Easy Healthy Beautiful Food Choices

Photo from Food Inc

How often have you vowed to eat healthier? 

How often have you rewarded or punished yourself with food?

I think most of us have the self-awareness to realize we do this and we want to make changes. We want to eat better. But where do we start?

I actually think that the first place to start is to change how we think about food and its purpose in our lives. The connection of food to self- image has somehow turned us on ourselves and created this inner battle. 

Have you seen the video that's gone viral about beauty? It's pretty amazing and got me thinking about how often we criticize ourselves and then punish ourselves with food or by withholding food. And how often others connect our beauty to the food we eat.

In talking to my toddlers about food, I often use science to make food fun. We talk about the vitamins and elements in food and what that does in our bodies. We talk about where the food comes from and how it was produced. We talk about what we love about food and love about cooking and baking. I believe these kinds of discussions create a foundation for a healthy relationship to food. We are treating it with reverence and respect but we are also building the connection about the science of food and our bodies. We don't talk about dieting, carbs, reducing anything. When there is something that we want them to learn to enjoy in moderation, we say just that. "Too much of anything will make you sick."

Photo from Martha Stewart Living

When we order the non-fat latte or feel guilty for enjoying the cinnamon bun, some of us are making the direct connection of the food we eat and our self-image. But do we need to? Could we enjoy food on an emotional level that is nurturing, comforting, uplifting, refreshing, and satisfying? Is it possible to love eating food, love how we look, and let go of any guilt or shame we feel when we indulge in potato chips or chocolate cake? 

I believe its possible. And I am declaring that this is my mission this year. As I embark on my year of turning 40, I have set fitness goals for myself. But I think that I need to take one step back and start with how I think about food and my body. I will start today with one easy choice: I love my morning coffee. I know that coffee has health benefits. But I put sugar in my coffee. So every time I put it in I feel a twinge of "I would be a better, thinner person if I didn't put sugar in my coffee every morning." But would I enjoy my coffee? No. So let it go, Kimberley. Is this how I want to start my day? Feeling guilty about my favorite beverage? I don't think so. 

Photo by Kimberley's Kitchen

As I start to discover other easy healthy choices that we can make to improve our relationship with food and ourselves I will share them here. And I know that you have lots of ideas too so please share in the comments for others to see.

I think that as individuals, when we are kind to ourselves, we make the biggest difference in the world. Let's enjoy our food and believe we are beautiful. Because we are all beautiful. 

~Kimberley

Simple Whole Food

Simple Whole Food. Is there anything faster or easier? In a time when two or three of the generations think that convenience and fast food is cheaper and easier than cooking real food, it's not a simple question. 

Growing Up
I grew up with parents that cooked whole, real food. I grew up shopping at the markets, catching fish, picking vegetables from the garden, picking berries at the farm. I learned about whole food and cooking because it is all I lived. But as I got older, I discovered that not everyone grew up that way. Now as a parent, and seeing what is in the lunch bags at schools, not much has changed. Or it has and it has become much worse. 

Real Snacks
At the grocery checkout the other day, as the cashier scanned my canteloupe, she said, "now this will be about 6 dollars. Are you sure you want it?" I appreciated her concern because sometimes produce can be more expensive than you expect it and she probably had several canteloupes turned back that day. I said to her that I don't cut corners on fruits and vegetables that my children enjoy. She smiled. I told her that in fact, $6 was a good deal for how many snacks I would get out of that one melon. Probably about 12 snack servings. So, at 50 cents each, I think its a great deal. 

The next day I saw a lunch bag of one of the other children at the daycare. It had a package of "fruit" snacks, which is really candy. You know the ones. This is not food. It is candy. Out of curiosity, when I was back at the grocery store I checked the price on a box of those "snacks". Four freakin' ninety-nine. Even, let's say, it was on sale for $3.99, that is very expensive for what I think is 8 packages of candy. Candy would be cheaper! And no, just because it is made with some fruit juice does not make it fruit or healthy. 

The Naked Chef
This is but one example. Of course. And there are so many more. When Jamie Oliver started the Naked Chef years ago, the first episode I watched was him making pasta in the time it took to make a box of mac and cheese. It was such a great example of how it was cheaper and faster to make real pasta. I still remember this because I often make a meal in the time it takes to boil pasta or quinoa or couscous. 

The Perfect Egg
So, how do we continue to move forward toward more of us eating simple whole food? I propose we start with the egg. I apologize if you are vegetarian (although I doubt too many read my blog since I talk about bacon so much). There is nothing more beautiful or perfect than an egg. A real egg. From a chicken that was raised humanely, kindly, nurtured to bring us this amazing food. The egg is perfect, it is protein, it is versatile, it is easy. And it is cheap. 

The cost of the dozen organic, local eggs pictured above that I buy at a small, local butcher? I pay $4 a dozen. That is less than 35 cents an egg. Now, there are cheaper eggs. But they come filled with crap, from abused, mutilated chickens, with an enormous carbon footprint. But these eggs are less than 35 cents each. So for a serving of 2, 68 cents gets me a meal. How quickly do eggs cook? 5 minutes for soft boil, poached or fried. Pretty fast. Can you think of anything better? ( I can. Having my own chickens. Which I will do one day!)

So why not start with simple changes to real food. Buy the better eggs. Make that one change to your shopping and the small extra cost will be worth it. And then next month, make another small simple change. And slowly, in a year, you will be buying and eating more whole real food. Isn't that easy?

~Kimberley