Easy Yet Mindful Ways You Can Start Eating Healthier

2018/04/17

Do you want to live healthier and become more fit, yet don’t know how to start? Exercise is one thing, but there’s something you don’t even need to add to your daily routine: eating.

Eating healthy is not something you just do to lose weight in time for a summer beach trip. Mindful, healthy eating should be a way of life—a way to look and feel great every day of your life. It’s a matter of shifting from mindless to mindful eating of the right kind of food.

Mindful eating is all about knowing your body and how it reacts to food, according to personal growth and integrative health consultant Lia Sevilla-Bernardo. She says unhealthy food currently makes up 50-70% of the average person’s diet, but with proper discipline and intake, we would never have to go on fad diets again—even during summer. You don’t have to stop eating—and deprive yourself—just to be healthy. You just need to find a balance.

Sevilla-Bernardo also recommends incorporating local super food into your diet so eating healthy doesn’t have to be challenging, expensive, or even time-consuming. Here are her other mindful eating tips and trivia to jumpstart your healthy lifestyle:

1. You are what you eat. Everything is energy, and like all the choices you make, what you choose to eat reflects how you feel and react. Food has energy, naturally: Organic food has stronger energy compared to fertilized food and most especially to cooked food, which has less. Get your nutrition from REAL food. Note that even multivitamins are processed.

2. Nurture the body with food that heals, makes you happy, and makes the mind more active and productive. In choosing wisely what to eat, here’s a color guide to the benefits of fruits and vegetables, depending on their natural color:



- Purple is for longevity.

- Red has heart health, blood flow, and muscular benefits.

- Green nourishes the heart (i.e. cilantro is cooling and makes you feel happy).

- Yellow is for your liver, kidneys, and the solar plexus.

- Orange is for cancer prevention.

- White is for immune support.

3. Put cucumber or lemon in your water to instantly turn it into alkaline water that you can drink all day.



4. Stay away from salty food (like chips) and sugar (especially processed sugar), as these are the most toxic things you can put in your body. They are designed in laboratories specifically to make you crave them—just imagine the chemicals in there.

5. Don’t cave to stress eating. Remember that when you eat emotionally, it suggests a lack of self-love, which is never good. When you make a conscious effort to eat healthily, you prevent bloating, fatigue, and a general sour mood. When your appetite feels like it’s going through the roof and your metabolism rates aren’t optimal, head to the kitchen to make your own healthy dishes.

6. Start preparing your own healthy dishes at home, if you don’t yet. Here are some wholesome, no-cook recipes, ready for serving in minutes, and are also supposed to help fight bloating, according to holistic health coach Camille Romero. These recipes for a smoothie, red pesto, and salad dressing will add more nutrition to your diet without packing on the calories.



Berry Smoothie
160 calories per serving

Ingredients (with benefits):

3/4 cup cranberry juice (helps flush out toxins)
3/4 cup frozen mixed berries (good source of fiber and antioxidants, which are anti-aging)
1 6oz. container Greek yogurt (probiotic or good bacteria, which helps balance pH levels to fight off infections better)
1/2 banana, cut into slices (good source of fiber and potassium)
2 tablespoons raw unfiltered honey (optional, but it’s anti-allergies)
1/2 cup muesli (good source of fiber and protein)

Tip: Freeze fruits before using them in smoothie so you don’t need to add ice, which tends to water down the taste.

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients (except for the muesli) in a blender.

2. Blend for 10-15 seconds on high speed or until smooth.

3. Pour into a large glass (or bowl).

4. Top with muesli.



Red Pesto
54 calories per serving

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried tomato
5T nuts (macadamia, cashew, or pine)
4T pure olive oil (increase according to preference)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1T tomato paste
3/4 cup basil
Pinch of salt
Dash of pepper

Instructions:

1. Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor.

2. Blend for 20 seconds or until desired consistency is reached.

3. Serve with bread or crackers, on omelette, or use as pasta sauce, pizza sauce, chicken/tuna breast sauce, etc.

Supreme Salad Dressing
163 calories per serving

Ingredients:

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2t dijon mustard
1T garlic, minced
1t sea salt (or season to taste)
1/2t pepper (or as needed)
1T honey (optional)

Instruction:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until combined, or whisk vigorously. Pour over your salad.