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I am certainly not a bona fide healthy recipe blogger, but I do happen to have a couple hundred healthy-ish recipes residing on this blog, and because it seems as though every January brings forth the same tidal wave of searches for healthy recipes, I hand-picked my favorite 50 healthy recipes so you can catch them all in one place (below!).
Of course, I must give the disclaimer that some of these may not fit everyone’s definition of healthy. I get that. But these are, in my mind, lightened up, healthy meals that still pack a delicious punch.
I am a firm believer (and encourager) of making intuitive changes to help a recipe be even healthier or adapt it to your dietary needs. For instance, if you are eating low-carb, make that skillet chicken taco filling and eat it over quinoa or lettuce, don’t hesitate to go easy on the cheese, swap a healthier oil for butter…you know, things like that.
I actually despise the topic of dieting, I really do. I don’t do well when I omit whole food groups for dieting purposes – as in, I get sad, angry, and I usually fail and end up binge-eating the very thing I was supposed to go 30 days without.
I’m definitely more of a moderation type gal. However, I certainly can’t get away with eating anything I want whenever I want (I wish!), so I have a few little standby rules that help this old, mom-of-5 body stay on track and continuously try to slim down and tone up.
1) I don’t eat after dinner (we usually finish up eating by 6:45 or 7:00 p.m.). Sure, there’s the occasional holiday/church/friend party, birthday, or hormonal fluctuation that break this rule quicker than you can say “late night snack,” but in general, I try to live by the mantra that once dinner is finished, so am I.
2) I drink lots of water…and hardly anything else. I shoot for the standard eight glasses of water a day and am really stoked if I can get 10. I know it sounds terribly boring, but I don’t usually drink anything other than water (besides my beloved kefir smoothies in the morning and my hot chocolate fix). I’d much rather eat my calories than drink them.
3) I exercise to support my eating habit. My goal is 3-5X a week for 30-45 minutes. I have more exercise videos than should be legal, and so I rotate through them (including some very, very old school ones I love more than life). Lately, I’ve been doing weights 3X a week and fitting cardio in the other days (often HIIT or Tabata workouts). I also love Fitness Blender for free workouts and club.teambeachbody.com to stream some of my favorite Beachbody workouts, like P90X3, T25, Insanity Max 30 (not affiliated with any of the above).
So yeah, the above tips are obviously not rocket science, but since I get asked about it constantly, those are a few rules the little angel on my shoulder always reminds me of. Stop eating! Drink more water! Get off your lazy behind and workout!
And now that I’m done talking, I hope you love this roundup of my favorite healthy meals!
The post My Favorite Healthy Meals + My Go-To “Dieting” Tips appeared first on Mel's Kitchen Cafe.
