I've been eating healthy now for about 3 years and kept all my weight off that I lost (50 Lbs). I have HEALTHIFIED my life!! Following Beachbody programs taught me SO much!! I also have a family to feed, and people also ask me all the time what do I feed THEM???
So I have 3 boys, my husband and two sons who could care less about vegetables or health for that matter. My husband only cares that its cheap and yummy. My kids only care that it looks good and tastes good. I only care that its well balanced, healthy, nutritious, and natural or clean!
SO! You can see the challenge I have! One of my goals a couple years ago was to make a list of 20 meals that my WHOLE family LIKES and that are HEALTHY! QUITE the challenge, I know. But you'd be surprised what you can do with NORMAL food and make it healthy. I've REALLY learned how to compromise with my family and food. And I've figured out how to make normal food healthy!!
Let's just take a couple of examples and I'll tell you how I HEALTHIFY it:)
#1. PASTA!!
Everybody loves pasta right? You might think pasta is a big NO-NO when you're 'living healthy' or dieting, but to that I say 'WHATEVER!!' There's nothing wrong with PASTA except that it might be lacking fiber or loaded with fatty white sauce, OR just overdone...I mean OVEREATEN. I'm talking about portion control! So EAT pasta! Just not too much! How I do it....Start with making sure your pasta has a minimum of 3g of fiber. It can be whole wheat or whatever. My family doesn't like whole wheat, and frankly NEITHER do I!! So we use Smart Taste pasta (Ronzoni brand-the purple box!). It still has 5g of fiber!....but its not gritty like whole wheat, and looks like white (compromise so my family will eat it). I usually always get spaghetti on sale for $1 a box!
NEXT for healthifying pasta... the MEAT. Make sure you have MEAT! You need protein for a balanced meal and to give you energy that lasts! Just keep it lean, organic if possible. I usually get organic ground beef for my sauce.
Next...the SAUCE! We like red sauce...my oldest son will NOT eat red sauce, he always wants white sauce. Red sauce is pretty easy since its not loaded with fat and based on tomatoes. You can make it from scratch or use bottled. I do either depending on how much time I have. Just make sure its a good quality jarred sauce. Making it from scratch isn't that hard either! I'm sure you could find 100 recipes on pinterest. I myself have about 5, let me know if you want one!
BUT if you love Alfredo sauce...who doesn't?! Then you may or may not know how horrible it is for you:) It's basically made of heavy cream, butter, and cheese...yeeaah. If you want Alfredo AND Healthy...look no further than this amazing Creamy Cauliflower Sauce recipe that my friend discovered and shared with me. OK SO NOW you know how to eat HEALTHY PASTA!! YEA!!!!
Ok here's a tip, PS. Eat a salad with your pasta! While you're limiting the carbs to only one portion rather than 5, you need to get full right? FIBER fills you up, so fill up on veggies! Put a nice healthy salad loaded with veggies and protein on the side and you're golden. Watch out for cream dressings...stick to vinaigrettes...Ok salad is a whole other topic. But eat salad with Pasta, there you go, HEALTHIFIED!
#2. BURGERS! That's RIGHT I said BURGERS!!!! We are American. Let's not pretend we will not ever eat burgers again just cause we wanna be 'HEALTHY'. Pish posh. But remember we are HEALTHIFYING!!?
Let's start with the MEAT. If you wanna buy frozen pre-prepared burgers, GO AHEAD! I'm all about quick and easy! You can get crappy frozen burgers, or you can get good quality ones. Go for lean, like 90% lean meat. You can also go for organic, but let's not push it. Just get some good quality beef. Like I said before you can get your own organic lean ground beef and make hamburger patties yourself, its not that hard! You can even get ground TURKEY if you want to make it really healthy! But supposing you're anything like my husband, or trying to please someone like him...lets just stick with beef for burgers.
Next...the BUNS!! This is where I get serious. FIBER. Anything "carbs" in your diet should be fiberous and plant based. That means minimum 3g of fiber. Get some WHOLE WHEAT BUNS. Sheesh, SO EASY!! Even if you go out to a restaurant you can usually request a whole wheat bun! For REAL, I always do! You don't have to use a piece of LETTUCE for your buns, get REAL! We're talking about BURGERS. Ok I think you get it. Whole grain.
NEXT...the condiments. This is where you might get in trouble. Dude, don't worry. If you really wanna use Ketchup, go for it. It's not the best, but...its ketchup, I know. BUT you don't need it. Trade your MAYO and Ketchup for some AVOCADO! Seriously, so good. But if you must use Mayo, swap it for Olive Oil or homemade mayo, so easy to make!! Then...load on the veggies!! Onions, mushrooms, tomato, lettuce, pickles..whatever you like!! Load it on. If you MUST have a cheeseburger (like me) go for it. You really only need one fat source (which in this case is the mayo or avocado) but if you MUST....just do it. Or pick one! Trust me, your burger is gonna be GOOD! OK!!?
FRENCH FRIES. Now, this is not PART of a burger...but lets face it. It goes together like white on rice (except I don't use white rice...anyway, you know what I mean). FRENCH FRIES are potatoes. Potatoes are a vegetable. But anything deep fried is ummm....LOADED with VEGETABLE OIL. And so far in this meal, we already have our allotment of carbs and fats. So bypass them if you can. But if you think you can manage a small portion and you must have fries...consider roasting some sweet potatoes! Drizzle a little olive oil over some sliced sweet potatoes with a little salt (I use pink Himalayan salt) and roast them in the oven for 20 minutes on 425 F. Done. So yummy, my kids gobble these up.
P.S. I hope this goes without saying...skip the soda. Go for a lemon water.
There you have it...HEALTHIFIED BURGERS!! (this is a pic of my burger today, I wanted to use my sprouts but I was all out of lunch meat, so I made a burger with sprouts! yum!!:)
These are just TWO examples of how you can make NORMAL food, healthy! No need to eat fish and broccoli every day. PAH-LEASE!! Stay tuned for how to healthify MEXICAN food, Sandwiches, and PIZZA!!
