Greetings from Me and My House,
Welcome to 2007! Did you set a goal of eating more healthily this year? For the next 7 weeks I will (Lord willing) give you 7 steps to take on this journey to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating.
How many times have you set this goal before, only to fall down and give up? Good for You-Naturally! is a Lifestyle of Eating not a diet. It is not something you “go on” for a while, then go back to your “normal” ways of eating. You never stay healthy or keep the weight off when you yo-yo back and forth between ways of eating. Aren’t you sick and tired of being sick and tired – and overweight?
Good for You-Naturally! is a lifestyle change that will take time to become habit. It is about developing good habits of making the best choice available at the time. This is not the Garden of Eden, and we don’t always have the perfect, purest choice available at all times. But here in America, we most always have some choice. Make the best available choice. And when you don’t, then next time do. Work at it. Make it a habit.
Going “cold turkey” really produces the best benefits. You really notice that the change was worth it, right away. But for those of you that want to slowly wean off your old ways, I present these 7 weekly steps.
WEEK 1
This week your goal is to add more living food to your way of eating. Begin by adding a big fresh vegetable salad to your lunch and or supper every day. Eat it before the rest of your meal (or you’ll be tempted to not finish it.)
Your best choices will be to use a dark green lettuce as your base, such as Romaine (not iceberg) and add a good variety of other vegetables to it, especially much cruciferous ones such as, broccoli and cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, green pepper, etc. Get as many of the vegetables as possible organic. Romaine lettuce and carrots are both pretty readily available and not overly expensive. Vary your ingredients each day/meal.
For those of you wanting to go all the way, including vegetables with the highest nutritional benefits, you will want to include at least 1 cup of raw power vegetables each day, particularly cruciferous vegetables, those known to have anti-cancer and other health benefits. These are Arugula, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Watercress, Bok Choy, Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens, and Collard Greens, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Rutabaga, Napa or Chinese Cabbage, Daikon, Horseradish, Radishes, Turnips, Kohlrabi, and Kale. Some of these I’ve not ever seen or tried, (and I don’t even know if all of them are eaten raw) but there is enough variety there for everyone to include raw cruciferous vegetables daily. (I found out over 25 years ago that turnips and kohlrabi are delicious raw. I’d never heard of turnips eaten uncooked before that, and had never even tasted kohlrabi.) If you don’t include a cup everyday, try to get at least 3 cups a week, either 1 cup every other day, or 1/2 cup per day.
In addition to cruciferous vegetables, dark green and bright orange ones generally have the most nutritional value. Avocados, though really a fruit, are excellent nutritionally also.
Is this already a part of your way of eating? You can begin adding Sprouts to your salads at each meal. Growing them is cheap and easy. Get our Gardening for Wimps guide for all the help you’ll need to get started.
Would you like to know more about transitioning to Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! and our 7 steps for getting there? Enroll in our full Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! course and community. Check it out at our Online Courses. We also offer a 2 week, FREE Preview course that is available anytime. Also click on over to read our Good for You-Naturally!™ section of our website.
For Me & My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa
Okay, I’m gonna try a salad for lunch today…I have some dark, leafy lettuce..but I think that’s it…oh, maybe some celery…I could stop at the grocery store on the way home from bringing a kidlet to an appointment…a tomato?