Healthy Habits: Honest and Realistic Changes for Eating Habits

 

Do you love eating? Because, if I can be honest, I look forward to waking up in the morning and sitting down to eat breakfast. Needless to say, I needed some help when it came to wanting to be more in control of my relationship with food and wellness this year. So what are some honest and realistic changes that one can use to turn around their bad eating habits/ lifestyle? 

Nora Tobin, performance enhancement and executive coach to Fortune 100 companies, nutrition specialist and CEO of Nora’s Naturals Coffee, shares a healthy lifestyle change that is easy and sustainable to implement to help lose fat, lower inflammation and while still enjoying your meals with every bite!

Change #1: 8 hour eating window
An 8 hour eating window, also known as intermittent fasting has been linked to speedier weight loss, lower risk of chronic disease and creating hormonal homeostasis within the body. For example, starting eating at 11am and ending at 7pm. But you can choose any 8 hour period. You can ease into this by just starting with a couple days out of the week, then work your way up. Coffee and tea can be used outside of your window to give you a little bit of flavor instead of drinking regular water. This schedule gives you a clear start and stop time, to avoid the late night runs to the freezer for Pizza Rolls.

Change #2: Eat clean!
When you eat bad, you feel bad. It’s that simple. What we give our bodies to work with matters and is the whole reason behind the saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.”  Below are some example of clean foods to help power you through the day and that won’t have you feeling like a herbivore that’s out in the pasture: 

Clean Proteins: 

• Grass fed beef, steak, lamb or pork 
• Wild caught fish 
• Organic/pastured eggs 
• Bone broth
• Protein powder (grass fed collagen, hemp, pea or brown rice) 

Healthy Fats: 

• Grass fed butter
• MCT oil
• Coconut oil 
• Olive oil 
• Avocado 
• Olives 
• Nuts (almonds, walnuts, macadamia, cashews, pistachios, brazil nuts) 
• Seeds 
• Yogurt (no sugar, full fat version) 
• Kefir 
• Hard cheese 

Approved Carbohydrates: 

• Sweet potatoes
• Butternut squash
• Black, brown or white rice
• Quinoa 
• Tarro 
• Plantains 
• Pumpkin 
• Yam
• Any type of berries 

Vegetables:
Enjoy them all! 

Beverages: 

• Coffee
• Any type of tea 
• Sparkling water 
• Clear spirits (tequila, vodka, gin) 
• Red wine 

Change #3: Stick through it! 
As humans, we’re creatures of habit and we tend to choose the path of least resistance (microwavable and fast food, eating whenever, ect.).It’s important to understand that making healthy choices and sticking to them is hard! But so is continuing to stay in the current lifestyle that got us to where we are today. You have to pick “your hard”, but just know that only one of them is going to give you the results that you want at the end of the day.