the ordinary chef • A New Year's Resolution: Eat Better

A New Year’s Resolution: Eat Better

Happy New Year!

What does this mean exactly?

Well…

1. A new year means trying to sweep under the rug all of the failed attempts in years prior to make exercising a habit. This is when we can all confidently say, again, that we will exercise and lose xx pounds without anyone remembering what we said last year.

2. It means that those who frequent the gym are more than likely complaining about it being too crowded and start counting down the days until it’s back to normal again. It’s always inevitable that people start dropping off like flies.

3. It also means that the Oreos and Klondike bars will stay on the shelves at the grocery store a couple of weeks longer than they usually do.

Many years of failed attempts and witnessing my spiral downwards mid-year every year, I decided that I was going to try something different.

Resolution #1: Eat better

Yes, it’s pretty general. True, it’s not as cliché as “lose weight”. BUT, it also means that if I accidentally miss one day of my Insanity workout, I won’t feel like a failure which means that I would be less likely to lose hope and give up on every single resolution I have for the year.

A few tips I’m going to try to follow myself:

1. Keep up with produce that’s in season. And if you have to, subscribe to a service (if available in your city) that delivers farm-fresh produce. In Austin, we have services such as Greenling and Farmhouse Delivery.

If you don’t have access to that, keep up with what’s peaking with the Epicurious Peak-Season Map or just take a stroll through the farmer’s market.

Use ‘em to challenge yourself to cook something different and outside-the-box.

2. Set aside a comfortable number of days per week to cook at home and plan it. Dedicate one day a week to sit down and plan meals for your x number of days. Print out calendars, bookmark recipes, have it somewhere you can view on a daily basis, put up a chalkboard menu board in your kitchen. (Mine is 5 days per week and I have dedicated Sunday morning to plan so I can go grocery shopping Sunday afternoon for the week.)

3. Subscribe to a magazine or, for free, food blogs. As an artist, I find inspiration in various places every day. This also applies to the inspiration to cook which, for me, can be found in magazines or blogs. Once you get those glands salivatin’, you’ll be in the kitchen in no time.

Clean Eating, Magazine
Cooking Light, Magazine
food gawker, Aggregated Blogs
Skinny Taste, Blog
smitten kitchen, Blog
taste spotting, Aggregated Blogs

4. Skip the snack aisle! Except for the first grocery trip of the month. This one is always easier said than done. Always. It takes every ounce of will power in my body to not look down the snack aisle and see rainbows and unicorns. But, rest assured, it can happen. It has happened. Buy a handful of moderately healthy snacks to last through the month and ration it out to last.