Raise your hand if one of your new year resolutions is to eat healthier. I’m assuming that your hand is way up in the air, right? My hand is way up there for sure. Although healthy eating is not necessarily a new year’s resolution so much as it is a year round goal I’ve been really working on for the past year or so. But I’m trying, I really am. And since I’ve been trying so hard, I thought that I would share my experience with you all. I should really start this post off by saying that I am in NO way an expert on this topic – in fact I’m quite the opposite. I’m just a girl, standing in front of a blog audience, struggling to make better healthy eating decisions. Just like most of you.
When I first started my healthy eating kick I had no idea where to start. What did eating healthy mean? Could I still eat my favorite foods? Was it going to be expensive? Should I cut out all beer, or worse, wine? Just like with most things, starting was the hardest part. (And for the curious out there, the answers to these questions are: who knows; for the most part; kind of; no way in hell.)
So where to begin? For me, healthy eating started with four main things:
…to…
I first started getting serious about healthy eating about a year ago when I decided to cut out most meat (with the exception of seafood) from my diet. Ouch. See that picture on the left? This is one of my last meat meals, and one of my favorite: Korean BBQ. Oh, so good. But for me, it had to go. This isn’t to say that not eating meat is automatically healthier than including it in your diet, but for me it made sense. One day I’ll write up a proper post on why I decided to cut out meat but that is a subject for another time.
Second, I picked up Michael Pollan’s book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. Stop what you’re doing and get this book immediately. It is filled with 64 amazing rules for healthy eating that center upon one simple concept: Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. My copy of the book is filled with sticky notes that highlight some of my favorite rules, like…
Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.
Eat more like that French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. or the Greeks.
Have a glass of wine with dinner.
Eat slowly.
Eat less.
Pretty good advice, yes? If you’re invested in healthy eating, I strongly suggest that you pick up this book!
Third, I decided to really up the number of fruits and veggies in my diet. Unlike most people, fruits were the hard part. For some reason they don’t call to me. Vegetables on the other hand – oh wow, I love just about all of them!
So much so that Matt and I decided to start a garden (that is until the gardeners decided to kill it). So now it is back to buying our vegetables from the store and farmer’s markets. In terms of money, this is always a challenge. We prefer to eat organic when we can but this can add up.
Fourth, to be careful with our money, we started planning our meals out a week in advance. That way we buy only what we need for the week and don’t waste those easily perishable foods like produce.
One of the easiest (and most delicious) ways to increase your intake of fruits and vegetables is by making shakes and smoothies! They’re the perfect food for a yummy breakfast or afternoon snack. Lucky for us, Brandi agreed to share a great recipe for a shake that includes both fruits and vegetables.
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Hello Treasure Tromp readers! I am just so glad to be here today taking over Nicole’s space. I’m Brandi and I blog over at Brooklyn State of Mind. I blog about being a wife, mama, a yoga lover, a book nerd, and domestic goddess in training.
When I think about the month of January I automatically think about health and fitness. Everyone has a set of resoltions. Everyone is hoping to kick those stubborn five lbs or eat better. Myself included. It’s probably the fact that I consumed enough sugar for a small country over the past month.
While I am definitely not one to give work out tips, my main form of exercise is chasing my 10 month old around, I do know a little bit about yummy recipes. So I thought that I would share a very easy & healthy shake recipe today. It’s sweet, but not full of calories, and can definitely serve as a meal replacement.
Ingredients:
1 cup of spinach
1/2 cup strawberries
1 banana
1 cup greek yogurt
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup almond milk
ice
All you have to do is blend it together & enjoy! Thank you so much for having me today!
A big thank you so Brandi for sharing this great recipe. Make sure to stop by her blog and say hi!
And now I’d love to hear from you: What are your goals / rules for healthy eating? I’m thinking about turning this type of post into a bi-monthly feature and I’d love to incorporate your ideas!
Linked up with Tasty and Tell Me About It Tuesday.
