Healthy Eating – Not DIET – after the holidays!

Healthy Eating – Not DIET – after the holidays!

After the first holiday of the season, it’s time to start my New Year’s resolution of eating healthy a little early. No way am I going to announce on the internet how much I weighed this morning, but let’s say I would feel more comfortable in my jeans if I weighed 28.7 pounds less.

Healthy eating for me is all about planning and preparing for those time I don’t have to cook. I love to eat healthy food, but when I run short of time, THAT’S when I grab a fast-food burger. Or if I haven’t had time to go to the grocery, I wind up cooking pasta that’s already in the pantry.

So planning meals and snacks is my task at hand today. I tend to follow the Weight Watcher’s meal planning which includes 2-3 dairy portions, 2 healthy oils, 5 servings of fruits and vegetables and lots of water – all within your allotted daily points or calories. This blog post is not an advertisement of Weight Watchers – it’s just a plan that works for me. And I don’t attend WW meetings – their online subscription and helpful chat boards are enough to keep me in line and motivated. Their healthy eating guidelines are reasonable, and there’s flexibility built in for those necessary splurges (wine on weekends).

My husband Demetrius sent me a Yahoo article this morning about healthy foods to include in your diet and they pretty much coincide with the WW plan. I’m also making a commitment to purchasing more organic foods (particularly meat and eggs) in the future. Thankfully, we have a Whole Foods market close by, and another local grocery, Reasor’s, carries a variety of organic options.

Note that I have not mentioned the word DIET. This is not a diet – it is a change in eating habits intended to have longer and sustainable consequences. Join me if you’d like, and do add in the comments some of your favorite healthy foods to enjoy!

Lori’s healthy food tip: try roasting your veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, cabbage, onions, etc.). Make sure they’re coated well in olive oil, liberally apply salt and pepper; cook at 400-degrees F for 20+ minutes. The taste is extraordinary!

Healthy Eating – Not DIET – after the holidays!

Content written by Lori Cain.