Weight Loss Tip: Plan to eat some delicious food every day!
Being healthy and achieving balance with your weight does NOT mean you are sentenced to a life of boring meals. In fact, the opposite is true. Especially as you transition away from processed and unhealthy foods — be sure to plan to eat some delicious food every day. Your plan could be as simple as buying some special fresh organic fruit or making some simple raw organic ice cream in your food processor. Or, you could get more elaborate and learn how to make things such as raw lasagna and pizza, raw bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches and raw mashed potatoes and gravy. Whatever route you decide upon, make sure that you plan ahead. Raw food preparation is not difficult but it does require a bit more planning than cooked food preparation. For instance, although the ingredients are a bit different, it’s just as easy to whip up a batch of raw oatmeal cookie batter as it is to whip up a batch of cooked oatmeal cookie batter. But you don’t have to think too hard about cooked oatmeal cookies once the batter is made because they only take about 15 minutes to cook. It may take you eight hours or more to dehydrate your raw oatmeal cookies. Because of the time involved in dehydrating, you will want to plan your menus ahead for the week — and possibly look a few weeks ahead when you go to the grocery store. If you are making pizza crusts, garden burgers or breads, it may be more convenient for you to make large quantities at a time and store them in your refrigerator or freezer. When you freeze food it kills about 30 percent of the enzymes but the nutrients are preserved.
You also should consider enrolling in some raw chef classes so that you will feel more comfortable working with raw-food recipes. Because raw organic ingredients often are more expensive than ingredients common to the Standard American Diet — it is nice to have some guidance in the kitchen as you make the transition. You may be able to find a raw food chef in your area who is willing to work with you one-on-one or in a group. We think our Raw Food Chef Certification program at Creative Health Institute is the best in the country and we’d love to have you join us for a class sometime in the near future. Click here for a story about our most recent class — and some great recipes.
Whatever you decide to do — make sure it’s delicious. There’s absolutely no reason why eating a healthy diet should feel like torture.
Daily Inspiration: “Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Negative thinking will sabotage your goals. If you feel pouty about your food plan or your decision to eat healthy when you see other people enjoying foods you used to enjoy but opt not to eat today — you need to snap out of self pity immediately. Self pity is the enemy — it will take you back to where you have been in the past — overweight or underweight and compulsive about eating and dieting. If you really want to break the cycle of yo-yo dieting for good, you MUST foster an attitude of gratitude every day. Gratitude is the antidote for self pity. Just as cancer cannot grow in an oxygenated body, self pity cannot take root in a heart in which gratitude is adequately cultivated. So start each day with a list of ten things for which you are grateful. And keep a little note pad and pen with you all the time. The minute you start feeling sorry for yourself because someone else is eating something you think you would enjoy (or because someone else seems to have better health, more money, a better job, a more loving spouse or a more fabulous vacation), CHECK YOURSELF! You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself immediately. Whip out your little note pad and pen and start listing the things for which you are grateful. No matter how difficult your life is, there are a million things to be grateful for each day. Be grateful that you saw a bluebird. Be grateful that the sun is shining. Be grateful for the rain. Be grateful that you can walk. Be grateful that you can sing. Be grateful that you can offer someone a helping hand. It doesn’t matter what you are grateful for — but it does matter that you are grateful. And if you are not really grateful, pretend you are grateful. Just fake it until you make it. Eventually you will work yourself into a grateful heart state. And when gratitude finds a permanent dwelling place in your heart, there will be no space in your life for the destructive villain self pity.
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Robert Morgan, Naturopath 