Here’s Why you’re not Eating Healthy Food (Even though you Know you Should)

If you’re like most people, you are constantly searching for the next healthy eating plan that you can actually stick to. You can’t remember why you couldn’t stick to it the last time, but that’s not important. You’re on a mission.

Maybe you’re going vegan, or maybe trying paleo. The first thing you do is browse cookbooks, recipe sites and Pinterest. You see some dishes that look scrumptious. It’s fresh, it’s colorful and you eagerly get the stuff you need to cook it. Then, you prepare the dish and it’s pretty good. But what happens after the second or third time you make it?

Waa-waw, the thrill is gone. If you can’t really put a finger on exactly why you just lose interest, let me help you out. Most of the time healthy recipes are contrived, and designed just to be healthy, and nothing more. They are not designed to nourish your and your family’s soul. They’re not designed for longevity. And, they are not normally created by people who come from rich culinary cultures. They lack depth of flavor. In fact, many of them don’t even understand flavor.

So if you’re like me, you’ll try to improve the healthy-ass dish right quick, but that won’t work. Maybe you’ll sprinkle some of your best curry powder on while cooking it but all that yields is some powdery curry flavor falling flatly onto your tongue, right before the bland healthy dish.

But what needs to be done with healthy dishes is that they need to be prepared with love and care, and with the knowledge that our aunties and grandmothers passed down about how to flavor some food!

This is why I do what I do. We need to let go of this whole obsession with a perfect diet. Our bodies are not so fickle that the nutritional difference between lettuce wraps and grilled kebabs is going to make or break our health. I’ve said it a million times, or bodies are not that fickle. So let’s focus on balance and flavor and excellent health will fall into place naturally.

This requires a complete mindset change about how we think about food. It needs to come from a much more relaxed place and involve much more love and care than rules and regulation. Put the feeling and the love and passion back into cooking and preparing food for ourselves and families. The anxiety around trying to eat healthy can get so bad it can cancel out any possible benefits. In other words, just relax.