Hello! I’m Allison, founder of Delicious Life Wellness. I am so happy to share nutrition ideas, tips, and recipes with my fellow St. Johns-ians. I am a nutritional therapist/food lover and spend much of my free time in my kitchen. I’m one of those cheesy people who takes pictures of my plate before I eat. I love food and the feeling I get when eating something homemade because I know exactly what is in it. Nutrient-dense, whole foods are my jam and I’m here to show you that eating this way does not doom you to a lifetime of boring meals!
If you take anything away from this post. Let it be this. What we eat really does affect our overall health. How well we sleep, the condition of our skin and even our anxiety levels can be related to our nutrition. It is time to take responsibility for what we are putting into our bodies! The moral of this story is: Eat Real Food.
By real food, I mean nutrient-dense, unprocessed, whole foods. Whole foods give your body everything it needs to break the food down and assimilate it, in one package. Refined, processed foods lack vitamins and minerals which are required to break foods down into energy. Your body now has to use it’s reserve supplies. In other words, refined foods deplete the body of vitamins and minerals. Consistent nutritional deficiencies first show up as annoying health symptoms but eventually lead to chronic disease. Eating real food is the key for a solid foundation of good health.
You may be thinking to yourself, now what the heck do I eat? When in doubt think, what would grandma eat? The closest thing to the land, or sea, or animal is always best! Here are my recommendations in a nutshell…
Choose seasonal, organic produce. Local is even better. Go for grass-fed, pastured meats. Avoid anything artificial, processed, and packaged as much as possible. Cut out sugary beverages and stay away from artificial sweeteners. Minimize grains. Choose full-fat dairy that comes from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows. Use cold-pressed oils from nuts, seeds, avocados and olives for drizzling over salads and cooked veggies. For cooking, choose coconut oil and animal fats from clean sources, as they are able to withstand higher temperatures. Saturated fats are not evil as once thought and play a necessary part in our health. Run fast and far from vegetable oils like corn, safflower and canola which have been highly chemically processed and often already rancid due to exposure to light and heat. (Yuck.)
With all that said, food and healthy eating should not be too confusing and stressful. Try to make the best choices from what is available and live by the “80/20 Rule”. This means striving to eat real at least 80 percent of the time and not judging yourself for the other 20 percent. Soon your body will start craving real food, because it innately knows what it needs. A big part of eating healthy is learning what works best for YOUR body, so you feel nourished and energized to live your best life. Then relax, enjoy life and delicious food!
