My Favorite Tips for Healthy Eating
Hiiii, it’s me, Remi!
Today I am talking all about FOOD!
You know I am very active, but I also LOVEEEE to eat! I am all about delicious, healthy, easy recipes and locally sourcing fruits, meats, and veggies to eat. Especially since I just reorganized my kitchen, I have really learned to enjoy cooking all kinds of dishes — from delicious natto omelets for breakfast to a steak salad or shrimp scampi for dinner! So today, I want to share some of my very favorite recipes with you!
I also want to share some of my food tips to help you make mealtimes easier and more fun. Nate and I love to do meal prepping, and we also love to cook dishes that we can repurpose into new meals the next day! (We love leftovers!) We also like to get lots of super fresh and healthy ingredients on Sunday every week— but I don’t want to spoil all of my tips upfront!
I hope my recipes give you some inspiration, and I hope you’ll share your favorite recipes with me, too!
The Most Important Meal of the Day — Breakfast!!!
After I workout, I have to have a good breakfast! One of my go-to’s is my signature natto omelet! Natto is a traditional Japanese dish made from fermented beans, and it’s delicious with eggs! Benefits of natto include healthy bacteria for immune system support, strong bones, and a healthy heart! I think it’s the secret to living a long life along with my matcha latte. lol
Check out this vlog where you guys voted on everything I ate throughout the day, it was either donuts or natto omelet for breakfast. That was fun, maybe we should do that again for Nate!!
Another favorite morning dish is oatmeal! You can put all kinds of fresh ingredients in oatmeal to change it up and create a whole variety of healthy breakfast bowls. Try these recipes here, here, here, here, here, and here if you’re looking for some healthy breakfast inspiration!
I also LOVE putting kimchi on just about everything! I enjoy topping my yummy omelets with natto and some kimchi, while Nate prefers cottage cheese and fermented veggies. That’s our secret tip to getting healthy bacteria and probiotics into our diet daily.
Cooking Tip #1: Turn Leftovers into Something New and Delicious!
In this vlog, where I shared with you everything Nate and I ate for a week, the very first dish I made was a salmon scramble! Nate and I had cooked salmon for dinner the night before, so the next morning I took the leftovers and scrambled them with some eggs and spinach and topped the bowls off with our favorite toppings for a perfect breakfast! It was a great way to use up our leftover salmon and create a new dish!
And, good news, you can do this for any meal — not just breakfast! For example, one night I a delicious marinara sauce for dinner and just included some leftover ground turkey in the sauce! Then, on a different day, I used some of that same leftover marinara sauce with leftover cherry tomatoes for a delicious dinner salad. I got to use up my sauce and tomatoes, but also I got to eat them in a totally different way, and both were equally super tasty!
I’m always looking for ways to reuse ingredients and make them into something new. That way, there’s less waste, and I get to invent some new recipes!
Buying Fresh Ingredients
You knowww we look forward to our weekly farmers market run. Season fruits and veggies just TASTE BETTER! For example, roasted persimmons or peaches (whatever is in season) are absolutely delicious in a salad with some grilled chicken, quinoa, kale, brussels sprouts, sweet potato, and broccoli! Some of you think it’s weird that I mix savory and sweet, but I don’t mind it at all. I lovvve variety.
We also always cook sweet potatoes! Sometimes I’ll eat some sweet potatoes with a little bit of honey for a dessert, and other times I like to make sweet potato fries to go with my favorite plant-based Awesome Burger. Either way, I’m getting lots of that fresh-produce goodness!
Cooking Tip #2: Stock Up on Fresh Produce Once a Week!
One of the things I really recommend doing is picking up plenty of fresh produce every week. That way, you can have lots of great fruits and vegetables on-hand and you can cook them in creative ways throughout the week.
Nate and I like to visit our local farmer’s market every Sunday. On my vlog, I actually show you a few of the delicious things we like to get there — including lots of spinach, kale, brussels sprouts, tricolor sweet potatoes, smoked salmon, apples, and blueberries!
Do you have a local farmer’s market? If you do, I recommend checking it out! See what kinds of seasonal foods you can pick up this weekend. Come home and toss it all together in a bowl with your favorite dressing and protein. So easy!
Eating Out and Staying Healthy
Eating out can be tough especially if you don’t have a lot of healthy restaurant options where you are! That said, I still love enjoying a glass of wine or some ice cream every now and again!
Here’s a simple rule I like to use: the 80/20 rule! When I eat out, I try to make sure that 80% of my meal is healthy food that I would normally eat, and then I use the leftover 20% to treat myself. So, for example, when Nate and I go out for date night, I might have a healthy and nutritious dinner but an ice cream cone to go with it.
This is also a helpful rule you can use for eating in general! Try to make 80% of your diet every day healthy, and treat yourself with the other 20%. That way, you can still enjoy a fun and delicious treat from time to time, but you’re staying on track with your healthy diet and fitness goals!
But that’s not the only healthy rule of thumb I like to use when I’m eating out and eating in general! Have you ever heard the phrase “Hara Hachi Bu?” It’s a Japanese saying that my mom used to say to me all the time. It means “eat until you’re 80% full.”
I don’t like “portion control,” but I can totally get down with Hara Hachi Bu. This is something that Okinawans practice, and they have the highest population of centenarians (people over 100yrs old!!!).
When you eat, it actually takes your brain about 10 minutes to catch up to your stomach. That means that when you feel like you’re 80% full, you’re actually full. My mom always used to say, “EAT SLOWER, and give your full attention to eating!” When I was little, I didn’t really get it. But now I understand! It’s better to pay attention to eating instead of scrolling mindlessly on your phone because you can pay attention to how full you feel and stop when you’re 80% full. And that way, you give your stomach a chance to properly digest and energize you instead of making you lethargic and slow.
Remember the two rules: The 80/20 rule says as a guide to try and eat healthy 80% of the time and 20% to treat yourself with no guilt, and Hara Hachi Bu which means that you eat until you feel 80% full. Both rules really help me to have a good time eating out while sticking to my health goals!
Cooking Made Easy: Variety and Convenience
Variety to me looks like spaghetti squash and shrimp scampi one night, shaved steak and bulgogi another night, and tilapia with cilantro lime crema the next.
Nate and I agree to disagree on this because he can have the EXACT same salad (with a few ingredient changes) every meal and call that variety. But I need to change it up!
Cooking Tip #3: Make it Convenient
When I first started cooking for myself, I didn’t just one day know how to cook or have multiple delicious recipes at my disposal. Breakfast was my jam, but I had verrrrry little experience cooking lunch and dinners. I actually learned to love cooking by getting meal kits delivered and still keep @greenchef on rotation.
It’s just foolproof, and there’s a variety of different meal options like keto, paleo, balanced living, and vegan so I never get bored. I learned how to cook chicken in different ways, tried out new flavors and spices this way, learned how to make veggies more flavorful, and I love that each meal takes around 30 minutes to make.
I never have to feel guilty about throwing away wilted veggies or unused protein because every ingredient is pre-portioned out. It also cuts out grocery shopping time and can be whipped up in half an hour. I even have leftovers for lunch the next day!
To me, anything that saves time and makes me consistent with something — whether that’s working out or eating healthy — is a yes yes yes.
AND I was able to grab a discount code for you! If you use code RRAYYME80, you get $80 off on your first four boxes!
Cooking doesn’t have to be stressful or difficult — you can make it easy with tools like Green Chef!
What Are Your Best Healthy Cooking Tips?
Thank you so so much for reading this post! There are so many fun and creative things to cook, and it’s fun to find new ways to use and reuse your favorite fresh and yummy ingredients.
What did you think of my cooking tips? Have you tried any of them? Do you have any of your own that you want to share? I’d love to hear about them!
And if you have any fun recipes or creative uses for your leftovers, I’d love to hear about those too! Share them here or on Instagram — let’s get creative in the kitchen together!
Until next time, don’t forget to check out my vlogs that inspired this post! In this one I show you everything Nate and I ate for a week, and in this one I let my Instagram followers vote on what I should eat for all of my meals and snacks throughout the day. Both videos were a ton of fun to shoot, and I hope you enjoy them!
And if you’re looking for some more tips on healthy eating, definitely check out my blog post where Nate and I talk all about how to stop unhealthy eating habits and start making delicious healthier choices in the kitchen!
I hope this post inspired you to have fun in the kitchen and create some amazing and healthy new recipes. Now get in the kitchen and start having fun!
