Food pro, personal chef and yoga instructor Lisa Brown of Free Flowing Health offers a primer on how to optimize your life through food and mindfulness practices. Getting your healthy-eating journey started doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing, Lisa says. “Approach this with a beginner’s mind and know that we weren’t born learning how to run.” A great place to start is right in your pantry.
Optimize your Pantry
Reset. Clean out your pantry and figure out what staples you have, what you need and how to streamline your kitchen process so you stay out of your own way. Put the healthiest bites front and center, so they’re the first thing you see.
Get in the zone. Decant your pantry by taking foods out of their original packaging and putting them into clear, matching containers (including chopping up fruits when you get home from the grocery, and throwing batches of fruit and healthy, pre-made eats in the freezer). Lisa packages her goods in clear, labeled and dated containers to ensure the ingredients get used while still fresh and everything is easy to see. Group like items together into zones for seamless access.
Less (prep) is more. Consider what you can stock that’s quick, easy and long-lasting, like homemade granola. Some goods need no extra effort past bringing them home and throwing them into a smoothie or salad. Consider buying fibrous raw almonds, and an assortment of antioxidant-rich, blood-sugar-regulating seeds. Try food journaling to track how foods make you feel. (Your phone’s notepad app is a great tool to track on the go.)
Get sprouting. Lisa swears by sprouted greens—germinated seeds or beans that can be eaten whole or raw. You can get sprouts for a range of foods (onion, sunflower, alfalfas, radishes), and they’re easier to digest and often more nutritionally dense than their full-grown counterparts. “It’s easier to eat one cup of sprouts than three broccoli heads,” Lisa says. And, you can grow the baby plants with minimal effort on your countertop.
