Who’s reading this and thinks ‘eating healthy is bland and boring’?
When it comes to nutrition and food choices there are a few basic things we can do to make things more exciting such as flavouring food with herbs and spices. But one thing that’s very important and can be a simple thing to implement, is nutritional variety.
It is very important for a few reasons to have good nutritional variety within your diet. The more variety the bigger the benefit when it comes to nutrient intake but also meals and eating becomes less mundane. It may require thinking outside the box when it comes to food choices or simply getting your hands on a good cookbook. For anyone who says ‘eating healthy is bland and boring’, it’s probably not the eating healthy part but what you’re doing with your food that’s the barrier. Be adventurous and play around with foods and flavours. Don’t limit yourself to the same foods day in day out. One, you’re depriving yourself of plenty of different nutrients but secondly you’re making things that much harder for yourself. There is no need to restrict yourself to just a few foods throughout the week. By this I mean Yoghurt & berries for breakfast, Chicken salad for lunch, Chicken and veg for tea, repeat. There is a whole heap you’re missing out on that, in my opinion, would make you a lot happier when it comes to food.
To make a start on increasing nutritional variety here is what I recommend:
1. Use your imagination. Not so good with food and cooking? No worries get a good cookbook.
2. Give yourself some planning and preparation time. Think about your food and map out your meals.
3. Invest in an array of herbs and spices to liven things up. There is no excuse or reason for food being bland. Good healthy food can taste great and it doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult.
4. Cook in different ways. Get the slow cooker out, cook on a griddle or in a wok for example. Different meals different ways.
5. Embrace the changes and enjoy your food! Instead of thinking yourself in to disliking healthy food remove those barriers and get stuck in.
If you have any questions regarding this blog please feel free to email me at james@optimum3.co.uk
Eat Well!
James