If you don’t know how to cook, then learning how to eat healthy can be pretty difficult. Unfortunately, the modern American diet isn’t very conducive to healthy eating. We eat at restaurants, we grab food from the drive-thru and we heat up overly-processed food in the microwave to eat it in front of the TV. If you don’t know your way around the kitchen, finding a healthy meal can be hard to do.
After becoming involved with your medical weight loss clinic in East Brunswick and realizing all of the unhealthy aspects of the typical diet, eating healthily might seem a bit overwhelming. When breakfast, lunch and dinner need a makeover it can be hard to figure out where to start! Learning just a few simple cooking strategies can drastically improve your diet and help you to stay on track with your medical weight loss goals.
Healthy Cooking 101
Cooking a healthy meal is easier than it may look. All you need are the right tools, a few healthy ingredients, a simple recipe and a few simple strategies and you can cook a healthy meal for you and your family to enjoy tonight.
Here is all you will need to get started:
- Get the right tools. It is just about impossible to cook a healthy meal if you don’t have the right equipment. All you will need is a cutting board and knife, a frying pan, a cooking pot, casserole dish, spatula, wooden spoon and of course, your oven and stove.
- Get the right foods. Once you have the tools, you need the ingredients. Talk with your medical weight loss doctors to ensure you purchase foods that are a healthy part of your existing medical weight loss plan. Your grocery list may include lean protein sources like chicken, fish or beans, produce, brown rice and whole grain pasta, culinary spices like rosemary, paprika, garlic, salt and pepper and cooking oils like vegetable and olive oil.
- Find a recipe. Even skilled chefs use recipes, especially when trying new dishes. The Internet is home to hundreds of thousands of healthy dinner ideas. Find a recipe that meets your diet plan and give it a try.
Once you have your tools in place you are ready to get started. Remember to go easy on the oil, only putting about a teaspoon or two in the pan at a time. Too much oil will fry the food and this is not a healthy cooking technique. Also, never heat oil at anything warmer than the medium setting on your burner, as it will cause your kitchen to become a whirlwind of smoke and your food is more likely to burn. Before you eat any meat make sure to check the temperature—all meat should be above 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle before being consumed.
Do you have any other tips to give the beginner cook? What about a healthy recipe you enjoy? Share your thoughts and experience in a comment below!
