I talk often about forming and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits. This topic seems to cause anxiety because we find it difficult to find a place to start. These anxious thoughts make us feel out of control. We want the quick solution, but we know that there aren't any shortcuts.
We want solutions, but what we really need are attitudes. You don't need an easier life, but rather an attitude of perseverance. 1
Attitude precedes outcome. And attitude equals mindset.
I read recently that everything you do in life either lifts you up or tears you down. There are always things to be torn down and discarded, but your life is a treasure to be valued and protected.2 Yes, we have busy lives, which makes it all the more important to schedule in rest. I am not referring to falling into bed at night and passing out, exhausted. And it certainly is not laying on the sofa with the TV on and scrolling Facebook or Instagram.
I attended a sweet time of prayer this week and heard that rest is not inactive-it is a deep sweet restfulness of the soul. Depending on your family obligations, it can be anywhere from 3 hours a week, a day a week, two days a month, even a day a month. The important thing is to schedule it for yourself, just like you do your hair appointment. Persevere and protect this time for yourself until it becomes a habit.
Forming a healthy habit requires motivation for the outcome and motivation for the effort to achieve the outcome. Focus on the payoff. For example, getting up every day to go to work is a habit. The payoff is that you become known as a dependable person, you earn recognition, and you collect a paycheck. This is a good habit! And even when you don't have the motivation on a particular day to go to work, the habit is a default decision that serves you well.
Manipulate your environment to serve your habit. Schedule it into your planner so that eventually everyone knows that the 2nd Saturday of the month is mom's/dad's time to go for a long hike, read a book in a park, sit somewhere to journal, sit in a church to pray, or all of the above! Remember that good habits are formed the same way that bad habits are formed: repetition! Having scheduled, healthy, repetitions in your life is a good way to relieve the anxieties of day-to-day life. Having this healthy flow of the day-to-day helps equip you when life throws you a curveball because you will be more resilient. You will have the ability to bounce back because you remember how your healthy habits made you feel better. This applies not only to rest days but also to eating and exercise.
Teaching the Forming Healthy Habits class helps me stay on track as well. It's a daily practice!
Click on the below link if you need inspiration on dealing with anxiety.
Liz Fattore
Nurture Your Health
Licensed Food Over Medicine Professional
1. James Clear
2. Marsha Burns
Bean Burger
Batch cooking bean burgers is a great way of having a quick meal from the freezer. Pictured is my burger on a Dave's Killer Bread bun, with lettuce, tomato and mustard. Sometimes I use the Seedtastic bread from Aldi's or a whole wheat pita.
The key to making the burger is getting it to a consistency like ground meat so that it does not fall apart after baking. You can use any type of beans and seasonings that you like. If adding vegetables, which I recommend, use a low water vegetable like kale or broccoli. Spinach or Swiss chard will make it watery. The more veggies you put, the more of a powerhouse of a burger!
Having a food processor for pulsing the beans and vegetables is a bonus and makes the prep quicker and easier.
Ingredients:
2 cans beans drained (I like a combo of pinto, black or garbanzo)
1 bunch kale or broccoli
1 small carton mushrooms (optional)
1 small onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 cups cooked rice or quinoa, cooled
1-1/2 cups oat flour, chickpea flour or corn meal (or combo, or sub oatmeal)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Spices: salt, pepper, cumin, turmeric
Instructions:
Pulse beans in food processor or smash with potato masher and place in large bowl. Pulse or chop all vegetables. Add remaining ingredients and knead together with your hands. Start adding the flour until you get a firm consistency. Place bowl in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. This makes your mixture easier to handle. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scoop out mixture using a 1/2 or 2/3 cup measuring cup, depending on how big you want your burger. Form burger and place on a large, parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 20 minutes, flip burgers over, bake additional 10-15 minutes. Once cooled, individually wrap in wax paper and freeze. This recipe should make around 12 burgers.
Ratatouille
This is a summer staple in our house. The abundance of zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplant makes this dish a nutrient dense powerhouse. I prefer the small eggplant as it is more tender. If you don't like eggplant, just use zucchini and yellow squash.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 medium potatoes, sliced very thinly
- 1 zucchini, cubed
- 1 yellow squash or eggplant, cubed
- 2 fresh tomatoes or 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 1-1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup fresh basil and oregano (or more if you like)
- salt & pepper
Instructions
Sauté onions in a hot stainless pan, stirring until a bit browned. Add the garlic and stir. Add the thinly sliced potatoes and 1 cup vegetable broth. Add salt to taste. Let simmer on medium until the potatoes are almost tender. Add the tomatoes and vegetables, salt and pepper. Simmer on low until vegetables are tender (you don't want them mushy). Add your fresh herbs. If using dried herbs, use about a teaspoon of each and add them with the tomatoes. This tastes even better the next day!. Serves 6
Recipe Name
It's the middle of summer and the vegetables are abundant. I love picking up red potatoes at my local CSA. Green beans are plentiful and the tomatoes are starting to come in. Here is a quick and easy salad. Reprinted from The China Study Cookbook.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds unpeeled red skin potatoes, cut into ½-inch cubes
- ¾ pound fresh green beans, trimmed and halved
- 1 red bell pepper, diced small
- 1 small yellow onion, diced small
- ½ cup All Purpose Vinaigrette
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 Tbsp dried tarragon or 2 Tbsp minced fresh tarragon, or substitute rosemary or thyme
Instructions
- 1. In a large pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil.
- 2. Add the potatoes and green beans, and cook over medium heat for 7 minutes or until tender.
- 3. Drain and rinse the vegetables under cold water. Add the vegetables to a bowl, then add the remaining ingredients.
- 4. Gently toss to mix well.
All Purpose Vinaigrette Ingredients by Chef Del Sroufe
- ½ cup balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup Dijon mustard
- ¼ cup minced shallot
- ground black pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
How do you want to live?Hunter S Thompson said on designing your life "Beware of looking for goals; look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living within that way of life."
When you think about changing your lifestyle to include healthier habits and an optimal way of eating, you might be thinking of the obstacles that come with it.
There are several impediments to changing routines, particularly when adding new tasks and activities, such as food preparation and exercise. One reason is that people usually do not have large blocks of unoccupied time.
People usually say, “I understand what you are telling me to do and why it is a good idea but I’m so busy now I don’t know how I’ll find time to shop, cook, and exercise.”
Since you don’t have free time now and you can’t manufacture more – we all have to work within a 24-hour day – changing the way you plan and schedule in order to do more with the time you have are the keys to success.
Creating a time management system for yourself can help you fit in your healthy habit changes. It is simple, but requires commitment and the willingness to set and stick with schedules. Remember that it is only by repeating the right behaviors in a stable context over a long period of time that you will form and maintain good habits. I am going to share what has worked for me.
The first thing you will need is a paper planner (yes, paper, not your phone calendar) that allows you to see an entire week at a time with weekend days grouped together. Your planner should also have times to write in your activities from 8AM to 9PM on weekdays, and space for each day to write lists of things to do, reminders, birthdays and other things to remember.
Start by writing in all of the recurring activities you do each year, and the events you have already scheduled. Examples of recurring things would be your monthly book club meeting, piano lessons on Wednesday night at 7PM, and the annual meeting for a charity you support that takes place on the first Tuesday in June. Examples of things you have already scheduled would include things like the Alaskan cruise you are taking in July. Then write in birthdays, anniversaries, the dates you need to file your sales tax returns and all of the other happenings you don’t want to forget. Write in your workday hours, if applicable.
The times not already blocked out are what you have left for everything else, and you should write in the days and times each week you will be doing everything needed to maintain your life. These things include buying a birthday present for the party you are attending next week, taking your car in for an oil change, and of course, shopping for food, batch cooking, and exercise. The key is consistency, both in writing everything in your planner, and keeping the appointments you make with yourself to do the things you have decided are important to you. This system works if you make your mind up to do it.
Sometimes I just don’t feel like doing the things I’ve committed to, like shopping, at a specific time. Most people have to do things regularly that they may not feel like doing in the moment, like filing a tax return, taking care of children, and going to work. At some point you have to make the decision that not feeling like doing it is not a valid reason to not practice good habits. You don’t tell the IRS that you just didn’t feel like filing your tax return, or your employer that you’re just not in the mood to come in today. You have lots of experience in rallying to do things when they need to be done. Toughen up, put on your big girl or big boy pants, and do the right thing!
Doing the same thing over and over is how you develop a routine that can lead to better habits. We all can come up with excuses to justify our bad behavior.
For things to change, you’ve got to change. For things to get better, you’ve got to get better.
Liz Fattore
Nurture Your Health
Licensed Food Over Medicine Professional
