A Guide to Healthy Living

By Anneke Lau

During my first semester of college, I had a hard time adjusting and a lot of stress was compiling onto my shoulders. I didn’t know how to handle any of it, so I found comfort in food- like usual. On top of eating junk on a regular basis, I had no free time, which meant no time to work out. I had blown past the expected “freshman 15” and moved straight onto freshman 30. After finals had ended, and I went back to stay with my parents, I realized that I needed to do something about it. Which only increased my anxiety, causing me to eat more. I set a diet start date for myself, but kept pushing it forward. So one day, I just stopped. I stopped cold turkey. On Monday January 6th at 4:30pm, I made the conscious decision to become healthy again.

I don’t like to use the word “diet” too often, because that’s not what I’m doing. I’m making a lifestyle choice. This choice has nothing to do with trying to look good for anyone else besides myself. I do not promote diets that revolve around making other people happy. This lifestyle choice, for me, is about becoming more body positive, more confident, becoming healthy and just feeling good about myself.

I refuse to buy into commercial diets, weight loss supplements, or anything to that nature. So, instead, I made up my own diet. I have cut out all carbs (except for rice cakes), anything with sugar added, beans (they’re bloater food), red meat and most processed foods. I know that seems drastic, but if you decide to make a healthy lifestyle choice, you don’t have to be as strict as I decided to be.

I allow myself to eat all vegetables, all fruits, eggs, white meat (chicken, pork, turkey, fish), plain nonfat yogurt, smoothies with no added sugar, seaweed, nuts, brown rice cakes with salsa (as a low calorie/low carb snack), and I only cook with olive oil. I also make sure I am drinking lots and lots of water and (pure) cranberry juice throughout the day (it helps cleanse your body of toxins, and gets rid of all your water weight).

My best advice to you, if you are planning on making the change to a healthy lifestyle, is to confide in a friend. Tell them you’re plan, and make sure you can contact them when you’re have cravings for junk food. Let them help you through the process. If you think you are someone who can’t live without a certain type of food (i.e. chocolate, fries, pizza), after two months of making the switch, allow yourself one cheat day a month. This change should not be something that makes you depressed, it should be something that makes you happy. You are doing something wonderful for your body, be proud of that fact.

Here are a few of my favorite recipes.

Recipes:

• Cranberry Juice Cleanser:

-Pure cranberry juice (can be purchase at most major grocery stores)

-Water

-Only add a little bit a cranberry juice to your glass to start. You want to drink this continuously through the day.

• Spinach Salad:

-Spinach leaves

-Avocado

-Dried cranberries

-Toasted pecans (can be substituted with almonds)

-Olive oil

-Salt

• Frittata (courtesy of Katherine Cobbs, found on myrecipes.com, revised by me) :

-6 ounces small broccoli florets (about 2 cups)

-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

-1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 large eggs, lightly beaten

-1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup)

-1 teaspoon olive oil

-1 cup sliced green onion

-1 cup spinach

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-Cook broccoli florets in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and plunge into ice water; drain broccoli well.

-Combine salt, pepper, eggs, and cheese in a bowl, stirring with a whisk.

-Heat a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Add broccoli; sauté 1 minute. Add egg mixture; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle top with cheese. Place pan in oven; bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until center is set.