wellthybuilder

Today, there always seems to be a new diet or a way to describe how you eat. Whether it’s paleo, keto, vegan, whole30, gluten-free, the list goes on. For some, it’s a lifestyle they’ve chosen to lose weight, fell good or solve health issues. I’ve never HAD to eat one of these ways, which I am thankful for. Currently, I’m never sure how to label how I eat. I don’t feel I fall into any of the basic ‘diet’ categories. My heart isn’t to diet but have a lifestyle of eating what I believe God intended humans to eat: unprocessed, whole, REAL food.

And honestly, I don’t always eat super healthy, because it is hard in this day and age with so many temptations. It’s important to give yourself grace and let yourself cheat a little. Too many rules can feel like a diet. Or sometimes your in a situation like a party or friends house where there aren’t healthy food options. For me, as long as I’m MOSTLY eating good in my everyday life, I’m content.

I like to take this thought a little deeper, though. For example, how did people eat before humans had technology, fast transportation and electricity? Because in the grand scheme, we’ve only had these things for the past 100ish years. But humans have lived thousands of years without it. They didn’t have the luxury of eating whatever food they wanted in any season. People used to have to wait months until a certain food was in season (talk about patience!). They also generally had to eat what could grow locally in their environment. Today, we can go to a grocery store and get all sorts of produce from around the world. Eating meat used to be sort of a luxury, something you ate for a celebration. In this day and age, it’s something every meal is revolved around! These thoughts I have tend to shape how I try to eat: foods in season, local & less meat (more plant based).

It’s also important to know & listen to your body.

My body tends to like less meat, but do well with sprouted grains. Some people are the opposite. It’s important to pay attention to how you feel after you eat certain meals & eat accordingly!

These days it seems like you have to cut out all the good stuff: gluten, diary, and meat. It stems from people not being able to digest it well or experiencing other health issues. But it never used to be like this. People have been eating tons of bread, meat and diary for thousands of years! How come now so many people are having health issues from it? The answer is modern processing techniques & other forms of modification. For example, wheat is generally no longer soaked & sprouted, has been crossbred and manipulated genetically. These processes change the nutrient composition of the plant and is the reason so many people are gluten sensitive.

Today, it’s not the actual food that is the culprit, but how we have manipulated the foods. That is why my heart is to get back to how we were meant to eat certain foods. Ideally, we want to eat whole, fresh, sprouted, unprocessed, in season, local foods. Eating food the way it was meant to has countless benefits for our health!

There is no shame if you do eat gluten or diary free or vegan. I think they all have great benefits. But I think sometimes we can cut things out of our diet not really knowing the real reason or hop on the ban wagon. I think educating yourself in why something is bad for you can be very helpful. Sometimes certain foods don’t need to be completely cut out but just replaced with its original form. I’ll talk more about replacing foods in future blog posts! Stay tuned 🙂

recipes simplified & made wellthy

My parents always made delicious home cooked meals so there was never a need to learn how to cook…until I got married. Looking at recipes we’re daunting to me. There were so many ingredients I would need to buy! It honestly seemed cheaper to just eat out than to buy all the ingredients necessary. PLUS, the time & effort it took to make the meal didn’t seem worth it to me, especially because my husband scarfs it down in a few minutes! After experimenting for a couple of years, I’m happy to say I’ve found some go-to recipes I love! I found myself naturally altering them in two ways: switching out ingredients to make it healthier, and cutting a few corners to make it quicker and easier!

how to make a recipe healthier

I look at every ingredient in the recipe & ask myself if there’s a way to make it healthier. If a recipe calls for milk, I would replace it with it almond milk. If a recipe calls for regular flour, I can replace it with oat or sprouted spelt flour. If the recipe calls for quinoa, I can use sprouted quinoa for extra nutrition. You could swap meat for vegetables. This is easy & something you can try with your favorite recipes! If you have a recipe you love to eat but avoid because it’s unhealthy, try swapping out some ingredients for healthier version.

“wellthy switches”

White/wheat flour – oat, sprouted spelt flour

Milk – almond, coconut milk

Cheese – raw cheddar

Salt – pink Himalayan sea salt

Chocolate chips – cacao nibs

Sugar – honey, coconut sugar

how to simplify a recipe

This one is a little more complex to explain. But each time I my go-to recipe’s, I find steps or ingredients in the recipe that I don’t find make a big difference. Taking short cuts is a better way to explain it. Whether it’s a certain spice I don’t have, or a way to cook something. This cuts down the ingredients I need to buy (any way to save money, am I right?!) It also cuts down the time, effort & dishes in cooking!!! Who doesn’t want that?!

Check out my recipe page for my go-to recipes. I also encourage you to do this at home with recipes you find on pinterest. Feel like you’ve ran out of recipes to choose from when searching “healthy recipes”? Try searching for normal recipes & swapping out ingredients to make them healthier! I find it gives me more variety. Happy cooking 😀