Tag: food

Cookbook Recommendations

“I cannot stress a greater importance than to teach the young generation about the risks of unhealthy eating. A great way to pique their interest in nutrition is to involve them more in the cooking process. They not only will learn to cook for themselves, but also develop a lifetime of healthy habits.” – Marcus Samuelsson

I have found that the best way for me to take control of my health has been to cook my own meals. I know it sounds like a huge undertaking, but it is so worth the investment of your time. How better to control what we are putting into our bodies, than to be the person selecting the ingredients used?

There are many ways to make cooking work with our busy schedules and I too have struggled with that. The easiest way to make things work, is to keep things simple. You do not have to spend hours in the kitchen. If you are not sure where to start, I will share some of the cookbooks I use on a daily basis. They are my go to for easy meals, with minimum ingredients and time needed. These recipes are simple, yet delicious. Sometimes, less is more.

Cookbook Recommendations

PlantYou: Scrappy Cooking – The newest cookbook from highly popular author Carleigh Bodrug is packed with over 150+ whole-food, plant-based recipes that show the reader how to make the most of the food they have in their fridge and pantry with easy and approachable vegan recipes anyone can make. It is my newest addition and I am loving her fresh ideas and that it helps me avoid wasting food. Truly worth exploring, especially if you are new to plant based cooking.

Plant You – Also, by Carleigh Bodrug, this book is a ridiculously easy plant-based, oil-free cookbook with over 140+ healthy vegan recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, cheese sauces, salad dressings, dessert and more! It’s actually so good, I accidentally bought it twice! Very accessible to use and recipes are simple, yet delicious!

Joyfull – This newly released cookbook by Radhi Delvukia-Shetty, soared to the top of the NY Times booklist in it’s first weeks. The book includes, more than 125 plant-based recipes and a practical approach to making deeply flavorful food for feeling your best. I absolutely love this book. The recipes have a few more steps thank the Plant You series, but they are worth the time. Perhaps use this for weekend meals, or nights where you have a bit more time.

Big Vegan Flavor – This book, by Nisha Vora, will be released on September 3, but I have already preordered it. I love ever recipe Nisha shares and am anxiously awaiting this book. The benefit of preorder is that I am guaranteed a copy on the first release. Trust me this will sell out as Nisha is wildly popular on social media, under the name Rainbow Plant Life. These recipes provide us with restaurant quality meals that I use often. Highly recommend, especially if you love to cook like I do.

Those are the books I use daily and recommend you have in your collection. I am aware you can get many recipes online, but as a home cook, I have grown tired of the computer constantly going to sleep in the middle of preparation. I find it so much easier to have my cookbook out and open. If you’d like a cookbook stand on the counter that can hold your book, or ipad, this is a nice option.

I hope you get excited about cooking through these books. Please let me know if you try one. Even if you are not vegan, adding in plant based meals to your weekly rotation can help improve your health. Many of you actually do Meatless Mondays, so these books can give you some new ideas. Please share photos of anything you cook on Instagram and tag me @ReclaimingHealthBlog.

*As an Amazon Associate, I may receive compensation on any links provided. This helps support the running of this website and I thank you for your support.

Change Our Thinking About Food

“I realized that the answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated question of what we should eat wasn’t so complicated after all, and in fact could be boiled down to just seven words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Michael Pollan, Food Rules An Eater’s Manual

Recently a friend and I went out for breakfast and had a long chat about food. Specifically, we talked about the impact diet rules had on our thoughts around eating. She spoke about not eating fruit or carbohydrates from years of doing keto diets. Many diets, like keto, have hard rules about what one can and cannot eat, or do. These rules are presented, much like the gospel, as the answer to all our problems. One of the most commonly known rules, no carbohydrates allowed, has shaped the eating habits of millions of people and not always in a good way.

I have another friend who did the Atkins diet for years, which according to her interpretation, mandated no carbohydrates ever. She ate iceberg lettuce (not much nutritional value) and roasted chicken breast every day for years. I asked why she couldn’t eat vegetables instead of this type of lettuce and she informed me that vegetables had “a lot of carbohydrates” and iceberg lettuce was “mainly water”, making it a better choice. I remember trying to talk some sense into her, but she would not be swayed. She ate very little food throughout the day, as it was hard to “find things that had no carbohydrates.” I watched as she got very thin and honestly, sickly looking. I watched as her hair starting falling out, likely from lack of nutrition. It was truly disturbing for me to watch and she wouldn’t listen to any of my pleas to reconsider. My friend is not alone in letting diet rules shape her thinking, causing unintended consequences on their health as a result. These types of hard rules are something I have an issue with, and believe are causing food misconceptions that can do more harm than good.

The diet industry has in large part been the driving force behind many of these misconceptions, through the unchecked offerings of quick fixes and holy grails to being thin. There is no one way to be healthy that works for every body, as every body is unique and has individual needs, especially if you have a medical condition. That said, I’d like to take a look at a few of the major “rules” most followed and offer an alternative option to think about.

No Carbohydrates

This is one of the most popular diet rules people follow to lose weight. I would steer clear of any rule, or diet, that is based on completely eliminating an entire food group. The main issue is that the body needs carbohydrates to function properly. They are our main energy source and in fact our brains get at least 20% of their energy from carbohydrates.

That said, not all carbohydrates are the same, meaning we can make healthier food choices in this category. Although refined carbs can be harmful when consumed in excess, whole-food sources of carbs are incredibly healthy. Therefore, the quality of carbohydrates we eat are more important than the quantity. Rather than elimination of this much needed food group, it is recommended that we reduce our intake of refined carbs (white bread, white flour pasta, cookies, soda) in the diet and replace them with complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

Good vs. Bad Foods

There are truly no bad foods, as all foods have something in them that our body can use for nutrition. Obviously there are healthier choices we can make, but labeling foods good and bad can have a huge impact on our mental health. If I go out to eat, I should not feel guilty if I eat a piece of bread, eat a potato or drink a glass of wine. Attaching moral labels to food consumption is just not healthy for anyone, as that can lead to feelings of guilt and shame about ourselves, based on what we eat.

I prefer here to think about progress, not perfection when making food selections. Instead of avoiding perceived bad foods, I focus on making healthier choices. If I want to eat something less healthy, like a piece of bread, I eat it in moderation. Depriving myself of it will only make me resentful and want it more. There is no guilt to be had in eating food, just make informed choices when planning your meals. Don’t try to eat perfectly 100% of the time. Rather, do your best to select healthier foods and know that occasionally you may eat something less healthy. If I look at my personal eating, I went from eating mostly take in, or restaurant food, to cooking 90% of my meals. I have zero guilt when I do go out to eat and I try to select healthier options, but if there is something I really want, I will order it without hesitation.

Eat Everything on Your Plate

I was raised to believe that not finishing everything on my plate was bad. I was told that there were people starving in the world, who would be more thankful for the food and that not eating all of mine was wasteful. I am sure many of you can relate to that thinking. My parents were not bad people, that was just the thinking at the time, but we know better now. There is no reason to eat more than you need to eat to feel satisfied. Portions are mostly too big, especially in restaurants, even at home. Our body knows when it has had enough and we should listen to it. I have gotten much better at not forcing myself to “clean” my plate when eating.

When I eat, I have slowed down to give myself a chance to feel full. There is a delay in the body recognizing it has been fed, so slow down, take your time and I bet you will find you eat less. When plating food at home, I have significantly reduced the portions I initially serve. There is always food for seconds, if we are still hungry, so no need to pile it on the plate. When I dine out, I generally ask for a take home box when the food arrives. I put half of my food in the box before eating. I eat half the meal, pause, then if I am still hungry I eat more. If not, my box is packed and ready to go home.

Changing Our Thinking

Any food rule that is restrictive can do more harm than good. Restrictive rules seek to rule our choices with hard rules, such as – no carbs, can’t have fruit or elimination of entire food group. To overcome these rules, we need to start by looking at our own thinking and ask, “What rules am I living by?”, “What role does that have on how I feel about myself?” and “How does that shape my food selection?” Consider writing these thoughts down to help you really think about the impact this thinking has had on you.

To truly break free from these rules, one needs to create a healthier relationship with food. These past four weeks, I have been really examining my own thinking around eating. As I have said in this blog, I have been eating primarily whole food, plant based items to see if my gut health improves. That said, when I first shifted, I was overly focused on tracking my macronutrient intake. I engaged in the above reflection around my food thinking and came to realize, I had some food misconceptions deeply ingrained in my thought process. It is definitely a work in progress, but I am studying the research and trying to educate myself as a means to make healthier choices.

If you connected to something in this blog, please do reach out. I love the messages I get about your journeys. It’s always great to hear your thoughts and ideas and to know I am not alone on this path. You can reach me on by email at laurakump@reclaiminghealthblog.com, on Instagram or in the comment section below.

Cooking to Nourish Your Mind, Body & Soul

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.

Laurie Colwin

The weekend after my high school graduation, I took my first apartment. At 18 years old, I wasn’t much of a cook and hadn’t had much appreciation for the meals my grandmother, or mother, had made. Fast food and cake were my main selections for meals. 

Newly married at 21, I had a small repertoire of recipes I could cook. It wasn’t extensive, but I could whip up some meat and potatoes and a bag of frozen vegetables. Pizza and baked ziti were my main selections for meals.

As a new mother at 25, I wanted to feed my infant son fresh foods, not foods in jars, as I was afraid of what might also be in them. I purchased my first crockpot and many fresh vegetables from the supermarket. I pureed these cooked vegetables and fruits and made homemade food for my son. Too tired to cook; pizza, baked ziti and tuna casserole were my main selections for meals.

Following the death of my beloved grandmother at 28, I took over hosting of all family holidays. I began developing the art of cooking the holiday meal from scratch. This was my gift of love to my family and helped keep family traditions alive. I really enjoyed doing it, however, too tired from raising three children and working full time, calling out for dinner was my main selection for meals.

When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I began cooking to keep my mind off watching her slowing leave us. Chopping up vegetables and onions became a form of therapy for me. Eating the delicious foods borne from following recipes and cooking shows, coupled with a nice bottle of wine became my main selection for meals.

Cooking is an art form and labor of love, but it is also one of the best things you can do for your health and well being. Cooking gives you control over what you are putting into your body, as you select and control the ingredients used. It is far healthier than eating fast food, or restaurant food regularly. The amount of fat and sodium consumed when eating out regularly cannot be denied. Cooking can be time consuming, especially at first, but I realized through my journey that it is truly worth the effort. 

Cooking has been so therapeutic for me and I cannot understate the joy it has provided as well. When journeying through the difficult walk of Alzheimer’s disease, it provided me great comfort, like a warm blanket. The cutting board, the chopping, the art of preparing a wholesome meal all brought calmness to my mind. Preparing family recipes kept me connected to family traditions and memories. It felt as if my grandmothers, mother and aunts were by my side guiding me along. Of course, there also was no denying the positive impact cooking had on my nutrition and health. Blood tests showed the improvement, as did my waist size and fitness level.

Cooking is love of self and family and likely the best gift you can give to yourself and them. It can be hard to do, especially when working full time, believe me I have been there. This is not a call to be tied to your stove, rather it is a call to see the value found in the art of cooking. With that in mind, here are some of the simple actions I took when starting out that helped me stick to it.

  • Plan Realistically – It’s easy to get overwhelmed, so plan out what you will cook and don’t take on too much at first. List meals you will prepare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I use a calendar template to list the meals I will have for each day and include where to find the recipe. If you do this on your computer, you can make a live link to the recipe. You can also, reuse weekly plans as you go and create a rotation.
  • Plan for Shopping – As I pick meals, I list the ingredients I will need to shop for. I list items by the aisle they are found in, ex., Produce, Frozen, etc. This makes shopping quicker. I only buy what I need to reduce costs and waste, ex. if I need one sweet potato that’s what I buy, not the whole bag.
  • Plan for Leftovers – As I pick meals, I think about using leftovers for lunch and/or dinners. Example, a vegetable lasagna tray can be used for at least two dinners, or lunch and an additional dinner. So planning out the week, I take that into account. This cuts down on over buying and waste of food. It also removes cooking from several nights.
  • Recipe Selection – Choose recipes that don’t have a ton of ingredients. Less is often more when cooking. Focus on clean, healthy ingredients and flavors you love. There are so many offerings online and on Instagram. Find a cook you love and peruse their offerings.
  • Meal Prep – I don’t like spending a whole day cooking on my weekends, never did. There is value in prepping though to save time throughout the week. Breakfast is the easiest meal to prep for the week. If you have having overnight oatmeal, it’s very easy to make several containers at once and put them in the refrigerator, eliminating any need to cook in the morning. This week, I baked a quick oatmeal, buckwheat, hemp and quinoa recipe that was cut into eight slices for eight breakfast grabs. Other items I like to prep for are granola options for over acaci bowls, or cashew yogurt. Finally, salad dressing options are made to last a few days. 
  • Vegetables – I prefer fresh, but have started using frozen organic options for some recipes. This cuts down on the chopping time needed to prepare for recipes. Frozen vegetables and fruits have great nutritional value and can lessen the time needed to get a recipe on the stove.
  • Whole Food Plant Based – these recipes take less time to prepare than most meat recipes and are great options for a work night. I made a delicious red lentil, walnut and mushroom bolognese sauce last night that was cooked and on the table in just under 60 minutes. These meals are also easier to digest in the evening when you may head to bed earlier.
  • Prepare Before Starting – I pull out and line up all ingredients I will need prior to beginning a cooking session. It takes a few extra minutes up front, but is well worth the time. I even measure out the spices and have them ready to just put into the pan. All of this makes following a recipe and cooking so much easier! I promise.
  • Clean Up as You Go – I clean and put things away as I go, making it so much easier when we are done eating to clean up. Leaving everything in the sink and out, as my husband would do, makes it feel overwhelming and messy. Once something is on the stove simmering, or in the oven, it is the perfect time to clean up and put things away. This often leaves me with only dinner dishes to rinse and put in the dishwasher when we are finished eating.
  • Start Small – If you are new cooking, or haven’t cooked in awhile, start small. Commit to cooking one meal a day for the first week. This will keep you from feeling overwhelmed. You can add other meals as you go, when you feel ready.

I hope you found something helpful in these suggestions. Go easy and give yourself grace to find what works for you. The most important thing, is that I hope you cook. 

We talked about doing something new to spark motivation in last week’s post. Perhaps cooking can be that something new. I truly hope it is. If you are already in love with cooking, please share some ideas with me through email at laurakump@reclaiminghealth.blog , Instagram @reclaiminghealthblog or in the comment section below. 

Eat to Live

I don’t have a diet. Jenny Craig got a diet. Seriously. I eat to live, not to die.

Bernard Hopkins

There are so many quotes attributed to Ben Franklin that we hear still today.  “Eat to live, don’t live to eat’’ is one of those quotes. Franklin believed that eating in excess should not be one’s favorite activity, rather they should eat to stay healthy, not over indulge. Further, he feels that eating shouldn’t be your favorite activity, but rather what you do to be healthy. While you may not agree with Franklin’s philosophy, it’s important to note that he lived for 84 years, which is well above the average lifespan of his time.

There seem to be two schools of thought on this topic, eat to live vs live to eat. I have been in love with food for most of my life. I love to cook and get so much happiness out of preparing a delicious meal for my friends and family. I also have been an emotional eater most of my life, using food to eat my emotions and feelings. Food has been a great source of comfort during the difficult times of my life. These actions put me solidly in the live to eat category. I love to plan menus, shop for ingredients and create tasty meals. Food has been much more than fuel for me and many times my day revolves around what meals I will be eating. 

On this health journey, I am trying to shift my relationship with food to find a healthier balance. Knowledge is power, so I have been studying the role of nutrition on aging and longevity. There is so much to dive into and I am at the beginning of this learning, but my goal is to focus on what I need to eat to live. I can definitively say that I have not been eating foods that will help me live to see my 84th birthday like Ben Franklin did. I have long been a vegetable hater and most meals didn’t include vegetables or fruit on my plate, aside from the salad. 

Understanding what food makes me feel energized and what food makes me feel sick is an important first step. I have been exploring whole food plant based meal planning to improve my health. There’s excellent scientific evidence that many chronic diseases can be prevented, controlled, or even reversed by eating a whole food, plant based diet. 

A whole-food, plant-based diet is based on the following principles:

”Whole foods”: That means whole, unrefined, or minimally refined ingredients.

“Plant-based”: Food that comes from plants and is
free of animal ingredients such as meat, milk, eggs, or honey.

My readers know that I am about simplicity always and this shift feels huge for me. It is not realistic to expect that I will go cold turkey and eat only plant based meals from day one. To make this shift feel more doable, I have implemented the following shifts:

  • Progress not perfection – I am giving myself grace knowing that small changes will have a compound effect and not sweating the slip ups along the way.
  • Focus on one meal at a time – Reworking my whole menu at once causes major stress for me. I am focusing on one meal at a time. My breakfast was clean, so I am leaving that alone for now. I am focusing on my main meal of the day and trying to rework that to WFPB.
  • Reduce animal products – I am working to reduce animal and dairy products, but again it’s not all or nothing. Thinking about “never” eating a meatball, or mozzarella cheese again causes major FOMO for me. Right now I am hoping to introduce meatless days with the premise that they will increase in frequency over time.

An eating to live approach suggests that we need variety and essential nutrients. My living to eat mindset adds the emphasis on pleasure and enjoyment. I believe both mindsets are essential to my success, which is why I am taking it slow and hoping that the natural shift to craving more nutritious foods happens over time. Then I know I will feel the same sense of pleasure in planning, cooking and eating these healthier foods. I will let you know how it goes. 

For more information on WFPB eating, check out Eat to Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman and Forks Over Knives Plan:How to Transition to the Life-Saving, Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet. Also, check out the Blue Zone and You Are What you Eat A Twin Experiment, both on Netflix.

If you have any questions, or want to share your journey, please reach out to me at laurakump@reclaiminghealthblog.com , on Instagram , or in the comment section below. 

Green Means GO

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius.

One of the most complicated parts of a healthy lifestyle, for me, is meal choice and planning. Knowing what to eat can really be the make or break of feeling successful. For many years, I have thought I was eating healthy and could not understand why nothing changed. I would eat foods I perceived as healthy and feel good about my choices, only to find out what I thought was healthy wasn’t healthy for me at all. This can be very frustrating. Far worse, the complexity of this can be very overwhelming and truly make one feel like giving up.

Anyone who has read my blog knows that I am about keeping it simple to keep it accessible for all. I need simplicity to feel motivated. Weighing food, calculating macros, meal prepping and all those other strategies are good, but have not been sustainable for me for many reasons. In order to avoid that, I invested in a good food logging app to better understand my eating habits. I have used My Fitness Pal for years and when in doubt about my eating patterns, I always go back to logging to see what is happening. Another app I have used is Noom, an app meant to teach you about your eating patterns by categorizing foods into categories, not based on good or bad, but rather on how much you should consume of each. Both are great apps to gain insight into your eating patterns and uncover why you are not getting the results you want.

Another simple tool I use is Dr Sears Wellness Institute’s Traffic Light Eating which I learned about during my Health Coach certification courses. Traffic Light Eating is based on the familiar concept of driving a car. A traffic light is meant to guide use when driving and can be used in the same way when making choices about food. It’s so simple, Dr Sears uses this with his pediatric patients! 

Green means “go”
Yellow tells us to “slow down”
Red means “stop” and think

Again, like Noom’s system, there are no judgements made about foods we eat and doesn’t ban foods. We all know that taboo placed on foods can make them more desireable. Rather, this tool focuses us on how often and how much of certain foods we consume. Below are the breakdowns of each category on our traffic light used to help us when making selections of food.

Green Light Foods

Green light foods include all fruits and vegetables. They are grown and not manufactured or process artificially. These foods are low in calories and high in nutrients. They provide color to our plates and can be eaten raw or cooked. Green light foods are foods which can be eaten generally free of worry, barring any personal health issues you may have. They are considered go foods and make great choices for all meals and snacks and should play a prominent role in your selections. They were also the group I noticed I wasn’t eating enough of.

Yellow Light Foods

Yellow light foods are fine to eat everyday, but in moderation as they are considered slow down foods. You do not have to give them up, or feel badly if you do eat them. These are the foods, I learned, made up my entire diet. Yellow light foods include: pasta, rice, bread, tortillas, noodles, eggs, lean meat, chicken, low fat yogurt, nuts and seeds, olive oil, soy foods, whole grains, fish, low fat cheese, and vegetable oil.

Red Light Foods

Red light foods are known as “stop” and think foods. We don’t have to eliminate them entirely from our lives, but we should look for different options, or eat them less frequently. When we do choose then, we should pay specific attention to our portions and go smaller. These foods are low in nutrients and high in calories, fat or sugar. Many contain artificial sweeteners or trans-fats. Think about that cookie you ate last night, that would fall in the red zone. You wouldn’t want to eat the whole bag, or eat them every day, but one cookie will not make you fat or a failure. This group, I learned, was my go to group especially when tired, upset or super hungry.

All these tools are very easy to use and guide you as you learn more about your food choices. I appreciated that none of them made me feel badly about myself for my eating patterns. Rather, they seek to empower you through building your knowledge about food. I find myself making better choices in my overall daily eating, including when eating at a restaurant. The biggest change for me was in increase in my intake of vegetables and fruit. 

I recommend you start by looking at your pantry, refrigerator or dinner plate. Start to think about which category the majority of your fall falls in. No judgement, just notice. If you don’t want to do this, I recommend you think about using an app to guide you. Log your food and notice what the analysis tells you about your food patterns. Once you have this data, you can make some adjustments to your food selection and notice what impact it has on you. They say what gets measured gets improved. I fully agree, but what I’d like to measure is not my quantity of food, but my knowledge about the quality of it. 

If you have any questions about the apps, or traffic light eating, feel free to reach out through email at laurakump@reclaiminghealth.blog , Instagram or through the comment section below.