Eating Healthy Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
Rachel Williamson

So many people dread the idea of “health food,” but the truth is that many foods labelled “healthy” are actually quite delicious. The key is the way you eat them, what you combine them with, and how much you eat.

When you think of healthy foods, do you think of boring Brussels sprouts and bland broccoli? Think again! You can have all the flavor you want and still keep the number on the scale down and keep your heart healthy.

Take your favorite recipes and look at the ingredients. Decide which ingredients are the least healthy and replace them. It’s as simple as that. For recipes that call for butter, try to replace it with olive oil. For recipes that call for whole milk, replace it with skim milk (or soy milk). For recipes that call for chicken broth, replace it with vegetable broth.

One big thing you can do to lower your intake of saturated fats is to lower your consumption of red meat. Whenever you can, replace red meat with fish. If you’re adventurous, you can replace red meat with soy substitutes. There are many soy products on the market that taste delicious. Soy crumbles are particularly good in homemade tacos and casseroles.

If eating healthy is difficult for you, don’t be too hard on yourself. Focus on changing gradually. If you can’t give up your usual dinner, have a healthy lunch. Every little bit helps. While it may not be true that “you are what you eat,” it is true that your health is directly affected by what you eat. You owe it to yourself and your body to feed it the proper fuel.

Besides replacing your old stand-bys with healthier alternatives, try to add 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. You’d be surprised how easy this is. For example, you might add some sliced banana to your morning breakfast, have an orange with lunch, have an apple for an afternoon snack, eat some beans with dinner, and have some blueberries on top of ice cream for dessert. Find your own way of adding fruits and vegetables into your diet so it works for you.

Small changes in your diet can make a huge difference. Don’t beat yourself up if your diet isn’t perfect. The important thing is to make it better than it was before. Even if you only add one or two pieces of fruit per day, you’re on the right track! You’ll begin to feel the difference and that will encourage you to do even better.

About the Author

Rachel Williamson shares healthy recipes and food news in Eat This!, a food blog.

Tags: Afternoon Snack, Author, Blueberries, Broccoli, Brussels, Brussels Sprouts, Bys, Casseroles, Chicken Broth, Dread, Favorite Recipes, food blog, food news, Fruits And Vegetables, Health Food, Healthy Foods, Morning Breakfast, olive oil;, Proper Fuel, Rachel Williamson, Red Meat, Saturated Fats, soy products, Tacos, Vegetable Broth, Whole Milk —

There are all kinds of diets out there; some are made solely for the purpose of losing weight, while others combine weight loss with other health benefits. The 3 Day Heart Diet is an example of the latter, at least on the surface. The truth is that there is quite a bit of confusion on this matter and we will try to clear it up.

An e-mail has been circulating for years which claims that the 3 Day Heart Diet was created by doctors at one prestigious medical facility or another. However, whenever these places are contacted for verification, they always say they were not the ones behind the diet. What that means is that whoever created the diet most likely had a reason for claiming it came from a reputable source.

It’s impossible to know the true motive behind this version of the 3 Day Heart Diet, but it’s quite possible to see that whoever created it did not understand heart health (or used that name for different reasons). For example, the original diet has you eating a full quarter-pound of meat at one meal, and no indication of the type of meat is given. Another meal suggests you eat two hot dogs! Let’s face it, even if you could lose weight on such a plan (as adherents to the Atkins Diet will avow); it is not ideal for keeping your heart healthy.

Now, if you want to lose weight, then just about any 3 day diet will do the trick. But if you want to lose weight and do your heart some good at the same time, then you need to eat foods that have been shown to help your heart.

Here is one day of a better 3 Day Heart Diet

Breakfast:
1/2 cup oatmeal topped with 1 tablespoon ground flax seed and 1/4 cup mixed berries
1/2 cup cantaloupe
6 ounces orange juice
1 cup of tea

Midmorning snack:
1 ounce mixed nuts

Lunch:
1 can tuna packed in spring water
Spinach and tomato salad drizzled with olive oil
1/2 cup papaya

Afternoon snack:
1/2 ounce dark chocolate (the darker the better)

Dinner:
3 to 4 ounces grilled salmon
1/4 cup beans over 1 cup brown rice
1 glass red wine
Substitute 1 cup of tea if you do not drink alcohol

Not only are these foods much healthier for you, but you can actually stick to an eating plan like this for life. You shouldn’t limit your diet to only these foods, but these are a good start. Enjoy a wide variety of foods for optimum health and sustainable weight loss.

If you happen upon the less healthy version of the 3 Day Heart Diet, then you can follow it, but be careful. It is very low in calories, and should not be done unless you talk to your doctor about it first. It should not be followed for any longer than three days. That being said, the modified heart diet mentioned above is a safer, more satisfying, and will help you lose weight and keep it off for good.

Tags: Afternoon Snack, Atkins, Atkins Diet, Calories, Cup Brown Rice, Cup Oatmeal, Dark Chocolate, E Mail, Eating Habits, Grilled Salmon, Ground Flax Seed, Healthy Diet, Heart Diet, Hot Dogs, Keeping Your Heart, Losing Weight, Mixed Nuts, Quarter Pound, Red Wine, Reputable Source, Snack 1, Tomato Salad, True Motive, Water Spinach, Wine Substitute —