Lets begin this year with some healthy and nutrition based eating habits. 2018 has a lot stored in for us, take this top 10 healthy eating resolutions to be more healthier this year.
- Start Reading Labels:
- Don’t be mis-lead by the bright packaging and catchy phrases on our read through the labels as foods today are loaded with chemicals like preservatives, colouring and flavouring agents, emulsifiers, and the list can go on and on.
- Most often we can’t even pronounce their names yet we do not hesitate to put these toxins – that have absolutely no nutritional value into our body.
- Let’s reduce the toxic load on our liver, kidneys, digestive system, and other detox organs and choose instead to eat clean and nutrient loaded foods. The choice is “OURS”
- Choose the Right Foods:
- “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates.
- We eat to nourish, replenish, restore and maintain body functions as the complex human body that functions 24×7 needs the right fuelling – Complex Carbohydrates, Proteins, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals and Water.
- Nature has designed food that is meant nourish and heal the body with the right nutrients, we however change it to suit ‘our needs’ and ‘not our body’s’.
- Choose foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. The further they have been taken from their natural state the further you should stay from them.
- Cut-Out the Whites:
- The buzz around carbs has recently been that they are the enemy that makes one ‘gain weight’. So most of us have now just taken to cutting out carbs from the diet entirely.
- Carbs provide the fuel on which the body runs – so it must be important right? So choose wisely.
- Not all carbs are created equally – Cut Out the quick energy releasing carbs like table sugars, cakes, biscuits, pastries, white rice, white bread, white pasta etc., the real culprits behind weight gain.
- Include slow energy releasing complex carbs like Brown Rice, Whole Grain Wheat, Barley, Rolled Oats, Amaranth, Millets, and other whole grains, along with Fruits and Vegetables.
- Stock Right:
- What you have around you is most likely what you will pick to eat. So keep your cupboards stocked right – be it at home, work and sometimes even your car.
- Besides including the right kinds of food in our meals, it is very important that we feed our body at regular intervals so as to get the best out of our food.
- Make sure to clear your cupboards of all the naughty snacks (chips, crackers, sweets, chocolates, ice cream) and keep healthy foods that you enjoy around (nuts, fruit, whole grain crackers, home-made muesli and snack bars).
- Plan Ahead:
- No one knows your life and routine better than you, so take time to plan ahead. Being pressed for time in this busy world is often an easy excuse to get a take away, eat out, have a microwave meal, comfort eat or not eat at all ‘skipping meals’.
- Getting the right fuel into your body goes for a toss and you may get into a very unhealthy cycle and it can be months before you start seeing and feeling the effects.
- Simple Tips – You could cook ahead and freeze portions, order an organic basket to be delivered every week, choose healthy eat out options, have salad bags that you can combine with some meat, fish, chicken, beans or lentils.
- Listen to your Body:
- Along with knowing what to eat… it’s also important to look at how and when you eat? We are constantly debating if a 3 meal/ 4 meal/ 5 meal or 6 meal a day plan is correct or not.
- There isn’t a one size that fits all, and so we have to listen what our body is telling us. Most often the body sends us signals when it is time to re-fuel – our concentration levels decrease, energy drops that is when we need to stop and eat.
- “If you listen to your body when it whispers, you won’t have to hear it scream”. The worst food choices we make is often when we are very hungry.
- Take a detox per year to eliminate the toxins content in our body. The Beach House Goa offers the best personalized detox plans based on your body style.
- Boost Digestion:
- Sit properly, look at your food, smell your food and allow your mouth to water releasing digestive enzymes with the saliva and stimulating the production of digestive juices and enzymes, allowing the body to be able to get the maximum nutrients from the foods you are eating.
- We often focus on what is on our plate, spending time, money and energy to get it right. But it could all be lost with poor digestion.
- Take the time off and really enjoy your meals!! This can really make a big difference. Never eat on the run or whilst distracted by phone calls, TV, work or internet.
- Chew Your Food:
- Chewing is an extremely important, yet most overlooked, part of healthy digestion. Most of us put food in our mouth, chew a few times and swallow, as if the sole focus is how quickly we can get the foods to our stomachs.
- Our mother’s might have repeatedly told us to “chew your food”, however most of us don’t, probably out of habit, conditioning and attitude towards food.
- Yet, in reality it doesn’t really take much time and effort to chew your food, and what you get in return is well worth it with better health and a greater enjoyment of food being some of the rewards.
- Spice It Up:
- Even when used in small amounts these abundantly aromatic and flavourful ingredients add tons of nutritional and health promoting benefits into our food.
- Please do not hesitate to use spices if you don’t enjoy a hot (spicy) curry, as you can be very playful and creative when using herbs and spices to tingle your taste buds.
- Flavour your meals with spices & herbs can be used in dressings, pesto, salsa, soups, sauces, smoothies, porridges and curries. They can also be used as infusions after or with a meal.
- They are very rich alkalizing agents; help activate digestion as well as natural detoxifies.
- Sprouting:
- Make sprouts as an essential ingredient in your meals. Sprouts are the highest & most abundant stage of growth of a plant, thus they provide the greatest quantities of useable & digestible nutrients, enzymes & energy.
- In the process of germination the nutrients increase substantially with a corresponding decrease in calorie, isn’t it is what most of us are looking for?
- When you get the hang of sprouting, it’s pretty easy to do & takes no time at all.
- You will then have your own daily supply of fresh, organic, high nutrient & high energy foods, ready & waiting for you, in your kitchen every day.