[SELF-CARE] Repetitive Eating for Health!

Deciding what to eat can absorb a lot of time and energy, not to mention the time spent shopping, cooking, and cleaning. I've found that eating simply and repetitively not only keeps me healthy but saves me a lot of time and energy.

In this newsletter, I discuss some of the healthy foods that make my life simply and delicious!

Some background: Self-care is one of the pillars of my life. I've learned that if I don't make it a habit, I tend to run myself into the ground. In the next few months, I'm going to go into detail about my self-care practices and hopefully you can pick up some nuggets and craft one of your own.

To watch my podcast on this topic, go here: https://bywdreams.mailerpage.com/148

By the way, I'm not going to tell you WHAT to eat, but I'm going to suggest that you find whatever is similar in nutrient profile that you like. For instance, I hate soggy foods so I never found a salad I liked until I learned that I could use kale as a base. It was a gamechanger.

Here are some of the guidelines that keep my health on track:

• Monday through Friday I eat almost the same breakfast every day: a green-pea-protein smoothie with lots of chia seeds.
• Monday through Friday I eat almost the same lunch every day: a kale salad with lots of beans, nuts, and seeds with nothing but salt, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil as a dressing.
• For dinner: I have a rotation of about ten meals that I put on repeat. Every other week we make pizza from scratch.
• We only eat out once a week as much for budget as for health.

Here are some of the other foods that are staples in my diet:

• Baked sweet potato (orange is great but purple is my favorite) that I dress with a little salted butter, ginger, Ceylon cinnamon (other cinnamons are too strong for safe, daily use), cloves, and nutmeg. Sweet potato is very satisfying and full of fiber/prebiotics (probiotics are the bacteria that live in your gut and prebiotics is anything that you eat that they can eat so they can live long and prosper). The dark colors also ensure you are getting lots of phytochemicals. They are also yummy sliced and tossed in ghee/salt and then baked until crispy.
• Ezekiel Tortillas: These are literally my favorite tortillas as they are very chewy. The sprouted grains and legumes that make them up mean that they have a very different nutrition profile than most tortillas. I use them to dip into hummus, make peanut butter and fruit spread wraps, and make savory wraps. If I'm not feeling like a salad on a given day, my go-to other option is a wrap usually with hummus, avocado, tempeh, a few crushed walnuts, some spices, kale, and cilantro.
• Beans and Legumes: My favorite are black beans, garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), and lentils (all kinds). I sprinkle them on my salads and in the winter I often make lentil soups when I want something warm.
• Chia seeds: eating sprouted (soaked in a liquid for 15-ish minutes) chia seeds is the best way to up your fiber. I eat 2.5 tablespoons in my smoothie every day which equals 10 grams of fiber or about 40% of my daily goal. It's very satiating. You can also make a chia pudding with chia seeds, milk of your choice, sweetener of your choice, Ceylon cinnamon, and vanilla.
• Greens: kale and cilantro are my favorite green and fresh herb. I put them in all my salads and wraps. Find your own favorite green and herb and put them into rotation!

To watch my podcast on this topic, go here: https://bywdreams.mailerpage.com/148