Eat Healthy Not Boring
“You are what you eat”
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”
“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first”
“A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand”
There are countless quotes that we hear throughout life that relate to food. Some are based in ideas of health and others in ideas of indulgence. Oftentimes they are used to shame our eating habits or excuse them depending on who is saying the quote. Rarely are they used to support healthy eating habits as well as indulgence. This seems to be the ever elusive ideal: eating healthy without sacrificing the flavors and foods we love. Eat Healthy Be Active though, gives you the tools you need to navigate your current eating habits and modify them to be more healthy.
For me, healthy eating meant eating less of the damaging things I ate in excess. I did not set out to lose weight but in altering my diet to fit what my body NEEDS versus what my mind CRAVES I found that I did just that. However, eating healthy could mean the opposite if you eat too few calories. Finding the intake amounts you need and creating the balance in your body will help your body work better and do the things it needs to do to help you live your healthiest life!
Week 5 of the program was a bit of a recap. We discussed some of the information we discovered in weeks 1 and 2. This was a great refresh for some of the tips I may have not implemented as efficiently as I could and reminded me of things I still needed to work on. We also discussed reading nutrition labels on the foods we eat to really understand what they are providing us with. Oftentimes, the large claims on the labels (“100% whole wheat”) or flashy terminology (“stoneground”) beget ideas of healthy choices. However, by reading the nutrition labels and the ingredient list, you may find those claims fall more alongside “too good to be true” and don’t give you the full picture of what you are putting in your body.
We also discussed more snack and meal ideas and I was reminded that eating healthy DOES NOT need to equate to eating boring. Rather, eating healthy opens the door to an amazing number of new flavors, combinations, and foods you may have not tried before! I discovered that I like Quinoa salads and these can be diversified by what you mix in with them. I also discovered that I can eat Greek Yogurt. That sounds really odd in writing but I am a huge texture person. In fact I told my husband the other night I just wanted something crunchy to eat…it didn’t matter what it was, it just had to have a crunchy texture. I wasn’t craving a flavor or food item, just the texture. Well that is what Greek Yogurt has always been to me, a texture issue. In my mind yogurt was not supposed to be thick. Yet I gave myself the 10 days and a few different types of Greek Yogurt and found that it is my preferred breakfast choice right now! I love it with granola and berries because it is so filling. I am notorious for eating breakfast and being hungry within an hour or 2. Now I can have 1 bowl of this and be full well until lunch time.
One thing Merlin; the program coordinator; said to us repeatedly throughout the program was to “eat the rainbow.” Again, a bit silly in writing but when you think about it, there are so many delicious and beautiful things out there to eat! Furthermore, who doesn’t want the food they eat to look good and an easy way to “help” your food in the aesthetic department is to make sure your plate has a variety of colors on it. There is nothing more boring than a plate of food where everything is the same color. I find I am more likely to try something new if it looks exciting, vibrant, and fresh. So when considering eating healthy, fight the thoughts of “it is just salads” or “I cannot have ( fill in the blank )” because chances are, you won’t eat as much salad as you think you will and if you do you can find colorful and delicious combinations to keep them exciting for your palette. And for the “I can’t haves” remember, eating healthy is not about restricting; rather it is about eating in balance. So if you want that item you aren’t sure is overly “healthy” just make sure you account for it with earlier or later meal selections and adjust your physical activity for the day if needed. Healthy doesn’t have to be perfect or boring. It’s about balancing, trying new things and giving yourself the room to make mistakes or indulge your cravings every so often without sabotaging your health journey. And if I have learned anything thus far, it’s that your cravings can and will change! When I think of sweet now, my mind doesn’t jump to baked goods and candy right away now; rather I find myself gravitating towards fruits to fill that craving.
If interested in learning more about the program, follow the link below to our Eat Healthy Be Active page: