Keep it Simple

It's a real shame that for so many of us it takes significant health issues to REALLY take hold of our health before we consider looking at our diet. Maybe feeling like you are 'getting away with it' allows more reason to believe it's all right to keep on reaching for the lesser alternatives. This could be staying on the couch instead of exercising, saying yes to more alcohol, choosing caffeine over water, choosing processed foods over whole food or working constantly with no rest.

For many people it may be a case of not understanding how good they WOULD feel if they started to make better choices. I acknowledge that knowing where to start can be a really overwhelming prospect for some and it may feel easier to do nothing at all or stay in the same routine.

Here's a few tips towards the first step in changing your lifestyle...

The mind is the bodies greatest barrier. Take time out to address negative thought patterns, emotional triggers. Writing down anxiety's or worries and then steps to eliminate them if hugely helpful rather than allowing them to cycle round and round in the mind.

Nobody can make the change, to a healthier, better you; THAN YOU. Take responsibility for the choices you are making. Set goals and detail ways you can make them happen.

You need to eat as though you are eating out of your backyard or off the land and out of the sea. If the food you are eating can't be grown in your backyard, fished or hunted then don't eat it.

Ultimately you need to eat food that was DESIGNED to be processed by the body and utilized as fuel. To let your body heal, to feel happy, to have energy we need to base our diet on whole foods, just as nature intended; not food that's formulated in a laboratory, or that comes in a packet with ingredients lists we can't pronounce.

Eating this way will limit but also simplify your food choices reducing the overwhelming feeling a lot of people experience when trying to decide what to eat for good health.

To set yourself up for success - Don't go to the supermarket when your hungry and when you do, focus on purchasing products from the perimeter of a supermarket.

Frequent your local farmers market and if you have time and space grow your own.

Organization is key - bulk cook ups that can be taken as lunches or pulled out for quick dinners will prevent last minute runs to the bakery etc.

Choosing foods in their natural state doesn't mean you have to miss out on any of your favourites though you may have to invest in a food processor or blender. For example, soaking and blending almonds with egg and herbs can make a pizza base, or processing with greens will make delicious pesto etc, courgettes can be spiralized to make pasta and there are loads of bread alternatives such as kumara toast.

It's Christmas around the corner and it's often looked upon as the time for indulgence. Indulgence can be a wonderful thing for the body if it's the right things. The array of products on the market that promote health is becoming wider and more accessible all the time

Below is a wonderful prize-pack full of indulgent wholefood goodies to make your Christmas and holiday's a bit special.

To enter Like Revitalizeme Laura Warren on facebook or follow Revitalizeme.co.nz on Instagram and share this post to your favourite social media with your name in the comments below.

If you don't do social media email this link to at least 5 friends and cc me in.

Draw will be done 5pm, Monday the 19th December and is open to NZ residence only.