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My biggest new years resolution of 2019 was to be plant based and to cook more. I’m happy to share that I genuinely enjoy cooking now (which I used to H-A-T-E!) These days, I find so much joy and comfort in cooking and making meals for myself and my husband. Pro tip: Cooking is much more fun when you get to share all the yummy healthy food you’re making.
To be honest, being plant-based and cooking more often is something I’ve been working on for years. I didn’t exactly learn to love cooking and eating healthy in one year, but it definitely feels like I can check this goal off as “Complete!” in 2019. I knew I needed to work on my nutritional health because I was facing the following problems and nothing I tried seemed to be helping:
Skin issues: eczema, vitiligo, dry skin, sun rashes, cracked peeling skin around my lips, acne/breakouts
Food relationship issues: could never bring myself to cook or be inspired by food, always wanted what’s fast + easy, couldn’t figure out if I should be vegan, vegetarian or eat meat
Period/fertility: irregular period, barely got it!
I tried a whole bunch of things - working with nutritionists, dermatologists, doctors, meal delivery services, different herbs, etc. After all this exploration, here are the top 3 things I found to be the most helpful in creating permanent, sustainable change towards having a more plant based diet and address my health concerns, without spending hours in the kitchen.
1.) Work on your mindset around food and your relationship to it
Food is a personal, psychological experience. The way we relate to food has so much to do with our family history, how we grew up, and the environment we’re in. Observing the patterns you have around food can really help you make significant changes. Once you see certain habits or stories you’ve created about food - it’s easier for you to make changes because you realize a lot of your decisions about food are based on beliefs that you may not agree with any more.
One way that I deepened my understanding of my relationship to food is through 14 day seasonal ayurvedic cleanses. (Check out EAT STRETCH NAP’s blog post about ayurveda here.) Cleanses help you step out of your daily routine and witness your mindset around food. If you’re interested in doing the 14 day seasonal ayurvedic cleanse that I did, send us an email at hello@eatstretchnap.com and we’ll help you out! Or join our email list to be notified of upcoming cleanses like this, or our 21 Day Chakra Cleanse.
If doing a cleanse is not something you’re interested in, but you still want to work on improving your healthy eating mindset, check out the behavior change program, Noom (affiliate link!). I haven’t tried it yet, but I do plan on it because I think it could be helpful for myself and my clients by being an accountability partner and resource for healthy eating inspiration. Noom is all about helping people lead healthier lives through behavior change. It focuses on making small, easy lifestyle changes instead of promoting extreme dieting or quick weight loss tricks. Anything that can retrain your brain, change unhealthy habits and help you reflect upon your relationship with food, I’m all for! Use my affiliate link to check out Noom here . What's unique about Noom is that when you join, you get connected with a personal Coach to help guide you to your health goals. This level of personalized accountability makes it so much easier to reach your wellness goals because an actual person is there to guide you. So key!
2.) Try out different meal plans + recipes, have fun with it!
I’ve experimented with my fair share of different meal plans, recipes and cookbooks. It took me a while to find what works for me. I remember trying Blue Apron years ago, then Freshly, but these meal delivery services didn’t solve any of the problems I was having, or inspire me to cook. The one meal plan that did get me excited about cooking is Sarah Adler’s Simply Real Health’s Seasonal Meal Plan. Sarah’s approach to meal planning intuitively makes so much sense. The recipes are usually 5 ingredients or less and taste so good! Everything I’ve made of her’s I’ve loved. If wanting to cook more is your primary goals, I highly recommend investing in one of her programs or books. She makes cooking really fun and approachable, which is something I value greatly as you know through EAT STRETCH NAP’s approach to yoga and meditation. You gotta make it easy!
3.) Invest in personal or group coaching
When it comes to the health issues I was facing, I was always open to investing in the help of a coach, but it took me a while to find the right fit. As someone who steps into the role of health coach and business coach while running EAT STRETCH NAP Retreats, I know the power of working with a coach to get better at something. I find that the biggest hesitation most people (including myself) have with working with a coach, is the financial commitment. To this I say, it’s exactly that: a commitment. Investing money into something you want to improve about yourself is about investing in the commitment to yourself to see it through. You’re not so much investing in the coach, or the experience itself, you’re investing in yourself to make the changes you promise to you - that’s what I say to anyone who’s considering going on an EAT STRETCH NAP Retreat and that’s what I said to myself when I invested in working with Venessa Rodriguez’s Chronic 2 Creatrix program through Wildly Rooted. I knew I had all the resources available to me to eat well and fix these issues I was having, but the problem was I wasn’t doing it. Venessa’s approach to using the Akashic Records in combination with Functional Nutrition was exactly the kind of support I was looking for. Check out the podcast episode, “Becoming Your Own Guru” I did with Venessa about my experience here.
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If there’s one thing I learned from this eating well journey, it’s that the process of healing through food is a cyclical path, not a linear one. You’ll sometimes feel like you’re doing “really well”, and sometimes feel like you’re doing “really bad” - the trick is being gentle with yourself as you pull yourself back on track. For weekly mindfulness inspiration to help you practice self-love, forgiveness and being easy on yourself, subscribe to EAT STRETCH NAP’s weekly email here.
Good luck in your healthy eating journey!
You got this!
Xx
Cat