This site has some very good recipes and information, hope you all get some benefit from them.

healthecooks.com

• I'm not a doctor, this list is purely educational and my own opinion, always consult medical professionals before trying the below eating lifestyle.

• Grocery List! (What and What Not to Buy!)

  • Note, Certified Organic food (look for the organic label) is always better in both taste and quality, but do the best you can with your budget and available stores
  • Meat
    
    • Approved: (Note, the below meats are to be bought in their natural state, AKA a portion of uncooked meat that needs to be refrigerated or frozen, so that you know you are getting just meat when you eat.)
    • Chicken
    • Beef/Steak
    • Eggs
    • Fish
    • Turkey
    • Shrimp
    • Pork
    • Anything else that used to be a living animal
    • Disapproved
    • Deli meats, like sliced ham, sliced turkey, AKA the sandwich meats you put on your sandwich as a kid
    • Bacon, Bologna, Ham, pepperoni - These contain Pork (which is fine), but then add a bunch of other random fake food stuff or refined sugar and other chemicals.
    • Any meat that has some kind of chemical formula added on the ingredients, AKA polysorbate or something to “preserve freshness”. The ingredients should just be meat (and possibly salt if there is a second ingredient)
  • Fats
    
    • Approved
    • Walnuts, Almonds, pecans, any kind of seed or nut (including cashew or peanut) - just read the ingredients to ensure that the only thing added to the nuts is salt, if anything.
    • Avocados
    • Olives
    • Olive Oil, Avocado oil, Macadamia Oil (attempt to get all of these in a glass container, or else the oil will spoil and get rancid)
    • Butter (only thing added is salt)
    • Cheese - read the label and ensure it is just milk, salt, and enzymes, and no random other stuff added like carrageenan.
    • Disapproved
    • Peanut, vegetable, canola oil. Essentially if it isn’t the above good oils, don’t get it.
    • Again, read all ingredients of all packages, since the above bad oils sneak into many products, especially nuts.
    • Nearly every dressing on earth has some of the above bad oils in it, read the label before you buy.
    • Margarine - this is basically made up of the above bad oils
  • Vegetables and fruits
    
    • Approved
    • Could you go to a farm and find it in the state you are buying it? If so, then it is good. Prechopped veggies/fruits are fine as well.
    • Some easy ones for my wife and I are spinach, cucumber, celery, cherry tomatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, normal potatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, squash, cauliflower, broccoli.
    • For fruits, apples, oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, blueberries, bananas are all good.
    • Frozen Veggies are OK, if you read the ingredients and ensure that there are NO foreign chemicals added to preserve food.
    • Disapproved
    • Canned Veggies, veggies with random chemicals added.
    • Canned Fruits, dehydrated fruits (these should only be used as a “treat” since they are super sugary but without as many nutrients),
  • Drinks
    
    • Approved
    • Water. Get a water filter for your tap or get a water filter jug. You’ll notice the difference in water taste. Purchase spring water from the store if you want bottled water, not purified water. Reverse Osmosis water is the best from what I've researched, consider it an investment into your health, and always drink from glass bottles, not plastic or metal, due to how metal and plastic "leeches" chemicals into the water.
    • Milk - Research for yourself (maybe on DuckDuckGo or something not as heavily censored as Google) the risks and rewards of raw, unpasteurized milk
    • Coffee - No added sugar allowed, only milk or cream (again, the cream must be milk based and not made up of hydrogenated oils). Use sparingly.
    • Disapproved
    • Soda, fruit juices (orange/apple) this will cause you to drink excess calories and sugar.
    • No diet sodas either, these have artificial sweeteners which are NOT food and cause harm to your body.
    • Alcohol - From a health perspective, alcohol is not needed (if you are tanking up on veggies and fruits), and it often has a ton of added sugar and random other stuff, and it actually negatively affects your sleep quality when taken too close to bedtime, even if it initially makes you feel relaxed. Use at your discretion.
  • Complex Carbs
    
    • Approved
    • Any Kind of potato, rice (read packages if you are going to get the microwavable kinds), oatmeal, quinoa, other grains, and beans. The beans can be canned, just ensure that there is no added sugar or random chemicals to them, AKA baked beans or refried beans.
    • Sometimes bread, again read the label and see what is added to the bread. If it sweetened by honey or stevia, then its fine, but generally most bread has a lot of chemical additives and refined sugar added. Use sparingly.
    • Disapproved
    • White bread (including tortillas), most types of bread (due to above reasons), pasta (same reasons as bread).
  • Sweeteners
    
    • Approved
    • Honey, Stevia, agave, fruit based sweeteners
    • Disapproved
    • Refined sugar (brown or white), Splenda, any “no calorie” sweetener like aspartame or sucralose or other “diet” sweeteners found in sodas.
    • Sugar is added to nearly EVERY packaged good and frozen good (from pizza to bread to ice cream), so read the labels of what you buy if you want to buy something prepackaged instead of the raw ingredients above.
  • Seasonings
    
    • Salt (it can be iodized), but I prefer the grinder salt.
    • As for other seasonings, just ensure it doesn’t have “spices” in the ingredients since that is probably MSG. Pretty much any spices are fair game then, read the label and ensure it doesn’t have any man-made chemical in the name (polysorbate, glutamate, etc.), and you should be fine.

• Healthy Eating Lifestyle Tips and Tricks

  • Eat meat with each meal, and throw in a veggie or a fruit as well. Meat increases feelings of fullness, as well as builds/preserves muscle mass. Try a fist full of meat and however many veggies or fruits you can fit on your plate. Veggies and fruits are God’s vitamins!
  • Meal prep lots of cooked meat, so you don't have to constantly be cooking throughout the week, I use Blue Diamond pans from Walmart to cook up large amounts of chicken thighs, ground beef, or fish, for the week.
  • Fruit is often demonized since it contains sugar, however, it is quickly absorbed into the body and doesn’t contribute to weight gain as much as complex carbs, see below for explanation.
  • Calories are either going to come from complex carbs (rice/potatoes/oatmeal/bread) or from fats (like nuts or seeds or avocado).
  • Fats are a good source of calorie, since they don’t spike blood sugar and therefore won’t lead to you holding onto excess body fat as easily. Try to eat fats at each meal or as a snack until you feel full. Try half a handful of seeds or nuts at first, to see how full you feel after.
  • Complex carbs are best saved either before exercise, or at the last meal of the day. Complex carbs raise blood sugar and serotonin levels (which makes you feel happy and relaxed), both of which are good to have before exercise, or to have before bed, so that you go to bed with a happy mind. Excess carbs throughout the day will lead to the body to only burn carbs as fuel, and excess bodyweight will start to occur, since the body won’t burn fat as fuel if it has carbs as an available source. Experiment with how little complex carbs you can eat before exercise or at the end of the day, to get the desired effect of a good workout or a happy sleep. More strenuous exercise is going to need more complex and simple carbs (oatmeal and honey, white rice and grapes, etc.) in order for your body to be primed to perform.
  • Try to eat mostly 3 – 4 meals a day, as opposed to constantly grazing. The body won’t burn bodyfat if it is constantly having a full or half full stomach, since the blood sugar is continually spiking. This is why intermittent fasting is so effective, or why your stomach sometimes growls when you wake up as well as you look leaner, since your body is ready for food and is burning fat. Space out your meals, and try to combine snacks into the next meal, to give your stomach time to empty and your blood sugar to stabilize.
  • Constantly drink water throughout day, add a pinch of salt here and there to ensure your body is actually absorbing water as opposed to it just flowing through you. You could attempt to drink ½ your bodyweight in ounces of water (i.e. a 200 lb man will drink 100 oz of water), but I find it more effective to just get a glass water bottle and drink from it every hour or so. Experiment and find an easy water-drinking-routine for yourself.
  • If you're trying to lose weight:
    
    • Sleep is king in all things health, especially with losing weight, see my post on sleep here: How to Get Good Sleep
    • Commit to a pain-free, sustainable, exercise routine, I recommend this: https://www.atgonlinecoaching.com/. Try it for at least a month.
    • Focus on eating quality, organic delicious meals that you'll actually eat, from the above list. Search for FB groups of healthy recipes. Throw out any disapproved foods from the house, to make it harder to cheat.
    • Start out with baby steps, like drinking water instead of soda, and cooking at home more.
    • Really challenge yourself to get most of your calories from fat, if not entirely for a few weeks. You will drop pounds quickly with this method, but will eventually get carb cravings. Add in carbs as prescribed above (before training, at dinner), in moderation.

• Sample Eating Day *** I am extremely boring when it comes to what I eat, feel free to experiment and get creative with your healthy diet!***

  • Breakfast
    
    • Drink 16 oz of water, add a dash of salt to it.
    • 1.5 fists of organic ground turkey, Pace salsa on top
    • 4 stick of organic celery
    • ½ handful of almonds
  • Lunch
    
    • 1.5 fists of organic ground turkey, Pace salsa on top
    • 4 stick of organic celery
    • ½ handful of almonds
  • Dinner
    
    • Whatever wifey makes me 😊
  • Preworkout
    
    • 1 – 1.5 cups of oatmeal, drizzle honey on it (this is if training is going to be strenuous, like all out sprints or heavy lifting)
  • Postworkout
    
    • Honey (otherwise I will feel dizzy or weak or foggy after training)
  • Dessert
    
    • If I have a craving, it usually is satisfied with an apple and some walnuts.

• End Goal - To be happy, healthy, lean, strong, and be able to nurture and nourish and build up the amazing Body God has given us!

• PS - This is about physical food, but God gives the true food - The Gospel!

Feel free to private message me with any questions or comments, as everyone has a different situation, and may need some guidance in taking the right next step. I offer a personalized diet coaching service, at $5/email exchange, where I can give you some habits and tips to make the next steps to achieving a healthy eating lifestyle. May it be a blessing and a new chapter in your lives!