Healthy Food

We are all in search of a healthy food that will deliver instant weight loss, health and happiness. Might as well get this out the way early, there isn't one. There, take a moment to process that.

Relax, there are lots of healthy foods that are readily available, easy to cook and or use, which have great health benefits. They just don't come a single daily dose sachet, no surprise there then.

The Fear of Healthy Food

A basket of what we know to be healthy food, fresh brightly coloured vegetables and vivid fruit, is a thing of beauty, but it can also be daunting.

There are many reasons why lots of us avoid fresh raw ingredients. For many of us, cooking every meal from fresh raw ingredients doesn't seem possible, and others feel they don't have the practical skills and knowledge to turn raw ingredients into a delicious meal.

Time & A Place For Nutrition Supplements

There are some great supplements available, many of the best ones we stock in our online store, but that's not what this article is for. The best way to lose weight, improve your vitality, improve your overall health and lead a balanced is to eat fresh, healthy food, that you cook, and this article will give you some ideas of how and where to start.

Be Inspired By Food

Speaking from experience, I didn't get motivated about healthy food and healthy eating until I had worked out what I liked, by this, I mean the flavours, cooking styles and balanced.

My Food Story

A bit of background on myself to give this some perspective. I didn't eat a single green vegetable until I was in my late teens while backpacking in Asia. The dishes I experienced while traveling were a million miles away from the boiled, braised and mashed, cabbage, swede or carrot that were used to garnish my plate. A plate that usually consisted of meat and potatoes of one variety or another.

The experience of eating flash fried kale, by a busy road in Bangkok turned my culinary head forever. Until this point food had been nothing but an inconvenience, eating was something I did because it hurt if I didn't, not because it felt good, or I enjoyed it.

Physical Benefits of Healthy Eating

Aside from my new found enjoyment of eating, I also started to notice physical benefits. Immediately noticeable, going the bathroom wasn't a long drawn out affair. After a week or so of my new diet, I was getting off to sleep easier, and waking with a clearer head. I felt lighter on my feet and had significantly more zest for life.

To wrap up about me and get back to how eating healthy foods is possible no matter where you live in the world, I am now a vegetarian and wouldn't have it any other way.

Let The Food In Your Life

We can put bells and whistles on it, but ultimately a human being is an animal. As with any animal, being in the optimum physical condition is paramount to ensuring its survival. Whether that be hunting on the plains of the Serengeti, or fighting for your place in the queue during at Starbucks.

To maintain our optimum fitness we need to furnish the body with the nutrients it needs. Sounds easy doesn't it?

Finding Your Niche

Finding foods that interest you is the best way to allow nutrition into your life. The combination of the internet and endless cooking shows on TV makes this easier than it was a decade ago.

Try out different styles of cooking, Asian wok frying, Moroccan tagines or indoor barbecuing are a few ways to add theatre and flavour to meal times.

Keep experimenting and break the rules. Inventing your own genre of cooking is a sure fire to get yourself hooked on meal times. It is also a great way to involve the family and friends and make dinner parties more interesting.

Build A Holistic Healthy Lifestyle

Use meal times as a platform to create an overall balanced lifestyle. Try not to press yourself, or those you live with too hard, change should be incremental and positive.

Getting involved in crash diets or eating regimes that include skipping meals or any other unsustainable action is a surefire way to fail. By indulging food as a hobby, making it an integral part of daily life will improve the likelihood that your lifestyle changes will become permanent.

Start With Baby Steps

Take things easy, it's easy to get over ambitious. Taking baby steps to begin with, your interest in food and nutrition will build, in relation to your knowledge and experience of food.

Try to avoid the rubber band effect. By expanding too quickly in a new direction, we risk over stretching and recoiling, undoing all the good work we have done.

Make sure you enjoy the food you eat at meal times. I know that sound bizarre, but it's true. It's common to go extreme when changing eating regime, try not to loose sight that eating should be enjoyable.

Reading Labels & Researching What You Eat

Often getting to know food is a good way to start letting food take a bigger role in your life. Reading labels and understanding what food manufacturers add is a great way to get motivated. It's often quite shocking, especially when it comes to foods marketed at children, but that's in another post.

Keeping an eye out for local food fairs and exhibitions it a great way to get involved. Health food comes in many different forms, finding foods that have great flavour and deliver nutrients isn't hard when you know where to look.

Supermarket Sweep

Most supermarkets now stock a wide range of foods from around the world, but you might have to dig for them. Because health foods appeal to a niche market, and those who want them are are prepared to find them, they usually get tucked away on out of the way shelves.

Mangosteen is a great way of quickly incorporating a healthy nutritious food into everyday meals. Currently, mangosteen juice drinks appear on supermarket shelves across the UK, but unless you were looking for them, you probably wouldn't know.

Healthy Food & Longterm Healthy Eating

Plan your transition to healthy eating by becoming excited about food, healthy food isn't scary, its just a different colour shape.

By getting to know the food you eat, it soon becomes apparent that the food that is already close at hand is some of the best available. British asparagus is a healthy food that quite comfortably hold its own with any new age super food.

Experimenting with new cooking methods will make meal times more inspiring. By buying healthy food, you will intuitively start eating healthily.