Tips on how to maintain a healthy diet and cook from scratch.
1. Plan – Write your menu for the week, batch cook when you have time, e.g. weekend, freeze in portions for busy days, shop once, when you are not hungry and buy only what is on your list. Here is my recipe for Dahl ,a red lentil soup.
2. Small changes - If you eat a lot of processed foods, start small and work your way up, e.g. Begin by changing your breakfast to eggs, then progress to making Dahl for lunches, then onto easy dinners like quick midweek meals, You can gradually make healthy snacks to have at hand, e.g . toasted seedsor energy balls from my website.
3. Get all involved - Talk with the family about likes and dislikes, perhaps get each person to choose a meal they want on a particular day and get them to make it or help, depending on age! Ensure all members of the household are aware of basic nutritional guidelines, e.g. what foods provide protein, vitamins, and carbohydrates, what foods are to be avoided or for occasional consumption. Here is my blog on getting children involved in breakfasts
4. Be snack ready - Have a healthy snack ready, remove sugary snacks from the house, have fruit, plain live yoghurt or nuts or seeds on hand for snacks. Remove processed and high sugar snacks. Perhaps make some healthy snacks to have on hand at your desk or when you come in from work. Here is a recipe for my nut-free energy balls.
5. Protein and portions -Ensure you have protein with every meal and snack, examples of good protein sources are lean meat and fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, milk, cheese, yoghurt. Make sure you serve the correct portion size for you. As a guide, half the plate should be vegetables, one-quarter protein and one-quarter carbohydrate. Here is a recipe for my Turkey burgers I made on Ireland AM
6. Look after your gut - Consumption of fermented foods like kefir, sauerkraut, sourdough and apple cider vinegar provide your body with natures probiotics, fighting off the bad bacteria and providing your body with energy, amongst other benefits. I run a workshopevery six weeks on this.
7. Colours and textures : Eat a rainbow, avoid a plate of beige food, introduce a variety of textures, count nutrients not calories, enjoy food, sit and eat without technology.
