I am often asked for advice on diets, healthy eating, recipe books, and supplements, with questions like:
"Where can I find gluten free recipes?"
"What do you recommend for a ketotic cookbook?"
"What is the best way to lose 5-10 pounds?"
"What is the best way to eat healthy?"
"What vitamins should I take?"
The list goes on like this, and I want to first clear the air about healthy eating, I don't eat perfectly healthy all the time. I admit it, it's true. I like all the bad things that you like, pizza, beer, wine, chocolate. It's in our nature to like food that gives us pleasure and satisfaction, if it wasn't we'd all be craving a plain bowl of gruel right now.
The truth is eating healthy doesn't have to be complicated, bland, or require the training of Gordon Ramsey. In fact, I was watching a cooking show on IPTV last night and the host, a french man I cannot name, was making some simple, fantastic fruit based desserts that would satisfy any sweet tooth. But, I digress, back to the topic at hand, healthy eating.
In a nutshell, healthy eating is pretty simple and doesn't require a cookbook. All you have to do is pick a protein and a plant (aka: vegetable or fruit) for every meal, cook it and eat it. Now I am being a little facetious, but it really is that straight forward. Let me walk you through a typical day of eating for me, yesterday for instance.
First Breakfast: one nectarine, one UltraClear Renew/Dynamic Greens shake, and 16 oz of coffee
Second Breakfast: another UltraClear/Dynamic Greens shake and 16 oz of water
Lunch: Flatbread Wrap containing two organic chicken brat links, 2 pieces of cheddar cheese, brown mustard, and as much spinach as I can fit in it. I also drink 16 oz of water with lunch.
Snack: Ultra Calm Bar and 16 oz of water
Dinner: 8-10 oz of Salmon; spinach salad with mini sweet peppers, onions, grape tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette; stir fried green beans with onions.
There you have it; a typical day of eating for me. No fancy recipes. No gimmicks. Just simple clean eating. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, on the weekends I do some sort of veggie egg combo for breakfast.
Now don't beat yourself up saying something like, "I can't eat perfectly like that." Because the truth is I can't either, not all the time. Instead, what I strive for is a phrase Tony Horton always says, "Do your best and forget the rest!" I eat healthily as much as I possibly can so when travel, family outings, cravings, etc. come up, my body is in better shape to handle the bad food put into it with as little set-back as possible.
Eat as clean as possible long enough and you will start to not miss the bad foods you were eating before. Then, once you feel what bad food does to you, you will find yourself making the conscious decision to skip the bad food and be hungry for a little bit because the payoff for eating the bad food is not worth the regret.