Health

The start of my Journey to a healthy life diet

My journey started with a 10-day challenge to eat vegan whole foods. I decided to accept this challenge and cut out all animal products, stop eating over processed foods, eliminate as many toxins as possible and eat as much fresh products as possible. To be honest the first 3 days where horrible, my stomach was clearly not happy with my decision to start eating “healthier”. The rest of my body did not seem to mind my recent change. Even stopping with consuming caffeine went without any real trouble.

The experience of 10 days.

The most interesting thing was what happened after 3 days, I noticed my body got used to my new diet and day by day I noticed that I got more energy, more focus and clarity. I actually extended the 10-day challenge and kept going for almost 2 months. In the 2 months I noticed I had less cravings, I felt more satisfied with less food and lost weight and fat percentage without it feeling like I was on a diet.

Finding a new “normal”.

After 2 months I decided that I would reduce the consumption of animal products and refined products and my girlfriend and I decided that 80 to 90 percent of our food should be healthy whole foods that are plant based.

Meaning we sometimes do eat meat or fish, trying to limit it to once a week sometimes less, we do eat eggs, cheese etc. occasionally instead of daily and eat more plant-based products like nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. I gained a habit which I am quite happy with that I eat some vegetables with my lunch.

5 Tips to start eating healthier

So who doesn’t want to have more focus, a clearer mind and more energy. I knew what was healthy for me, but somehow unhealthy habits seemed to always sneak back into my life. Not because I didn’t want to, but the temptation always seems right around the corner. Therefore, I think implementing these 5 things will help you start you journey and keep you on track.

Start eating healthier with the whole family.

This seems obvious but doing it with the whole household where everyone is committed and willing to start working on a healthier diet it is much easier to keep it up. I remember a time where my girlfriend thought I am going to do a detox and only drink juices, she managed to do it one day. The reason was simple a friend and I made this really nice juice hamburgers and she just saw us and felt hungry. You can imagine that she did not feel supported by me and could not refuse the temptation.

Only start when you are ready.

We both decided we wanted to start the 10-day challenge; the only thing was that I just did the groceries for the whole week. Our fridge was full of stuff we regularly used, and it was against our principles to waste food. So, we decide only to start when we gave away some foods, eaten other foods and had our fridge stuffed with vegetables. We where really ready to start and I think just by preparing ourselves mentally and taking time to make sure that the products that tempt us weren’t available to us, we where able to kick-start our 10-day challenge and kept it going for more than 2 months.

Start with small steps and keep it easy!

I am a habit kind of guy; on most mornings I made the same breakfast without thinking much about it. I thought it was healthy, it consisted of yogurt which I added some cereals to. Now a days I have a few easy recipes that I used when preparing my breakfast, which some of them I prepare the day before or are so quick to prepare in the morning that I have all the time to spend with my family, before we all have to go our own ways. My advice start with small changes, replace white bread with whole grain bread or what I did with whole grain tortilla wraps. Add seeds and nuts to your breakfast and lunch.

Vegetables with all meals

I never imagined I would say or type these words, but its maybe the easiest way to start eating healthier. Vegetables make you feel more satisfied for longer, which make you crave less unhealthy foods. Just try to eat 2 bananas most of us won’t be able to eat them both, but when I give you a family size bag of chips, most of us will be able to empty it out or at least eat most of it. One of the reasons I replaced bread with tortilla wraps is to add vegetables easier to my diet. It is easier to eat a tortilla wrap stuffed with carrots, spinach, tomatoes and olives then its on a slice of bread. To add more vegetables to my breakfast I like to blend things, for example blend a banana with spinach and some plant-based milk or water. It is the easiest way to get to that 60% of what I eat is vegetables a day, because if I only would eat them with diner my plate would probably have to be vegetables only.

Plan your week menus

As I said before I am a habits kind of guy, so if I am in the supermarket, I do not prepare I know what I like and get what I need for the week. But if I want to change my eating habits, I need to know what to get because otherwise I end-up buying things which might not fit my preferred diet. Or I end up with nothing to put on my sandwich. So get some inspiration form magazines or online recipes and get the products you need to make them.

Do not become “only no in January kind of person”

With these 5 tips I hope you are able to kick-start you healthier lifestyle. You might just like me and my girlfriend like to start by trying it for 10 days and then decide what would make it stick for you. Personally, I do not believe in crash diets, where you go super healthy or reduce your calorie intake for a short while. I believe in change the habit, reducing the urge to eat sugary refined foods, making it fun and taste full. I like to do things that I can keep-up for extended periods of time and yes there should be space for a nice ice-cream on a hot summer day without any shame.  I do not get people that go crazy in December, then to say in January no I do not eat this because I am watching my weight now. Those persons tend to be the first in line for cake when someone is celebrating their birthday in February in the office.