"EVERY SUMMER HAS IT'S OWN STORY"
Are you ready for 3 months of BBQ's, fresh garden salads, summery adventures and pool time?
For me... a wholehearted YES!!! 🙋♀️
Memorial Day weekend is the kick-off to summer for many of us. One of the beauties I love about this time of year is the simplicity of the food we can eat. Summery meals are often lighter, fresher and more colorful as well as easier to prepare. Picking a fresh salad from the garden or exploring the local farmer’s market to find seasonal produce can inspire a simple and ‘localicious’ meal to share with loved ones.
If you want to stay ahead of the game this holiday weekend (and not feel lethargic and icky come Tuesday) check out some of our favorite tips and treats...
1. Prioritize Your Preparation:
Having what we need and want in our kitchens, to feel aligned with our eating, is what I consider the secret to success. When we are surrounded by food we are avoiding, we get into a battle with our will power and our cravings.
Research now shows that creating healthy habits and positive automatic behaviors will lead us to much better results. On any given day our will power can be anywhere from a 0-10 in strength –depending on our sleep, stress, hormones, and self-care. Our will power changes day-to-day – not the best thing to rely on.
What works much better is being surrounded by what we want, and getting into regular routines and rhythms that support our choices. This way, we can rely less on will power and more on our daily routines.
2. Substitute Smart:
Feeling deprived is not going to be sustainable for most of us. Enjoying our food and our lives is something that is born from deep within our human consciousness. Rather than making unattainable goals for ourselves, why not try smart substituting?
Guilt free comfort food is what we call it! Between Amazon.com, health food stores like Whole Foods, and Google, it is not hard to find substitutions for our cooking, baking, and summer time festivities that are still tasty and delicious (Pinterest is my favorite for this purpose).
Check out some of our favorite guilt free comfort food recipes HERE.
3. Watch Your Whites:
White sugar, white flour, white rice and all those high-glycemic ingredients that sneak into so many foods will reek havoc on our blood sugar, our digestive tracts and send us into a moody madhouse.
Rather, try eating a more whole food based diet, (including those smart substitutions), use more natural sweeteners, add lots of fresh seasonal fruits and veggies.
Enjoy the full flavors of natural food.
4. Get Outside:
There is nothing like getting outside and moving our bodies in the sunshine to helps us get a clear perspective, increase our feel good neurotransmitters, and help us embody our health.
I consider movement and nature one of our primary foods. When our primary foods (all the other ways we nourish ourselves, along with our eating) are happening, we are surely to make better food choices. The good feeds the good.
Give yourself some fun in the sun this holiday weekend. Take a walk in the woods or get out and dance to your favorite summertime outdoor music at your local Memorial Day festivities.
(I will be enjoying some great music down at The Boulder Creek Festival).
5. Make Pleasure Your Practice:
Most of you know I have your and my pleasure in mind and I surely don't want you to miss out on any of the holiday goodies, so try finding your middle ground in the process.
In my opinion, restriction is never the answer, but knowing your limit, how YOU best stay in balance, and what you want for yourself (crystal clear) should help to inform your choices.
Take things slow. Bring mindfulness and intention to your eating. Make peace with your plate.
What are your tried and true tips? Tell us in the comments below…
Happy Memorial Day!!