Disclaimer: I am speaking from a place of privilege where I can afford convenience and have ample options for food. I realize I do not speak for everyone, and this advice is meant to be taken with consideration to your own lifestyle habits. I am not a registered professional, the advice written in this article is solely my own opinion and should not be taken as nutrition or medical advice.
I’d admit it—I’ve gotten lazy. After getting out of school, starting to work full time, and moving out, there’s just one piece of my life that’s been a struggle to get a grip on, and that is my eating habits.
In the past two years, my diet has ranged from having a pastry and coffee in the morning while writing for hours on end to get a finals paper done, to depression instant noodles for lunch, and sporadic In-n-Out burgers.
Recently, my eating habits have slowly stabilized into somewhat of a normal routine.
A typical day looks like this:
Breakfast:
- 250-500ml water
- 200ml black coffee
- Greens drink- greens powder, vegan protein, MCT blend, matcha
Pills:
-Grass-fed collagen
-Biotin
Lunch
- Whole grain sandwich – bread, natural deli meat, swiss cheese, avocado, romaine
Snack
- Coffee or tea
- A milk chocolate
Dinner
- Slow-cooked beef or pork
- Vegetables
- Salad
- Rice or roasted potatoes
Pills:
Vitamin D
Is my diet perfect? Well firstly, there is no such thing as a perfect diet. If I’m craving a chocolate croissant one day, or a piping hot pizza slice, I will have it. I’m simply more mindful of eating regularly and trying to get a variety of nutrients in my body.
I devised a plan that’s bound to work for the majority of people— a foolproof, lazy way to eat healthy. Remember, depriving yourself of nutritious food in the present, is only going to bite you back harder in the long run.
The Only Commitments
1. You must grocery shop a minimum of once a week. You are not required to physically step foot in a store, but you will need the Instacart app in that case,
- Do this on a Sunday morning, or some time when you’re well-rested and in a relatively positive mood.
- Fill your cart with 30% vegetables and fruit (that you enjoy eating), and the rest is up to you on what your diet typically looks like. Limit junk food to 10% of your cart- maybe only 1-2 items (chips, candy..etc).
2. Buy a crockpot
- It’s like $50, and it might be the best $50 you’ll ever spend.
- Using the ingredients you have on hand, look up a recipe. Take about 15 minutes of your day/night to prep them and throw them into the pot. You can do this the night before, and when you wake up it’ll be ready.
3. Have the same breakfast every day and make it easy
- Give yourself an easy routine
- I like smoothies because they’re relatively filling and you can sneak a bunch of healthy shit in (greens, collagen, protein, omega-3 fats..etc)
- It primes you to eat healthier throughout the day
Things I Found to be Extremely Efficient
In sight, in mind
Repeat after me— I eat what I see. If there’s a bottle of pills on my desk, I will consume them. If there’s a chocolate jar adjacent to me in the room, that’s the first thing I’ll grab when I’m feeling peckish.
This is why it’s mandatory to preset this from your grocery cart. By simply adding more vegetables, fruits, and legumes to my grocery cart, guess what I consume more of? Even by having an empty glass on the table, I was more likely to grab water when I was thirsty.
I know you might think you’re disciplined, but we all have days where we’re more lethargic, more hormonal, or just have less motivation. Don’t let your life be run by motivation or fleeting happiness; let it be run by systems.
Set up your desk, kitchen, or space like a system. Lay out things in the clear open you want to consume in your life. That means maybe getting a fruit stand, so it doesn’t end up rotting in your fridge. This might look like putting away the chips in the cabinet, and not out in the open next to the TV remote.
Eat what you Read
I write a lot of content about health trends and natural products—in particular, matcha as it’s one of the companies I do marketing for. And the more I read and write about the health benefits of matcha, the more I want to consume it myself. On average, I drink at least one cuppa of matcha a day, sometimes, even up to 3 as it’s not dangerous like coffee, to do so.
You want to fill your mind up with healthy, helpful, inspiring content. Instagram makes this extremely easy. As soon as you start looking up healthy influencers or nutritionists, Instagram’s algorithms will continuously push this content on your feed.
See even mindless scrolling and reading captions..can help you eat healthier in your own life? Shocking I know.
My tip for Instagram: Follow registered doctors, naturopaths, nutritionists, or dieticians, because they often supplement great educational content along with their delicious food posts. Their content can often be more legitimate and research-based, compared to a 24-year-old wannabe influencer (like me! Take my advice with a grain of salt please).
Okay now for people who hate social media. Don’t want anything to do with it (sorry I don’t know if you actually exist). There are plenty of books, videos, and podcasts that can help you learn how to make more nutritionally sound decisions.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve shifted my content preferences from advice on weight loss to advice on nutritional deficiencies, and the healing properties of food. I find this to be an extremely helpful way of looking at food— as sustenance, fuel, and building blocks to a healthy mind and life. It’s also far less restrictive, and way more fun! I love looking at a hearty meal and knowing that it contains a load of different nutrients that are going to do different things for my body. Being informed is the first step to execution.
Don’t Diet.
As much as I preach a healthy lifestyle, moderation, blah, blah…I find myself occasionally falling back into the trap of dieting. Of course, I’ll never admit to myself dieting, labeling it as a ‘reset’, intermittent fasting, keto..blah blah.
Here’s what typically happens:
- I encounter some sort of trigger— an upcoming vacation (and the internal pressure to look good for it), stress at work/relationship/life
- I choose the diet I’m going to go on— this always ends up being keto, IF, or some variation of that.
- I start it and immediately feel incredibly, dizzyingly. Hungry
- I last about a week, have a pizza over the weekend, and forget I’m on a diet the next week.
- Sometimes the cycle between steps 3 and 4 is way longer, but the result is always the same. I simply feel deprived.
Some shifts I have to intentionally make:
- Instead of restricting my diet, focus on my workouts. How can I become stronger? How can I become more consistent at the gym?
- Focus on getting more nutrients into my diet (ie. veggies, fruits, omega 3s, calcium)
- See food and meals as holistic, rather than binary
- Stop and really enjoy the food.
- Get scrappy. Eat homemade food, 80% of the time. Enjoy the pizza and ice cream 20% of the time. (Psst..you’re going to save money too which is a bonus).
Conclusion
And voila that’s it. No hard lines— and no foods that are off limits. No insane diet, cutting out sugar, stuffing yourself with H20, or religious workouts. Do you want to live a healthier life? Start thinking about health and food more holistically. Become friends with your food, and it will love you right back.
Realize you can cook whatever you want at home, not worry about the calories, and it will most likely be more healthy than whatever food, even “healthy” you get for takeout. You’ll feel more energetic by eating at home more because it’s more nutrient-dense. Food from restaurants always contains hidden preservatives, sugars, or fats to enhance the flavor, and fillers to cut costs. My partner has this false impression that Chipotle is healthy so he justifies getting it every week. The reality is the rice from Chipotle is packed with oil, they liberally season it with oil…
So my advice? Make it easy, make it seen, and make it routine.
Secret Prose 
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