotics that feed beneficial bacteria in the gut! Yay for leftovers!
Proteins are ez-peasy to prep. Cook up some ground beef/turkey in a pan with S+P and maybe some garlic powder and call it a day. Crockpot a big ol’ chicken or chicken thighs for some nice shreddy yumminess.
If you prefer homemade dressings like I do, make a batch for the week to easy toss with greens+ a protein. I love this simple recipe.
1. Pick a few go-to meals for each meal category that you enjoy and work with your time availability.
Find a meal you love and worked with your time and energy level? Sweet! No need to feel like you now need to come up with 9 other uniquely amazing dishes that impressed just like that one. Listen, I enjoy cooking a lot and love trying new recipes, but even I can say that having go-to meals not only makes it easier in the moment, but also makes grocery shopping easier knowing you're getting the same staples over and over again! You may already have a couple that comes to mind, but if not, I’ll share with you some of our go-to easy meals for inspiration:
· Breakfast
o Current fav smoothie: strawberries, vanilla protein powder, frozen cauliflower, flax seeds, coconut milk or organic cream.
o Scrambled eggs + avocado +sauerkraut
o Chia pudding + Greek yogurt +berries + cinnamon and honey
· Lunch
o Leftovers /random stuff put together from my fridge
o Smoothie like the one above
o Snacky plates with things like: Raw cheddar, raw carrot, Mary’s gone cracker or Siete chips, grass-fed hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut.
· Dinner
o Crispy chicken thighs like this one, sweet potato or Yukon gold potato fries, roasted broccoli or brussels sprouts
o Curry (we LOVE curry). I buy a curry paste (red or green) add in chicken or salmon and veggies like mushrooms, onion, peppers, and broccoli, and then add coconut milk and serve it over rice. It like adding fresh lime and cilantro to garnish if I have it. It varies but this is a good one.
o Spaghetti Bolognese. I like using a brown rice gluten free pasta and organic store-bought sauce that I add to. I cook up some grass-fed ground beef and add broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, and any other veggies to. Always garnish with olive oil, fresh pepper, and good parm. Sometimes I’ll eat it with a super simple side salad dressed in olive oil, balsamic, S+P.
o SOUP! I’m a big soup gal. Some of our faves are Zuppa Toscana, Tom Kha Gai, homemade chili, homemade minestrone, and homemade chicken and rice soup.
2. Save extra fun/creative recipes for when you know you have the time.
I have had to take this tip to heart quite a bit this past year as I have gotten busier. As much as I love to cook and try new recipes from all my cookbooks, Instagram saves, and pins, trying a new fun recipe involves more planning for grocery shopping, reading over a recipe, and often the time to cook it. That’s why I save trying out new recipes mainly for weekends or when we have friends and family over for dinner. So, if you’re like me and struggle to simplify, this can be a good one to try! Simplify during the week, and especially for breakfast and lunches. So, when you do find a recipe that looks amazing to you, set it aside for when you know you can put your hair up, get some tunes on, and really enjoy the creative cooking process.
3. Get Support
I know that not everyone has supportive spouses and family members when it comes to cooking and eating healthy, but if you do have that support, lean on them! Communicate what matters to you, where you need the help and how you plan to simplify. Another way to get support is to talk to a friend about how you’re making changes to eating healthy and send each other encouragement or even just an honest food pic, whatever lighting or background you may have, to show your cooking attempts!
Another way to get support if you’re struggling to find a way to implement healthy eating is to book a consultation with me! As a nutritionist and former professional cook, I can help navigate the why’s AND how’s of eating healthy with you, and with gentle, supportive, accountability.
Lastly, here are my favorite resources/tips for finding healthy recipes:
I like using the words “Paleo” or “Whole 30” in my Google searches even though I don’t follow those diets because they often lead me to really yummy recipes that use whole ingredients.
My favorite blogs that I come back to time and time again include The Defined Dish, Paleo Running Momma, and Primal Gourmet
Don’t feel like you always need to follow a recipe to a T! I make substitutions, additions, and subtractions ALL the time when following a recipe. For example, you can easily substitute cooking oils to healthier ones if they recommend using things like canola oil.
I loved writing this blog for you and hope you found it helpful!
