My best friend is a health nut (and I use the word because yes, she is crazy to the level of obsessed and also because she eats more peanut butter than I thought any living human could consume). We used to stay in the same apartment and she was always on some new mission to create nutritious but delicious snacks. I didn’t complain – it was heaven. They didn’t always work out though – at one stage half of our fridge was full of “banana ice-cream”, which really did not taste anything like ice-cream. Being friends with her has taught me a lot of things about how to control what I eat and how to make and prepare my food. Often we don’t need to eat less, we just need to eat right.
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” – Jim Rohn
Let me share some health nut approved tips with you:
Make your own food
It’s all well and good heading your trolley off to the health section of the mall and feeling accomplished, but many restaurants and stores claim healthy without actually being healthy. Sweet potato fries sound healthy, right? Nope, not if they are deep fried in oil. Chicken salad sounds healthy, right? Nope, not if there is more dressing than lettuce. You do not know what goes into your food unless you make it yourself. When you have no option but to go out, don’t be afraid to ask the waiter about what goes into the meal. It’s part of their job and you don’t need to feel bad.
Be prepared
You make bad food choices when you are more hungry than a wooly mammoth and there is nothing healthy to eat. Be prepared so when you don’t have time or want immediate satisfaction or a chocolate craving that rivals Nigella Lawson smacks you over the head, then you will have something on hand to fix the situation. A good option here is to pack a smoothie pack in your freezer which you can whip into action in no time. When you are making soup or a stew, make a double helping and free the extra one.
Replace carbs with veggies
I know I know, nobody likes to hear this. That white bread sandwich is just so good. The good news is the more healthy food your body becomes accustomed to having the more you like it. Remove reminded carbohydrates from your diet and replace them with “heavy veggies.” Heavy veggies still leave you feeling fill but they are far far better for you. A good example of this is beans, pumpkin, squash, brown rice or lentils.
Get Creative.
The internet is buzzing with alternative recipes for all the things we love, but don’t love us- think chocolate brownies. Stop making sugar queen in your life and get creative with the alternative options out there. Black bean brownies are a win. As are avocado chocolate puddings, apple sauce substitutes or almond flour. Don’t diss it until you’ve tried it I say. You never know, there may be a latent chef laying there in your dark depths.
Read the label.
You would think this is obvious. Nope, apparently not. I don’t have a single friend (minus the health nut) who actually reads the labels on their food choices. How do you know you much sugar you are eating unless you look, I fondly ask. Many of our food choices contain a lot of additives or are not as good as we think they are. You love your muesli until you find it has 25g of sugar per 100g. That’s a quarter of the entire nutritional content. To give you an idea- your additional sugar consumption per day shouldn’t be higher than 25g of sugar for a woman (that’s 6 teaspoons) and slightly higher for men. A study done in 2008 showed the average consumption across the USA to be: 76.7. Scary. Oh and your yoghurt has about 10g. Think again when you reach for that lovely strawberry Nutriday.
See, it looks like my health nut of a friend has turned me into a health nut too! I have no shame. As Thomas Edison quotes, “the doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” Enjoy your kale friend.