The mission of this blog is to provide free information and resources about what “healthy eating” really is and raise awareness of common mainstream beliefs about healthy food and diets that are not necessarily true. If you are determined to start living better, change your diet for good and permanently lose weight, then this is the place to start.
The real meaning of “healthy eating”
Slimming temporary diets are pointless and do you know why? Because they are TEMPORARY and you gain the weight back as soon as you are done with it. Your goal shouldn’t be to lose weight, your goal should be to embrace a healthier lifestyle and with time the weight will be lost seamlessly for life. There is no quick fix, no pill and no exercise that is going to magically transform you. This requires time, hard work and knowledge of some basic concepts of real food. Forget about the mainstream health advice that you hear on TV and read in popular magazines, don’t believe everything you read online and forget about low-fat and low-calorie products. The work on yourself should start from the inside out, what you eat will determine how you look and feel. Eating real, natural and nutritious food is the only “diet” that is 100 % effective and will work on anyone.
The problem of modern society is that we have stopped preparing our food and instead consume ready-to-eat, packaged food that is convenient but doesn’t provide us with the nutrients we need. Most people are constantly switching from one diet to another, trying to lose weight, eating “low calorie” and “fat free” products that are actually helping them gain weight instead. This is not a what healthy eating is. There is no perfect proportion of carbohydrates and proteins that you need to eat, the different nationalities and tribes all over the world have proven that you can have a high-carb, meat-free diet or a high-protein diet that mainly consists of meat and still be healthier than the western population of the world. The one thing they have in common is the lack of processed food in their diet, just local natural food that doesn’t come in a fancy box.
Healthy eating doesn’t mean you need to start eating just salads all day long, it’s a balanced way of life and you can still have foods like pizza and sweet treats, but you just need to be smarter about which foods you choose to eat. No need to go to extremes, the most important part of a healthy diet is to enjoy your food and eat food that you actually find tasty, not food that you eat just because it’s healthy.
You can be a vegetarian, vegan or paleo, it doesn’t matter what food concept you believe in, you can still have a healthy food lifestyle even if you are not following a particular dietary practice all the time. Healthy eating means providing your body with natural whole foods that are high in nutrition and avoid highly processed foods that are low in nutritional and energy value. We are a specie that needs basic fresh food but unfortunately our supermarkets are full of packaged foods that don’t provide as with any of that so we are in an era where people are constantly overfed and yet starving for nutrition.
Here is a little secret – your diet is the most important factor that determines your weight. You can lose weight without spending any time at the gym, although it would definitely speed up the process. Many people start their weight loss journey in the gym but it should actually start in the kitchen! So get cooking and start preparing your own food.
WHERE TO START FROM?
First you need to understand what a “real food” diet doesn’t contain – processed food and what we mean when we use that term. Read why processed food makes people fat and sick.
Understand the foods you buy. Stop buying ready meals and start buying ingredients instead. THE REAL FOOD GUIDE, which is a free sections of this website, explores the different basic food groups and what to look for in our supermarkets. It will also explain 4 simple guidelines that will help you start your REAL FOOD journey.
Get yourself in the kitchen! Have a look at some of the delicious, healthy and easy recipes in the RECIPES section that will make you forget about processed food. You can also download my free recipe ebook with the top 10 wholesome recipes on this site.
OTHER MOTIVATIONAL & USEFUL RESOURCES
Join
Do you have any questions about healthy eating and real food? Or maybe you are just looking for more recipe ideas? Join my newly created group – The Real Food Club, where I am collaborating with other food bloggers to show you that a Real Food diet can be fun and not restricting. You can participate and ask the community any food related questions! We are still a small group but I am sure we will grow quickly!
Watch
If you need a little bit of motivation or simply want to watch something very powerful about what processed food is doing to you, here is a link to a free 20 minute preview of the film Hungry For a Change that is really going to make you think about all of this. It will be great if you can get your hands on the full version but this preview is still quite good, watch it here.
Follow
Here are some of my favourite sites that everyone needs to follow:
Authority Nutrition – if you are confused about which particular foods are healthy or you want to check if a common nutritional advice is true, check Authority Nutrition. This is a site run by modern nutritionists and all recommendations are evidence-based.
My Whole Food Life – Melissa has the greatest vegan sweet treats!
iFoodReal – Olena has super delicious and nutritious mains!
Read
Here is a great book that reveals what happens behind the scenes of the big food companies and how they use Salt, Sugar and Fat to addict people to their products and make them lifetime consumers. This is a chilling book that really doesn’t spare the truth.
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As long as you have some muscle mass, eitang healthily will allow your body to naturally (yet more slowly) burn off excess fat. However, what do you think it is easier to sell people? Pricey “healthy” food that they can just replace with items from the store, or “get ripped quick” exercise machines for $20 a pop? Also (and this is just my opinion) telling people they can still eat most of what they want and they just have to exercise is more appealing than telling them that they have to be very strict about what they eat.References :
Hi Keunho, thank you for your comment. You are absolutely right about the muscle mass. More muscles allow the body to burn more calories. In regards to your question, it’s hard to say but I guess people are becoming more aware that most of these machines are useless so it’s more likely they will spend the money on food that is sold as healthy. You can eat anything you want in a balanced way :)
I have read every inch of this website and it’s fantastic! I have been eating balanced, heathy whole foods for the last month or so, I started off losing weight in the first week or two but since then haven’t lost a pound! It’s so frustrating as I am always doing exercise of some sort even if it’s just walking the dogs for an hour! I can see why people turn to fad diets for quick results! Any advice?
Hi Aaron, thank you so much for your sweet comment, it put a smile to my face! Comments like yours really motivate me to continue the work on this site! Weight loss is not easy and it’s very personal, it’s hard to say what might be stopping you from losing those extra pounds. I would suggest you pay more attention to the carbs, specifically bread, pasta and sugar. Normally when these foods are excluded, it makes a big difference. I say this from my personal experience and from my conversations with body builders as this is the main food category they avoid in order to get “shredded”. Combine this with high-protein foods (which will help you maintain your muscles and more muscles mean more calories burnt naturally). If you are vegetarian there are quite a few high-protein veggie burgers you can make in advance and if you eat meat you can also add fish and/or chicken to your meals. It’s hard not to crave foods like bread especially when you get really hungry so meal prep is very important. Eat small portions 4-5 times a day so that you don’t get to that really hungry state when you just want to eat a lot of carbs in order to get quick appetite satisfaction.
In some cases, people might not be able to lose weight due to unhealthy gut flora or hormones but for this you need to speak to a nutritionist. Hope this helps and remember to stay motivated no matter how hard it gets! Good luck! :)
Do you get healthy when you ONLY exercise or eat healthy food?
Hi Serena, you ask a question that is not that easy to answer, but it’s a mixture of both and not just one of the two. If you had to start with one, I would start with the food. It doesn’t matter how many hours you spend in the gym if you are not eating the right food. Hope this helps. :)