miss a's tips for healthy eating

Blog Challenge Day 24


As I wrote yesterday, I'm off from work today...I haven't actually been to work since last Thursday lol. Today is pretty blizaard-like, and we're expecting another 10 inches or so on top of the couple feet we got this past weekend. This ish is crazy! Needless to say my Caribbean backside is staying indoors :-) I wonder if tomorrow will my my 5th day off?


I talk about food in passing quite a bit on my blog, but today I'm going to take it a step further. Over the past year or so I've really gotten into health and wellness -- especially whole, healthy foods. Prior to that, I was all about low-fat, low-calorie and anything that would taste yummy and keep my Weight Watchers points at/below my daily limit LOL. I reached my WW goal so I'm no longer on that....which is a great thing, because I shudder to think about some of the fake crap I was putting in my body and some of the great foods I was avoiding. I'm going to start writing more about food and eating...starting with today's post - some general tips and advice (taken from various sources, as well as some of my own) for healthy eating! I'll be sharing a lot more of my own tips and suggestions, but this is a good start. 

Miss A's Food Tips:


1. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. - Michael Pollan's famous advice. Pretty self-explanatory.

2. Drink more water!!! Sometimes when you think you're hungry, you may actually just be dehydrated!


3. Stick to the outer aisles of the store. This is where you'll find fresh produce, and more whole foods. The processed "stuff" is in the middle. If it's not real food, do not eat it!


4. Try the unwrapped diet. If food is in a box and you have to unwrap it, more than the packaging is added. Wrapping means processing, preservatives, and chemicals are packed into the food.

5. Read the labels. What is the first ingredient? Ingredients are listed in order of highest amount to lowest. So of sugar is the first ingredient on a label, you should probably pass. Are vitamins and minerals represented in high or low quantities? What about sugar or high-fructose corn syrup? Are there ingredients that you've never heard of or cannot pronounce? Also, the fewer ingredients the better. Another reason I like to read the labels is to see how something I want to eat is made so that I can make a healthier version of it myself.

6. Make healthy snack choices. I much prefer to spread out my calories throughout the day with well-balanced, evenly portioned healthy meals and snacks rather than three large meals a day. A benefit of this is that the body manages blood sugar levels better if a steady amount of food is consumed throughout the day. So, keep healthy snacks within reach to curb hunger and quell temptation. Some of my go-to snacks: fruit - especially apples! - rice cakes with spread avocado or almond butter, veggies with hummus, greek yogurt, and of course nuts. I admit i used to avoid nuts because of their high fat content, but nuts are nothing to avoid! They have the beneficial type of fat and the different types of nuts have their own benefits. I'll do a whole post on nuts as part of my "10 Things You Should Eat" post, but for now just trust me - you should be eating nuts!! Also...take a snack with you at all times. I generally take an apple and/or nuts with me everywhere I go - just in case. I'd rather have a healthy snack than be starving and have to buy something I wouldn't normally eat.

7. Eat breakfast! Eating a good breakfast helps to jump-start your metabolism and curb the urge to overeat during the day.My go-to breakfast is hot cereal (I LOVE steel cut oats - they are basically a few steps back from the rolled oats that most people are used to eating. Because they haven't gone through as much processing, they have more nutritional value). I like to mix in some almond butter, or crush up some other nuts. Berries and bananas are also good, but I've read that mixing fruit with other foods can cause gas for some people because fruit digests more quickly than most other foods. There seems to be a lack of consensus on this point, so just do whatever works for you.


8. Make your home your safe haven. You control what you bring into your home. Only buy real, good, healthy food so you're not tempted. When I'm having people over, I always warn them lol. And you can use it as an opportunity to share what you've learned with them. 

9. Take your own lunch to work. This saves tons of money and puts you in full control of your meal. I take my lunch to work everyday.

10. Make food a priority! A lot of people have this aversion to buying healthy food because of cost. While I agree that beggies cost more than a bag of chips or something like that, good food should be seen as an investment in your health. Spend money on groceries now to avoid even bigger medical bills later in life. Plus, if you shop smart it's easier to shop healthy. Start by trying to find a Trader Joe's. This place makes it sooo easy to be healthy. I love shopping there because it's almost like a first threhold has to have been passed for the food to even be on their shelves. And, i find TJ's to be quite affordable. In fact, their prices are cheaper (on the things I buy) than Ginat/Safeway etc...because for some stupid reason all the "healthy" food at the other chain supermarkets are always more expensive. I also love Whole Foods, but I admit they are a bit on th epricey side for a student or recent grad or someone who has an aversion to spending money on food. But, WF is a necessary compliment to TJ's, which doesn't have anywhere near the specialty selection that WF does. 

11. Make food fun! As I've been saying, I really never used to cook to much, but now I LOVE it. I enjoy finding and trying new recipes. You can follow recipes exactly, or get creative based on your own needs and preferences. On ofmy best purchases ever was a bamboo steamer, recommended to me by my brother after he returned from a trip to Asia. This is such an easy, healthy way to cook! I mostly use mine for veggies but you can do pretty much whatever in it. If you live alone and don't like the idea of true cooking, maybe you can start a cooking group with other friends. People can take turns trying out new recipes and having the others over. That way, you have inspiration to cook and people to eat. Then when you're a guest at someone else's night, you get a free(ish) meal with no work on your part. Plus, it would just be somehting fun to do! Or, you can either just cut the recipes down for 1 or two servings, or look for recipes specifically for fewer servings.

Sooooo. What do you guys think? Do you do any of this now? Any seem especially good or especially dumb/unrealistic to you? Do you have your own rules/tips/advice about better eating? Please share!

Today's *big chune* is "Yesterday" by Toni Braxton with Trey Songz. Toni's been gone for a while and this is a great comeback song...Toni looks amazing in this video! And let's face it - Trey Songz could get it lol.


:-D