What’s for Dinner? How many times have you heard this in your week, month, year – life? The daily what do I create for dinner? It can be challenging and monotonous and even more so when your stress levels are at an all-time high, this question is enough to cause an explosive reaction.
We’ve all been there. “I have no time or energy to cook,” or “I want to eat healthy, but don’t know how or what to cook.” If this sounds familiar, then you may want to keep reading. There are multiple recipe books for on the shelves, millions of “easy recipes” online and yet none have been able to create the meal as well – yet!So, what is the answer? A little planning combined with a touch of organisation and preparation can make meal preparation much less un-inspiring and actually a creative outlet at the end of the day.
Creating the Discconnection from Your Working Day
Making the disconnection from work, study and chores at the end of the day and creating a ritual for the evening meal is a special way to connect. The ways in which we have all changed our working days also supports more flexibility in the preparation time and cooking time for the evening meal. A method that is helpful for planning of evening meals is cook once and eat several times from what you have prepared, pop on your favourite music a podcast or audio book and away you go with your meal preparation.
Rest assured there are options toofor those who have never cooked, who want to cook and don’t know how, or who love to cook but want to learn how to create more delicious meals to nourish body and soul.So,there are simple ways to nourish your body and mind, eat healthily no matter what your skill level.
The Biggest Secret to Nutrition
The best tip is to bulk up your plate with plenty of fresh seasonal vegetables, add a little protein of your choice. When selecting proteins, the best quality that works with your budget; that maybe organic or grass fed, sustainable which results in a better outcome for your body and the environment. Let’s not forget the healthy fats too, essential for optimum cognitive functionality and maintenance.Add in some delegation to other family or household members and you have the receipe to remove the "chore" association relating to meal preparation.
Keeping It Simple
To keep things simple during the working week, here are five tips that are helpful and the produce can be sourced from produce markets, from the farm, green grocers, home delivery options andsupermarkets.
- Make vegetables the star of your diet
Eat a variety of vegetables and stick with leafy greens, cucumbers, celery, peppers and other non-starchy vegetables, while limiting starchy vegetables (like potatoes, winter squash, and sweet potatoes) to half a cup. Vegetables are a great source of vitamins and fibre.
2. The quality of your food counts
High quality foods mean those without pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, GMOs, additives, preservatives, dyes, artificial sweeteners, and any other chemicals. This includes fresh produce, but animal products as well. Factory farmed animals are injected with hormones and antibiotics, which stays in the meat that we consume. It’s simple; animals fed the foods they naturally would eat produce healthier meat. Aim for grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chickens and the eggs that come from them.
3. Don’t be afraid of eating lots of healthy fats
Fat is essential for the health of our brains and bodies and for every cell in our bodies. It’s important to get a variety of quality, natural fats, such as butter, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and a variety of nuts and seeds, besides, fats make everything tastes better.
4. Remove refined sugars and damaged oils (Note: This can be the most impactful dietary change you can make).
These processed foods lead to inflammation, which contributes to any number of diseases.
5. Avoid (at least reduce) gluten and dairy
Gluten has been shown to damage our gut lining, which can trigger a number of health issues. Some people find dairy products more difficult to digest because they are lactose intolerant. If you’re going to include dairy in small amounts, make sure it is a full-fat option from grass fed cows.
“The truth is that the key to a vibrant, thriving, happy, successful life, the foundation that will help us have energy, focus, and the ability to be present in our lives, starts at the end of our fork
and in our kitchens.”
Dr Mark Hyman
If you would like to inject some inspiration to your meal preparation, support your body and mind with optimum nutritional choices, I’d love to help you.
My Habit Breaker Program provides support to interrupt poor nutritional choices and helps create the motivation to make delicious and nutritious improvement to your nutrition.
During the Habit Breaker Program You'll Learn:
- Why diet, is not a word I like to use
- How healthy fat can stabilise your blood sugar
- Add antioxidants to your food, removing sugary options
- Make a grab and go breakfast
- Create simple pack and go snacks
- Take the boring out of eating vegetables
- Reduce inflammation from your body
- Manage stress related eating or non-eating
- Nutrition does not mean restriction
How to enjoy food by creating awareness of the nutritional density in your food choices.
So - Are you ready to break poor habits and improve your nutritional choices?
Book your Discovery Call
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