Food to Recover would like to wish everyone a very happy and
healthy 2016! 
After “Tis the Season for indulging” during holidays often comes, “Tis the
Season for Restriction,” with new resolutions, weight goals, and calorie
counts in the New Year.
While it is always good to be conscious of what we eat, try
to avoid the pressure and unnecessary stress that can come with the New Year.
Food to Recover encourages you to set goals around your philosophy and food
behaviors, rather than strict numbers and food groups. Work on respecting your
body to its fullest by nourishing it with minimally processed foods that you
prepare yourself. Create a healthy environment and always stay prepared with healthy snacks on hand to curb hunger strikes. Work on really paying attention to how hungry you are and
appreciating your body for all that it does for you in a basic day. Celebrate
your food and celebrate yourself for nourishing your body with care and
purpose.
Try these simple steps for your newtrition in 2016:
1) Give your
pantry a makeover. Take a quick sweep of your pantry and discard (donate!!)
any tempting or leftover foods/processed products from the holiday season. So
much of healthy eating is based on the environment around you…Make that
environment simple and nutritious! Replace chips or crackers with nuts, roasted
chickpeas, or carrot sticks for a crunchy snack. Get rid of sugar-filled
deserts or candy and replace them with fruits. Make sure your grain products
(bread, pasta, rice) are all brown (whole wheat) and discard the white ones.
2) Think about WHY
you want to achieve your food or nutrition related goal. Try to think of things
that go beyond how you look and imagine the benefits of how much cleaner and
lighter you will feel, how much more energy you will have, and how much
sickness you can prevent with a balanced diet. Instead of creating a negative goal, like "Eat less sugar," try making it a positive goal, like, "Eat 3 fruit servings per day." If you’d like, keep a food diary
of what you eat, and mention how you feel after each meal or food. Revisit this
journal at the end of the week, and try to recreate what worked best with your
body.
3) Plan your
weekly meals. Choose “star ingredients” each week and work around them with
different variations. Chicken can be prepared in many different ways with
different flavors. Other good staples are avocado, kale, eggs, mushrooms, fish,
lentils, and any of your other favorite nutrient-dense foods. Planning meals
and overlapping ingredients helps to reduce waste and ensures you always have
an idea for a healthy meal! (See recipes below to start!)
4) Set aside
time to cook. No matter how careful we try and be when we go out to eat,
you will almost always ingest more sugar, fat, or salt than you would if you
prepare it yourself. Take time to prepare your own food and you are almost
guaranteed to eat heathier than if you eat out. Take the new year to learn new
techniques in the kitchen like oven roasting vegetables, make recipes in the
crock pot, or blending smoothies and soups.
5) Be
patient. These lifestyle changes will not happen overnight. Sure, you may
still crave sugar or want some extra salt on your eggs, these things take time
to adjust. Allow yourself time with the overall mentality that the
more you give your body healthy food, the more it will crave it!
6) Get a
buddy. Food to Recover dietitians are always happy to talk to you about
food! But also try and recruit a friend to share recipes, have meal prep
Sundays, or track food diaries together and compare feelings and results!
Healthy Recipes Ideas for
Newtrition 2016:
Avocado
Egg Salad (omit the bacon)
Lemon
Salmon Burgers (use fresh or canned salmon; replace mayo for greek yogurt!)
Chicken
and Sweet Potato StewTessa Acker, MPH, RD
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