Kelly Rossiter of Planet Green, sets out six simple things to live by in the New Year and beyond, which if followed would leave you healthier, help with your weight lost goal and more cost effective at the end of the day.
1. Cook it Yourself
This is the year to stop buying ready made foods and to cut down on the amount of take-out food you eat. Extra salt, sugar, fat and chemicals are things you don’t need in your diet.You don’t have to be a gourmet cook to get a delicious and healthy dinner on the table every night. You can make lots of quick recipes like stir fries or frittatas or easy pasta sauces that take less than half an hour to make. Make a stew or a big pot of soup on the weekend that you can just heat up for those nights when you know you’ll be too busy to cook.
2. Monitor Your Portion Size
This is a very big item, because most of us serve ourselves much more than we need, and then we finish what is on our plate. Start out by using smaller plates. Even though you may fill the smaller plate, you’ll be eating less. It helps to serve yourself from the pots in the kitchen, rather than serving family style at the table where you can keep dishing up more. Eat anything you want, just don’t eat too much of it. Depriving yourself of something you love is a sure fire way to sabotage your best efforts at healthy eating. If you want a piece of cake, have it, but make it small and enjoy every bite. If you want cookies, put a couple on a plate rather than eating them out of the bag or the cookie jar where you can easily lose track of how much you are eating. If you keep a food diary for a couple of weeks, you can really see how much you are actually eating. That is, of course, if you are completely honest about writing down every single thing you put in your mouth, including that second glass of wine with dinner. An alternative is to photograph everything you eat.
3. Add More Fruit and Vegetables to your Diet
Yes, your mom was right, you should eat your veggies. Now that you have that smaller plate to eat from, divide it into quarters. One quarter should be the protein you are having, one quarter should be carbohydrate such as potatoes, rice, pasta, quinoa etc. Now that you have half the plate left, fill it with vegetables. Roast some winter vegetables, or make a crunchy salad, but eat those vegetables. Dark leafy greens such as kale, spinach, chard should make a frequent appearance on your menu. Feel like a snack? Instead of cookies or chips try half a banana or half an apple.
4. Eat Breakfast
This is a no brainer for me because I can’t function if I don’t eat breakfast, but lots of people skip it thinking they can lose weight if they do. Then by mid-morning you are so hungry you could gnaw on your arm and you go to a coffee shop or cafeteria and buy a muffin that provides you with half of your caloric intake for the entire day. Take a bit of time in the morning to actually eat breakfast. It could be a bowl of oatmeal or meusli or a serving of cottage cheese and some fruit, or maybe some whole grain toast with some homemade jam.
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