Jamie Oliver's approach to a healthy lifestyle: another lesson to learn from - Examiner

Jamie Oliver's approach to a healthy lifestyle: another lesson to learn from - Examiner

After watching the first three episodes of Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution, his approach to a healthy lifestyle is pretty clear: achieving a sensible balance with food. He focuses on learning to cook, cooking with fresh produce and most importantly, eating in moderation.

Jamie’s approach is definitely one that everyone can learn from and apply to their daily lives. If everyone in America could have a sensible balance, maybe our nation wouldn’t be so overweight or dying from obesity.

How can you apply Jamie’s approach to your life? Below are some simple tips to achieving your sensible balance.

Cooking: If cooking is not one of your strongest suits, have you thought about taking a class? Most specialty grocery stores or Williams-Sonoma offer cooking classes for a minimal fee. Or, on the weekend when you have more time, pick a recipe that sounds good and make it. Think of it as an experiment, if it doesn’t turn out well, you at least learned something a long the way and can always try again, next time. Remember, practice makes perfect, so the more you keep trying to make different recipes, the better cook you will become. Also, watch a couple of shows on the Food Network to pick up some simple techniques and ways of cooking that you can apply in your own kitchen.

Fresh produce: Now that spring has arrived, there is a lot more produce to choose from! When you plan your meals for the week, plan them around your vegetables, instead of your protein. For example, if you would like to cook asparagus one night, think about what protein would go best with it (depending on how you are going to prepare the asparagus), along with a whole grain carbohydrate. Also, try one new vegetable or fruit per week, instead of reaching for your old standbys, to expand your repertoire.

Moderation: Moderation is the key to weight loss and maintenance! If you constantly deprive yourself, saying that you can’t have this or that, your body only craves the food even more. If you want to have a piece of cake for dessert, eat a lighter or smaller dinner to make room for the extra calories. It’s ok to have dessert now and then, but don’t go overboard by having it every night. Also, if you allow yourself to splurge on certain favorite foods every once in a while, you will more likely look forward to them, cherishing each bite, than if you had the foods all the time.

If you haven’t watched an episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, be sure to watch one, as it is not only an eye-opener to how the rest of America eats, but there is a lot to learn from and apply to your daily life.

If you live in the Sacramento area and are interested in learning how to cook, check out a class at the Sacramento Natural Foods Coop.