Quick Tips For Healthy Eating; Check Your Perfection At The Door

 

I shared a ton of information about Nourishing Whole Foods and Industrial Food Ingredients to Avoid in the first two articles of the series. Maybe this feels like too much to absorb all at once. Don’t panic! You do not have to do any of this perfectly. We are simply on a path towards health. Every little positive step we take brings us closer to our potential.

 

In this article we are going to talk about NOT trying to do everything perfectly. Perfection is unattainable, and I don’t want to see anyone give up because of a few less than ideal choices. It’s OK. Really. The human body has amazing healing properties, and is always working to bring us into balance.

You Do Not Have to Be Perfect

I think this article is important because, I’ve been there. When I first learned about eating whole foods, avoiding industrial food, and figuring out how to obtain local, pasture-raised meat and dairy, I admit it, I felt overwhelmed, and I was already a Health Nut. Unfortunately, I was a very confused Health Nut, trying to follow the “healthy” (not!) suggestions of low-fat and sugar-free, and consuming junk, such as, vegetarian “meat” (made from GMO soy), and hydrogenated margarine instead of wholesome butter from grass-fed cows.

There was a ton of new information to absorb, and I felt like I had to do it perfectly. Maybe it’s just me, but I was really freaking out, particularly when it came to feeding my three young children (ages 2, 4 & 6 at the time). I felt like I couldn’t go to restaurants anymore, and going to parties where I had no control over the quality of the food was also a problem. In addition, sometimes my kids did not want to eat the ultimate healthiest recipes. Here’s what I learned…

It’s Not Healthy If My Kids Won’t Eat It!

Luckily, at the time, I came across a wonderful article about the 80/20 rule as it applies to eating. This wonderful piece completely saved my sanity. I came across it by accident, and, sadly, I can’t find it anymore. The basic principle goes like this, I am only allowed to completely obsess about food 80% of the time, and the other 20% of the time, I just let it go.

What does this look like in the real world? I tried making the Nourishing Traditions 100% whole wheat pancakes for my family and they were pretty pathetic. When I make them with 1/2 soaked whole wheat, and 1/2 unbleached white flour, they come out fluffy and delicious (pancake recipe). Besides the unbleached white flour, the rest of the pancake ingredients are wonderfully nutritious whole foods, so I am OK with the white flour.

Another example of this involves going to Grammy’s. My children eat approximately 35 times per week. If I am doing my best to provide them with the healthiest options possible the majority of the time, when Grammy wants to give them multi-colored sprinkles on top of their ice cream, I am not going to freak out about it.

Quickly Improve the Quality of Your Food

Now that you have some tips about how to avoid getting overwhelmed, let’s turn our attention to easy ways to jump start you on the road to healthier eating. These suggestions originated from the Fateful Fork.

1. Choose Five Foods That You Eat Very Regularly – and make sure these are the highest quality, whole foods available. For example, what are the things you consume everyday? Black tea? Choose organic and fair trade. Eggs? Try to find a local farmer, or buy organic and free-range.

2. Your Five Worst Offenders – What’s your junkiest food? Use the list of Worst Industrial Food Ingredients to help you identify the yucky stuff in your diet. Step by step, after 5 years of following a traditional diet, I have eliminated most of the garbage from my diet. Where do I still have room for improvement? The highly-processed vegetable oils hidden in my chips.

Alright now, you’ve got your homework to do. Go find the 10 foods that you will use to start transforming your life.

In the next article in the series, we will look at Planning for Success.