This is another one of my rules. And you all know how I love my rules.
This rule is a great one for helping you to avoid excess sugar, trans-fat, additives, preservatives, food colorings, and many other assorted chemical products that your body doesn't need. Sure, you can spend the extra money and purchase all natural prepared foods from places like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. And I might do this on a rare occasion. But on a day-to-day basis, it is a good rule to almost exclusively purchase INGREDIENTS.
And when I say "ingredients," of course I am talking mainly about whole foods.
Here is a great example: many decades ago, back when I was young, I could get away with eating a lot of carbs. And believe me, we are talking about A LOT! I munched on bagels and muffins like they were going out of style. (Which, it turns out, they were.) Now, I have almost completely eliminated all grains and sugar from my diet. But if I decide to cheat, I never purchase a cake, cookies, muffins, or anything like that from a store. Instead, I purchase the healthiest ingredients I can find in order to make these treats myself.
Purchasing ingredients accomplishes a few things at once:
1) You have to put out all the effort to create the treat yourself. And baking a cake or muffins from scratch takes some time and energy. There is no instant gratification. If you want that treat, you have to set aside the time and work for it. This makes it much less likely that you will have something junky on hand to stuff into your mouth every single day. Unless you are an avid baker with way too much time on your hands. Then you are in trouble.
2) If you purchase high quality ingredients, you will end up with a much healthier final product than anything you could buy in a bakery or grocery store. Your made-from-scratch bread or cookies can feature whole grain flour or almond flour rather than bleached, refined flour. You can add chia seeds or hemp seeds for extra fiber and omega-3 oils. You can grind your own fresh nut flour from whole nuts in the food processor. You can reduce or eliminate white sugar completely and find ways to sweeten your treats lightly with just whole fruits, sweet spices, or applesauce. You can tailor your treats to your own specific needs or desires. You can make gluten-free, paleo or vegan muffins.
3) Ingredients, on their own, are much less tempting than ready-to-eat, prepared foods. Although the ingredients can be combined (with time and effort; see Point #1) to create something tempting, when they are just lying around the house on their shelves, they are much less alluring. And therefore less dangerous to the waistline.
I know it is still the middle of winter, but spring break will be here in no time. And you will soon be wearing that bikini (or Speedo?) on the beach showing off your chiseled abs. So now is a great time to clean out your cupboards and fill them back up with ingredients only. Make the switch and tell me what happens...
This rule is a great one for helping you to avoid excess sugar, trans-fat, additives, preservatives, food colorings, and many other assorted chemical products that your body doesn't need. Sure, you can spend the extra money and purchase all natural prepared foods from places like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. And I might do this on a rare occasion. But on a day-to-day basis, it is a good rule to almost exclusively purchase INGREDIENTS.
And when I say "ingredients," of course I am talking mainly about whole foods.
Here is a great example: many decades ago, back when I was young, I could get away with eating a lot of carbs. And believe me, we are talking about A LOT! I munched on bagels and muffins like they were going out of style. (Which, it turns out, they were.) Now, I have almost completely eliminated all grains and sugar from my diet. But if I decide to cheat, I never purchase a cake, cookies, muffins, or anything like that from a store. Instead, I purchase the healthiest ingredients I can find in order to make these treats myself.
Purchasing ingredients accomplishes a few things at once:
1) You have to put out all the effort to create the treat yourself. And baking a cake or muffins from scratch takes some time and energy. There is no instant gratification. If you want that treat, you have to set aside the time and work for it. This makes it much less likely that you will have something junky on hand to stuff into your mouth every single day. Unless you are an avid baker with way too much time on your hands. Then you are in trouble.
2) If you purchase high quality ingredients, you will end up with a much healthier final product than anything you could buy in a bakery or grocery store. Your made-from-scratch bread or cookies can feature whole grain flour or almond flour rather than bleached, refined flour. You can add chia seeds or hemp seeds for extra fiber and omega-3 oils. You can grind your own fresh nut flour from whole nuts in the food processor. You can reduce or eliminate white sugar completely and find ways to sweeten your treats lightly with just whole fruits, sweet spices, or applesauce. You can tailor your treats to your own specific needs or desires. You can make gluten-free, paleo or vegan muffins.
3) Ingredients, on their own, are much less tempting than ready-to-eat, prepared foods. Although the ingredients can be combined (with time and effort; see Point #1) to create something tempting, when they are just lying around the house on their shelves, they are much less alluring. And therefore less dangerous to the waistline.
I know it is still the middle of winter, but spring break will be here in no time. And you will soon be wearing that bikini (or Speedo?) on the beach showing off your chiseled abs. So now is a great time to clean out your cupboards and fill them back up with ingredients only. Make the switch and tell me what happens...
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