What are healthy ways to cook and meal prep?
Truly healthy meals consist of whole (unprocessed) foods. The nutrients found in whole foods provide your body with all that it needs to maintain healthy body function and repair itself from illness and injury. How you prepare these foods also has an impact on your body’s response. For example, deep frying vegetables in processed hydrogenated oil is not going to produce a healthy meal.
Start simple: Cook basic meals made from healthy ingredients. Plan your meals around healthy options that are going to realistically fit into your lifestyle and allow you to consistently make good choices. There are many ways to modify recipes to remove bad ingredients and leave in nutrients, while maintaining the same good taste.
Change your mindset: Healthy eating is not about going on a short term diet to drop a few pounds. The idea is to change your relationship with food and how you eat.
Plan ahead: Set yourself up to succeed from the beginning to make healthy choices and not fall into a situation where you are choosing from only bad foods. Make sure you have meals planned out that include healthy options. Start bringing your lunch to work, cook dinner at home. Choose healthy options when you are eating out. Bring your own dressing for salads Formulating a plan ahead of time will help you avoid bad decisions when you are hungry.
What are some healthy ways to modify recipes?
Choose olive oil for cold cooking and coconut oil for hot cooking. Avoid seed oils such as corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and others.
Use almond flour in place of wheat based flour. Cauliflower can be cooked and mashed or riced for a potato substitute. Sweet potatoes are healthier than white potatoes. Spaghetti squash is a good substitute for pasta.
What if I don’t have time, resources, or willingness to cook?
Start simple with the resources you have. It may not lead to the most extravagant meals in the beginning, but the health benefits are worth it. Substitute frozen vegetables for canned foods. Empty your pantry and fill your refrigerator and freezer.
Consider meal delivery options, but be careful to do your research.
For those who are experienced in the kitchen, finding healthy recipes and modifying current ones will allow you to cook amazing meals that keep you healthy.
What are some good resources for finding healthy meal options?
This is not an exhaustive list, but includes resources that we have found helpful in discovering healthy recipes:
Recipes:
For Beginners:
For Diabetics:
Other Recipes:
Other Helpful Resources: