Healthy Eating Doesn't Cost Us Time - It Creates Time! (Learn from This Dietitian's Mistake)

In this weekly article I usually share a recipe, or some scientific evidence-based nutrition advice, or nutrition advice based on my 12 years of helping others. But today I wanted to share a reflection based on my own life. Consider it a lesson learned. Or, if you’re a fan of Rick Mercer like I am, consider it my rant.

One of the most common things that people say to me when I introduce myself as a dietitian is that they don’t have time to eat healthy.

Well today I re-learned a lesson that proves what I believe – that if you want to get more done in a day, then make the time to eat healthy. I say that I re-learned this lesson today because today I didn’t make the time to eat healthy, and to be frank, I felt like crap (yes, even dietitians eat poorly sometimes).

I didn’t make the time to grocery shop on the weekend and so I didn’t have the food in the house for the breakfast that makes my body the happiest. Now to be fair I’m currently living on a remote First Nations reserve where the nearest grocery store is a 30 minute drive away and I didn’t have access to a car. But I could have asked someone for a ride into town. As a result of my inadequate breakfast I arrived at the office feeling tired and so I drank more caffeine than my body likes. The result of which of course is that I crashed by lunchtime. My lunch was healthy (thanks to a co-worker who shared a delicious meal with me) but having crashed from my morning caffeine rush, I moved up my afternoon coffee by a few hours. To add insult to injury, for some reason I chose not to drink the amount of water that I know my body likes me to drink. The result of these bad choices was that by 4pm I was a sugar-craving zombie, ready to put my head down on my desk for a nap. Not wanting to drink more caffeine, I ate some sugar (along with some protein and whole grains) and zoned out in front of some Netflix and then got lost in Facebook for a solid hour. I did manage to rouse myself in time to drink several glasses of water and cook and eat a healthy dinner (a stew with black eyes peas and lots of veggies). The result is that I have now rebounded with enough energy to get something done. But it’s now so late that I needed to decide between writing this article, doing yoga, or getting to bed on time. Looks like it’s going to be a late night.

As you can see, the lesson here is that if I had made better choices with my food and beverages, then I would have had more energy and gotten more done in my day. 4-6 pm is usually a really productive time in my day. But because I made poor choices, all I achieved was watching a documentary and scrolling through Facebook.

Healthy eating doesn’t cost us time – it creates it!

I encourage you to learn from my mistake. Don’t let “I’m too busy” be a barrier for you to eat well. If you want more energy to get more done in your day, then choose to take the time to eat healthy.

Tomato Salsa with Cucumber "Chips"

From: Food and Wine

Get ready for Super Bowl weekend with a delicious healthy take on the traditional chips-and-salsa combo that is nearly fat-fee and refreshing.
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 1/4 pounds tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large seedless cucumber, sliced 1/4 inch thick


Directions:

In a bowl, toss the tomatoes with the onion, cilantro, jalapeño and lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve the salsa with the cucumber chips for dipping.

Red Cabbage with Apples and Cloves

This sweet tasting cabbage dish tastes more like dessert than a side-dish.
From: Sarah Brown’s World Vegetarian Cookbook
 
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1lb red cabbage
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 sweet apples, peeled and finely chopped
3-4 cloves, ground with a mortar & pestle
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon sugar
2 TBSP cider vinegar
salt

Directions

1. Shred the cabbage.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil over low-medium heat and fry the onion until just soft.
3. Increase the heat and add the cabbage and apples. Mix well. Then add the remaining ingredients.
4. Cover the pan and simmer mixture for 35 – 40 minutes, until the cabbage is really soft.
5. Serve hot & ENJOY!

Food Trends I'm Excited About

I admit that I like this time of year. No, not because of the holidays. Nor am I a skier. It’s because I love seeing the food trend predictions. Many of the predictions I’ve seen coming a mile away. Others come at me from left field – I’m thinking “Where the heck did they get that idea?”
Many food trends drive me crazy. But that’s a rant that I’ll save for another day.
Today I wanted to share some of the 2015 food trends that I’m loving. I encourage you to jump aboard these bandwagons!

Fermented Foods

Scientists are discovering more and more roles that our gut bacteria play in our health. No longer just helping in digestion, we’re now seeing that they may play a role in depression, obesity, auto-immune diseases, and many more health conditions.
One way to promote a healthy gut microbiome is to eat fermented foods. While this is a trend for 2015, it’s hardly new. Most cultures around the world traditionally include fermented foods – examples include yogurt, kimchee, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha, etc.

Sprouted Seeds, Legumes, Nuts and Grains

In the years that I’ve provided nutrition advice, I’ve noticed that many people believe that they’re eating lots of variety. However, that morning cereal and toast, wrap at lunch, and pasta dinner are all just refined wheat in different shapes. So, I love this trend because it should open your eyes and get you trying different grains/carbs.
Also, many people who complain about gas from eating legumes (i.e. beans and lentils) find that sprouting them first makes them more easily digestible (less musical).

Move Over Protein – Veggies are the Star

Protein has long been the star of the plate. Most chefs start with the protein and then create the rest of the meal around it. No more. Big time, famous chefs are using vegetables as the star of the meal – building the rest of the elements around them. For over a decade I’ve been recommending making half your plate veggies. It’s fantastic to see restaurants considering vegetables as more than a just a garnish.

Pickled Veggies

Hey, I’m a fan of any trend that makes it cool to eat vegetables. Pickled? Sure, why not – if it gets you eating more veggies, I’m happy. Do a quick pickle of some in-season veggies to make an appy or potluck dish that will impress your most foodie focused friends.

Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower

Did I mention that I’m a fan of any trend that makes it cool to eat veggies?! After the success of kale, it’s Brassica cousins are now becoming popular. Thankfully, being in the spotlight, we’re seeing many new recipes that provide alternatives to boiling these until they’re a sulfurous mush. Previously I shared about this trend being the cause of me overcoming my dislike of cauliflower. Below I’m sharing a cabbage dish that I’ve served at many a dinner party and no-one has ever complained that I made them eat cabbage (and they’re a vocal bunch).

Healthier Kids Meals

This trend makes me want to shout Halleluiah! It’s been a pet peeve of mine that even in restaurants with healthy main menus, the kids menu was an unhealthy and uninspired list of mac and cheese, chicken strips, and hotdog. No longer! Restaurants are clueing in that parents want their kids to eat healthfully and will be loyal customers if they provide a menu with tasty, healthy choices. My fingers are crossed that more restaurants wake up to this reality.

The Easy (and Effective) Way to Improve Your Eating – Even if You’ve Already Fallen Off Your New Years Resolutions

If you’re like many people, you launched into 2015 with a vision of an amazing new you – fit, clean eater, daily meditator. But then the daily reality of life happens. We’re only 9 days into the year and perhaps you’ve already fallen off your lofty goals. If so, you’re not alone.

Big lifestyle overhauls make great headlines (and entertaining reality TV). But they don’t work for most of us to make long-term change.

The secret to being successful at making healthy eating a reality for you (and your family too) is making small, continuous changes.

Small, continuous changes that accumulate into a truly lasting healthy lifestyle.

As the saying goes:

 “Slow and steady wins the race.”   - Aesop

By taking things one step at a time, you create the opportunity to practice each step until it becomes habit. And, once something’s habit, it’s easy. In addition, you build momentum to carry you onwards to more successful change.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Bring out your calendar, daytimer, planner, whatever you use.  Write your big goal on each week. Yes, write it again and again. Even if you’re using an electronic calendar, I recommend typing it in each week instead of using a copy & paste mode. The act of repeating it helps solidify it in your mind.
2. Break your big goal into small, weekly steps that will take you towards achieving your goal. Write down what 1 step you’ll take each week, from now until the last week of December.
3. Take action!

For example, say your big goal is to stop eating fast food (currently you eat it every weekday for lunch). Here’s how to break it down into weekly steps:

• Week 1: Sign up for Green Earth Organics’ weekly bin (because you’ve got to have healthy foods on-hand to substitute for all that fast food)
• Week 2: Pack 1 piece of fruit for lunch each weekday. Eat this along with your fast food lunch.
• Week 3: Pack 1 piece of fruit and one serving of veggies. Eat these instead of making your fast food lunch a “combo”.
• Week 4: Buy a container so that you can start to pack your lunch – fun, functional, cheap, luxurious – there’s no shortage of options. Pick one that is totally “you”. 
• Week 5: Cook one large recipe on the weekend (lunch or dinner). Store one serving of the leftovers in the fridge. Bring it for lunch on Monday. 
• Week 6: Cook dinner one weeknight. Make enough that you save one serving of the leftovers in the fridge. Bring it for lunch the next day.

You can see how each of these steps is small enough that it’s do-able. Yet, combined together, they really add up.