RussBruz

We hear it all the time, “I don’t have time to eat healthy.” While I could get into the psychology of trading time now for time in your coffin, that’s way too deep a subject to cover here. Let’s instead take a look at the logistics of creating healthy food choices and a few tips for squeezing some healthier options into your life.

How are you eating now?
This is always an interesting question to ask clients. Often the answer is drive thru’s, grab-n-go from home, fast-casual restaurants or sitting in front of the TV. This food-on-the-go or food as an accessory speaks volumes to our multitasking, never-really-focus-on-anything lifestyle. And it’s killing us.

What if what you eat (I won’t even call it food because most fast-food isn’t food at all) got moved up the priority list a couple of spots? What might that look like in your life? What if you actually took a moment to THINK about what you’re putting into your body? Just a thought exercise for you. Let’s look at some practical options for eating just a little healthier:

Baby steps:

• Drink water or unsweetened tea – Sugary drinks, including sports drinks, are empty calories that no one needs. I have heard, “I don’t like to drink plain water.” Do it anyway. Your taste buds will adjust and your body will thank you in SO many ways.
• Buy veggies pre-chopped – Eating veggies like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, cucumbers and celery is easier if it’s already cut into pieces you can eat with your fingers. If you’re not eating in the car, dip them in hummus or natural peanut butter. Yes, it’s more expensive than buying them un-chopped. But if you’re not going to chop them and they rot in your fridge, that isn’t a win.
• Frozen veggies are your friend – Peas, corn and broccoli are our go-to’s. You can eat them cold (yes right out of the freezer) or pop them in the microwave with some water for a couple of minutes. They are great on salads as a protein source. We also have sweet potato and squash, but they are more work.
• Keep nuts, seeds and dried fruit in the house – I am munching on dried mangoes (no sugar added) as I type this. A handful or so of almonds, pecans, cashews, peanuts (although some think of peanuts as vegan junk food) and some dried fruit (we have mangos, raisins, plums and apricots in the house) is a great snack. And it travels well in a Ziploc bag or small Tupperware. Frozen fruit is also a good snack at home.
• Have salad fixin’s ready to grab – you can buy these already washed and chopped or you can chop them yourself. But if all you have to do is pull the containers out of the fridge and throw a salad together, you’re more likely to do it. We usually have: kale/spinach, beets, red cabbage, tomatoes, olives, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, peppers, onions (red/green), avocado, quinoa and lentils. As noted above, peas and corn are easy as well.  
• Put ground flaxseed on everything – It is a super food. Seriously. It helps prevent prostate and breast cancer, has amazing nutrients and the fiber is great for your gut microbes. Cereal, salad, soup, pasta, casserole, smoothies, you name it, you can put flaxseed on it. Sure, it’s best if you buy it whole and grind it yourself. But if you’re not going to do that, buy it ground and keep it in the fridge. You can totally do this.

Bigger steps:

• Get rid of the junk food in your house – If it’s not there you won’t eat it. But, if you do this without replacing it with some of the ideas above, you’re going to find yourself hungry, staring at an empty pantry and cussing me. Don’t do that. Bring in healthy stuff to replace the junk.
• Cook in batches – I know a lot of people don’t cook anymore. But surely you can turn on the oven to 400 and put some potatoes or sweet potatoes in there for 30 minutes to an hour (depending on how big your potatoes are). Or put a cup of rice or quinoa in a pot with two cups of water and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Lentils are cooked the same way as quinoa, no soaking needed. Now you have food that’s easy to heat and eat. Add taco seasoning, avocado, hummus, mustard or whatever floats your boat. Just typing that makes me want to have a burrito for lunch.
• Try new recipes – Don’t be intimidated by cooking. It’s not as hard as you might think. I had to tweak the way I think about cooking when we went plant-based. But overall, it hasn’t been a big deal. The Forks Over Knives website is a great place to start.

When people say, “I don’t have time” what I’ve found they actually mean is, “It is too daunting to try to do it all.” So, don’t do it all. Pick one thing and do that. Next week pick another. When we started moving towards being plant-based we never planned on being 100% and we got great results just moving in the plant-based direction. I know you will too.

Let us know what healthy habit you add this week!

If you are ready to address how your food choices are negatively affecting your health, let’s set up a free get-to-know-you chat. Send me an email and let’s get you on track to taking control of your stress eating. Health@RnRJourney.com

If you like a taste of Asian this dressing/sauce is just the thing. It is amazing over quinoa, rice, pasta, veggies (or any combination thereof) and even salad. You can serve it hot, cold or room temperature. And it gets better as the flavors incorporate over time (read – works well to bring for lunch the next day). I served it over a cold quinoa dish to Russ’ mom this past weekend. Her response was, “I can’t believe how well you two eat.” Like many people, she thought being plant-based meant eating boring, bland, tasteless food. That is simply not the case!

Let me know what you think of this recipe if you try it.

• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons tahini (can sub natural peanut butter or almond butter)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1-2 teaspoons grated, fresh ginger (we like more)
• ½ teaspoon granulated garlic or one minced clove

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl until incorporated. Makes enough for 3-4 cups of quinoa and veggies.

This recipe was adapted from the Sesame Quinoa Salad recipe in the book The Cheese Trap (Which I highly recommend.)

Do you know WHY you choose the foods you eat? When we ask this question the answers usually range from “I like it” (taste) to “it’s easy” (convenience). And while those are the easy answers I think there is a lot more that goes into it that we don’t consider until we start thinking about changing what we eat. That's when we realize we aren't as in control as we thought.

There are a few things that unconsciously control our food choices:

Culture – What you like, what tastes good to you, is much more about how you’ve trained your taste buds than it is anything else. And your taste buds have been trained by the culture where you grew up. How much fat, sugar and salt you like in your food depends on in what part of the world you spent your formative years.

Media/Advertising – Have you ever been sitting in front of the TV and suddenly thought, “hmmm pizza sounds good?” If you can honestly answer no, I’d be shocked. They don’t run TV ads for the fun of it. We are bombarded every day by food ads. They are even on social media. Every time you see gooey cheese dripping off of pasta or potatoes or whatever, you can bet your brain is storing that information away for later.

Cost – Maybe you think that cost doesn’t really drive your food choices. But if you’ve ever thought “organic is so expensive” or this fast-food lunch is only $5 then cost is part of your food choice process. I get that we’re all on a budget. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be. I’m just saying we need to be aware.

Habit – If you watch our daily lives you’ve heard me talk about Pavlovian eating. Eating we do because it’s time to eat, we always have popcorn at the movies or even turkey at Thanksgiving (which is also cultural).

Easy – Yep. Convenience is really a thing. But it’s not just, “this food is here” like at an office lunch. Unconsciously we also think, “Do I need a fork to eat this?” “Do I have to sit down?” “How hard is this to chew?” I had someone tell me that eating plants was hard because it took too long to chew it (that’s a whole conversation for a different day).

Many times, dare I say MOST of the time, what we choose to eat has nothing to do with hunger and worst, nutrition never crosses our minds. But let’s say you’re ready to change that. Where do you start?

Here are a couple of tips:

1. Notice when you make a food choice. Paying attention is half the battle.
2. Ask yourself WHY you are making (or made) the choice. Identifying triggers gives us the opportunity to change.
3. What would it look like if you made a different choice? Pay attention to the story you tell. It is heartache and pain or joy and happiness? The story you tell about food is important.
4. Look at your cost/benefit analysis. That sounds complicated but it’s not. What are you telling yourself about your food choices and your health (this is part of your story)?
5. Don’t get caught up in all or nothing thinking – There seems to be a prevailing belief that you either have to eat 100% healthy or throw your hands up and give up. This is not a pass or fail class. If you can average a B+ you’re doing really well!

Try thinking about it using this scale:

A+ = Whole plant foods. Stuff that looks like it came out of the ground (sweet potatoes, fruits, veggies, etc)
A = Minimally processed plant foods (steel cut oats)
A- = A little more processed plant foods (unflavored, instant oats)
B+ = Still more processed plant foods (whole wheat breads and pastas)  
B- = Junk “health” foods (tofu, veggie burgers)
C+ = refined carbs (food stuffs in packages)
C = oil, wine, coffee, fried plants
D+ = Meat, including fish
D = Dairy and eggs
F = Fried meat, dairy and eggs

The unfortunate thing is, eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) will give you an average of a D, D+ at best! I know you can do better than that. Let’s get those averages up by being more aware of what we are eating on a daily basis!

If you are ready to address how your food choices are negatively affecting your health, let’s set up a free get-to-know-you chat. Send me an email and let’s get you on track to taking control of your stress eating. Health@RnRJourney.com

The food industry and Big Pharma have convinced us that we are to blame for being sick and obese. Gluttony, sloth, lack of will power, lack of motivation – character flaws. Health insurance companies will often refuse to pay for obesity services because, “We don’t pay for behavior issues.” If only we were better people we’d take better care of ourselves. IT’S ALL A LIE!

Here’s the truth – Food companies have engineered food to trick our brains into eating more and believing it’s good for us. They have then marketed it with words that sound healthy. Marketing doesn’t have to be true. It just has to be not blatantly wrong enough to get sued; or if they do get sued, have made enough money to offset whatever fine they are assessed. Here are just a few examples:

Marketing: "Milk – it does a body good"
Truth: The milk protein casein has been linked directly to cancer promotion. The countries that drink the most milk have the most hip fractures (i.e. it doesn’t help with osteoporosis). Cheese is the number one source of saturated fat in the Western diet. New studies are linking cow milk consumption to type 1 diabetes.

Marketing: "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day"
Truth: When you eat doesn’t matter as much as what you eat. Cereal companies made up the “most important” thing to sell sugary, high profit-margin, cereal

Marketing: "Pork – the other white meat"
Truth: Pork is not white meat. Not that it matters. Animal protein isn’t a healthy choice for humans regardless of what color it is.

Marketing: "Open Happiness" (Coke)
Truth: The sugar and other sweeteners in Coke hit the same pleasure center in your brain as heroin. That’s not happiness. It’s pleasure. And it’s addicting. Good for Coke’s bottom line. Horrible for you.

Marketing: “They’re GR-R-R-reat” (Frosted Flakes)
Truth: They are almost 50% sugar (see point about sugar above) and people usually eat them with milk (see point about milk above)

Marketing: “We have the meats!”
Truth: They say that like it’s a good thing because we have been so conditioned to believe it is. But why do you believe it? Saturated fat. Cholesterol. Animal protein. Not great for humans. They can keep the meats.

Marketing: “Silly Rabbit. Trix are for kids” (Marketed directly to children.)
Truth: This is not “food” by any definition for kids, rabbits or otherwise.

Marketing: “The breakfast of champions.”
Truth: More sugar and salt than nutrients.

Marketing: “Made with real fruit”
Truth: That’s only on there to make you THINK it’s healthy. If they put one blueberry in the vat they can use the “real fruit” label.

Have you ever noticed that fast food commercials always have slim people in exercise clothing in them? I think you get my point. Everyone thinks they are a dietitian. They think they know because it’s “common knowledge.” The problem is that “common knowledge” came from a company out to make money, not share the truth. There are literally hundreds of “diet” companies trying to treat the symptom – over eating. But they aren’t addressing the actual problem - lack of nutrition. They have just enough “science” to make it sound right.

Big Pharma is pouring obscene amounts of money into creating an obesity drug. They make even more obscene amounts of money on obesity itself. There is $117 billion spent out of pocket a YEAR on weight. And if it doesn’t work? Well that must be your fault. You must have been non-compliant.

STOP! All of that is nuts! But there is something you can do. You can educate yourself with the truth. Then and only then will you be able to make decisions based on facts. Lack of knowledge (and bad knowledge) is killing us. I know you want knowledge because you’re reading this. Knowledge is what the How to Feed A Human master class is all about. If you haven’t watched our free webinar yet – you need to. It will open your eyes to food in ways that will shock you. Go to HowToFeedAHuman.com to watch it on demand right now!