What is Healthy Eating?

In my last post I listed some of my goals for Ironman training, or pre-training right now.  The first was to lose weight through healthy eating.

Health eating and what to eat for weight loss can be controversial.  Research studies are consistently looking a different types of diet, usually low fat or low carb, to ultimately determine which one is best for weight loss.  Fad diets and opinions are all over the internet and people are very 'passionate' about their food beliefs. Between the low carb people, paleo people, vegans/vegetarians and the 'clean eating' people, it's all a little cultish ... in my opinion

As part of my master's degree, I created a website that looks at the research around weight loss, along with providing tools and tips for both weight loss and weigh maintenance.  It also has a blog which I've been trying to maintain, as much as I can with everything else I'm doing.  You can check it out here: http://bgrohmannrd.wix.com/what-fuels-you.

Basically, the research shows that no matter what 'diet' you're following, the most important factor for long-term weight loss is consistency.  

With that in my, my 'healthy eating' plan includes:

1. Reducing added sugars
2. Eating more fruits/vegetables
3. Adding beans/legumes/pulses
4. Choosing more lean meats/fish/chicken
5. Whole grains (barely, quinoa, bulger)
6. Portion size
7. Tracking everything I eat

I recently made red lentil curry with spinach ... so good.  You can find the recipe here: http://naturallyella.com/quick-red-lentil-and-spinach-curry/.  Actually, it was so good, I made it for two weeks in a row.  The second time, I doubled the batch and froze the other half.  It can be eaten with rice, quinoa (yum), naan, and as either a main course or healthy side.  When I made the double batch, I added roasted red peppers and black beans that I had in the freezer.

Healthy eating does not need to be complicated, or restrictive.  It should meet your own personal preferences, cooking abilities and schedule.

  

I'm not a foodie.  I rarely make anything from scratch (but I'm working on that) and absolute love when I can throw everything into one pot.  And with all the training I have ahead of me, I need health food that not only fuels my body, but tastes good and easy to make/reheat.