My Stance on Eating Whole

I just wanted to take time to post about my general thoughts on eating. I don’t really believe in any “one diet fits all” mentality. Everyone needs to create healthy habits and an eating style that works for them. This “style” or “diet” should be kind to your tummy and fuel you for your everyday tasks.

I personally just strive to eat a clean, well-balanced, organic diet. I don’t believe in antibiotics, genetically modified foods, or pesticides – and I have my reasons. We won’t delve into that reasoning in this post, but, I simply feel better eating this way and that’s the only justification I need. Hopefully this post can help you feel the same way.

How Can You Eat Whole?

How do you stay dedicated to a minimally processed, “slow food” diet? It’s really helpful to start by planning out your weekly meals. This helps you evaluate the expense of your ingredients and match your recipes to your time constraints and budget. Additionally, the more planning you do before heading to the store actually helps you waste less of what you buy. You take a weekly shopping trip to match your needs and stick to the plan until the next week rolls around.

Some other helpful tricks to help balance healthy eating with a modern lifestyle include cooking in big batches, stocking up on grab and go fruits and veggies and making your own overnight breakfasts or breakfast meal bars.

If you cook bigger crockpot meals and freeze them you can even keep the same meal plan for a few weeks – simply rotate out what you are eating each day. If you really want to help stretch the quantity of meat you purchase and add heart healthy fiber to your diet, beans can be added to almost any crockpot meat dish. The beans won’t only save you money and time in future weeks but also help fill you faster than the meat alone! Be aware though that most beans from cans are exposed to BPA or an alternative and dry beans must be soaked and cooked properly to actually be beneficial nutritionally.

Apples, bananas, carrots and celery are all great grab and go fruits and veggies. You can pair them with nuts, nut butter, hummus, or ranch dressing. Snack time is easy when your fruits and veggies are already in convenience form. One of my personal favorite store-bought grab and go foods are Perfect Bars, which are a mixture of nut butter, honey and whole dried fruit and veggie powder. Variety and simplicity are crucial to today’s fast paced lifestyle.

Now breakfast: the easiest ways to fuel your morning may be overnight oats, smoothies and homemade breakfast meal bars. You can make a weekly batch of overnight oats each Sunday to save time weekday mornings. Or grab a homemade breakfast bar to take with you in the car or train ride to work. The more organized your diet is – the less you need to worry about wasting food, money, and time. And your body will notice the extra care you’ve put in too.

All this being said – we’re human and we can’t always plan perfectly. You can take your weekend away and get off track, or get caught up in a project and make the occasional burger or pizza run. It’s what you do most of the time that counts – there are always exceptions, and that’s 100% okay.

Is it Enough?

If you feel like your current diet plan is causing you stomach issues you may want to try cutting out all the processed foods. Try simply eating more “whole.” If that still seems to cause you issues, many people are actually sensitive to grain and dairy. BUTI yoga has some diet plans that help you plan for a grain-free, dairy-free lifestyle and books such as Practical Paleo, The Paleo Cure, and It Starts with Food may help you find your own food & digestive journey better than simply guessing for yourself.