6 Ways to Start Making Healthy Food Choices – Become an Empowered Eater

One Sunday Trip to the Farmer's Market

Do you have the automatic habit of eating whatever is in front of you or eating something just because it sounds or smells good? Do you want to discover how to enhance your wellness, beauty, and confidence by taking charge of your diet? Here’s how to transform your habitual way of eating into a conscious, joyful choice – become an empowered eater!

Keep a Food Journal

I’m often asked for one easy step to move towards healthy eating. That’s easy – I recommend keeping a food journal – recording in a notebook everything you eat or drink, how you felt before eating, how you feel immediately after eating, and how you feel several hours later. This includes everything that enters your body, including supplements, pharmaceuticals, and water. Using a journal will bring eating and drinking from an unconscious behavior to a conscious awareness. Also, you’ll notice that by choosing to feel the effect of each substance that enters your body, you will reconnect with the physical and emotional feedback that your body gives any time you eat or drink. We are one synergistic being, everything we think, feel, eat, or drink affects every part of our being. Our Body, Mind, and Spirit are all affected by the food choices we make. The deeper we go with the awareness of how everything we eat and drink affects our entire being, those around us, and the planet at large, the healthier we will eat. (Ask in the comments if you would like a sample layout for a food journal.)

Ask Yourself: How Close is This Food to Nature?

A relatively new development in the last 100 years has been packaged, pre-processed food. For millions of years before that, our ancestors have successfully eaten food exactly as it came from the earth, with minimal preparation. A simple trick for choosing food in a store or restaurant is to ask yourself, “How close is this food to nature?” Think about what it took for the food to get from a garden or farm to your hands. Choosing food with the fewest steps to reach you and the least processing means that more nutrients and natural components will be part of the meal. When you do eat out or buy packaged food, read labels and be wary of anything that you cannot pronounce, do not recognize, or sounds like it was created in a lab or factory. (We all know what sounds like a chemical, ie “Butylated Hydroxyanisole”.) If you eat out, ask what the ingredients are and where they came from. Tracing food and ingredients back to their natural source is a fun and simple way to reconnect with the life-giving nature of foods fresh from the earth.

Eliminate Processed and Damaging Foods

Now you have started asking “How close is this food to nature?” And surprisingly, you have found that much of the food in grocery stores and restaurants contains processed ingredients. Choose to begin eliminating these foods, and bringing in creative replacements. Many people look for motivation in this stage, and I recommend two methods. First, try “crowding out” the harmful foods by adding in more luscious fruits and vegetables. Second, give yourself a gentle but firm schedule for eliminating harmful foods in stages. For example: “By December 1st I will end my relationship with foods containing refined sugar. By January 15th, I will stop eating processed fats.” Involving friends and family in the process of empowered eating is a fun way to receive support and accountability. (If you need support and accountability on your path, please don’t hesitate to contact me.)

Damaging Foods Categories:

• Refined Sugars
• All Processed Foods, including Processed Starches, Processed Fats, etc.
• Dairy (If you choose to keep dairy in your diet, Raw Dairy is a better option, especially Raw Goat’s Milk products)
• Animal Protein (If you choose to keep animal products in your diet, which I highly recommend against for health and ethical reasons, reduce the frequency you consume meat to 1-3 times per week. Also, try make sure the animal was treated as well as possible and the meat is free from antibiotics, hormones, and was fed the food that it was designed to eat, such as grass, not corn. Buy your meat and dairy from local Organic farmers, if possible.)

Connect With Your Food

Know where your food comes from and how it came to be. Prepare your own food at home as much as you possibly can. Eat Organic, Locally, and Seasonally whenever possible. Support your local Organic Farmers – buy your food at your local Co-op, Farmer’s Market, or even better yet, grow your own food.

Be Prepared

I always plan in advance when I am going to be away from home for several hours and when traveling. I bring snacks like veggies, fruit, nuts, etc. when away from home or traveling. When on a road trip or camping, we bring a cooler full of fresh food and veggie juice I make just beforehand. We also bring Green Food Powder, like Billy’s Infinity Greens, so that when the veggie juice runs out we have an easy dose of energy and nutrients – just add water. When traveling by airplane, we also always bring snacks and meals we have prepared ourselves. The food at airports is terrible! Never get stuck there hungry and unprepared. Also, I find out ahead of time where health food stores and raw and vegan restaurants are at every destination. Always plan to nourish yourself with healthy, fresh food where ever you are! You’ll find yourself more energized, relaxed, and content.

Educate Yourself

Read books and watch films about the food industry and where your food comes from. You’ll be surprised by what you learn. Here are a few to get started:

BOOKS:

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan – The quintessential starting point on the path of food awareness

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell – The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health.

FILMS:

Food, Inc. – A recent documentary exposing the insides of the United States food production system.

Foodmatters – You are what you eat.

Earthlings – Humans and Animals can interact peacefully. (View Free on Google Video)

JOIN ORGANIZATIONS:

I  receive the Organic Consumers Association newsletter for regular up-to-date information on food and the food industry.

Since I became an empowered eater, my life completely changed. I stopped getting sick – ever. I would like everyone to know that getting a cold or the flu does not have to be a normal seasonal routine. I have not had a cold or virus, not even a sniffle, for over six years now and I do not expect to ever have one again. My immune system is so strong because of the healthy way I eat that colds or the flu never have a chance in my body. When I began eating consciously I also lost weight, began looking more vibrant and beautiful, and became more happy, positive, energized, and more able to give and receive love.  You absolutely can have the healthy, happy life that you desire. Conscious, empowered eating is an essential part of creating a healthy, happy life!