Ultimate Guide on How-To Eat Healthy in 10 Weeks

image

The hardest part about getting accustomed to a new diet, new workout, or even a new lifestyle…is getting started all together. The start is the worst part because the end seems so far away, but I promise you, it’ll be the best decision you’ll make! Our journey didn’t start off by eating Kale Chips and drinking green smoothies, oh no… Our journey started by making small sacrifices week by week to cut out an extra product or ingredient that wasn’t good for our bodies. It took us weeks to have some what of a healthy diet, so now I’d like to share with all of you about how-to eat healthy!

Changing your eating habits and what’s in your fridge isn’t going to be done overnight. I mean it can be, but don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to go too fast, too soon. For this exact reason, I prepared a week by week guideline on how-to start eating clean and cutting out crap. Keep in mind that there is no perfect, and never expect perfection. Our diets aren’t always the healthiest of choices, our workouts aren’t always long enough, but the point is to make an effort, and the effort you put into feeding your body nutrients, you’ll see in return. You’re body will reward you by having more energy or having beautiful glowing skin. Try it out for a week and see how you like it!

Some people have told me that once they start eating healthy, they get bored of their food fast. This was the case for us too! You have to get through that “boring food” week. It gets better, you’ll start to learn how to spruce up your already healthy recipes. It’s hard at the same time, because there are going to be times where you’ll be caught in moments of weakness. I’ve had these many times, especially going to the grocery store. It always starts like this…You have so much on your plate, you skip breakfast, run to the grocery store to buy your healthy ingredients for lunch, you’re starving and you’re there at the checkout waiting…but there’s that big delicious milky chocolate bar staring at you…and did I mention you’re hungry…so can you blame your mind for not being able to stay in control? It’s not your fault – its Sugar.

Sugar is a drug. So many people turn a blind eye to this ingredient! We all know sweets like these can do so much damage to our bodies and yet we still have moments of weakness. Who cares its just ONE chocolate, we tell ourselves. We need to start training our minds to the point where we acknowledge that the chocolate bar has no nutritional value, nor is it good for us.. so why do we eat it? Pointless, right? It’s all in your self control. Some people choose not to even have a bite of anything sweet, knowing the dark path ahead. Keep in mind, when you go down that dark path of sugar cravings, you’ll have to start all over again with eating right…and we all know starting is the hardest part. Some people jump back, recover and go on with their healthy ways, and some people have a hard time bouncing back and revert to their old ways. It’s all about training your mind. 

Note : When you start getting bored of the food, just think that you can implement other ingredients to your already healthy recipe. With just a few changes, you’ll end up with a brand new tasting recipe on your plate. Once you become familiar with the lifestyle, you will start to branch out and try new things!

 

Week One - Substitute a homemade meal for one fast-food meal this week

  •  Decide what meals you are going to eat for the week
  •  Make homemade hamburgers instead
  •  Serve some fresh fruit
  •  Bake, dont fry
Week Two - Stop buying Soda
  •  Write down what you are going to cook and make your grocery list
  •  In place of Soda, make fruit juices, iced tea, or freeze some lemons for lemon water
  •  If you must carbonate, then add seltzer water to your homemade beverages
Week Three - Switch from refined grains to foods with some whole wheat
  •  We eliminated bread all together
  •  The days where we do eat bread or wraps, it’s gluten free
  •  Since our diet change we have noticed that gluten and dairy get us bloated, so we have eliminated them from our diet all together
Week Four -
Instead of buying chips and salty snacks, by baked snacks that are low in sodium
  •  We usually snack on almonds, walnuts, or pistachios
  •  For cheat days we tend to buy gluten free baked ships such as Beanitos Chips
Week Five - Add 1 or 2 fresh fruits to your daily diet
  •  I incorporated this for Marc in the form of juices and smoothies
  •  Sometimes hell nibble on the grapes or strawberries that Im eating
Week Six - Add 1 or 2 veggies to your daily diet
  •  I incorporated this for Marc in the form of juices and smoothies, two times a day
Week Seven - Stop buying canned products or frozen foods
  •  We donated all of our canned goods, earlier in the process
  •  Frozen foods are the worst for you. Prepare fresh with fresh ingredients as much as you can
Week Eight - Stop frying - bake, grill, steam, or poach instead
  •  Although it’s tastier to fry, baking and grilling will make your recipe have even more flavor.
  •  Switch it up weekly
Week Nine - Make over some fav. recipes using substitutions. You have to try or you'll never learn to spruce up your meals once they become boring
  •  This is where we did all our final tweaks and changes
  •  Dairy substitute to almond and coconut milk
  •  Sugar substitute to raw honey, agave
  •  Substitute cheese to Daiya’s Dairy-Free Cheese
  •  We started experimenting baking cookies with healthier ingredients
Week Ten - Focus on your portion control now that you've got the hang of things
  •  Now that you know what you’re doing, it’s time to lessen your portions, and eat more often
  •  You should eat 5-8 small meals a day to keep your metabolism where it should be.
  •  Don’t starve yourself
  •  Don’t skip meals
Tips:

♦ Set realistic goals,  like I said before don’t expect miracles overnight

♦ Don’t force foods on picky eaters. I learned this with Marc, he’ll end up eating it once I talk about how good it is, for a few days. The trick is to be consistent. Instead of just putting healthy dinner in front of him, I give him 2 choices. He gets to chose between which healthy meal he wants, and then that’s what I will prepare. This way he feels more in control.

♦ I didn’t find out that I had any kind of food sensitivity until we started experimenting with our diet. My body was so used to the acidic tomato sauces and heavy cream sauces that I didn’t realize I was puffing up like a balloon, and always feeling bloated. I thought that was just the way it was for everyone. Once you start cutting out processed foods, you’ll start to see within a few months what your body is sensitive to, by re-introducing it back into your diet. This is why we started to cut out dairy – as much as I love cheese!

Cheers!

Fanny

 

Sources:

Wright, Jonathan & Larsen, Linda Johnson, Eating Clean for Dummies, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2011. Print

 

Fanny Honsch
Fanny is a Canadian-based blogger who began a journey to a healthier lifestyle with her fiance, immediately after complications with his stomach had begun.

She decided she needed to make a change in his diet and began to document it on her own website. Fanny blogs about: all natural remedies, healthy snacks, juice recipes, tips and more.

You can visit her on HealthywithFanny.com