Healthful home cooking is about so much more than performing the odd healthy recipe web search, or cutting the amount of fat or sugar in a batch of muffins.
While I’m not discounting any of these actions, I do believe that healthful home cooking is about more than an outcome (i.e. good-for-you food).
It’s about every step of the eating process: how you think about your food, how you purchase food and how you cook, savour and share your food. Here are six signs you’re a healthful home cook.
Six signs you’re a healthful home cook
1. You OWN it
Whether you’re in line at the grocery store, planning your weekly menu or chopping a batch of onions, you aren’t wishing you were elsewhere or rushing through each task with a let-me-get-this-over-with attitude.
Instead, you engage.
You own your role because you recognize just how important these activities really are in the scope of wellness:
– Planning a menu is no longer a chore when you see it as the key to a productive and stress-free week.
– Grocery shopping is no longer an annoying stop along the way after you recognize your role as Nourisher of family bodies.
By owning these activities and engaging in the “bigger picture” mindset, you commit to each second spent at the store, at the stove and at the chopping block.
The best thing about this kind of commitment? You wind-up with better tasting food and a happier mood. Win-win.
2. You stay mindful
During a meal, you bring awareness to every bite of food, tuning-in to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. At the stove, you bring awareness to your cooking, by tasting as you go, bringing your attention to the different flavours and textures, making sure all is in balance.
Sounds simple, yet so many of us ignore our body’s signals and don’t take the time to taste our food. Turning this practice into a habit will not only make you a more mindful eater, but it will make you a better cook, too.
3. Your kitchen is organized and equipped
Our surroundings influence what and how much we eat. That’s why as a healthful home cook, you know how to play the odds in your favor and adapt your eating environment to your goals.
By keeping your kitchen well organized and uncluttered, you know that meals can be prepared efficiently. By keeping your fridge, freezer and pantry well stocked with healthy staples, you know that meals can be made in minutes.
4. You focus on real food
A peak into your grocery cart would reveal an abundance of whole foods: items that are the ingredient, rather than foods containing lists of ingredients.
By being real and minimally processed, these foods maintain all of their nutritional integrity, are the best for your body and are the biggest pleasure to cook with.
5. You build nutrient-dense and balanced meals
Gone are the days when healthy cooking meant low-fat, low-flavor meals.
Instead, your focus is on maximizing the amount of colorful, nutrient-dense produce in your diet.
It’s also about striking balance on your plate: combining proper ratios of high-fibre carbohydrates, quality protein and healthy fats for meals that are satiating, energizing and craving-curbing.
6. You choose earth-friendly foods and practices
As a healthful home cook, you understand the impact of your food choices on the environment. It can seem overwhelming at first, but you know that any tiny change can make a world of a difference: choosing organics over conventional, opting for local and seasonal produce whenever possible, seeking sustainable seafood choices and minimizing waste in the kitchen are some of your practices.
So you see, in a way, healthful home cooking is a lifestyle. Which is why I created an online program on the topic, so I can cover each of these concepts with you in extra detail.
If you would like to take your healthful home cooking further and tackle the New Year head-on, I’d love to have you on board! Take part in the limited-time offer for the Healthful Home Cook Online Program, currently 35% off.
Hope to see you on the other side!
Where are your strengths and opportunities in the healthful home cooking department? Share them in the comments section below!
Leave a comment