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Jillies Blog

health and wellness, fitness, foodie, lifestyle, better health

  • HEALTH & WELLNESS
  • FITNESS
  • LIFESTYLE
    • FOODIE

How to Turn Your Delicious Recipes into Healthy Recipes

May 12, 2022

We all know cooking at home is a healthier choice over choosing the drive-thru or dining out. However, it’s important to remember that recipes are created simply for their texture and flavor, but don’t always take health into consideration. To make it easier for you to cook more healthfully, here are a few tips that you can use on a variety of recipes.

Tofu Tacos Download Recipe
  • For many recipes it’s easy to simply reduce the amount of fat or oil used to make cooking easier. Non-stick cookware means you need little or no fat when cooking on the stovetop. Greasing baking dishes is often unnecessary as well, but you may have to experiment a little.
  • For fats and oils used for baking cakes and muffins, you can often substitute them with apple puree. For cookies, aim to replace about ½ the oil with puree. You can even aim for a more healthful impact by using highly nutritious sweet potato puree as a fat and oil substitute.
  • If a recipe calls for saturated fats like butter or even lard, replace it with vegetable or olive oil. Of course, this won’t always work in recipes that call for creaming of butter. In those cases, you might try margarine or simply reduce the amount of butter.
  • In baking, you can usually replace 1 egg with 2 egg yolks for the same desired result, but with less cholesterol.
  • Try replacing at least half the white flour in a recipe with whole wheat. Many recipes will work with a complete replacement, so experiment a little. Your health is at stake.
  • Many sweet recipes are sweeter than they need to be. Don’t be shy about reducing the sugars. Definitely do this where sweeteners are often added after cooking. For example, there is no reason pancake or waffle batter needs a lot of sugar when syrup, fruit and other sweet items are added afterwards.
  • To salt or not to salt? In savory foods, salt is usually not necessary. For baked goods, while many may say otherwise, it’s not always necessary either. One exception is baked goods using yeast. Salt slows down the rising process and produces better texture, so it is likely necessary, but you can try reducing the amount of salt used.
  • Try lower fat dairy products in your recipes. Instead of heavy cream, use half and half. Instead of whole or 2% milk, try skim. The same goes for sour cream, yogurt and cheeses. Just make sure to read the label for quality ingredients as lower quality products tend to add undesirable ingredients and chemicals to make their low fat varieties more palatable.

Healthy Food Swaps

Choosing healthier foods is easier than you may think. There are some simple everyday changes you can make to get you on your way to a healthier lifestyle without losing all the things you love. 

It’s all about eating fewer foods that are high in calories, fat, salt and sugars and swapping them for something healthier, including more fruit and vegetables and wholegrains.

Image from Supermart.ng (twitter)

Healthy eating and getting active can help you lose centimetres from around your waist and reduce your risk of chronic diseases such as some cancers, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

You don’t have to stop it, just swap it. For example, swap a big meal for a small meal. You can make these swaps as you go about your everyday life at work, at home or even while out shopping. It’s easy and these basic changes can add up to make a big overall difference to your diet.

Try these small changes when you have your next meal or drink, or when you open the cupboard or fridge for a snack.

Once you’ve got started, try thinking of your own healthier swaps, too. Food labels can help you to choose healthier options.

Breakfast

  • Swap from whole milk to light or skim milk.
  • Swap a sugar-coated breakfast cereal for a wholegrain breakfast cereal such as porridge or shredded wholegrain wheat cereal, with no added sugar.
  • Swap a sprinkle of sugar on your breakfast cereal for a topping of fresh or dried fruit.
  • Swap full-fat Greek yoghurt for fat-free Greek-style yoghurt or natural low-fat yoghurt.

Lunch

  • Swap white breads, bagels and muffins for wholegrain varieties.
  • Swap butter and cheese in your jacket potato for reduced fat spread and reduced salt and sugar baked beans.
  • Swap a tuna melt for a tuna salad sandwich on wholemeal bread, without mayo.
  • Swap a cheddar cheese filling in your sandwich for reduced-fat cheese.

Dinner

  • Swap creamy or cheesy sauces for tomato- or vegetable-based sauces on your pasta, meat or fish dishes.
  • Swap mashed potato made with butter and whole milk for mash with low-fat spread and a lower-fat milk such as light or skim milk.
  • Choose leaner cuts of meat, for example, steak rather than sausages.
  • Swap the frying pan for the grill when cooking meat.

Drinks

  • Swap your usual coffee made with whole milk to a ‘skinny’ coffee made with skim milk.
  • Swap a few of your sugary drinks for a glass of water.
  • Swap hot chocolate made with whole milk and served with whipped cream for a hot chocolate made with skimmed milk and no cream.

Snacks

  • Swap an iced coffee for a small fruit frappe.
  • Swap yoghurt-coated raisins for plain raisins.
  • Swap salted nuts for unsalted nuts.
  • Swap chips for rice cakes with lower fat cream cheese.

Healthy Reasons to Start Eating Clean

May 9, 2022

While the term itself has left dieticians and consumers alike confused about what it really means, “clean eating” generally refers to a diet that’s more on eating fresh fruits and vegetables, and less on processed foods and meats. Clean eating isn’t a diet but rather a style of eating that emphases the quality of the food you eat and not the quantity. https://jilliesblog.com/what-is-clean-eating-2/

Clean eating nourishes your body with healthy and nutrient-dense foods. Clean foods fill your body with plentiful vitamins and minerals, high-quality protein and healthy fats, which improve heart and brain health, assist with weight management, build a stronger immune system and increase energy levels, among other benefits. Foods in their natural state have more flavour.

It’s from this that different interpretations start to take off, such as Paleo, dairy-free, or even complete vegan, which allows for absolutely no animal products of any kind. But whatever your way of getting there, here’s why you should make the change and start eating clean:

Examples of food in a Clean Diet

  • Fresh fruit
    Apples, bananas, blueberries, grapes, oranges, strawberries, 100% fruit juice
  • Vegetables
    Avocados, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, corn, green beans, lettuce, mushrooms, onion, peppers, salsa, sweet potatoes, tomatoes
  • Lean meats/protein
    Dried beans, eggs from grass-fed chickens, fresh fish, grass-fed chickens, plain nut butters (no sugar added), unflavored nuts 
  • Grain (cereal) foods
    Those made with whole grains, air-popped popcorn, oats, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta
  • Dairy products
    Cheese, milk, plain yogurt, unsweetened nondairy milks

1. Fruits and vegetables are naturally cleansing
It should come off as no surprise that fruits and vegetables can be cleansing in how they help eliminate the stored fat and toxins in your body and provide the nutrients your body needs to perform its various everyday functions.

2. You get to lose the weight 
Exercise is great, but it’s by no means the only way for you to lose that extra weight. In fact, even without the workout, you can still shed those pounds just by swaping sugar for a healthier option and switching to a high-fiber diet loaded with vitamins and minerals.

One of the joys of eating foods that are close as possible to being in the form that nature gave them to us, is that your body tends to thrive and stay slim almost effortlessly! While there is no guarantee, clean eating is a much healthier option.


3. You’ll enjoy your food more

You’ll end up learning a lot of things when switching to a diet of fruits and vegetables: cooking and food preparation, and actually enjoying every meal.

Aside from eating more fruits and vegetables, eating clean is also all about eating with purpose and savoring every bite. This lets you actually take the time to taste everything you put in your mouth, and lets you form a better relationship with your food.

4. It makes you feel more energetic
Your digestive system has to break down what you consume into nutrients and energy, but when you don’t get the right food, your body’s stores will deplete quickly and you end up feeling exhausted more often. This also results in poor hormonal health and brain fog.

But the good news is that you can avoid brain fog, regain that focus, and start feeling healthier by making the right dietary choices – and that means eating clean.

5. Faster Recovery

You will find on a healthy diet your workouts are easier and your recovery time is cut down too.  This is in part because of the minimized inflammation in your body, but also because of all the great antioxidants you are getting from your food. 

6. Stronger Immune System

Anytime you’re consuming processed foods and sugar, your immune system has to spend energy protecting against what you’re putting in your body, leaving very little energy left to protect against illness. A clean eating lifestyle leads to a bolstered immune system that is more efficient in combating diseases and viruses. If you do get sick, your body will have more resources to recover quickly. 

7. Less Cravings for Junk Food

Your body is naturally cleansing and detoxing, your organs are more efficient in cleansing your body. You will find that you have less cravings for junk food than you did prior to starting your clean eating diet. In a sense, you’re totally reprogramming your relationship with food in a positive way.

8. Cooking is Easier
The easiest way to eat clean? Cook your own food. That way you have total control over your ingredients and can be certain that your meals are indeed clean. Cooking also helps you avoid items that are advertised as healthy but are not. For example, many healthy juices found at grocery stores come loaded with sugar and cheap ingredients. It’s far better to buy your own ingredients to blend delicious juices.

9. Healthy Food Swaps(examples)

  • Instead of coffee creamer use a homemade, low sugar creamer. … 
  • Drink sparkling water, green tea, or kombucha instead of soda. … 
  • Try oatmeal, chia pudding, or a yogurt parfait instead of sugary cereal. … 
  • Choose a healthy or homemade granola bar.

If at anytime you are concerned about your general health or diet contact your family doctor to discuss your general health and dietary goals.

Clean Eating – Getting Started

March 16, 2022

This article about clean eating is not a diet plan. It is suggestions for you to think about when you want to make changes to your lifestyle when it comes to the food you are eating. You will notice you become more energised, healthier and interested in taking care of yourself. A benefit of clean eating can be weight loss.

What does clean eating mean for you? For me it means a healthy way of eating, namely eating lots of fruit, vegetables, dairy products, fish. No unprocessed food, no junk food or fast food and cooking in very little fat/oil. If I do cook in oil it is olive oil or coconut oil. It is interesting to note that foods like steak, chicken and even some fish have their own natural juices and you don’t need to add oil to the cooking process. Other things I do is to drink alcohol in moderation and drink plenty of water.

How to get started

The first thing to decide is what exactly clean eating means for you and your family and being aware of your budget the foods available.

Our attitude to food also has an influence on what we eat.

The foundation of clean eating is choosing whole foods and foods in their less processed states—choosing from vegetables, fruits, whole grains, pulses (beans, lentils, and peas), dairy, nuts, seeds, and high-quality animal and plant proteins. When possible, food choices are organic and based on what’s in season, readily available and within your budget.

Clean eating to you may mean choosing to eat healthy during the week and having fast food on the weekend. You can modify this to suit your lifestyle, however your overall goal is to eat healthier.

Whatever you choose the changes you make will make a difference then you can build on these changes when you can notice the difference to the way you feel.

Write a Shopping List

Plan your meals and write a grocery list. Modify the list to suit your personal preferences or your families preferences, also your budget.

If there are items on the list you wish to purchase and your budget doesn’t allow buy the items over weeks or months.

Thankyou to HealthyandHealthyMama for this sample shopping list. The list is a sample only, modify this list to suit your family and yourself and your budget. Again it may be a gradual process because you have to add several of these foods to your pantry.

Read the Labels

When you are shopping read the lables. There are several foods on the market that have reduced salt, even vegemite, buy the 40% reduced salt. Tomato sauce is available in reduced salt.

Check cereal and even soups for sugar content. It is surprising the amount of sugar you will find in these foods.

Don’t underestimate drinks

Choose suitable drinks for you and your family. Read the labels for sugar content and salt content. You will be surprised how much sugar is in these drinks. Find a low sugar and low salt drink that is suitable for you.

Encourage your family and yourself to drink water this is the best thing for your body. When you are going to the gym or participating in sports drink water. There are so many “health” drinks and gels that are full of sugar.

Cook your own Meals

The way foods are cooked has an effect on the nutritional value. Using the barbecue, fat free cooking, air frying and steaming vegetables are ways to keep your food healthy.

If you choose to eat out or have takeaway choose healthy options. Some fast food places offer healthy food and most restaurants have healthy choices on the menu. Choose steak and salad or grilled fish and salad or steamed vegetables. Stay away from sauces, deep fried foods and those that are cooked in batter.

What is the 80/20 Rule?

Another option is the 80/20 rule. It allows flexibility and breathing space and gives you time to think about how these changes are going to positively affect your health and wellbeing.

  • Eat clean 80% of the time
  • Eat dirty the other 20%

It’s a “rule” that is designed for moderation and maintenance. It not only allows you to enjoy the foods you love but encourages you to do so. It’s a plan that allows you to enjoy eating healthy most of the time and also enjoy special treats guilt-free.

With the 80/20 rule, there are no hard-and-fast rules to follow. It’s simply a guideline to lead you to better eating habits, which can ultimately help you reach and maintain your healthy lifestyle.

If you have been slowly developing poor eating habits over a period of time changing these habits gradually is more likely to be effective.

Don’t beat yourself up if you make gradual changes or slip up here and there, particularly in the beginning. The important thing is that you are doing something to eat foods that are better for your health and your body.

Check the post https://jilliesblog.com/what-is-clean-eating-2/ for more details on clean eating.

What is Clean Eating

March 10, 2022

Clean eating is a way of eating that focuses on natural, mostly unprocessed foods with no sugar and reduced fats. In this case, we’re talking about a way of living that lends itself to improving one’s health and wellbeing. The focus with clean eating is on unprocessed natural foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, chicken and gains.

The food is cooked in natural juices or with small amounts of coconut oil for cooking or virgin olive oil for salads. There are several articles and contradictions about what oils to use. I would invite you to research this and find an oil that suits you.

Instead of eating pizza, pasta, bread and fried chicken, a clean diet consists of meals like steamed broccoli, grilled chicken, omelet’s, homemade chili, steak, baked potato and a side salad. In essence, it’s going back to how we used to eat. This is before we had fast food restaurants at every corner, bakeries and grocery stores packed with processed foods and meals ready to heat and serve.

The idea behind clean eating is to get back to consuming fresh, mainly unprocessed foods that contain their full nutritional value. As an added bonus they aren’t stuffed full of preservatives, additives and flavor enhancers. The main reason for choosing to stick to a clean diet is to eat healthier.

How “clean” you make your diet is up to you. Some proponents of this way of eating insist that you should only consume completely unprocessed foods. Others are comfortable enjoying things like butter, cheese, cured meats and cultivated vegetables like Sauerkraut. How far you take it is up to you. Even cleaning up your diet just a little by cutting out fast food burgers and creating freezer meals will help.

Fill up your plate with plenty of raw or cooked vegetables. Cook up some rice or bake a potato and round it all up with a little fruit and cheese for dessert. Find a couple of go-to meals you like and build your weekly meals around those dishes.

It’s hard to find healthy snacks that fit your clean diet while you’re out and about. Keep some fresh and dried fruit along with some seeds and nuts handy for emergency snacking.

When it comes to drinks, water and herbal teas are your best friend. Black coffee is another good choice. Just be careful about adding sweeteners and creamers.

It may take you a little while to get used to the “real” taste of food after eating foods that are laden with sugar, salt and flavour enhancers. Once your taste buds adjust, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how delicious real food is. And your body will thank you for the change to clean eating as well.

Clean Eating Guidelines

  • Eat five smaller meals throughout the day. … 
  • Drink approximately 2 liters of water a day … 
  • Reduce or eliminate “diet food.” This means anything light, low-fat, or fat-free. … 
  • Eat whole grains and stay away from the foods containing white flour. … 
  • Eat legumes, nuts, and seeds. … 
  • Use healthy fats. … 
  • Eat lots of fruits and vegetables

Eating clean is a lifestyle choice, if you are finding it difficult to manage think about starting off by eating clean for 2 days a week. Once you feel the benefits they will inspire you to make more permanent changes.

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I am a lifestyle blogger whose interests follow my career and hobbies.  My intention for my blog is to be an informative interactive platform so my readers will have a positive experience from visiting.  I encourage you to contact me with comments or further information you may require.

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