3 Easy Ways to Get Healthy
My mission with ALIVE+WELL Nutrition is to help you feel better than ever, sans dieting and deprivation. If you’re feeling at a loss for how to kickstart your health journey, read on as I highlight three simple tips that can help you take baby steps towards feeling your best.
Be Meat-Free 1 Day/Week
Despite debate last fall surrounding the risks associated with high meat consumption, overwhelming evidence supports the fact that well designed plant-based diets are linked to positive health outcomes, including decreased risk of chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
FYI: a plant-based diet is not necessarily synonymous with a vegetarian or vegan diet. That is, a plant-based diet can simply consist primarily of foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans, peas, and lentils, with animal products like meat, poultry, and fish playing supporting roles on your plate.
It goes without saying that plant-based meal plans are also beneficial for the planet. After all, the production of just one quarter pound hamburger requires about 150 gallons of water, per the U.S. Geological Survey. So there’s that.
The goal here: if you’re someone who consumes animal products daily, try to eat 100% vegetarian at least one day per week. While there are endless options, a day of plant-based meals can look a little something like this:
Breakfast: Oatmeal cooked with your milk of choice + nutrient-dense toppings like nut butter and fresh or dried fruit. Allergic to nuts? Cook your oats in soy milk instead and swap the nut butter for chia and flax seeds, two allergen-free sources of healthy fats and protein. Other ideas: scrambled eggs with fresh fruit and a slice of toast topped with smashed avocado or almond butter, or a loaded green smoothie.
Snack: Crackers (I love Simple Mills + Mary’s Gone Crackers) with hummus and raw veggies. Or try a serving of Good Culture cottage cheese with your favorite fix-ins (make it savory with a drizzle of olive oil and chopped cucumber + tomatoes or sweeten it up with cinnamon, chopped nuts + a drizzle of manuka honey).
Lunch: Loaded salad. Make your base a raw green (like spinach, arugula, or kale), then add in a whole grain, a plant-based protein source (think: beans, lentils, or tofu), roasted veggies (different textures = greater satisfaction), 1/2 of an avocado and a simple homemade dressing. Pair it with a slice of whole grain bread.
Other lunch ideas: a meatless burrito bowl with a half salad/half brown rice base and sautéed peppers and onions, black or kidney beans, guacamole, and fresh salsa. If you’re committed to the sandwich game, swap sliced turkey for a slab of crispy baked tofu or simply load it up with veggies, avocado, hummus, and honey mustard for some sweet + creamy goodness.
Snack: A piece of fresh fruit paired with a couple spoonfuls of nut butter, a small plain Greek yogurt or skyr with a spoonful of jam mixed in (remember — this doesn’t have to be a vegan diet!), a hard-boiled egg with everything but the bagel seasoning and a cheese stick, or a simple smoothie made from frozen fruit, fresh greens, a milk or water base, ice, and scoop of plant-based protein powder. Here are a handful of healthy snacks I love.
Dinner: A legume-based pasta (I love Banza) topped with a quick homemade mushroom + pepper tomato sauce and paired with crispy roasted cauliflower and a side salad. Go ahead and shave some parmesan on that pasta.
Snack: A small cup of sorbet with a crushed 70% dark chocolate square on top.
Start Small
Real talk: deciding to start exercising, cut out sugar, and commit to a meditation practice all at once is pretty tough to pull off. Instead, start with small changes, one at a time. One example: if you don’t currently have an exercise routine, vow to not let more than three days go by without getting in a workout. It doesn’t matter if that workout looks like a long walk or a serious HIIT class, just commit to consistently fitting in movement that feels good for you.
Pencil in sweat sessions ahead of time and attach some incentive to them. For example, I’m a ClassPass member and the platform charges me $15 if I cancel a class within 12 hours of the start time. There’s nothing I hate more than wasting money, so it prevents me from bailing on a workout last minute.
You can also consider buying a 5-class package at a local studio that comes with an expiration date. Chances are you’ll be less likely to blow off classes if you’ve already paid for them. If a gym membership or workout classes aren’t in your budget, do some research to find free videos on YouTube that you can do right in your living room. It all counts.
Another small change might be to upgrade your afternoon pick-me-up order. If you’re addicted to sipping on a Starbucks chai latte at 3 p.m. every day, commit to shifting the habit by ordering an unsweetened tea and adding cinnamon and a splash of your preferred milk to your cup.
Since a grande chai latte serves up 42 grams of added sugar, nearly double the recommended amount for women per day (25 grams), chances are a cup of unsweetened tea will taste bland to you. Add a teaspoon of honey if you need to. This small swap will still help you dial back your added sugar intake significantly (at about 5 grams of sugar vs. 42 grams).
Is mindless munching your main concern? See if you can find single-serving versions of your favorite snacks or treats. For example, I love Alter Eco’s individually wrapped salted caramel truffles first and foremost because they are delicious, but also because their packaging makes me more aware of how many I am eating (as opposed to an open bag of cookies that I can continuously dip into until it’s half gone).
There are endless possible mini changes we can all make. If yours isn’t addressed here, feel free to reach out for more recommendations!
Meal Prep Lite
If meal prep is the healthy habit you love to hate, you’re not alone. The idea is smart in theory, but it can also be time consuming and downright intimidating for plenty of people. What should I cook? How do I portion it all out? Will I actually want to eat the same meal four times in one week?
Instead of making full blown prepared meals, take an hour (yep, that’s it) each week to set yourself up for success by readying ingredients so your kitchen is conveniently stocked with good-for-you foods. See below for a few simple ideas that can make early morning meals and daytime snacking less chaotic.
Hard boil eggs to bring to work as a high-protein snack or eat for breakfast before you dash out the door (10 minutes)
Slice up carrots, cucumbers, and bell peppers into sticks so they’re ready for snacking while you cook dinner. Pair them with hummus, guacamole, or dip them into a nutrient-dense dressing (I often use the Avocado Green Goddess dressing from Trader Joe’s as a dip for veg) (10 minutes)
Prep a batch of overnight oats for the next two to three days. I have a chocolatey recipe for them here and pumpkin pie-esque recipe for them here (5 minutes)
Open and rinse 1-2 cans of beans and store them in the fridge so they’re ready to be added to salads or grain bowls stat (5 minutes)
Cook up a few servings of your favorite whole grain (think: farro, barley, brown rice, quinoa) for the week, again so they’re ready to be added to salads, used as lunch or dinner sides, or even made into a breakfast bowl instead of your standard cereal (20 minutes)
Wash, dry, and cut up fresh fruit for easy snacking. You can also freeze banana coins so they’re ready to serve as the base for smoothies during the week (5 minutes)
Add fresh fruits or vegetables (think: basil or mint, oranges or pineapple, cucumber slices) to a pitcher of water and chill in the fridge if you’re someone who can’t stand drinking plain old H2O (2 minutes)
LEVEL UP: Prep your own homemade nut milk; roast a sheet pan full of your favorite veggies; bake some 2-ingredient homemade oatmeal cups.