5 Tips For Real Food Newbies

As I’ve been interacting with readers on facebook I’ve seen a lot of them talking about how they are going to be making some healthy changes this new year, switching to a whole foods diet, cutting out sugar and many other awesome goals. I’m so excited to see so many people becoming aware of and interested in improving their health!

I’ve been eating almost no processed foods (85/15) diet for over 5 years and thought it would be helpful to offer a few tips on how to get on a real food diet and stick with it. At first it can seem very daunting but over time you learn the ropes and it gets MUCH easier, trust me!

Just enjoy the process, enjoy finding fun recipes and testing them out, enjoy getting creative and enjoy knowing that you are improving your health 1 meal at a time.

Here are 5 tips to help anyone who is venturing out on a real food (whole foods) diet this year. Enjoy!

1. Don’t Buy Junk:

This might seem elementary but if you don’t have junk foods in your house beckoning to you, you will be MUCH less likely to eat any. Keep your home stocked with healthy snacks, and keep the ice cream and cookies out.

2. Take Advantage Of Store Bought Health Foods:

If you can afford to, take advantage of packaged health foods in the store. There are lots of convenience health foods in stores these days. For instance you don’t have to start making kombucha, kefir and cultured veggies your first week, actually I would advise against doing that because you will get SO overwhelmed! Many stores offer these wonderful probiotic foods, so to begin with pick 1 and buy it first. Lara bars are another great snack to have on hand, you can definitely make them but if you don’t have the time that’s ok. Of course any fruits and veggies are great to have on hand, washed, cut up and ready to eat.

3. Use Resources:

We are really lucky today that we have so many great resources for healthy eating right at our fingertips. Check out Pinterest and search “real food” or “whole food” recipes. You will find TONS of great recipes. Also websites like the Food Network are great for all sorts of from scratch dishes. My site has a recipes tab where you can scroll through by category and find what you’re looking for. Go to your local library and peruse the cookbook section. Scan through the cookbook to make sure it’s good wholesome from scratch cooking. No cream of this or that soup, or other yucky ingredients. Rachel Ray has many awesome cookbooks and her food is all from scratch, whole foods. If you have a favorite chef, like Rachel Ray for instance, get a cookbook of theirs and commit to try 1 recipe a week and begin building your library of yummy, whole food recipes.

4. Plan Ahead:

If you don’t plan ahead, you plan to fail. Inevitably hunger comes, multiple times a day unfortunately, and when we are hungry we are at our weakest. We get grouchy, and make snap decisions and usually they aren’t the best decisions. Start meal planning for 1-2 weeks at a time. Keep your home stocked with healthy foods and all the ingredients you need to make the planned on meals. That way you’ll avoid extra tips to the grocery store, save money and stay away from more temptations. Plan out snacks too!

5. Read Labels:

When beginning a real food journey it’s so important to read labels. You will be amazed at how a seemingly simple food like salsa, can have a huge list of ingredients, and I bet, you won’t know what some of them are. Scary! Become aware of what packaged foods actually have in them. As you read labels over time you will naturally know what foods are safer and what foods to stay away from. Look for short labels, 10 ingredients or less, words that you can pronounce and you know what they are. If you are questioning an ingredient google it! Learn about it, decide if that’s something you want to eat or not. And by all means if you can’t find a good salsa that has basic ingredients have some fun and experiment with making your own!

I hope that helps give you some great ideas to get started with a real food diet. I’d love to hear how it goes so don’t forget to stat connected on facebook!