Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:09] So tonight, now, this is gonna. Might resonate with some, might not with others, but this is all about whole foods and how to make that switch, that transition from maybe, you know, maybe you're eating a few processed foods, maybe you're not eating the diet that you want to eat and you want to improve it. So this is all about how to make that switch, but without the overwhelm. Because, you know, when anybody jo a program of any sort, it can feel overwhelming. And human nature is we want to do it all at once, and we want to make all the changes. And we can usually do that for a short time, for maybe one, two, three weeks. And then what happens? That the walls come tumbling down because it's just too hard.
[00:00:49] So there's been lots of study about making changes, and it's really about making changes slowly, gradually, and incorporating them into your life so it becomes your normal before you make another change. That's what the whole health revolution is all. And it's really working with you at your pace. And not about when we're looking at changing to a whole food diet. It's not about going into your kitchen and thinking, oh, my God, I've got to throw everything out. Because what Rochelle's telling me is not what I've got in my cupboard. So it's not about that. It's about making small, realistic changes because they're going to add up over time. And it's the kind of changes that make your meals. I want to make your meals more nourishing, give you more energy, and make you generally feel much better than you do now. That's my whole purpose.
[00:01:33] So whatever your goal is, if you feel that you're not eating much whole foods as you would like to, maybe it feels too hard to make the switch, then definitely this episode is for you.
[00:01:44] So I guess it's a good place to start by saying, what do we mean by whole foods? It can mean different things to different people. It's basically foods as close to their natural state as possible. So we're looking at things like vegetables and meat and eggs and fish and legumes, nuts and seeds, all those sorts of wonderful, wonderful things, herbs and spices, because our body knows how to use these foods. Food is information for our very DNA. So if you're eating whole foods versus ultra processed food, say a Big Mac, your food is your. Your body is getting very different information from these things. Whole, ultra processed foods. We're looking at things that are, like, full of refined sugars and seed oils.
[00:02:30] What they do is they actually hijack your taste buds and they cause cravings. So when you're constantly craving, maybe it's the foods that you're eating because they often leave you feeling flat. There's a definite correlation between the foods that we eat and if you have got a poor diet, there's a definite correlation between that and depression. So it can make you feel really blah. And also these foods are also made in a lab. Generally they're tested in a lab because what they're trying to find is that bliss point. And the bliss point is something that goes off in your brain. It's the perfect combination of salt, fat and sugar. And it lights up those dopamine pathways. And dopamine pathways are what are going crazy when you've got an addictive sort of tendency. So it's when you're scrolling, when you're gambling, it's all that sort of thing. These ultra processed foods do the same thing, but what they do is they never really fully satisfy you and they leave you hungry and they leave you wanting more. It's an addiction. And so these foods are made to find that very bliss point so that you don't just buy the foods, you go back and you keep buying more and you keep eating them.
[00:03:40] Number one when it comes to making the switch to a whole food diet is to start with an awareness. That's all to begin with.
[00:03:48] Some clients I see, maybe they just want to optimize what they're already doing and some others might require a complete overhaul. So really I want to meet them where they're at and it's really being aware of what's in your kitchen currently. So I'd love to go to each and every house and do you know, you've seen it on tv where they go in and do an overhaul of the pantry. That would be my dream job.
[00:04:08] But this is what I'd like you to do. Have a look in your pantry, take note of what foods that you eat often.
[00:04:15] What do you eat mostly is it sources. Have a look at your snacks and cereals, what drinks do you have? Have a look at the labels. And if you go into the program under the zoom sessions, you' see, there's an eight week, there's eight weeks of videos that have been pre recorded because the premise of the program is when you join, there's eight weeks of sort of foundational groundwork that you can make.
[00:04:37] And week four is all about how to read food labels. I know it sounds silly, but not everybody knows what's going on on a food label. So I really bring that awareness to the program.
[00:04:48] So have a look at the food labels and what I mean is looking at the ingredients list and basically, if you've got a list as long as your arm and some of those things on there, you've no idea what they are, you can't even pronounce them. It's possibly an ultra processed food. So be aware of what's in your cupboard. That's a whole food. And yes, some whole foods do come in packages, that's okay.
[00:05:10] But many, many boxed and packaged foods are going to be ultra processed. And to begin with, you don't need to just throw them all out because I hate waste. Food is expensive. Just take note, be aware and then start the first steps towards that change.
[00:05:27] And then the second part of this is then to start making those simple swaps, just one step at a time. Some examples, if you've got white rice in the cupboard, it's not, you know, it's a whole food, but it is white rice and it is processed. So it's a better option to swap that white rice for a brown rice or a red or a black rice, or maybe quinoa or buckwheat. These carbohydrates give a much slower release in the system. They keep you energized for longer and they're not going to give you that sugar spike. White rice is quite high on the glycine index, actually, and it will give you a spike, so we want to prevent that. Vegetable oils, if you've got sunflower oil, canola oil, making the swap to olive or avocado oil or macadamia nut oil, coconut oil, they're much better options for you.
[00:06:15] Just a caveat there with coconut oil, use that for cooking.
[00:06:19] Also macadamia nut oil and avocado oil, great for cooking. But olive oil should be used cold because when you cook it, it doesn't have a high heat point. So that's really, really beneficial for you. But make sure you use that cold as dressings in salads, et cetera. If you've got white pasta, how about swapping that for pulse pasta? Now, I don't know if you get that in the uk it's pasta made with legumes like black bean chickpea pasta. It's amazing, absolutely healthy. It's just two ingredients. Usually it's chickpeas and water and they make it into a pasta. So swapping for that, for a whole food that' full of fibre is a small swap. Tastes fairly similar and you've already made a Big change. Or maybe spiralized vegetables.
[00:07:06] And then we'll look at cereals. So if you've got any processed cereals, even if it's kind of like one of the low sugar options, such as a wheat Bix or wheat a Bix as we call them in the uk, yeah, it's a low sugar option, but it's still processed. So swapping those out for things like oats, even better. Steel cut oats are even less processed.
[00:07:25] Chia seeds, because you can make lovely chia seed puddings with those.
[00:07:29] And then looking at your sauces, sauces are surprising. You know, tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, they're yummy because they are full of sugar.
[00:07:38] And so making your own simple sort of homemade dressings that you can make up in advance, keep in the fridge can be a really good option. And then looking at your packaged snacks, what snacks do you have in there? Swapping for nuts and seeds and maybe some dark chocolate and then making your own homemade bliss balls, it's all sounding a bit too much at the moment, but just start with one of those things. You don't have to do all of this, it's just being aware, starting to make those gradual swaps. So we're not looking at perfection, it's just the progress in the right direction.
[00:08:09] Number three is to then start stocking up that pantry once you've done a few of those swaps. Now we're going to look at the whole food basics. We all have those basics in our cupboards. So maybe instead of all that white flour switching to whole grain and over time you'll see that you will, you know, it's going to change your whole pantry. I've got one member on the in the program at the moment and she's just loving her pantry. She did a complete overhaul. She's looking at all the food labels and she'll know who she is when I'm talking about her, but she just will not put anything in a trolley now that has ingredients that she doesn't know what they are and she feels so much better. It makes such a difference. She's gone all in and done it all. And her husband's in for the ride as well, which is fantastic. Looking at the whole food pantry basics, when you're looking at your fats, we've spoken about the oils, but also under that umbrella is your butter. You know, butter rather than margari. Margarine is processed, butter is milk and it's cream and salt. That's it.
[00:09:10] Looking at seeds. Build your seeds and nuts and seeds Nice selection of those. Tahini is wonderful. Very high in calcium and it's really flavorsome. And then looking at those flavor boosters instead of maybe buying the packet mixes and you can get the packet mixes for nachos and all sorts of things. Make your own. It's so much nicer. It gives you much more, much more room to explore and experiment with your foods.
[00:09:39] And the staples which are in many of our recipes are things like your garlic powder and onion powder, smoked paprika.
[00:09:47] They give a lot of flavor. Nutritional yeast is fantastic. Gives you that umami. If you've never used nutritional yeast, definitely try it. It's great in mashed potato or mashed cauliflower.
[00:09:59] It's wonderful. It's got kind of like a cheesy taste to it.
[00:10:03] And then freezer, don't forget the freezer.
[00:10:06] Frozen vegetables are absolutely okay frozen fruit because they're snap frozen when they're fresh and they are fantastic. So there's nothing wrong with frozen vegetables. So number four is to keep the cooking simple. Yeah, we've got lots of recipes on the program, but there's also the meal plans. There's also some very simple dishes on there. I don't want it to be like a Michelin star restaurant. I just want to, I wanted to create a meal plan that covers all the bases. Got all your fruit and veggies and everything in there. It's whole food based. But a lot of the recipes in there are not fancy, but they just do what they need to do. But they're also very tasty, so it doesn't have to be, you know, anything too lavish. And I always say to think in threes and fours. So one is your protein, two is your green and colorful veg, three is a healthy fat and four is your slow release carbohydrates. So that's what you should see on your plate.
[00:11:00] Now if weight loss is a thing that you're after, then maybe the starchy carbs, just keep those to breakfast and lunch, but not dinner. And just because we don't, that's one of the principles on the program. We don't need those starchy carbs in the evening. If weight loss is not a goal of yours, then by all means pop them on your dinner plate as well. But that's what we should be looking at if we've got those three or four things on our plate with every single meal, including breakfast, that can be one of the trickier ones.
[00:11:27] So an example of that is maybe a stir fried chicken with broccoli and Olive oil on top and tamari or a tray bake of salmon and sweet potato and loads of veggies and some herbs on top. Really simple, one pan dish and it's easy to make.
[00:11:42] Batch cooking is great. So batch cook whenever you can. I often try and do a batch cook on a Sunday. Whether it's one or two different dishes, I'll batch cook and then I'll freeze it into portions so that myself and my husband have always got something that we can grab on the run.
[00:11:58] Because that' that's an obstacle that I see with many clients over the years. I've coached people for over 20 plus years and time is a real obstacle. And so then we start to eat on the run. So if you can batch cook, it really can make a huge difference. It saves kind of both time and your mental energy. You know, sometimes we think, oh, what am I making for dinner tonight? And it's just too much to think about it. But if you've got stuff in the freezer that you've made from fresh, it takes all of that out of it. So number five is to also make it enjoyable. This transition, I want it to feel good and I want you to feel excited about the changes that you're making, not deprived, because who's going to want to do that for long term? Nobody. So using all these wonderful herbs and spices and making it interesting can make a big difference.
[00:12:45] And so what I often recommend my clients to do is to try one new recipe a week, if time is of the essence, which most of us, we're very busy people. I am, and I know a lot of my clients are try one new recipe a week, even if it's a very basic one.
[00:13:01] And that can make all the difference. And we usually have a staple, don't we? We usually sort of rotate the same meals. I know I do at dinner time. And sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm bored with these meals. Let's try one new thing. But do it when you're feeling energized. Do it at a time when you're not rushing. And that might just become one of your new staples in your household.
[00:13:20] Also trying an ingredient that you don't normally use. I know when I went, when I sort of made the switch, many years for me, I'd never really cooked with fennel, for example. And I love fennel. You know, it's one of those things that just wasn't in my shopping list. Love it. Tahini is wonderful. Once you've got tahini in the fridge, it's there for ages and it brings such a flavor to your meal. So those were my kind of things. I wasn't really, I would never use those things. And I was quite surprised at how much I loved them once I started experimenting with them. And my promise to you is when you start to make the switch to those, those foods, you just won't enjoy the process foods as much. I've seen it so many times. It's not just me saying this. This is anecdotal evidence from my members and my clients over the years.
[00:14:11] Once they make that switch, you know, with the program, I say, okay, we want about the 8020 rule. So make most of your diet whole foods eventually, but still make room for two treat meals a week. Whatever you want, doesn't matter. You can have your KFC, McDonald's, whatever it is, doesn't matter. Those two treat meals are for you to enjoy. Whatever.
[00:14:30] And what I've seen over the years, it's that members start with those meals, but then over time they just, they stop enjoying them as much and they start making the change to maybe a homemade pizza full of beautiful toppings. And they're doing that themselves because that tastes better to them than something from say, Pizza Hut because your palate changes.
[00:14:50] Now, number six is to build those habits that last. It takes time and we do. It's human nature that we want to go all in and change it all at once, but it just doesn't work that way. It can be really hard, hard over the long term. And my goal for you is to make those changes easy, start small and celebrate each. Win every change that you make, celebrate it. So for instance, you might begin with cooking one meal a week at home. If you always take getting takeaways, that might be a huge change for you. Maybe you want to add an extra serving of veggies with your lunch because typically, from what I say, not everybody has a lot of veggies at lunchtime. So that might be a really big thing for you.
[00:15:31] But maybe reducing the packaged snacks and having a supply of your own made snacks in the freezer that you can grab, such as the bliss balls that you see on the recipes, it's all those little changes make a big difference. So celebrate them.
[00:15:45] A quick word as well on cost. What I've often heard over the years is that people come to me and they'll say, isn't eating healthy really expensive? Though there seems to be the general way of thinking and it depends on how you look at it, I think, because in New Zealand, and I know in the uk, food is expensive, it's really expensive here. The cost of living's gone up, cost of food has increased. It's just ridiculous. But whole foods can save you money in the long term because one, you're going to be eating less of them because whole foods give you that message. You don't. You're less likely to overeat whole foods. You're eating fiber and protein and healthy fats. You're not going to overeat them. That's one good thing. But also, you know, if you're looking at, say, I don't know, maybe a box of muesli bars, you buy them, you buy a muesli bar, say a muesli bar for $6. Don't know what they'll be in the UK, but a lot of these are highly processed. They've got lots of sugar in, they've got the sunflower oils in there. But if you were to make your own muesli bar slab at home and there are recipes on the program, you're going to be spending a lot less money on those, dividing them up into, you know, 12, 18 portions and you know exactly what's in them. It's a whole food, no rubbish. And it's going to be less money.
[00:16:59] Even with takeaways, takeaways is really expensive. So if you can make batch cooking or if you can make more for dinner and have the rest for lunch as your leftovers, you're saving money. And plus healthcare, you know, we sort of don't think about that, but research is out now and it says many studies that are showing that food is the number one killer these days, that poor quality foods are leading to chronic disease and many illnesses that we're seeing today that are just off the, off the scale. And we never used to have type 2 diabetes and cancers and all these things. Alzheimer's, as much as we, you know, it's terrible. And so they've made that link to ultra processed foods. So really by investing a little bit more in your food today, you're going to save yourself all those healthcare bills later on and the misery as well. So kind of in the long term it does make a difference as well.
[00:17:54] So to wrap up moving towards a whole food lifestyle doesn't have to be expensive, it really doesn't. Doing it slowly, it doesn't have to be complicated. And I don't want it to be restrictive either, because who's going to do that? It's going to be miserable. It's about making those small, achievable steps that build into those lasting habits. And so, you know, that's what I want. This is a lifestyle program. It's not a quick fix diet. It's not a fad diet. We're not cutting out any food groups. This is for life.
[00:18:22] Okay? So my challenge for you this week is to choose one swap and one whole food staple to add to your pantry. What will it be?
[00:18:30] You've probably already got something in mind that you know you can swap out. For me, it was. It was white rice to brown rice. That was my first thing. So make a commitment and let us know either in the WhatsApp group or in the forum. Make a post, because I'd love to hear from you.
[00:18:47] And I guarantee by next week, you'll already be feeling lighter and more energized and more in control of your food choices just by baking one or two little changes, it really does feel good. And it gives you that motivation just to keep carrying on.
