Healthy eating hacks | best eating guide

 I always get excited to share nutrition tips with you guys. You'll love these because they help you improve your meal and snack choices and boost healthy eating and nutrition. Some of these tips you might have heard of before, though, are going to be completely new, at least I hope so. So, let's dive in. When I was studying nutrition, one of the most common tips we were taught to share with our clients was eating what you see. Now, this works equally well for people who want to gain weight, who want to lose weight, or for people who are just looking to make more wholesome food choices. For example, if you want to eat more fruits, keep them on the counter in plain sight. 

Instead of just throwing orange into your bag, which hardly ever finds its way out, we can peel them up or cut them, put them in a container, and put them on our desks to enjoy when hungry. And if we cut them up and put them in front of our partner or kids, it'll also increase the chance that they'll eat them. If you usually place a bowl of chips on your desk, swapping it out for something like nuts might help. And when you open your pantry and chocolate is the first thing you see, chances are that's what you're going to reach for. Try shifting it to the side or behind some dried fruit or trail mix. 

This isn't to say that food is forbidden; it just means we're less likely to reach for it if it's out of sight impulsively. The same goes for drinking our fluids, whether tea or water and placing them in front of us while we work or study. It will increase the chances of taking periodic sips and staying hydrated throughout the day. Carrots and celery are awesome carrying devices for our favorite dips and sauces. But if you've ever tried to cut them up ahead of time to store in the fridge, you might have noticed that they lose their crunch, and sometimes they get this slimy film. So, a way to avoid that is to store them in a glass container or jar with water. It helps the veggies stay crisp and fresh, and they store in the fridge for a longer time. Just change out the water every couple of days or so, and remember that the carrots will stay longer than the salary. 

Some people might be worried about cutting up their veggies ahead of time because they feel they might lose some nutrients. Now, three factors can cause nutrient loss: heat, oxygen, and light. In this case, there's no exposure to heat or light, just oxygen, and the nutrient that's most easily affected by this is vitamin C and sometimes vitamin E. But you keep all the other incredible nutrients like fiber or some B vitamins, minerals, and many more. 

So, long story short, the benefit of eating pre-cut veggies, even with a little less vitamin C, far outweighs not eating the veggies at all or reaching for less wholesome, convenient foods instead. This next one is a tip that my mom recently taught me. I go through a lot of nut butter, peanut butter, and almond butter especially, and as nutrient-dense as they already are. We can do something to pump up the nutrition a little bit more. And how we can do that is with seeds. Seeds offer a unique combination of phytonutrients and antioxidants with many health benefits. So, I take a full jar of peanut butter and eat about a third of it. I will store that away to enjoy later.

 And to the large jar, I add some spoonfuls of seeds, and you can use whatever you have on hand. I use sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, coarsely ground flax seeds, chia seeds, lightly toasted sesame seeds, pum, and skin seeds, which are then given a mix and stored in the fridge. You can add it to oatmeal or spread it on toast. It just makes for a colorful and nutrient-packed addition to any meal. And if you can't tolerate nut butter, you can still make the seed mix alone and use it in the same way, like added to smoothies or par phase. I feel like it also makes the foods look so much more vibrant and wholesome.

 You might have heard of this little hack to fill a few Tupperware containers with the ingredients you need for a smoothie. That way, when you're looking for a morning or afternoon pick-me-up, you pop it into a blender. No chopping required a splash of plant milk or maybe some greens or nut butter to accompany it. It's also an awesome way to use leftover fruits at their peak ripeness. But if you already make smoothies, you might find that you've gotten into this routine of making the same thing repeatedly. At least I know that that happens to me.

 I have two ingredients that I want to recommend. These are nutrient-dense additions to your frosty drink, and trust me; you can't even taste them in there. First up is frozen zucchini, which is especially great for people who can't tolerate bananas or don't like the taste of it because it gives it a similar creaminess without that banana flavor. And the second one is white beans. These are packed with protein, fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants, and again, trust me, you won't even know that they're in there. So, if you're looking for a new twist to your smoothies, try these two. You know how they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away? It's more like something that berries are capable of doing. 

An apple, for example, has 60 units of antioxidants, whereas a cup of berries offers 250 units. And that's why Robin and I try to have at least a handful of berries each day, either on our oatmeal, in a parfait, smoothies, or just as a snack. This little tip is a reminder to increase that berry intake. And I know berries can be expensive when out of season. So, in the colder months, we offer frozen berries, and did you know that frozen berries, in many cases, are more nutrient-dense than fresh berries? I'll not know why; in the comments, you didn't know why. 

So feel free to go check that out. But another tip is if you are lucky enough to have access to berry picking in the summer months, wherever you live, load up on that stuff, cut it up, and put it in the freezer to enjoy in the fall and winter months. Second, various herbs and spices are the foods with the highest in antioxidants. And I only recently learned that in a new book I was listening to. I'm a bookworm. I love and need to learn new things, especially in nutrition. But when it comes to books, I don't always make the time to sit and read, which is why I've been using Audible for years.

 It makes it so easy because you can listen to a book no matter where you are or what you're doing. So, this book I recently listened to is called How Not to Die by Dr. Greger. It's one of the most comprehensive books on health and nutrition that I've ever listened to. In one section, Dr. Greger, a Physician, talks about how we can make healthy foods even more wholesome by spicing them up. He shares how a bowl of whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce and broccoli, for example, has 150 units of antioxidants, but if we had just one teaspoon of dried oregano, that number doubles up to 300. That goes to show how powerful spices can be. Thank the amazing folks at Audible for partnering with us on this article.

 And suppose you're interested in unlocking some other nutrition gems by listening to this book. In that case, you can get it or any other book you choose for free, plus a 30-day free membership if you visit audible.com forward slash pick up limes, or visit the link in the description box below. Now, we've talked about the nutrient density of spices, and many spices come from fresh herbs. You've likely noticed we use a lot of fresh herbs in our recipes. And as much as I've gotten better at keeping my potted herbs alive, sometimes they die. For certain dried-out ones like rosemary and thyme, you can pick off the branches and use them as a spice, but you can also salvage some of the living leaves by picking them off the plant, chopping them up, and then placing them in an ice cube tray with some water. 

Alternatively, add them to a food processor with equal parts oil and water blended and then add that to the ice cube tray. Once frozen, I transfer the cubes into a Tupperware container. Now, the herbs will not freeze in a way that will retain their former glory, but they will retain their flavor and nutrient profile. Suppose you enjoy it within a one to two-month period. Add these cubes to soups, stews, or pasta sauces. It's a great way to reduce food waste and add flavor to dishes, plus extra vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Something I've noticed I've been doing lately, which I never used to do before, is adding spinach to my cooked meals, and I do it in huge quantities. Because within just a few minutes, the big pile of greens cooks down to a super small amount, and it hides perfectly well in dishes like curries, stir-fries, soups, and more.

 As with other veggies, there are pros and cons to both the raw and cooked form. With spinach, for example, the raw form offers higher amounts of certain nutrients. Meanwhile, the cooked form offers higher amounts of other nutrients, long or short, so enjoy both the cooked and raw versions. But don't shy away from cooking. It's an easy way to get a whole bunch of greens onto your plate and into your body with loads of nutrients. We've all been there feeling like you're hungry for no reason. But you want something to snack on. Or you're legitimately hungry but don't have the energy or patience to figure out what you want to make. So, if there's one tip I can give, it is to have three snack ideas in your arsenal that take two minutes or less to put together. 

That way, they serve as alternatives to something that might have been less wholesome. So, for example, my three quick and dirty snacks are Medjool dates filled with nut butter and an apple that I dip into plant yogurt. Sometimes, I put some cinnamon or maple syrup and some hummus on crackers or rice cakes topped with cucumbers, tomatoes, and Odin cola. Having an arsenal of crazy, easy, wholesome snacks will limit decision fatigue around snack choices and give you a nutrient-dense energy boost. No doubt, planning our meals helps us make more wholesome food choices and decrease food waste, and it's 100% natural not to be able to stick to it 100% of the time.

 Let's plan our meals a week in advance. In that case, chances are more often than not that we stick to it sometimes, so if you're interested, we created a new PDF for you where you can record the meals you'd like to enjoy in a week. If you couple this with our free grocery shopping list, you can ensure you have all the necessary ingredients on hand to stick to the meal plan posted on the fridge and invite your partner or family members to contribute to it. I'll leave those links for you in the description box below, and I hope you find them helpful. We're approaching the holidays, when we all indulge more often than usual.

 And that's wonderful. But if you feel like you've just had enough of the treat foods one event after the next, I recommend whipping together your own wholesome contribution that others can enjoy. Whether it's a huge batch of filling and comforting soup or a platter with dips, crackers, fruits or veggies, or hummus pinwheels, it's one of my favorites, just loaded with fresh and roasted veggies. And it's always a crowd-pleaser. Everyone always appreciates contributions; you might appreciate having something you can fill up on that helps you feel more balanced. I can already tell this article is longer than usual.

 I get super excited when I can share nutrition tips and information with you guys. I hope that you learned something new today. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, I welcome you to give the article a thumbs up. And that's it, sending you guys many cozy holiday vibes and feelings. Hope you have an amazing time with friends and family in the coming weeks. Thanks a lot for watching pickup lines signing off. We'll see you in the next article.