HEALTHY EATING

Imagine feeling in flow and at ease with healthy eating?  Imagine if you instinctively ate wholesome, nourishing and delicious food that satisfied you, without effort, strain or too much thought.  There are simple and straightforward strategies we can incorporate to achieve this. They also make life easier in general, saving us money and time (Winning!). Success leaves clues when it comes to healthy eating.  When I ask my clients to reflect on a good week of eating healthy and to share what they did differently, it is generally the same reply. All of them say ‘I was prepared and organized’.   This, my friends, is the key to success in their healthy eating goals.  The question is though, how do I get prepared? And what exactly does it mean to be organized?

1] KEEP IT BASIC AND THINK IN FOOD GROUPS

This first point relates to keeping it simple and uncomplicated. Ultimately, we do not need fancy ingredients for healthy eating. We don’t need to buy trendy cookbooks where we need ¼ teaspoon of ten different herbs or spices we will never use again.  If we require 20 ingredients for one meal, it already becomes too complicated (unless of course you have the time and enjoy cooking like this – then go for it!). But, for many of us, we just don’t have the time.

BALANCED DIET FRAMEWORK FOR HEALTHY EATING

The Balanced Diet Framework will help make things simple.  This easy framework encourages us to focus on ‘food groups’ when we shop and prepare food.  The focus is on the integration of protein, fat, carbohydrates and vegetables to your diet (and food combining in particular ways).   So when you go shopping, I recommend thinking in terms of these groups: vegetables, protein, carbohydrates and fats.  The free shopping list I have created is categorized in this way.  So it becomes super simple at the supermarket as you can choose the foods you love within these categories.

2] Cook In Batches

Now, batch cooking might create visions of spending your entire Sunday cooking elaborate meals to freeze, where you end up eating the same curry all week.  This is actually not what I am suggesting!  Batch cooking, the way I define it,  will save you both time and money, whilst you enjoy a variety of dishes and food options. 

EATING A CHICKEN

The best way to describe what I mean is through an example.  For instance, I might roast an entire chicken (not just the breast, but the entire thing).  I chuck in a whole heap of my favorite veggies and roast it up together for dinner. Any leftover chicken will last for 2-3 days.  So, the following day I use some chicken slices on my wrap for lunch with some fresh salad. For that evening, I already have cold roast chicken, so I cook more vegetables and add chicken to create a tasty stirfry.   This leftover stirfry becomes my lunch the following day, and I top it with some boiled eggs or hummus.

As you can see, I cook a ‘main thing’, then use it for the next meal in combination with something else, and so on.  This way, I am eating a variety of flavors without spending hundreds of dollars or wasting food. Simultaneously I am not actually spending much time cooking. It’s a win-win for all aspects. This is my definition of batch cooking!   So before I shop, I make the decision of what will be my 3 main meals for the week and 2-3 different snacks. Then, I buy ingredients under each category of the framework. That is it.   

Snacks – Eating Diverse Flavours

For snacks, I choose 2-3 different ones and rotate these within my week.  For example, rice wafers with humus might be Monday. Tuesday a boiled egg with veggies and Wednesday an apple with peanut butter.  Thursday I go back to the first option and repeat. This method ensures you have all the ingredients whilst incorporating every food group.  No overthinking. No over-complications. Keep it nice and simple and prepare in advance before you shop (Download the free shopping list here).

MONEY-SAVING TIP

It is cheaper when you go to vegetable shops as opposed to the supermarket.  My partner and I go shopping and spend approximately $35 for our weekly fruit and vegetables.  We get a huge box and it lasts an entire week. We mainly live off this and purchase a bit of meat.  I do get frozen peas/corn/beans as it is cheap and my go-to if I don’t have anything to add to a stew or curry.

IT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

I am aware this information about healthy eating is not new to you! This is not complicated information because healthy eating is not rocket science.  It is simple. But we tend to over complicate things. So the main message to take away is to keep it basic, incorporate the balanced diet framework and batch cook the way I describe.  Of course, try and reduce processed foods and keep it to wholefoods (you know this).   Changing habits can be challenging at times. To learn more about creating new habits , check out my blog ‘Create New Habits and Make Sure They Stick’

FREE GIFT FOR YOU

Take the pain and struggle out of healthy eating.  To make healthy eating easy and natural for you, download the free shopping list and meal planner.  You will get immediate access along with emails about planning and other cost-saving strategies. Start enjoying the food you love and eating guilt-free; saving time along the way.