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Healthy Eating - Total Being’s 10 Steps to Health

By Charlotte Watts Dip.ION BANT – Nutritional Therapist – www.totalbeing.com and www.healthyconvenience.com

The more we get back to food in its original form, rather than processed, refined and generally mucked-about with, the more we receive what nature intended and our food works for us, not against us. We feel strongly that this is a solid basis for improving and continuing health.

There are some really basic starts to achieving good health and they can be really simple. See these as aims and build up to achieving them as often as possible. You can make as many or as little changes as you feel able, the information in your report is always here for you to come back to when you want to move on and try something else. You know yourself best and if are the ‘dive in at the deep end’ type, you may want to go for a more drastic overhaul. If you are more of a ‘softly, softly’ type you will know the pace at which you like to make change.

As you feel better you will be motivated to make more change and in this way you will be moving towards changing your habits for good, rather than just doing a ‘fad’ diet for a short time.

Try the 80:20 rule; if you are eating and drinking 80% of the healthy things you should be doing, then your body can probably deal with the 20% bad things you throw at it.

Of course this is no attitude for a fully detoxified, 100% healthy body, but it helps your motivation as you are building up or in times of weakness. If you fall off the wagon, shrug and get back on, but don’t fall victim to guilt or self-blame; the healthy choices are still waiting for you!

1. “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper” is the best rule for best blood sugar balance and health. Start the day with a good breakfast for really good energy levels and more control over what you eat later, including less sugar and caffeine cravings. Setting yourself up with a sustained energy source like porridge or protein in eggs can help stabilise blood sugar levels and benefit mood, sleep patterns, weight control and digestion. See our breakfast suggestions at www.totalbeing.com
2. Rehydrate Drink 2 litres of water a day; this is essential for all body functions – you can go without food for weeks, but water only days. If your body is not used to this volume, build up gradually to avoid shock – include fluids in herbal teas and diluted fruit juices, but not caffeine drinks in the total amount. Buying a bottle of mineral water and drinking throughout the day makes you aware of how much you’ve drunk and what to aim for. Along the same lines, reduce your intake of caffeine, which has a diuretic effect, meaning that it causes you to lose water and is actually dehydrating. It also depletes many vitamins and minerals and can over-stimulate leading to mood problems. Limit yourself to one or two cups of tea or coffee a day. Alcohol is also a stimulant and should only be drunk in moderation.
3. Eat Real Food Buy fresh ingredients as the more natural the form of your food, the more nutrients and health benefits it will give you. We will help you see how easy this can be with simple recipe suggestions for your health concerns and you can also see our entire recipe database for more ideas. The less rubbish your body has to deal with, the more easily it can function. Prepare your food yourself; ready meals and convenience foods are usually loaded with bulkers, fillers and additives, as well as sugar, salt and saturated fat. If you prepare food from scratch, you know what is in it and it needs no preservatives to keep it fresh on the shelves. “Diet” versions of foods contain many chemicals that upset hormone levels in the body – eat naturally.
4. Achieve at least your 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day This is what the World Health Organisation recommends, but it is only a start – dare to have more! A portion is about palm-size and encourages you to have a vegetable at each meal and raw veg and fruit for snacks. This is not “eat your greens”, but eat your “greens, reds, purples, yellows and oranges” – the more variety and colour in your fruit and veg, the more variety of nutrients you will have in your diet. Include berries and broccoli weekly as particular super foods.
5. Adopt a healthy attitude to fat Include beneficial fats in your diet, don’t avoid these, they actually aid weight loss. Avoid “low-fat” products as these are generally over-processed and replace the fat with sugar or sweeteners – they also give the idea that these foods are healthy to eat and that fat is all bad. Eat nuts, seeds, avocadoes, oily fish and olive oil; all of which have shown to have many health benefits, including for the heart, brain, immune system. Avoid frying foods and if you do, don’t use vegetable oil which is easily damaged by heat and can then be very unhealthy and even speed up the aging process. Bake, grill or steam foods and if you do fry, use olive oil for the least length of time eg. in stir fries. Coconut oil is the best choice for cooking as it remains most stable in heat and doesn’t taste of coconut!
6. Include beans and pulses in your diet Lentils, chick peas, adzuki beans, mung beans are all fantastic in soups, stews, salads and as side dishes. They are easier to cook than you imagine as we will show you. Beans are said to be “near perfect” foodstuffs. They contain great amounts of B vitamins and iron, are low in calories, fat and salt and contain lots of minerals such as calcium, zinc, potassium, magnesium and copper. They are also a good source of soluble fibre, which helps to clear out your bowels, taking with it toxins, cholesterol and used hormones – good news for everything from weight loss to cholesterol regulation.
7. Eat whole, unrefined foods containing slow-releasing carbohydrates This means eating a diet concentrating on wholefoods such as whole grains, beans and plenty of vegetables. Choose complex carbohydrates in the forms of wholemeal or ‘brown’ versions of breads, pasta and rice to avoid less health refined ‘white’ versions that have little nutritious value. Complex carbohydrates that also offer good protein include tofu, lentils, sesame seeds, beans, brown rice, whole grains, skinless turkey or chicken breast and white fish (no shellfish) are particularly good choices – these can make up a good percentage of your diet. Reduce the sugar load in your diet by avoiding processed foods and cakes, biscuits, pastries and look on labels for hidden sugars. Snack on nuts and fruit instead.
8. Choose Organic Food Choose organic where possible, it really is worth the little extra cost! Why? For three very good reasons; firstly organic produce is grown or reared without the use of chemicals which means the load of environmental pollutants that you take in is instantly lowered - click here for the foods to prioritise to lower this burden. Food that is grown without these chemicals has to produce its own to protect itself from the natural invaders around it, this makes it produce lots of chemicals that we need to help enhance our immune systems and protect us from invaders. Organic food is also higher in the minerals that plants get from the soil and animals eat in their food, so you get more nutrients for your money.
9. Do all you can to manage and avoid high stress levels Stress causes the ‘fight or flight’ mechanism where the hormone adrenaline causes a flood of sugar into the system, to ready us for physical exertion that we may not use. Continual stress adds to the “highs and lows” of a blood sugar imbalance and can lead to cravings. A full 8 hours’ sleep a night, the right levels of exercise and relaxation techniques all allow your body to cope with stress and make your body more efficient so you don’t feel needlessly hungry.
10. Enjoy your food! Food provides your fuel, structure and all the components that make you function, but it is also one of the most positive sensory experiences in your life. Whilst you look after your body, you should be feeding your senses, increasing your enjoyment of life and nurturing yourself. Eating healthily is not about being worthy and righteous, but should make you feel really good; physically and emotionally. It is not about “going on the latest diet”, but making fundamental basic changes that you can adopt for life.

See totalbeing.com for a Nutritional Assessment to choose the right diet and supplements to help you get in control of your health!

See healthyconvenience.com for help remembering how to get healthy – for posters, shopping guides and recipes.