4 Steps to Avoiding the Food Police

By avoiding cooking healthy and not eating nutritious foods, you have been committing crimes against your stomach. I used to be a repeat offender until I came up with 4 steps that have kept the food police away.

Here's how you can work off the crimes against your stomach:

1. Eat Purposely: Stop, sit down, and it's time to eat. Bring back actual meal time, even if it's at your desk. Don't eat on the run, stop eating in your car, don't eat while you are trying to accomplish other tasks. By not focusing on your food, you are making it easier to eat unhealthy foods. Slow down and you will begin to appreciate better foods as you pay more attention to what you are putting in your mouth.

2. Better Breakfast: Start eating a breakfast of whole grains, granola and fresh fruit every morning. Stay away from the one-handed, on-the-go breakfast as these are usually very heavily laden with salt and calories.

3. Grocery Store Lunch: Go to the grocery store, that's where the food is! The real, whole food, nutritious food that your body needs. This is where you can get a freshly prepared sandwich, salad, Odwalla juices, nuts and granola bars. Stay away from the drive-thru, fast food restaurants, and the pizza place, all of which will keep you from eating healthy.

4. Methods vs. Recipes: At dinner time, practice basic, simple cooking methods, not complicated recipes. Complicated recipes have ingredients that you may not be familiar with, are hard to find or may be difficult to understand. By practicing basic cooking methods, you could, for example, make pasta and cook a chicken breast instead. That's so much healthier than having someone ring your doorbell and deliver your dinner in a cardboard box or a paper bag!

The more you cook and eat nutritious, healthy food, the more you'll crave nutritious, healthy food. You'll sleep better, your anxiety levels will go down and your body will feel healthier overall. Remember, I'm talking from experience and I can tell you that I started craving better foods more, and bad foods less.

You can too! Get over your fear of cooking by learning basic, simple cooking methods. You'll feel better too, and of course, you'll get the food police off of your back.