Starting the New Year right (diet & nutrition)

Many people ask me how I stay so healthy. Do I diet? Nope? Restrict what I can eat? Not really. Am I going nuts inside with cravings? No! My trick is to focus on what I do eat vs. what I don’t eat. The old saying “your body is a temple” is really a great one to keep top of mind. Eating things that are wholesome, from the earth, and were here long before me (and will be long after) is where I try to focus at least 80% of my “diet.”

Here are my top 5 things I try to get into every day, if not every meal:

1. Vegetables of all kinds - especially spinach, kale, sweet potato, carrots, beets, broccoli and eggplant.

2. Fruits - especially berries, avocados, tomatoes, bananas (in moderation, as bananas travel a long way and have other environmental concerns.

3. Lean proteins - especially chicken, fish, eggs and beans.

4. Nuts - especially almonds, walnuts, and cashews - always raw, never salted!

5. Whole grains - especially oatmeal, spelt bread like Ezekiel, quinoa, and whole brown rice.

And of course lots of water!

The other 20% of my daily intake I do partake of sweets and red wine. Hey a girl’s gotta live, right!? But in moderation. If you have to use oil in cooking, use olive or canola, and a little butter is not going to kill you every now and then. The only thing I really try to steer clear of is processed and refined foods, because that’s like putting air in your gas tank!

So here’s to a healthy new year before it even begins!

For the top 100 healthiest foods, see http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php