Eating Healthy for Life

How do you maintain a healthy lifestyle...for life? How do you go about learning what foods are good, what cooking methods make foods less nutrient-dense, and what to eat when you go out to dinner?

One thing that helped me tremendously was my interest in food and cooking. I swear, from ages 11 to now I’ve been obsessed with Food Network TV. Luckily, I had an amazing mother who taught me several things about cooking, chopping, and so forth, but I did pick up a lot from watching others on TV.

To answer the questions, out of personal experience, I’d say, “Learn how to cook.” 

Basic cooking principles and knowledge that is taught simultaneously will help you learn more about food. Yes, butter is delicious, but olive oil is too and can be used as a substitute. Poultry is super lean because the fat is on top of the muscle instead of integrated throughout like pork and beef. Just as your dishes should have variety, so should your diet. Variety of colors in your daily diet is key to getting all the vitamins and minerals your body loves. These are just some of the things I learned how to do via TV.

I also learned basic spices for food from different regions so I could make life a little more interesting. I’m sure my mother would tell you that when I started cooking for the family, I’d walk over to the spice cabinet and smell all the spices before I added them to the dish. (P.S. That’s a really great way to familiarize yourself with spices!) I digress...

So, if you don’t have access to TV, use the internet. Here or Here.

You can also see what kind of classes your local university offers. I know mine does in the Hospitality Program (which I am taking now, actually).

There are many places, like Williams Sanoma, Cooks Warehouse and many others that have cooking classes (I’ve seen some on scout mob/living social, too).

To answer the questions again, a little more in-depth this time, I’d say, “Eat less processed and more fresh.”

LIMIT intake of these!

Your pantry needs to be pretty bare. Honestly, if you’d look in mine, you might be wondering where all the food is. If you opened the fridge, you’d find it. Your pantry should have foods you eat only about 40% of. Brown rice, oats, whole wheat pasta, dried fruit, (nuts are kept in the freezer), (whole grain bread is kept in the freezer), one bar of dark chocolate, items for the occasional baking (which is usually healthy, I might add), flour, whole wheat flour. Then there’s canned beans, dried lentils, quinoa, split peas, etc, etc.

Then 59% of your food should be in the fridge. Fruits, veggies, dairy (Greek yogurt, yum!), meat, eggs, frozen fruit, the occasional multigrain tortilla.

You may be wondering, what’s the other 1%? Seasoning! Not that seasoning is necessary with raw fruits and veggies, but when cooking, make sure you always use salt and pepper. Adding spices to your foods will make it more lively and more enjoyable as well! 

Just remember, it's not going to happen overnight. Like all other behavior modifications, it takes time, patience, and repeated efforts to make a behavior change.

Here are some other resources:

http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/index.html

http://eatgood4life.blogspot.com/