Enjoy Good Food And Good Health – Tips

Grilled Salmon w/Vegetables

Food is an essential component of life. So, why not make the most of it. Capitalize on the experience. Get healthier and get the maximum enjoyment out of the food you eat. Following are some simple tips that will help accomplish both.

1. View Eating Nutritious Food as a Lifestyle

Good eating habits don’t work on a sporadic basis. You are either “In” or you are “Out”. You need to decide. This isn’t as scary as it may sound. This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, not even close for that matter. Just make up your mind that you want to start eating better food and let things take care of themselves. Evolve, don’t try to change everything overnight. Take your time, add nutritious foods to your diet on a periodic basis. Don’t worry about taking something away as that aspect will take care of itself over time.

2. Make Food you Friend

If you constantly worry about weight and consciously or unconsciously turn food into the “enemy” you are likely on a long and unpleasant trip down a dead end road. Food should be fun and enjoyable, not something that makes you feel guilty or uncomfortable. Enjoying good food and maybe a lot of it on occasion, doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The more positive your view is of food the better chance you will have creating good healthy eating or drinking habits.

3. Avoid getting Hung Up on Calories

Low Fat, No Fat, Diet this or Diet that, do nothing more than create psychological opportunities for individuals to put more bad stuff into their stomachs. Sure, calories are a factor, but unless you place their importance behind nutritional values there is a good chance you will never be satisfied with how you look or feel. Less is not always better. Look around at the increase in overweight people and the explosion of low calorie food and drink products on the market today. One does not have to look far to come to the logical conclusion that all this low calorie stuff just flat out doesn’t work.

4. Stay with your Routine

Don’t allow other peoples bad eating habits to become yours. Snacks at work or after work look great…but that is where the “great” ends. Claiming “I was just being sociable” is a poor excuse for putting things in your mouth that you may not really want. Be yourself, eat the food you want to eat. People will respect you for it and in some cases be envious of your self-discipline.

5. Maintain Consciousness

All the time. I have frequently witnessed unhealthy looking people pigging out on not so good food and they often have an empty look in their eyes that signal an “I am not really doing this” attitude. There are many studies that compare what people say they ate and what they actually did eat and almost always the amount of food they remember is far short of what they actually consumed. Denial will catch up to you quickly and it is difficult to hide the results.

6. Throw Away the Rule Book

Most Americans are in a rut when it comes to food selection. Many people eat virtually the same thing every day for breakfast, some kind of sandwich for lunch, and rotate through a narrow selection of dinner choices. Get creative for all of your meals but especially for breakfast. Eggs, grains, fruits, and breakfast meats can be good, but everyday….give me a break. Don’t be afraid to mix in foods considered primarily lunch and dinner foods. Leftovers work great, often more nutritious and economical.

For breakfast and for the whole day, take a look at what people eat in foreign countries. Many countries don’t have the narrow time of day food hang ups like Americans do, especially the Asian countries where they seem to eat whatever they want whenever they want. And, the Asians represent some of the healthiest cultures in the world. Asia is not alone, the Mediterranean diet is considered better for you than typical American style food. Tossing the health factors aside, including more food from other parts of the world has the potential to make your meal time more enjoyable.

7. Olive Oil is almost Too Good to be True

Switch from butter to olive oil. If you have been eating primarily butter your whole life it may take you awhile to get used to the switch but well worth it in the end. The health difference between the two products is extreme. Butter is high in saturated fats and olive oil has almost none. Additionally, olive oil is super high in omega 3 vitamins compared to none in butter. The bottom line is one of them (olive oil) is good for you and the other (butter) is not. As for calories, they are about the same.

8. Learn to Cook

Or, learn to cook differently. Processed food is, on an average, six times more expensive than the raw ingredients before processing began. And the health benefits are greater than the cost benefits. Even though it takes more time to prepare, the health and economic differences are gigantic. As a side benefit you will become a more creative cook. Most restaurant food isn’t far behind the store bought processed food in total quality. Restaurant food may not be as processed as store bought food but all the added goodies, mostly non nutritional fats, push the majority way down the ladder in terms of health factors.

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