A healthy lifestyle always begins with what you eat, in other words your nutrition and your diet. You can exercise all you want but if you do not eat right, it won't make any difference to your health. The best and healthy way to eating is by preparing and cooking your own meals at home rather than eating out at restaurants or buying processed or pre-made foods from your grocery store.
Cheap processed foods, prepared foods and frozen foods with claims to being low in sodium and healthy for you are in fact not the healthiest alternative. What most people fail to realize is that they still contain too much sodium and they will actually make you fatter. Often times they may not contain the most desirable ingredients.
There is nothing wrong with eating at restaurants occasionally but eating there all the time can get very expensive and may contain ingredients that are not the best for you. Nowadays, many places are starting to indicate their ingredients but how accurate are these labels? That’s why when you cook your own meals, you know what you are putting into them and what you are eating. You decide and control the foods that you eat and hopefully you are making the right choices.
Right now you may be saying that it takes too much time and work to cook your meals every day. I’m sure most people lead very busy lives and it’s a lot easier to pick something up for dinner from a restaurant or grocery store, but the fact of the matter is that making your meals shouldn’t be time consuming. It just requires a little thought ahead of time and some planning. You can make simple and very healthy meals in very little time. Also, your daily meals need not be fancy or complicated. Just make sure they are nutritious and that you include all your healthy options.
Here are the steps I recommend that you take to preparing healthy homemade meals:
- Before you go shopping, have an idea for the week of all the meals or potential meals that you intend to have. You may want to check your flyers for best prices on what you plan to buy.
- Purchase the food required for the meals that you are going to make for the week or buy in bulk to save money. You can also print your own cookbook with the healthy recipes you have tried and you love.
- Cook your meals for 2 or 3 days at a time. Foods like chicken,
- quinoa, brown rice, beets and other vegetables can be cooked in advance, stored in your refrigerator in glass containers and reheated, yet still taste great!
- Store the food in your refrigerator that you will be eating over the next two to three days.
- Salads can be made daily and take very little time to prepare. Fish also takes very little time to prepare and cook.
One of the best ways to eat healthy is to grow your own vegetables. Not only are they convenient because they’re ready for the picking right at your doorstep, but growing your own vegetables can be more nutritious for you because they actually ripen on the vine rather than on a truck or in the grocery store. Homegrown vegetables actually smell and taste like real vegetables, the way nature intented them to be!
Of course in many places in the world you cannot grow your vegetables or fruits outdoors for the entire year, that’s why any extra vegetables (cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, peppers, green beens) that you grow can be frozen and used during the off-season. In this way, you always have a supply of vegetables with the nutrients locked in by the freezing process at your fingertips. By hand or with a food processor to slice or puree your vegetables, it takes very little time to do and vegetables can remain in the freezer for many months (6 to 9) without going bad proivded you properly seal the freezer bags and remove as much air out of the bags prior to sealing and freezing.
By planning ahead, you will find that cooking your own meals will be a breeze. It will be quick, easy, delicious and more nutritious for you!
