I try to eat healthy 90% of the time. The 10% is reserved for the bite of dessert shared with my husband, or the cupcake from our grandsons’ birthday. Nothing crazy, only a little reward I leave room for myself.
Eating healthy wasn’t something I woke up one day and decided to do. Actually, I’ve had several people tell me how much my life would benefit if I ate healthy foods.
Those people can be annoying. Who wants to hear that they should eat healthy while sitting with a Hawaiian burger and homemade chips in front of them with a coke a cola in glass. I’ll leave out the fact I hid the huge slice of key lime pie to the side.
No one wants to hear that. Why?
It’s the feeling of judgement. Guilt.
It’s a decision one has to make on their own. I decided a few years ago I wanted to begin researching the benefits of eating healthy vs. eating what I wanted.
Plus, to be completely honest, I had reached a weight that was my “never go there weight”. One morning, the scales had the nerve to edge over “that” number by one. It was a dare. It crossed the line I had drawn in the sand, and that line was suffocating my waistline.
It was my cross roads. Am I going to continue to eat foods that make me happy for the moment, or am I going to start standing up for my health, and change my eating habits?
It didn’t happen overnight. But, what did happen overnight, was Amazon. Yes, my love hate relationship with Amazon. I jumped on Amazon and ordered enough healthy eating books to keep my nose occupied for years.
My take away from the many books I read:
Healthy whole foods can actually heal your body. What? Yes, it’s true. Sugar feeds cancer and other illness. The last thing I want to do is feed any cancer.
I thought to myself, if I were ever diagnosed with caner, I’d never eat sugar again. Then I realized how stupid that sounded. Why wait and get cancer before I begin fighting it? So, I’m fighting the war now.
Certain foods can cause inflammationin your body. I started noticing this first hand. I thought it was nothing more than getting “older” and that I would have to live with the aches and pains in my joints. I read up on foods that aided to my pain, removed them from my diet and then began eating more and more foods that help repair inflammation. Blueberries for the win!
Process foods are not good for you. EVER. Have you ever read a label and wondered what in the world all those words were? Uh, me too. Ok, if you have never read a label, it’s time. One word I learned on reading labels was “maltodextrin”. It is placed in so many foods. I call it my scam word. It is slipped in foods to make you crave that food more. What a great marketing ploy! Great marketing bad for my waistline though.
Quinoa is actually good. It’s a power food. (if you don’t know what quinoa is, join the club of most of Americans.) It tastes like whatever I put it with.
I also learned that some Whole Food Plant Based people are nuts. They try to put a political agenda to their crusade of eating healthy. I don’t have time for that. But,what I do have time for, are the people who genuinely want you to be healthy. They give practical advice and suggestions on how to begin eating healthy and they give you permission to mess up and start again. It’s called grace.
Here is a list from my Amazon purchase history of books that have helped me.
How Not To Die- by Michael Greger, MD
Sugar Nation – by Jeff O’Connell
Eat to Live – Joel Fuhrman, MD
The Forks over Knives Plan-A 4-Week Meal-by-Meal Makeover –Pulde, MD & Lederman, MD. ** This is my favorite. **
The Fork over Knives Cookbook is really good too!!
Good Luck to a healthier you. Even if a healthier you means, one less coke a day, or one healthy meal a day. It’s all about moving forward, not flat lining.
This was a yummy whole food plant based dish. Organic rice pasta, corn, black beans, onion, bell pepper, cilantro ,lemon dressing, squeeze lime, tomatoes, a bunch of spice stuff that I through in there.
I don't cook all WFPB meals. I try to cook at least one a day if not more. Breakfast and lunch are fairly easy. Dinner is my weakness.
www.ForksOverKnives.com
