A New Year: A New Food Conscious Lifestyle

As we enter the new year, we all have our set of resolutions with the most common ones being promises of exercising more and eating healthier. While the two certainly go together, one tends to be a bit more important than the other and that is having a healthy diet.

I am not saying that you should stop exercising. You may even be asking how someone who loves sweets so much can really advocate eating healthy. Yes I eat a lot of sweets, but I balance them with healthy food. My sweet treats are just that: treats that I award myself for eating well and that I get to enjoy every once in awhile. Remember balance and moderation is always key to any successful diet.

Recently I have come to find out that some of the things I used to think about eating healthy may not be so true and may actually be causing me to gain a lot of unnecessary weight. I have been getting plumper, and that is a big no no for me. So over the past few weeks I've been watching videos and reading articles online about how to really live a health conscious life. It comes down to the fact that the food you eat is more important than the exercise you do.

Here is just one example that helped me understand why some of the so-called healthy foods that we eat are not healthy for us at all. Say I place a large apple in front of you which is 116 calories, and I also place a 100-calorie snack pack next to it. Which would you choose? The calorie pack or apple? In the past, I would have gone with the 100 calorie snack pack because 100 is less than 116, so in my head that means easier to burn off, but in reality I should have picked the apple.

While the calorie pack may have less calories, all of the chemicals and preservatives added to this product are actually harmful to your body. Your body does not know what to do with those unknown ‘nutrients’ so instead of breaking it down and distributing it throughout your body, it just turns it into fat. The apple, on the other hand, has no added preservatives and is something that comes straight from Mother Nature so your body knows exactly what to do with the nutrients it contains.

The bottom line is that we shouldn't be looking at the calories so much as focusing more on what is inside the product. This is the premise of "clean eating." If you do not know what you are reading on the label, it's probably not a good idea to put it into your body because most likely, your body does not know what it is either.

If you are looking to live a more food conscious life, check out The Chopping Block's new free download on eating clean in 2016.  Chef Alia Dalal has compiled a starter guide complete with pantry list and recipes so that you too can make the right choices about your food.