10 Tips to Healthy Eating

Here's my top 10 tips for healthy eating. This isn't everything I have to say on the subject. But it will give you a good bedrock foundation to work from. Plus it keeps things simplified.

Readers often ask me to give them the 'cliff notes' version on how to eat healthier.

First, there's a lot to tell you and a lot of 'unlearning' that needs to take place.

But, if you put me in an arm-bar and forced me to give you 10 tips to healthy eating, these would be it:

(1) How bad do you want this?

I'm not trying to sound like a motivational speaker. But sometimes the truth is the truth.

Good intentions are great. But they can only take you so far. Sooner or later you have to have something driving you that is deeper seated than that or you'll get one to two weeks into this and give up because it's too hard.

I know because I've seen it in others and in myself.

It's not easy getting up an hour early every day to write articles for this website. But I do it because this is one of those areas where I feel like I can really bring value into somebody's life. And that's what keeps me going.

So, what's driving you?

(2) 30 Days

Follow the tips below for 30 days. No more, no less.

Why 30 days? Actually, there is pretty solid evidence that if you can commit to something for 21 days it can become a habit. Based on my experience, I think that's a pretty fair estimate. So, why 30 days?

Call it a little extra insurance. Frankly, if you can make it to 30 days then you'll likely continue beyond that. Additionally, you'll feel so good by that point you won't want to go back to your old way of eating.

(3) Action

OK, so you've gone through and got the mental part right. Now, comes the hard part. Putting one foot in front of the other. Don't worry about getting everything right in the first 30 days. I'll put your mind at ease right now by assuring you...you won't.

I screwed up. But, I learned. I read a lot. And I corrected.

The main point of these 10 tips is to get you on the right track with some general guidelines that will keep you on the straight and narrow with out intimidating you with hundreds of rules.

Also, because we kept things simple you'll likely have some early successes, which will keep you motivated.

But, the all important action part is up to you. Commit to taking action right now.

(4) Eat Natural

OK, the head game is in place and you have committed to taking action. So you and I have a deal right?

Good...

Now for your first eating tip: eat natural.

And, while I'll get to it a little later in the list - bread, pasta, pop, apple pie, and granola bars are NOT natural. They're processed foods. My healthy eating plan excludes processed foods.

I'll be posting in the near future some recipes that I've prepared in the past and new ones I'm trying to give you better ideas of what to cook.

But, if all else fails and you don't know what to do follow this one rule. And, if you're not sure if something is natural or not ask yourself this question, "Did man make it?" If you're answer is yes, don't eat it. If it's direct from Mother Nature - you're good to go.

Yes, there are some exceptions to the rule, but remember - we're keeping things simple on purpose.

Also, when I say eat natural that also means it those foods as much as you can in their natural state. The obvious exception is meats: cook 'em. Yes, some people eat raw meat and our bodies are still designed to handle it and it is more nutritious to eat that way. BUT - most peoples meat supply is way to sketchy to trust eating the meat raw. So, if you want my opinion, natural and raw is almost always the better way to go - except when eating meat.

(5) Learn to cook for yourself

My wife is a wonderful cook. But, in the beginning, she wasn't really in tune to the things I was trying to eat.

She enjoyed cooking casseroles and bread and pasta-heavy dishes. It was hard to tell her that I couldn't eat that way. Especially when she was home with two young children and went to the effort of preparing the meals.

So, I eventually had to make the transition to cooking for myself more often.

The nice side effect of cooking more for myself was the fact that Jodi started to see the results I was achieving and decided to try my style of eating for herself.

By the way, she's had phenomenal results and still does the majority of the cooking.

(6) Cook for color and texture (calorically light, nutrient dense)

If there is one thing you'll probably struggle it will be, "what should I cook?"

To answer that, I'm preparing examples of recipes that I personally use. But, when you don't have that option or maybe you don't have the ingredients or foods in the recipes you're going to have to improvise.

Actually, like me learning to cook above, learning to improvise with ingredients has become a fun challenge.

I almost imagine myself as living in the wild and scavenging and collecting what I can to cook.

In fact, we purposely go grocery shopping every two weeks rather than one because it forces us to use everything up. We fast a little more and we become creative.

And, when you're in that situation here is the rule to keep in mind: cook based on color and texture. When you do that you are almost guaranteed to prepare a nutritionally dense, calorie-light meal.

This, of course is just the opposite of popular American meals like Cheeseburger and fries. The only color you'll find in that is shades of brown.

Compare that to a 10 ingredient salad with some canned salmon sprinkled on it.

Not only does the salad take me less time to prepare, but it is packed with nutrients and fiber.

(7) Don't fall for marketing hype

I'm sure you've heard that you and I are bombarded with hundreds, if not thousands of marketing messages each and every day. A lot of those advertisements are focused on food.

That is part of the reason why you may think that a granola bar, breads, 'gainer drinks', cereal and a hundred other things are healthy when they aren't even close to it.

When all else fails and your tempted to stray from the tips in this article think about where the advice is coming from. If it's an advertisement then there's a 99% chance it's not healthy.

(8) Avoid breads for 30 days

"Hi, my name is Curtis. I'm a bread addict..."

Well, not any more. But, out of anything I went through, this was - by far - the toughest. I was raised to eat bread (at least one, often times two pieces) with each meal.

But bread, by my definition, is not healthy. You can't go out into a wheat field and start chomping away. Wheat has to be milled and processed to be considered suitable for consumption. Remember rule #4 above. Breads don't fall under that rule.

"But what about fiber?"

Easy, fruits and vegetables will give you all the fiber you need and then some. It worked for our ancestors. It works for apes in the wild (whose digestive tracts and stomachs are similar to ours). Why not us?

And yes, there are other reasons for not consuming grains and I'll get into those later. But, for now, breads are not natural and that's enough to avoid them.

(9) Avoid pastas for 30 days

See tip #8.

(10) Learn to fast occasionally

While it's contrary to everything you and I have been brought up and programmed to believe, it really is OK to go without food once and while. In fact, it's how our bodies (through evolution) are designed to work.

Not only does it improve your insulin sensitivity. But, if you are eating the right foods to start with, it can literally force your body into using your fat reserves for energy. And yes, that causes you to lose weight and look better.

Remember, I'm not talking extended fasts here.

I actually will skip a supper on a random night and then purposely go to bed hungry (with an increase in natural growth hormone secretion) and then have a late breakfast. Say 9 AM or even a little later. This easily gets me out to a 18 or 20 hour 'partial fast' without going too crazy because I did the majority of it during my sleep.

The benefits have been tremendous.

Bonus Tip:

Don't drink milk for 30 days. Milk is loaded with sugar which makes it hard to lose weight when you are drinking the stuff. Also, don't worry about calcium. You should be getting plenty if you are eating natural.