Delicious steak with vegetable garnish. Chicken legs with.. vegetable garnish. And so on. Every single day. Or else?
There are still people, who connect healthy eating with the definitions “boring”, “nagging”, “painful”, “dull”. Yet, in order to turn a meal into a healthy bomb, it must be various. Many people get trapped into the one-type diets, the habit and the routine.
If you already eat broccoli, oven-roasted chicken breasts, a piece of grapefruit and nothing else, having a one-type menu every day, and you think you are living healthy, think again. This regime will only create reasons for unwanted reactions in your body. I’ll speak about cooking at home, experimenting with new tastes and keeping your stove cleaned at all times (very important for a healthy meal routine). Let’s first clarify a few things, so that there won’t be any confusions.
The Oven Chamber Owns The Cooktops
For everyone, who decided to change their bad eating habits, but don’t know where to start.
For everyone, who already keep a seemingly healthy eating regime, but it seems nagging and boring.
For everyone, who think that eating healthy means consuming only chicken, broccoli, rice and grapefruit.
For everyone, who fears experimenting with foods.
Are you up for a change? Or you are in the process?
Congrats. That’s an important and hard step. You’ve replaced the French fries with clean oven-baked, and, instead of breaded chicken drumsticks you eat barbecued chicken fillet?
You regularly turn on your shiny cooker to steam some broccoli, whereas the grapefruit is your best friend.
You put an end to soft drinks, full of sugar. Hello, tea and water. And so on… every day.
Let’s clear something out: those foods are simply amazing and they are truly considered healthy.
But eating like that every single day and cooking in a dirty oven – that’s far than healthy now, isn’t it?
What’s the meaning of all this?
The purpose is really simple: We want to provoke you thinking about all that. If you need an advice from a qualified persona, a doctor or a dietitian, by all means, pay them the necessary attention. Don’t expect to read in this article that you should eat in a certain way, or use your oven right, in order to achieve some given results”, or even “There’s only one single truth”.
There is no final answer, because the truth is not just a single one. Instead, let’s see what happens in the mind of a professional athlete, who constantly keeps food regimes and is refuses to give them up.
Some people could go far away from being healthy in order to achieve their aims. Don’t take my words for granted, but think about them.
The Trap Of The Healthy Food Regimes
Most of the people, who decide to do something beneficial for themselves and build healthy eating habits get into a trap. The healthy foods are not to blame – more like the understanding for them.
People decide that it is enough to exchange some given unhealthy foods that they eat every day with a new set, but healthy.
That’s great, but you need something more.
Healthy, but repetitive and unvaried – that’s not really beneficial.
The daily grind in eating can lead to:
Getting bored from keeping a healthy regime and gradually coming back to oven-fried foods. Eating one and the same meals every day can drive you nuts and affects badly your psychics.
The shortage of nutrients and the body deprivation of a wide spectre of micro-nutrients. Every kind of food has different ingredients – in some there are vitamins and minerals which you cannot find in others.
Food allergies. There are specific antibodies on the stomach’s mucosa, that have the important role of recognising and catching the external agents, before they enter the blood circulation. The monotonous eating breaks down the natural mechanism of recognition. Therefore, there are flaws in the work of those antibodies. They begin reacting with food in such a way, that they will react with an external agent. Meaning – they won’t process what’s beneficial for you.
Aim achievement lag. That could be a result from the boredom and the negative emotions, painfully connected with the familiar unanimous menu or because of the food allergies.
Why Do One Gets Into This Trap?
Probably there are many possible answers, but I will give just one – the cause for me to get into this trap a year ago.
I learnt what quantity of calories I should intake and what’s the proper amount of macro-nutrient in order to achieve my personal goals. I calculated them according to a few food sources and began eating only them.
It feels great at the beginning, because you know how many proteins there are in 200 gr of your oven-roasted chicken breasts and how many fats there are in 5 eggs. I began achieving my aims, but simultaneously I was afraid of other kinds of food, because, though healthy, I feared they can hinder my regime.
Honestly, what if I was too bored eating eggs, chicken, rice and salad – every day? I was getting there anyway.
This kept going for a while. Then again the things took the wrong turn and I reached a standstill.
I looked for the reason everywhere, but not with the foods I ate every single day during a few months.
Diverse Eating
That’s how I reached to diverse eating. I began to think more and question everything. Even what the specialists claimed that’s working.
I asked questions, I found answers. The pieces of the puzzle were falling into their places.
I realised the healthy eating is not the monotonous one with healthy foods, but it’s diverse one with healthy foods.
What’s more, we can reach our aims with more than a short set of meals, as long as we get into the appropriate caloric intake and macro-nutrient proportion.
I want to stress on the fact that “diverse eating with healthy foods” does not mean “Monday – pork chops with roasted cabbage”, “Tuesday – pork ribs with cabbage salad”, “Wednesday – pork liver with steamed cabbage”. It’s not the way you cook it, it’s what you actually eat.
The idea is to have a few sources of the main macro-nutrients and change them every day.
Have a bite of cauliflower, eggs and oatmeal today, whereas tomorrow relish on turkey, Brussels sprout, avocado and rice. Cook delicious fish on your BBQ on the third day, and so on.
Your Kitchen Is Your Temple
Having a healthy meal is quite hard if you decide to shop for ready-made meals. Cook them at home but keep your food preparation area as clean as possible. Speaking from experience, you don’t want to cook in a dirty oven. First, you won’t see anything through a smeared window with burnt-on splatters. Second, your meals won’t taste good, according to professional Slough oven cleaning technicians. Third, you will slowly get back to your bad habits, because a dirty appliance won’t allow for diverse and frequent cooking.
All those are just examples, that will show easily my idea. I want to apologise to all vegans and vegetarians, that I constantly speak for meat and fish as a protein source, but I speak from personal experience and I am a meat lover.
You can replace chicken with a vegan source of proteins, which you can eat daily. Just be careful to not get swayed into chemical sources of protein and coagulated plants.
The Benefits of Diverse Eating
Diverse eating with healthy food sources can lead to the following pluses:
- Providing a wide number of micro and macro-elements for the body;
- Lowering the risk of creating deficits;
- Lowering the risk of food allergies;
- Possibility to combine different foods and spices, so that you don’t get the feeling you are keeping a regime. The main idea, in fact. Accept your diet as something, with which in the long term you will achieve your goals and simultaneously, you will be healthy;
- Finding new tastes and combinations, which will give you pleasure from eating;
- Desire to experiment in the kitchen;
How To Start?
If you think you got into the trap of monotonous eating and you see the negatives, initiate the change.
If your condition is specific or you cannot do it yourself, consult with a specialist.
Begin to introduce new healthy foods in your menu and experiment with new tastes, which you were afraid of a long time.
Make a list of all kinds of healthy sources of: proteins, fats, carbs, fibres (don’t forget water, too).
Strive each day to have a different source for every group of the above. Make sure they are in the quantities you find appropriate for your daily routine.
Don’t run into extremes – there’s nothing fatal in that you ate pork three times this week, whereas your veggies consisted of carrots and cauliflower only. Next week you try and diverse your menu with another protein source and experiment with more vegetables.
Remember that healthy eating can be delicious and should bring you pleasure, if it is diverse and consistent with your individual needs.
Tags: eating regimes, healthy eating