Healthy Habits

You may have seen these healthy habits lists on my social media or in my newsletter, well here is the rest of the scoop with more info and specifics on each of these…

–>Note that my book, Real Food for Rookies, has even more on all of this–or sign up for my newsletter here where you’ll get a free grocery store cheat sheet, which is the whole first chapter of the book!

15 Best Healthy Eating Habits: (10 Best Healthy Living Habits are below!)

Animal fats instead of seed oils: Hopefully you know now that we need not fear animal fats. Whether it's butter, beef tallow (fat from cows), lard (fat from pigs), or bacon grease, these are loaded with nutrients that help us feel full, decrease inflammation, and they're fats our bodies recognize as food. Seed oils, such as canola oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, corn oil, etc. are highly processed industrial oils that CAUSE inflammation and digestional upset, and wreak havoc in our bodies. (I used to think it was normal to run to the bathroom after a fatty restaurant meal!)
Whole foods instead of processed foods: Whole foods are usually found in the perimeter of your grocery store or even better, at your local farm. These are foods with one ingredient such as an apple, a steak, a carrot, etc. Or foods with very few ingredients that you can pronounce and recognize, like butter that has only cream and salt. Processed foods, however, are loaded with chemicals in the food dyes, the fake flavors, and the funky preservatives that you can't pronounce OR recognize. Many are known cancer-causers and thankfully nowadays most know to avoid these packaged, boxed, & bagged fake foods.
Go out less—cook your own food at home. When you do eat out, avoid fried foods that are always cooked in soybean or canola seed oils. (See below about avoiding restaurant salad dressings for the same reason.) Ask for real butter for your bread and confirm that it's NOT a “blend” of butter and a seed oil. Mostly just eat at home where you can know that you're using all good ingredients. There are recipes galore online and videos to help you if you're not yet comfortable in the kitchen. Reach out to me anytime if there's something I can help you with! [email protected].
Eat more true sourdough bread: Sourdough is THE healthiest bread on earth and it's not even difficult to make. If you're buying it, it should have only flour, salt and water in the ingredients. When making it, there's a learning curve, yes, but soon you'll have it down and it'll be so easy! Here's my post and video on sourdough. Also, here's info on which bread is good to buy at the store.
Eat more fermented foods (like sauerkraut & kefir): Fermented foods help to fill your gut with healthy bacteria and when that happens your gut is happy and you are healthy! Sauerkraut is easy to make or you can usually find it at the store, just make sure it's raw and in the refrigerated section, it should only say: cabbage and salt. Here's a video showing how easy it is to make kefir, which is like a drinkable yogurt, except it has a lot more healthy bacteria than yogurt does.
Eat more eggs and pastured meats from local farms: We love our local farmers. Eggs are a nutrient powerhouse, especially when fried in a healthy fat like butter or bacon grease and sprinkled with some healthy sea salt & pepper! I also use egg yolks in these superfood smoothies and our homemade ice cream. Here's where we get a lot of our pastured meats (they ship! Use the code KOP for a discount) and it feels great knowing that the animals were raised humanely and naturally so we can be sure the meat is truly good for us! Beef is especially nutrient-dense and we eat a lot of it.
Take a quality cod liver oil: Cod liver oil helps with so many things! This is the kind we buy (use the code KOP for a discount) because it has the right ratios of vitamin A & D and of omega 3's. It helps with anxiety, it reduces inflammation, it's great for heart health, digestion, and gut health–there are so many ways it boosts your health!
Cook with bone broth for soups, rice, sauces, etc. for extra nutrients: Bone broth is considered a superfood by many. It calms your digestive system and provides many nutrients. It's a traditional food and it tastes good too if you season it up well! Here's a “bone broth for rookies” post if you haven't made it before. It's so easy.
Buy more organic when possible, especially for “the dirty dozen”: Learn more here about the dirty dozen and which produce you should always buy organic.
Never eat store-bought or restaurant salad dressings (99% have seed oils): I often take my own in a little jar in my purse (get a bunch of simple salad dressing recipes here), or recently I found these little packets of no-seed-oil travel salad dressings that are so easy to keep in your purse!
Consider getting fresh raw milk from a local farm or at least find low-temp pasteurized in glass jars if possible: We've drank raw milk here since around 2004 and love it! Use the raw milk finder here, but be sure to check them out yourself to make sure they're clean and using safe bottling practices. (Cooling quickly, etc. The farmer should be able to tell you all about this.) If you can't or choose not to go that route, try to find milk at a store near you that is low-temp pasteurized and in glass jars. This will usually be at your local health food store or small food markets.
Start slipping organ meats into your diet, there are easy ways and these are loaded with nutrients: Liver is THE most nutrient-dense food in the world. To get more liver into our diets, I'll ask my butcher to mix it with ground beef (1/4 to 3/4) and use that meat in recipes with stronger flavors so you can't taste it–things like chili or tacos. (We take these desiccated liver capsules as well, just to get more liver in.) We also get beef heart from our butcher and have that mixed in with ground beef too, this makes the best burgers! Beef heart doesn't taste funky at all, it tastes more like steak, but it has more nutrients!
Skip anything fat-free, sugar-free, and any soy products! (Except small amounts of quality soy sauce occasionally.) Anything that's fat-free means it is processed and denatured, so skip it! For example, dairy products come with fat, that's how God made them, and it helps us to digest it! Healthy fats don't make you fat. Sugar-free usually means it has fake sugar. Not only do these taste funny, but many fake sugars are SO bad for you and have been known to cause cancer. Soy products should also be avoided. The only soy we have here is some of this soy sauce very occasionally if I'm making an Asian recipe.
Use unrefined sweeteners like maple syrup, palm sugar or raw honey: These are much better for us because while they're still sugar, they have some nutrients still intact and they're a whole food.
Don’t be afraid of using salt—real sea salt is good for us! Real sea salt has life-giving minerals (you'll see little flecks of color in it) and will not have a preservative or an anti-caking ingredient!

10 Best Healthy Living Habits:

Get good sleep: I know that as you age this can be trickier for some, just do the best you can! Consider visiting a natural health practitioner if you need help with this. Embracing all the healthy habits you see in this post is a great way to begin, they will all have a positive effect on your sleep!
Go for a walk in fresh air, barefoot whenever possible: Walking barefoot on the ground, or even better on the beach, is so good for you. And walking outside in the fresh air is a great way to destress. Read more here: how walking brought my peace back.
Get sunshine without sunscreen (just don’t burn): You never want to burn, so what I do is walk outside early in the spring and keep walking to build up a base so I don't burn. Others wear hats or protective clothing especially if they'll be at the beach where the sun will be strong. I always used natural/safe sunscreens on the kids at the beach but rarely used it any other time. Be sure to get some sun on your skin for a while first though (before using sunscreen or covering up) in order to soak up some natural vitamin D!
Drink safe drinking water: This is huge because there is some nasty stuff in water these days. We have a very affordable water filter that gets out the bad stuff but leaves the good stuff IN (the minerals). Read more about that here.
Avoid toxic personal care & home products: Just as important as what we eat and put IN our bodies is what we put ON our bodies or in our homes. Get safe makeup and skincare here or here. Find safe products for your home here.
Get rid of any Teflon, get quality cookware, bakeware, utensils & food storage items. See all my favorite kitchen stuff here.
Reduce stress, have some fun! You've probably heard how “stress is the new smoking”. If you walk around stressed all of the time, that is NO good for your health. Each of us will have certain stressful times in our lives, but if that's ALL of the time for you, sit down with your family or a good friend, pray about it, and make some changes. Find the best way to recharge your batteries and what works for you.
Nurture relationships, reconcile when possible, forgive either way. Everyone talks about it nowadays: if you harbor unforgiveness toward someone, it can affect your health, not just spiritually, but physically too. Remember, forgiving doesn't mean that whatever they did was okay, and it doesn't always mean you'll have a relationship with them again, but it does mean that you're not going to walk around with bitterness (or hate) anymore. By releasing that (and asking God to help you), you can move on to live a healthy, happy life again. I know that there are some REALLY horrible ways that people can hurt others, so you may need help from a good counselor.
Be unselfish, put others first. Help others every chance you get. These are healthy habits that nourish your soul.
Get to know God who already knows and loves YOU! I wrote more about this at my other blog–check out these Christianity FAQ's.