With a New Year come New Year’s resolutions. At the beginning of January, it’s exciting to create that heathy eating plan, but by Jan. 20, the hopefulness usually starts to fade. Don’t lose your motivation this year! Sandy Wolner, Pampered Chef Food & Trend Innovator, has a few helpful tips for sticking with your goals.
1. Replace, replace, replace. When we remove things from our diet, we feel deprived. Focus filling your plate with foods that make you feel great. As an alternative to regular pasta, choose whole wheat pasta. Think of it as enhancing your diet as opposed to punishing yourself. Recipes like Zucchini Noodle Carbonara, Cauliflower Fried “Rice,” and Baked Avocado Tacos give you the flavor of the original recipe, but with more nutritional benefits.
3. Focus on small and simple changes that add up. Drinking more water can have a big impact on your overall health, and it helps promote fullness and trim calorie intake. And, did you know that many people confuse thirst with hunger? Making infused water is a great way to keep up with your water intake and prevent boredom.
- Start a meatless Monday tradition. Meatless Mondays is an initiative set by the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is becoming a global movement. The goal is to reduce your meat consumption by 15%. A couple of my absolute favorite meatless recipes are Spicy Sesame Cauliflower and Roasted Vegetable Toasts.
- Try ancient grains like quinoa, millet, barley, sorghum, spelt, or amaranth instead of the standard brown rice. Ancient grains offer a variety of tastes, textures, and nutrients, and some are even gluten-free. And don’t feel like you have to prepare grains as a standard boiled or steamed side dish—get creative with a recipe like Mexican Quinoa Bowl.
Sandy Wolner, Pampered Chef Food & Trend Innovator. Sandy is a registered dietitian nutritionist and loves coming up with creative and healthy recipes to bring families around the table.
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