Health: Where to Start? Part I
Health is an ambiguous, complicated topic these days. Within 30 minutes of surfing the web, you can find thousands of opinions on what you should eat, how much you should eat, how often you should eat, what you should do for exercise, how often you should exercise. Is coffee good or bad for you? Are whole grains good or bad for you? What about butter? Red meat? BACON?!
It’s confusing. I get it.
The amount of stress that we place on ourselves about making the wrong decision is probably worse for us than the wrong decision itself.
So where do you start?
#1 – EAT REAL FOOD – “Diet is King, Exercise is Queen”
Sound vague? It’s not. You’re smart and you know what is and isn’t real food. If the ingredient list is more than a few things (that you can pronounce), it’s probably not real.
If you have to buy it in a box, bag, or some sort of packaging, chances are that it is processed junk. Are there exceptions? Sure, but we’re keeping this simple. Sticking to traditional, nourishing foods is your best bet for a consistently healthy diet. This way, you aren’t spending your time roaming the aisles looking for that “SUPERFOOD” in the sexy packaging.
Here are the bones of my typical grocery list:
– Veggies and Fruit (stick to organic if possible)
– Grass-fed butter (Organic Valley’s pasture butter and Kerrygold are my favorite)
– Coconut Oil
– Eggs (I get most of my eggs from Dad’s chickens, but if I need more, I’ll go for some pastured eggs)
– Meats – Grass-fed beef, pastured pork, free range chicken, sardines (Yes, I do eat them and so should you).
– Good quality water – Reverse osmosis filtered or a good spring water are best.
That’s literally it.
Lots of veggies, fruit here and there, good quality meat, and healthy fats. It’s super healthy, delicious, and I can feed my family for about $70-80/wk. You can bring that price down even more by buying your meats in bulk from a local farmer or hunting for game meat.
I realize that I’m not blowing any minds with this; I’m not going for that. We tend to over-complicate these things, get overwhelmed, and end up doing nothing. But I promise if you would start with just this, your health goals would become much more attainable.
Give it a shot! It’s really not hard.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Dr. Jordan