3 Beginner Steps to Eating Healthy

1. Learning. First is educating yourself on why you are going to eat healthy. Good places to start are online blogs- they have lots of short articles so you can learn a little something with each quick read. If you're like me, books are overwhelming since there is so much information at once. If you subscribe to some wellness blogs through Facebook, they post an article or two a day which is a great pace to start. My personal favorite is MindBodyGreen, but here are more of my other favorite resources.  Also, Netflix has several health and nutrition related documentaries which are fun and informative and may provide you with more information as to why you should choose certain foods, in addition to just the how and what, which are provided in short articles. Then start to discuss eating healthy with the healthiest people you   know, they're happy to help!

2. Buying. Next find out where your closest health food stores and farmers markets are. Make friends with the staff/sellers. Ask them about their produce. They love to chat. If you can make the experience of buying your ingredients fun, the  eating is fun too. I absolutely love farmers markets. Even if I'm going out of town or already have a fridge full of vegetables, I still go just to chat and sample!

3. Cooking. In terms of starting to cook healthy, especially for those who really feel like they hate cooking, the first necessity is creating the space, both in your house and in your life.  Clean and stock your kitchen; create counter and fridge space, gather spices, oils, seeds, and bulk products, knives, pots and pans. Being well equipped helps tremendously for beginners. This may be the main thing stopping you from liking to cook if you don't have all this at the moment. I've lived in lots of different places and I know it was my excuse for a long time. Now that I have what I need, recipes don't sound exhausting and I even improvise and experiment whenever possible.


*To help you get started cooking, start a Pinterest account! Finding healthy recipes is so easy there! Buy the vegetables that appeal to you, then search "kale" or "zucchini" in Pinterest for ideas on how to prepare them. There are so many vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, healthy bloggers out there and they know what they're doing! Personal bloggers are more reliable since they are actually in the kitchen experimenting as a hobby rather than big companies who post recipes online. I use the Pinterest app on my phone and pull up my recipe board from the grocery store and can easily buy what I need. 

Once you follow enough recipes, you'll be improvising and dancing around your kitchen in no time! You'll be inviting friends over for dinner and bringing in extra homemade hummus to work!