We just wrapped up what I hope will be our first of many Healthy Eating Revisited events! What a night!
If you missed it, I want to give you a quick recap of the nutrition talk that we did, as well as one of the favorite recipes at the end! Read on!
One of the primary reasons I decided to do this talk was because over the years of being involved in the fitness industry, I have found that sticking with a healthy, balanced, nutritious lifestyle is difficult for many of us.
I wanted to show that eating healthy can be flavorful, convenient and even inexpensive when you invest in learning some strategies and commit to executing said strategies! I want to share two of the things we talked about:
3 Ways to Change Your Behavior:
- Recognize if you are in the stage of change where you are actually READY to change a negative behavior around food.
- Pre-contemplation -health, nutrition, what?
- Contemplation – Hmmm, maybe I should change my unhealthy eating. I don’t want to feel so stuck.
- Preparation – Yes, I am going to make a change, what do I need to do to get ready to change?
- Action – Modify behaviour and environment -buy healthy food, make a list, plan your meals, ditch the junk food.
- Maintenance -MOST CRITICAL STAGE – Successful maintenance requires active alertness. Yes, you’ll always have to think about food.
- Termination – your former behaviour/addiction no longer poses a threat. This is where you exit the change cycle.
- Start with a small change first
- Drink more water
- Cut up vegetable everyday
- Commit to having only 1 slice of bread per day
- Have oatmeal every morning
- Eliminate carbs at dinner
- Don’t eat after 7pm
- Drink tea at night
- Don’t drink alcohol on weekdays
- Be kind to yourself
- When you mess up, what is the story you tell yourself?
- Have compassion for that part of you
- Recognize that behaviour change is hard and true change may take a while.
Figuring Out Your Why
Over the years I have learned that it’s really not as much about what you eat, or a plan, or diet, it’s about the why. I have written more in depth blogs on this topic which you can view here, but this is the summary:
How to figure out your ‘why’ behind food:
- Don’t be in auto-pilot around food.
- Be aware of dysregulated emotions and what you do with them.
- Understand that there are stories we tell ourselves.
- Change the stories and increase compassion for self.
- Find another method to deal with dysregulated emotions.
Delving into your patterns and feelings around food is tough work and often a long, in depth process. However, if you struggle with food, I believe that true change cannot occur until you do take a deeper look.
To close, here is one of our meals we prepared: Thai Coconut Chicken with Cauliflower Rice
Recipe:
3 chicken breasts sliced in strips
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp red chili flakes
½ onion peeled and sliced
½ red bell pepper sliced
½ orange bell pepper sliced
½ yellow bell pepper sliced
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 can full fat coconut milk (if using low fat, use cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken)
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp of lime juice
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
Red jalapeno thinly sliced (optional)
In a pan, heat oil. Fry together chicken, onion and garlic until chicken is cooked. Meanwhile, mix together coconut milk, salt, red chili flakes, fish sauce, peanut butter, lime juice, maple syrup, and ginger. Add peppers and snap peas to the chicken and saute 3 minutes. Pour sauce over top of chicken and peppers and cook until sauce is slightly reduced. Season to taste. Plate over top of cauliflower rice (recipe is in your cookbook), and sprinkle cilantro, basil, green onion, and red jalapeno pepper on top. Top with peanuts if desired.
The next one is coming sometime this spring, don’t miss it!
