Helm Janet - COOKING LIGHT The Food Lovers Healthy Habits Cookbook Great Food & Expert Advice That Will Change Your Life

Cooking Light.

THE FOOD LOVERS

HEALTHY
HABITS

COOKBOOK

with JANET HELM, MS, RD

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME TO THE 12 HEALTHY HABITS

GET READY TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE, one delicious meal and one healthy habit at a time. Delicious and healthy can happily coexist, and they should. The Food Lovers Healthy Habits Cookbook will show you how. Its a book that helps you improve your health and encourages you to embrace the joyous pleasures of the table.

This is not a diet book. Instead of taking a quick-fix approach, this book highlights the importance of healthy habits. The focus is on changing behaviors and learning how to eat for a lifetime. After all, healthy eating should be enjoyable, easy, and gimmick-free, not bogged down by rules and restrictions.

With our approach, youll find that nothing is off limits. In fact, nearly all the 12 healthy habits are positive changesthings to add instead of eliminate, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy fats, seafood, and breakfast. The emphasis is on savoring flavorful whole foods, practicing moderation, being mindful, and staying active. You wont find a list of foods to avoid. Strict boundaries and extremes arent sustainable. A healthy approach to eating includes permission to satisfy that part of the soul that craves chocolate, gooey mac and cheese, or juicy burgers. The key is balance.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE HABITS

As much as you may want to make healthier choices, change can be hard. Even the awareness of what to do is not always enough. Youve heard many times before what it means to eat healthier and why physical activity is important. The challenge is making it happen.

It all comes down to establishing a different daily routine and adopting new habits. A habit has been described as an intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. To make something a habit, you need all three.

Were here to help you move past knowledge, giving you new skills, realistic solutions, concrete ideas, and delicious recipes to adopt a dozen healthy habitsbehaviors that science tells us will have the greatest impact on our health. We also hope to inspire and motivate you by showcasing other people who are on the same journey to change their habits and live a healthier life.

Enjoy your food, but eat less.

WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT

This book is a reflection of the stories we heard, the challenges people faced, and the positive changes theyve made. Think of it as your guide to a healthier lifestyle with lots of road-tested tips and tricks that have worked for others. Youll find simple moves and good food that can change your life.

Sometimes all the shoulds can be overwhelming. Thats why weve taken the big picture of good health and broken it down into bite-sized nuggets so you can focus on one habit at a time. Each habit includes a measurable goal, along with specific steps to help you reach it. All 12 healthy habits are intended to get you closer to the latest nutrition and physical fitness guidelines. These are the daily behaviors that will help you live a long, healthy life.

YOUR 12 HEALTHY HABIT GOALS

Cook at least three more meals per week.

Eat a healthy breakfast every day of the week.

Eat three servings of whole grains each day.

Be active for 30 minutes a day, three times a week.

Eat three servings of veggies each day.

Make seafood the centerpiece of two meals a week.

Increase healthy fats and decrease unhealthy fats every day.

Go meatless one day a week for all three meals.

Add strength training at least two times a week.

Reduce the amount of sodium you eat every day.

Find strategies to help you eat less without thinking about it.

Be mindful, purposeful, and joyful each time you eat.

WHAT THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT

This is not a book to help you quickly lose weight or get ready for bikini season. Its not about blasting belly fat. You wont see the words detox or cleanse anywhere on these pages. Instead, this book will help you get off the diet merry-go-round and find a way to eat (and enjoy) food for the rest of your life. The answer doesnt lie in the latest fad diet. The path to better health and a trimmer waistline is through establishing new habits. Its about embracing new behaviors that you can sustain for life. Keeping pleasure in the picture will help.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Try to focus on one habit at a time, and commit to it intently for one month. Pick one habit that you want to start with, and then work your way through the book. You can go in order or skip around if youd like, although you may want to start with the first habit of cooking more at home, which will make it easier for you to adopt the other 11 habits. For instance, it will be tough for you to slash the salt if you rarely cook your own meals.

When you start a new chapter, think about your personal habit hurdlesthose specific challenges that are standing in your wayand figure out how far you need to go to reach the goal thats part of each habit, such as eating three more servings of veggies a day or incorporating fish or shellfish into your meals twice a week. You need to understand your existing habits to know what changes you need to make and to discover what will work for you.

Take a look at the challenges of the real-life people weve profiled. Do you have similar barriers? If so, find out what you can glean from their stories. Whatever you do, be sure to take baby steps instead of giant leaps. Changing habits takes time, and you need a process. (youll find a that can help get you started.) Research tells us that long-term behavior change is the result of small victories and little daily tweaks over a long period of time. What you had to consciously decide to do at first eventually becomes automatic.

Each chapter outlines specific strategies you can use to meet your personal goals. Again, its about starting slow and being consistent. Youre in this for the long haul.

Once you feel like youre well on your way to embracing a habit, then move on to a new one. Each new healthy habit begets the next. You may discover a keystone habit that helps the other habits fall into place. Your aim is to incorporate all 12 of these habits in your daily life, practicing the new behaviors until they become routine. In the end, youll be making 12 powerful changes that truly have the potential to change your life.