You've made a commitment to eating better and exercising and now you're panic-striken - are you destined for a life of salad three meals a day and no more dessert? Will your life stretch out before you as a barren wasteland of spinach and green beans, with a little applesauce on the side?
Well, kind of but in truth - there are so many ways to spice up a healthy diet. For starters, once you get off the refined sugar treadmill you will find your cravings decreasing fairly quickly. Just a week after cutting out white flour and sugar, you'll begin to want them less and, if you're exercising regularly, your muscles will actually crave the continuation of exercise. You can reset your patterns and it will feel right to you in short order.
Also, eating healthy doesn't mean eating drab foods. Especially these days, the internet is a rich resource for recipe ideas and ways to improve the flavor and enjoyment of your healthy meals.
http://www.thatsmyhome.com/healthy/
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,fat_free_sugar_free,FF.html
http://www.lowfatlifestyle.com/recipefolder/recipeindex.htm
Adding things like ginger, curry, lemon and lime, soy sauce, mustard and other spices can improve your experience of everything from salmon to broccoli. Adding tofu to your steamed veggies, sprinkling walnuts and almonds on your fish, mixing brown rice with seaweed to give it flavor; all of these things can help you in your quest for good health.
The longer you do it, remember, the more natural it will feel and the less likely you will be to crave those refined sugars.
Some other tricks of flavoring healthy food include:
* Adding fruit to vegetable salads, such as apples and oranges
* Adding orange juice to fish marinades to give it some zest and natural sweetness
It also carmelizes a bit on the fish if you're baking it giving it a wonderful bit if texture.
* Using light soymilk plain unsweetened yogurt, and blueberries, strawberries and cinammon to create a healthy smoothie or dessert.
For more ideas for cooking using healthy, delicious recipes, follow these links:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipes/healthy-cooking/Main.aspx
http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/index.html
Aimee Boyle is a special education teacher and regular contributor to EmpowHER. You can read her blog at http://straightandnarrow.yolasite.com