healthy eating and lifestyle's blog

whole foods (not the store, actual *whole* *foods*)

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 The donut blog got my brain swirling on a tangent, and rather than blog it in my own blog, I figured I'd share here, in the Healthy Eating blog :D

When I refer to whole foods, I'm talking about the actual foods themselves, not the over priced store that sells organics, lol.

How many of you reading this blog enjoy and invest in good, whole, raw foods? As I have lost a lot of weight and still losing those last few pounds, I have transformed from a processed food eating person to a mostly whole foods eating person.  I have found great pleasure in whipping up dishes made from fresh, natural items you can find at most any garden stand.  I have recently made the switch to fresh herbs and spices as well, most notably, fresh garlic.  Why am I 33 years old and just now discovering the wonderful thing called the fresh garlic clove?  LOL  I've always used the minced stuff in the jar.  The fresh stuff is wonderful, and even sweet.  Who knew?  LOL!

One of the reasons, I think, that America is so grossly overweight is because QUALITY food is expensive.  Heck, ONE red bell pepper costs $3 to $4 depending on the store and the sale.  You can get 3 or 4 cheeseburgers at Micky D's for that, right? So while you will have to shell out three bucks for a little ol' pepper, you can get UNHEALTHY food on the cheap.

This leads to the common misconception that to eat healthy is expensive!  Quite the opposite is true, however.  Why?  Because the less processed the food item, the less you have to eat of it, and the longer you stay full! 

My snacks at work, unlike those around me who munch on big 16oz cups of trailmix (170 calories per three TABLESPOONS, mind you, and these ppl are walking around with 16oz CUPS of it), are fresh, whole veggies.  Each week I buy 4-5 colored bell peppers and a celery bunch.  I slice up the peppers in strips, and chopp the leaves off the celery.  I throw them in ziplock bags in the crisper drawer, and each morning, I grab a handfull of pepper strips and a couple celery stalks.

I'm NEVER hungry.  A typical day for me goes a little something like this:

Breakfast:  1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt (with fresh squeezed lemon juice or something along those lines mixed in for flavor)

Snack:  2 celery boats with organic Almond butter

Lunch: leftovers from the night before.  Today, it is 1.5 cups of home made chili, that took all of 15 minutes to make last night.

Afternoon snack: Pepper strips and a couple oz of raw nuts (almonds, walnuts, what have you, but not the salted kind), or perhaps a string cheese if I don't have or want nuts that day.

Dinner: varies.  last night it was chili, the night before it was med-rare london broil and asparagus.  The night before that, it was Mexican Chicken Soup.

Evening snack: I *rarely* need one, because I'm full ALL DAY!

I truly love eating this way.  I've noticed an increase in energy, an improvement in my skin and hair, and like I said, I'm full...all the time.  I munch all day long on fresh whole foods and the fiber in the veggies and the protein in the meat/nuts/cheese keep me feeling full and satisfied.

What's even better is, as I have transitioned to this way of eating, I have noticed my grocery bill has leveled out, and no longer is more expensive than when I was buying processed crap.  It took a while to get the hang of it, took a while to stop over buying, to stop buying healthy stuff in addition to garbage, but after about a month, I found my grocery bills are the same or less than they were before.

So what do you say?  Who would like to kick the processed food addiction and hop on the whole food bandwagon?  There are so many other reasons to enjoy unprocessed foods that I haven't even touched on (because I tend to be a motor mouth, as you can see, LOL).  If you are curious or have questions, feel free to ask!

Filed under: Lifestyle