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How do I get started eating healthy?

It can be overwhelming! Conflicting information is everywhere! There are too many things to change at once! What does healthy even mean anyway? And on it goes.

I want to tell you this basic truth I’ve learned on our healthy eating journey:

There is no one-size-fits-all plan. There is no perfect formula. There is not one right way or wrong way to do this.

What if you just did healthy the way that makes sense for your family right now?

What if?

Even as I look back on our healthy eating journey of the past 10 years, I see changes and shifts and different focus points. What used to work doesn’t work now. Some of what I used to prioritize, I no longer do. What my family needs now that our boys are teens is different than what we needed when they were little.

We keep making changes. We keep making improvements. I relax more instead of feeling like we have to do it all perfectly. I now go by these basic principles:

Food is nourishment. Let’s eat to nourish, not just to fill a hole.

Real food is simple and uncomplicated. Let’s just keep it simple.

Drink plenty of water.

Go easy on the sugar.

Stick with healthy, real fats (coconut oil, butter, olive oil, palm shortening)

Let God be God. Trust Him in this.

To give you a visual on this, here are some pictures sharing sample meals my family eats.

What are some simple changes you’ve made through the years to make a healthy lifestyle easier?

31 Days 300

It’s an exciting time! The holidays are over, and many of us are looking forward to starting fresh and becoming healthier!

Looking forward to chucking all of the processed foods in your house, eating three vegetables with every meal, transforming your refrigerator so that it only contains homemade condiments, keeping up with meal planning consistently, packing healthy lunches every day for your kids, making all of your own baked goods using only whole grains and unprocessed sugars, and never touching store bought candy again for the rest of your life? That’s awesome! These are all wonderful goals. Hoping to do it all by tomorrow? I love your ambition, but chill out with a piece of chocolate. That may not be reality.

As someone who is encouraging you to eat a healthy diet, let me be clear. When I say, “chill out with a piece of chocolate,” I totally mean, “relax while you munch a radish.” Obviously. But my point is that if you try to make too many good changes at once, setting 42 healthy living goals in an effort to completely transform your life overnight, you may become so overwhelmed that within two days you’ll decide that there’s no way you can keep up with this healthy, real food business. At the very least, you’ll likely freak out the people around you, giving them the impression that life as they know it and their loved one’s sanity (that would be yours) just got thrown out with the Fruitie Magrooties.

Let me remind you that every healthy change you make is a wonderful step in the right direction. Usually, taking one step at a time makes the transition from junk food to real food much more doable as opposed to making many drastic changes all at once. People who go from all to nothing (or nothing to all, as the case may be) are much more likely to get frustrated, become overwhelmed, and give up before they even really get started.

You didn’t learn to count, add, subtract, multiply, divide, reduce fractions, and master hyperbolic trigonometry all in the same day did you? Neither will you transform your kitchen and eating habits all in the same day. Or week. Or month.

Take small steps toward switching from processed food to real food. Begin to cut out the bad slowly, while introducing the good at a pace that is doable for you and your family. Why not make a list of healthy habits you’d like to begin, then prioritize them in order of importance to you? Or start with the easiest ones first. Once you get the hang of one, you can tackle another.

Before you know it, you’ll be a whiz at hyperbolic trigonometry. Or rather, you’ll be like me and have no idea what that even is. But by golly, you’ll be drinking plenty of water and eating much less sugar than you used to. And on it goes.

Fruitie Magrooties, it was nice knowing you. Healthy living, here we come!

What is one step you can start taking today that will be doable for you and your family as you work your way toward a healthier lifestyle?

Getting Started on a Healthy Eating Path – Here’s Step-by-Step Help.

How do I get started eating healthy?

What if you just did healthy the way that makes sense for your family right now?

One Step at a Time {31 Days of Real Food Reality ~ Day 2}