We want to eat healthy and when we first set out on our mission, in theory, it seems simple. Eat your vegetables. Skip the fast food. But then as you start to learn about new or trending diets, superfood ingredients, ingredients that are deemed ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ in the media, then suddenly healthy eating goes from being simple to stressful.
Not to mention that we spend time buying new cookbooks and scouring Pinterest for recipes to try.
All of a sudden, it feels like we have to buy so many ingredients, make so many dishes, and spend so much time and effort in the kitchen. If you feel like this, then you may be making healthy eating too complicated.
Here are seven ways to make healthy eating simple (and less complicated)!
Here’s a quick recap of what you just learned:
1. Have each of these 3 things on your plate at each meal:
PROTEIN
+
FATS
+
CARBOHYDRATES
=
BALANCED MEAL
Examples:
- baked chicken + green beans + brown rice + grass-fed butter
- baked salmon + broccoli + quinoa
- tofu + bok choy + rice noodles + sesame oil
- hard boiled eggs + cucumbers and tomatoes + avocado
- chickpeas + field greens + olive oil
2. Find simple recipes.
If you’re a busy lady that doesn’t have 2 hours of time to spend in the kitchen making a meal, then avoid making complex recipes on those days. Keep it simple with recipes that are easy to prepare, require a few ingredients, and can be made in 30 minutes or less.
Try one pot meals, slow cooker meals, or meals that can be roasted or a couple of baking sheets.
3. Avoid trying too many new recipes in one week. Stick to introducing one or two new recipes.
Let’s say recently started eating healthy, and you decided to try FIVE new recipes in one week. This can be really overwhelming, especially if you have to use many different ingredients. If you have a whole bunch of produce for one recipe and you only need a small amount but don’t know what to do with the rest of it, then it becomes that sad vegetable going stale in the fridge.
Instead, try introducing one or two new recipes each week. If you like it, then add it to your rotation of preferred meals.
4. Meal prepping.
This one strategy can save a lot of time in the long-term. Meal prepping is one of the key skills we’re required to learn as culinary nutrition experts, which sets us up for healthy eating success. Everyone has different styles of meal prepping, and you can find yours here.
5. Be efficient with your time.
We’re all busy. That’s just the reality in the 21st century. We don’t have a lot of time to cook homemade meals, yet somehow there are some people that do and some people that don’t. Ask yourself, are there ways you can be more efficient with your time?
If you’re spending time watching TV, scrolling on social media, or overbooking your calendar with other activities and events that may need to be limited during the week, then ask yourself, can you spend less time with one of those things and create non-negotiable time to prepare your meals?
Alternatively, many major grocery stores offer online services, where you pay a small fee to grocery shop online, schedule your pick up time, and have an associate select, bag, and deliver your groceries to your car in the store parking lot.
6. Plan ahead.
This is also another key skill we’re required to learn as culinary nutrition experts. Instead of deciding what to eat for dinner on a whim and going to the grocery store several nights a week to pick up a few items at a time, create a dedicated grocery shopping day (for example: Saturday or Sunday). The night before grocery shopping, start to think about what meals you want to eat the following week and consider what your schedule will look like. That way, when you head to the grocery store, you already know exactly what you’re going to make and can buy all of the ingredients at one time.
Think of it like having plans for a birthday dinner coming up the following week – chances are, you already know in advance which restaurant you’re going to! The same concept applies here.
7. Find budget-friendly recipes and bulk purchases.
Many of us are on a budget and concerned that the price of eating healthy foods is more than eating cheap or processed foods. That’s not necessarily true. You may end up spending slightly more on healthier foods but you can recoup that difference in price if you’re someone that eats out quite frequently at takeout or sit-down restaurants.
Find budget-friendly recipes that allow you to eat when foods are in season and abundant (for example: apples and pears are popular in the winter but not strawberries, which cost $8 in the winter but $3 in the summer).
Also, consider buying in bulk from places like Costco, which carry lots of healthy food staples, including fruits and vegetables, grains, meats, nuts and seeds, oils and vinegars, quality protein powders, and specialty health food items (they even carry Organika collagen powder or matcha tea powder)!
As always, leave a comment below and share with a friend that you think could use some UN-complication for healthy eating in their life!
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