Tips for Healthy Eating
Many of the patients who come to me initially do not have good diets. They may be too busy to shop and prepare meals, or not know how to prepare healthy food on the go. By the time someone ends up in my office they have a medical necessity and are in desperate need of a dietary turnaround for their health.
If someone has been eating poorly, I try to make food adjustments that are better but not perfect so as not to overwhelm him or her. In light of that attempt on my part, occasionally when I present a person with an individualized food plan they may become overwhelmed. This depends on the individual. For some, dietary changes are exciting and for others they can be down right daunting.
In this blog I am enclosing my 8 food tips to help someone shift towards a new dietary practice. Read on…
1) Start slowly: Read over the entire food plan and go on a shopping field trip to the local health food store, farmers market, or Trader Joes. Browse through the aisles; compare what the plan says to what you see on the shelves. Check out the vegetables, which ones would you normally bring home, try something different.
2) Focus on breakfast: Read the food plan and incorporate changes to your typical breakfast routine each morning during week one. Do not change lunch or dinner until the following week. Really work at becoming familiar with your new breakfast routine.
3) Simple and delicious: Keep meals simple but hearty. For example plain quinoa flakes can be dressed up with chopped apple, walnuts, flax seeds, stevia and cinnamon.
4) Invest in a good cookbook: Check out my cookbook, Feed your Cells! What can I say I’m biased, for years my patients asked me to recommend a good cookbook and I couldn’t so I wrote my own.
5) Get Inspired! Ever go to a restaurant, have a fantastic meal and try to re-create it at home? Well do it!
6) Think Positive: Instead of feeling deprived, think about how all of the new adventures in vegetables that you are having is helping your body to detoxify and ward off cancer.
7) Make one meal go a long way. You will read about this in my cookbook but there should always be leftovers for lunch. I will cook a pot of lentils on a Sunday and have them over quinoa and spinach for breakfast and lunch for two days in a row. That saves a LOT of time.
8) Transition from fake to real. Ask yourself does this food grow out in nature? Have I seen this food on a farm? If the answer is yes, then it is probably real. Real food gives us life.
Note from Dr. P:
Remember when you were a kid and learning to ride a bicycle? You didn’t ride that bicycle perfect the first time you tried. For some reason when we become adults we do not give ourselves the compassion of trial and error. We become impatient with ourselves when something is difficult. Healthy eating is a necessity, you pay now or you pay later. When you are ready to embrace good health, the path reveals itself. Adapting to a new way of eating and adopting new food behaviors take time. Try to break it down into bite size pieces and before you know it you will be shopping, cooking, and eating healthy, nutritious food. Looking for healthy recipes? Buy my book!
-Be Healthy, Happy & Holistic
