To start with, let me introduce myself and tell a little something about who I am. I am in my early thirties, very typical – super busy with work, social and watching Netflix person who in the middle of all the madness also tries to eat healthy and maintain a healthy work-life balance. The reason why I am writing this post is simply to share my personal experience with the line-minded people with the same mind-set and struggle. Please don’t get me wrong, but I think there are way too many of food blogger who just praise the super healthy life style which I personally cannot go with as I either don’t have time or energy to be 100% clean eater. Please don’t judge me for this, but I like my unhealthy snack now and then and honestly do not have any intentions to be only healthy food and ingredients. However, having said that, what I 100% want to is to compromise my unhealthy snacks with 100% healthy ingredient or habits that will balance my diet and daily nutrition. I think I found a way that worked perfectly fine for me. I feel energetic and my chronic fatigue just is my past life memory. So, guys, the tips are very simple and easy.
Skip the ready-made foods and individually-packaged snacks (https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/eat-healthy-on-a-budget-by-planning-ahead). This is a really NO-NO to start with. Already prepared frozen meals have a significant difference in nutrition value of what your body can get if you eat just-cooked food. I am not saying that you should not eat the frozen meals at all, but at least try to avoid it for your lunch/dinner intakes.
Don't sugar-coat it. (https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/eat-right/smart-food-shopping.htm). Sugar is the devil, isn’t? No wonder it has been considered that intake of sugar and addictive character it brings can be compared to cocaine – and the only thought of it is nothing else but scary. In this, the target is super simple – try to decrease the amount of sugar you guys consume on daily basis. I, personally, still can’t drink my coffee of I don’t take at least a spoon full of sugar – but I see it as my guilty pleasure that I simply can’t say NO to. Is some sort of indulgency that my brain needs as it sees it brings him something special and unique. So, my personal target is less sugar rather than no sugar at all.
Considering Organic? (https://www.eatright.org/food/planning-and-prep/smart-shopping/7-ways-to-shop-healthy-on-a-budget). Obviously, depending on where you live and what it is – considering organic can vary from different types of fruits and vegetables you guys can eat. But, try to add as much as many of the fruits and veggies into your daily ration as possible. Literarily stuck your stomach with them. Trust me, if you eat organic your body will feel more healthy and at easy – you won’t feel that heaviness every time you have dinner. On contrary, you guys will just feel that you pleasantly full. Also, it is importantly to highlight that eating organic improves the way you metabolism work and if you drink enough water daily – you are all sorted.
Another, I will call it genius idea is to do some swaps between your ingredients. What you can do – you can swap sugar with honey. I tried that with my coffee, still doesn’t do it for, but is just perfect for baking as it brings a rather different flavor to the desserts that sugar simply kills. Another swap is olive oils. I used to cook with a normal cooking olive oil as it was an old easy option. As an experiment, tried extra virgin olive oil – and guys, so worth it (https://essentials.bertolli.com/olive-oil-swaps-for-healthier-recipes/). Of course, you need to get used to the change. It is the same thing as it is with sugar – hard to change things that you are used to on daily basis. Yet, once you pass that stage, trust me - you won’t regret the try.
That’s probably the main four that I have discovered so far. I am still in process of trying and testing what else I can change or introduce into my nutrition so I can balance the bad and the good and the crazy. I hope the blog is informative and you guys can take something for yourselves as well.