Eating is something you do roughly 3 times a day 365 days a year. You should know the proper way to eat. So why is it that I only vaguely remember learning about proper nutrition? I think we talked about it once in elementary school and then in high school when I elected to take a health course.
The new My Plate approach seems a lot easier to understand than a pyramid. I mean look at that image. If I have the proper size plate (not the huge 10-12" things most of us use) then I can design my plate exactly as it appears above and know that I'm getting a balanced meal. Simple.
Here are some things I've learned recently that (like My Plate) make eating healthy easier for my family.
- Carbs are NOT bad. I feel like I've believed carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, grains) were the enemy for WAY TOO long. In fact, you need them and you should be eating more grains and breads than meat. The kicker? You need to eat the right kind of carbohydrates. Things like beans, whole grain breads and brown rice.
- You need a lot more vegetables than you are probably eating. Don't like vegetables? I didn't either until I started forcing myself to try new things and cooking with fresh ingredients. You can also try adding a romaine leaf (iceberg doesn't count) salad to every meal...it's a start.
- Protein doesn't have to come from meat. It's ok to leave meat out of a meal. Try replacing one meal a week with a vegetarian menu. It will help you get more veggies and force you to try something new occasionally.
- STAY AWAY from processed foods. If it comes in a box, it's probably not very good for you. The food companies are trying to make money off of you. Health food is popular right now. Of course the food companies are going to market their food as healthy! They can throw a little extra iron in their cereal and say it's iron fortified...they conveniently forgot to mention that they added a whole extra cup of sugar to the cereal in the process. The only way you know exactly what you are eating is if you have control of all the ingredients...I'm not going to get into organic ingredients right now. (Which by the way, I do not buy organic...at least not yet.)
- You don't have to eat perfect all the time. Follow the 80/20 rule. Eat good 80% of the time and you can live a little the other 20%. Just be careful because 20% can evolve into 30% and it can make a big difference.
- Small changes. Drink some more water this week. Next week buy apples instead of chips. You get the idea?
