Sometimes, OK maybe a lot of the times, we paralyze ourselves with delusions of grandeur when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle. In other words, we have all of these grand plans for how we are going to “get healthy” one day, and we constantly bog ourselves down with the multitude of things we need to do to get there.

Eat more vegetables, drink more water, exercise every morning before work, cut out carbs, don’t snack after 7pm, get to sleep earlier, count your calories, fast until noon every other day…… you get the idea. But, in massaging all of these ideas over and over again in our mind’s eye, we inadvertently stall ourselves out on the endless (im)possibilities and the sheer magnitude of effort we’d need to put forth in order to achieve it all.

If you can relate to what I’m talking about above, this article will be extremely helpful to you. We’ve all heard the saying “only bite off what you can chew”, or “the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.” Sound advice to be sure, but the problem for most of us is: “What bite do I take first?”

This article is going to answer that question for you.

But first, a quick encouragement: The point of taking just one bite at a time is, perhaps quite obviously, to take the first step, second, and third, slow and steady like, without allowing your brain to snowball ahead of itself, thereby tripping you up in the process. The point is to keep your eyes focused on the feet that are carrying you towards your vision, one step at a time, full well knowing that the path you are on will undeniably take you to your destination if you simply stay the course. Easier said than done, yes?

This step-by-step process sounds legit on the surface, but all too often we begin to doubt the very steps our feet are taking. This has happened to all of us, right? No sense in denying it. Our faith takes a nose dive as we lose patience, belief, and trust in ourselves. So what do we do when we feel the panic set in over whether or not the steps we’re taking are, in fact, the right steps? We lose our focus and our confidence, and we become paralyzed. We procrastinate, we cheat, we pretend we don’t care anymore. To jump back over to the one-bite-at-a-time analogy again, we abandon the elephant we were eating in an effort to find a better one, a faster one, an easier one. And in the process, we stop taking bites all together!

Don’t do that! Don’t lose heart, don’t allow yourself to get lost in some rabbit hole somewhere, searching for a different elephant. Don’t forget that all you need to do is take the next step, or the next bite, whichever analogy works best for you. Keep to the plan, slow and steady. And if you trip yourself up, just set your sights right back down to where you were walking when you got sidetracked, and keep on going. Deal? Deal.

The following three food swaps will give you the momentum you need to make even more changes, but only after you make these three changes first. Why? Because after you’ve incorporated these three changes, you will not be the same person you were before you did so. Become a healthier version of yourself first, and make any and all future changes accordingly. Don’t get ahead of yourself, be patient, and honor that elephant 🙂

OILS OILS THE WONDERFUL FRUIT

For purposes of this article and to respect your time, I’m not going to deliver you a monologue containing the benefits and drawbacks of each type of oil. You are here to learn three effortless food swaps, not to learn about the molecular structures and manufacturing practices behind the scenes of every oil ever used by man (or wo-man). If you want to go behind the scenes, I’ve found this article super informative. Below, I’ll outline a few of the main reasons you’ll want to make the switch, wrap it up with an action step, and leave it at that.

TIP #1: USE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL, AVOCADO OIL, AND COCONUT OIL instead of CANOLA OIL, SUNFLOWER OIL, PALM OIL, AND OTHER VEGETABLE OILS.

• Using canola, sunflower, and vegetable oils in your cooking gives you a disproportionately large dose of Omega-6 fatty acids (as compared to Omega-3’s and other healthy fats), which leads to a propensity for inflammation and cellular stress within the body. As you might guess, using olive, avocado, and coconut oil provide you with healthy fats that help your body to regulate inflammation, build and repair processes at the cellular level, and keep your hormones functioning properly.
• While all types of oils can originate from sub par lineage, the latter category is much more likely to deliver you a product full of genetically-modified organisms, harsh chemical processes, and little to no nutrient value. Don’t believe what you read on the labels! To clean things up and to give your body a fighting chance, make sure the extra virgin olive oil you choose is actually extra virgin, and that any healthy oils you use are cold-pressed, unrefined, unfiltered, and organically sourced.
• Be on the lookout ~ restaurants, even the “expensive” ones, limit their use of high quality oils in their cooking. Some may even cut their extra virgin olive oil with canola, and advertise that they use only extra virgin varieties. So you know that time when you ordered sauteed broccoli on the side instead of french fries? Well, even though the broccoli is still the more nutrient-dense choice, it was most likely cooked in a dangerous and oily concoction that left your body over-compensating for the red flags. I admit, it’s almost impossible to avoid these inflammatory oils all the time (please don’t cut out vegetables just because they might be covered in canola oil). But it is best to be aware of the situations we face, and to put ourselves in control of the ingredients that go into our food as often as possible.
• I know there’s a million different olive oils out there on the market, and picking the best one is a tall order indeed. While there are many clean, honest, quality olive oil companies out there, I’ll just cut to the chase and shamelessly refer you to Olive Oil Pantry. Not only are their standards super high on the extra virgin olive oil side of their business, but they’ll knock your socks off when it comes to Authentic Balsamic Vinegar as well. You’ll find unflavored and flavored variations of both products on their website, so get creative and give yourself the jump start on this first ingredient swap starting now 🙂 If you’d rather just try their unflavored organic extra virgin olive oil straight away, you can quick grab a bottle or two here (affiliate link.)

SALTY IS MY MIDDLE NAME

We all ingest salt, whether we mean to or not. Salt, in fact, is an important part of the human diet, and should not be avoided entirely. I feel the media has scared us all into thinking that salt is evil, unfortunately, but it serves many a purpose when it comes to optimum cellular function within the body.

The main problem isn’t in using a shake of salt on your fish or another couple on your veggies, the problem comes in the irresponsible amount of salt found in all the processed food, restaurant food, and even beverages we consume on the daily. Salt, like sugar, is hidden in just about everything we put in our mouths, unless, of course, we become more conscientious of what we put in our mouths.

To this end, I recommend transitioning into making more of your own food, so that you can have more control over the ingredients contained within. But when you must eat on the run, or enjoy an evening on the town, look for foods made with healthier sources of salt; the ingredient list will no doubt tell you if a quality variety of salt has been used (companies tend to pride themselves when using better ingredients, and won’t keep it a secret). Chips, snack bars, popcorn, even some restaurants, are upgrading, so be on the lookout! And of course, while making any of your own food, I highly recommend the following:

TIP #2: USE HIMALAYAN PINK SALT instead of BLEACHED-OUT WHITE TABLE SALT

• More minerals and trace elements equal a healthier pH and electrolyte balance within the body, a deeper hydration of tissues both inside and outside the cell walls, improved circulation overall, and more efficient absorption of nutrients from the foods you consume it with. For a full list of benefits and more in-depth information on sourcing, you can go here.
• Table salt contains higher levels of actual sodium than Himalayan pink salt, plus the bleaching process is pretty scary chemical-wise. There is really no added nutritional value to white table salt, especially in the amounts that we consume, past the small amount of sodium our body needs for its chemistry equations. Might as well get more for your money and use the pink stuff, in my humble opinion.
• Want a quick go-to for your new salt of choice? Give this Frontier Co-op (affiliate link) version a try. If you’d like to take the plunge and buy bulk, Costco offers their Kirkland brand tub at a more economical price, although probably not as high in quality sourcing as the smaller guys offer.

FULL FAT IS FULL OF HEALTH

I think more and more people are realizing that fat isn’t as mean and scary as it used to be. In fact, we now know that there’s a big difference between the fat you find in donuts and McDonald’s hamburgers and the fat you find in avocados, walnuts, and olive oil (there’s that darn olive oil again!)

Fat is essential for cellular function, for energy, for satiation. For hormones, for brain health, for digestion. The bottom line is, our bodies need a lot more fat than we are probably giving it, and as a result we are running around short on a bunch of core bodily functions that are meant to keep us healthy, happy, creative, and connected.

So the overall big-picture take-away here is to eventually be eating way more good fat than bad fat. Eat more real food and less processed food. We all know that. But what is one small step we can take to start us off in the right direction, without throwing our entire diet into a tail-spin before we even get started?

TIP #3 ~ EAT FULL-FAT DAIRY (or DAIRY-ALTERNATIVES) instead of LOW-FAT OR FAT- FREE VARIETIES

• The ‘Dairy’ category here includes yogurt, milk, butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, ice creams, soft cheeses, and hard cheeses. If you don’t consume dairy, but love your soy/rice/coconut counterparts, the same rule applies (more on soy in another post, I’ll include a link when it’s ready!)
• Products low on fat have to make up for the loss in texture and taste somehow. Normally that means adding in a bunch of sugar and other preservatives that weren’t meant to be in that product in its most natural state. Extra ingredients that are hard to pronounce, and extra sugar that messes with your insulin, both create unnecessary sludge for your body to sift through. Keep your dairy and dairy-alternative products as unadulterated as you can!
• Higher fat content means long-term energy after a snack or a meal. This is a very good thing. Fat slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, so you aren’t faced with that after-meal energy crash you’ve been putting up with. Instead, fat carries you through while giving your body the fuel it needs for essential cellular functions.
• Fat is more satisfying because it gives food texture, and has more calories than carbs (sugar) or protein, which means you’ll feel fuller for way longer than if you gulp down those fat-free cookies with a glass of skim milk. (By the way, there’s lots of reasons calories should NOT be the main standard by which we choose our food; if you want to learn more, full-fat coconut milk (affiliate link) over raspberries. If you need more of a meal, mixing 1/4 cup of coconut milk into a protein shake with spinach and chia seeds, or into a bowl of quinoa mixed with full-fat plain unsweetened yogurt, cinnamon, pecans, and a little honey, are great options. Or for a super fast treat, try avocados mixed with lime and salt (Himalayan pink salt, remember! 😉 That’ll fill you right up, and keep your body running strong and long until your next meal.

When you fill up on real food with real calories and real taste (a.k.a. healthy fat), you crowd out the sugary, junk-food cravings on the spot. It totally works! Eat real food first!

• Switch to full-fat butter immediately! No more margarine or low-fat impostors allowed. My family goes through Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter for all of our baking and garlic-bread eating. Same goes for our sour cream and cottage cheese (I dare you to compare ingredient lists of full-fat versus low-fat varieties!)

So there you have it, three effortless ingredient swaps you can make right now without even noticing that you made them. For my full list of 12 effortless swaps and additions you can easily incorporate into your life, fill out the form below!

Remember, one bite at a time. If you start to feel overwhelmed or paralyzed, dial your efforts back a little bit, and take the pressure off. You don’t have to do this all at once. Slow and steady stays the course….. Of that I am convinced. I hope with time, you will be too.