No time to cook? The worst cook ever???
Many people have the misconception that eating healthy is a pain. You have to spend all day shopping, chopping, cooking, cleaning. It’s easier to order a pizza!
True..and false. Some foods do take some prep time, but I’ve got some tricks for you to cut down on prep time, and some quick food you can make that’s good for you. Some can be had right out of the package.
You might think that eating healthy means being a brontosaurus and eating only salads for the rest of your life…WRONG!
There is a huge amount of food you can eat that is healthy. You just have to learn which to choose.
Your search has ended. And have I got the foods for you! We’ll (briefly!) discuss saving time on healthy eating for you and the fam right here…
So, when it comes to eating healthy, what does that really mean?
It means making the right choices. You literally ARE what you eat. Now of course it’s easy for me to say, “eat the right foods that are good for you and ignore the junk food that will hurt you in the long run.” But the problem is junk food tastes so good that it’s hard to give up.
Listen, I learned the hard way that eating junk food will eventually catch up to you. You will suddenly be hit with some kind of disease that you never saw coming, and this is because the junk food slowly works its way into your system to take over your body, literally eating from inside out.
From Time Magazine, “…Eating a diet high in sugar has been shown to interfere with a person’s blood sugar levels and increase their risk for type 2 diabetes…Added sugars were linked to poor insulin levels and blood sugar, as well as harmful fat storage around the belly, which promotes problems like inflammation and high blood pressure…overeating sugars and refined starches can increase inflammation and risk for heart disease…A diet high in processed food can also expose people to chemicals they may not know they’re eating…People who ate at least 35% of their total calories from fast food in the past 24 hours had up to 40% higher levels of phthalates—chemicals that have been linked to issues like hormone disruption and lower sperm count.”
Eh, That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The more you go down this rabbit hole, the more you realize that food acts the same way that drugs do. Yes, you can get addicted to sugar. I know I was. I craved it and throughout the day I thought about it. I imagined coming home and being able to stuff my face with that delicious ice cream and cake. It made life worth living!
Until I became gravely ill, and almost went blind from a mysterious disease that I never even knew existed. It will hit you when you least expect it, because as I said, it builds up in your system over time and breaks down parts of your body just like drugs do.
Now let’s discuss the other side of this. How do we make that change?
You don’t have to do it all at once. You can change gradually, and reduce the junk food little by little, replacing it with something healthier. I lived on junk food for literally most of my life, and now I can tell you I really don’t miss it. It’s like a distant memory.
A few years ago, on vacation I remember trying some junk food and my body immediately reacted to it. I started trembling all over. I literally felt my heartbeat get faster, and the taste was just too much for my taste buds. It was too sweet, or too salty or just… Yuck!
So, when you are eating healthy, after a while, your body begins to change so that you reject the junk. Your body helps you make the right choices. Now this isn’t always the case. Sometimes a little bit of junk still tastes good to me, but after a couple of bites, I say, “I’m good.”
This is because I don’t need it anymore, and I realize that if I keep having it, I’m going to get sick again. And that is something I never want to experience again.
So, fear plays a part. You realize that you have the choice of enjoying the junk and getting sick or staying away from the junk and continuing to be healthy. If you’ve ever been sick, you know it’s not fun. When you are faced with a serious disease, then you know true fear, and you will do everything in your power to never have that fear again.
Yes, I want to scare you. I want to scare you because I don’t want you to have to go through the literal PAIN that I went through. Oh, it wasn’t pain…it was searing, debilitating, excruciating pain that completely took over my life. Disease literally stopped my life cold for months and months, where I couldn’t progress in my life.
I never want to experience in my life ever again. I’m here to help you get healthy, the first step to that is eating healthy.
So how can you replace the junk with something healthy? You just have to substitute something junky for something healthy.
An example might be eating something like frozen organic blueberries mixed with unsweetened organic coconut flakes (now one of my favorite foods) instead of that ice cream that can lead to inflammatory pain throughout your body.
It might mean having a nice piece of salmon seared to perfection with fresh garlic and olive oil along with some fresh veggies with tangy teriyaki sauce instead of steak and fries that can lead to visiting the hospital with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. It’s all about choices.
Fruits are great substitutes for sugary snacks. Nuts are great substitutes for salty snacks, cookies and crackers. Just make sure you don’t overdose on the salt in those nuts. Choose a brand that has the lower sodium content by comparison.
So, what the fast and easy part of this page? What do you do when you are on the run and don’t have time to cook at home? You can do one of several things…
- You can prepare food ahead of time that you can take with you
- You can grab food from a healthy take-out restaurant versus a fast-food restaurant
- You can stop in a deli and choose healthy fast food rather than a bag of chips or a triple-decker sandwich
And when you are at home, it doesn’t have to take an hour to create a meal. You can do it in minutes. How about combining several different types of organic frozen vegetables into a pan with olive oil to make a stirfry?
Or you can add water instead of olive oil and steam the vegetables in about 5 to 10 minutes, then add the olive oil after transferring from pan to plate. Here are more specific ideas of quick healthy meals.
Fast food does not have to be unhealthy. Just make the right choices. Don’t be lazy. You really need to take an active interest in making this change, and like I said before, you don’t have to do it all at once.
At first, substitute some junk foods for healthy foods, and over time replace more and more of those, to the point that you have completed the metamorphosis from the dark side. : )
People do it all the time. It looks like a mountain that you need to climb at the beginning, but as you take each step, it becomes easier and easier, and that mountaintop gets closer and closer.
I always suggest that people find someone who can support them in this journey, because without any support, it becomes easy to fall back on your old habits.
This is why a support group or a friend or family member that can support you in your journey is invaluable. Just make sure the person that you choose to support you has knowledge about what is healthy and what is not. Otherwise, it becomes like the blind leading the blind.
But more importantly, you need to have someone who knows about nutrition overseeing what you’re doing, because it’s easy to make mistakes in taking too much of a food that might actually lead you in the wrong direction, or some supplement that might have contraindications for you. Doing research is the key.
Throughout this website, you will find more and more support in your journey. I sincerely hope that this helps you become healthier and thus, more successful in your life!
“Michael taught me how to do research in order for me to learn how to be free of my dependency on prescription drugs. In my case, I was able to replace a good deal of those by eating healthy, exercising and taking the right supplements. It took a while, but now I feel like I’m really in control of my life and not depending upon doctors to tell me what to do, like a little child. I feel like an adult, able to make my own decisions. Now my doctor is simply an advisor, letting me know if what I’m doing is right or not. He no longer has to tell me what to do. I know what is good for my body and what is not, and that feeling is just so empowering, that I feel like a new person!”
-David Easter, NY, NY