I absolutely detest the taste of protein shakes. I hate meal prepping and get really bored making the same high-protein meals repeatedly while dieting. However, even though I don’t like doing those things, in the past 10 years I’ve lost over 70 lbs from my heaviest weight of 240 lbs, all while cooking a variety of delicious, tasty meals. So in this article, I want to share five healthy cooking lifestyle concepts I’ve been using over the past decade. We’ll have an entire collection of recipes linked below where you can put these concepts into practice.
First, we need to define what eating or cooking healthy food even means. In the age of short-form videos and tweets, I feel that a lot of health and fitness content does a huge disservice to the topic. You can pick any food and almost guarantee that someone has made a video telling you not to eat it. The reality is that people with completely different diets and lifestyles can all be in very good health.
So, let’s explain the fundamentals of healthy eating. While we are all bound by the mechanics of losing weight and getting in shape, it’s a one-to-many relationship with a range of outcomes. Understanding the fundamentals has completely changed my life and explains why these five concepts have worked so well for me, and maybe they will for you too.
The best no-nonsense resource book I’ve read is Understanding Healthy Eating: A Science-Based Guide to How Your Diet Affects Your Health, and I would highly recommend reading it. But here are a couple of the key concepts:
There are six principles of your diet that affect health, listed in order of impact. By far, the biggest factor is calorie balance (calories in versus calories out). These principles are used to create a healthy eating pyramid, which is a great mental model. Let’s discuss the first three principles, as they are primarily at play in the concepts we’ll go through.
First, why is calorie balance so important? A professor famously went on the “Twinkie Diet,” high in fat and sugar. He controlled the total calories of Twinkies he was eating and lost over 27 lbs in 10 weeks because he burned more calories than he consumed. This holds true across all diets, whether vegan, carnivore, keto, or vegetarian. Weight control is primarily a product of calories in and calories out.
Second, food composition matters significantly. While the number of calories you eat per day is the biggest determinant of your diet-mediated health, there is such a concept as healthy food. For best health outcomes, it’s beneficial to consume more of these kinds of food as a fraction of your total calories. Food composition is where all that common advice comes in: eating a varied diet with vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats. These foods help us meet our minimal nutrient needs (vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals, protein, and essential fats) and are typically more satiating. All foods can be ranked on a satiety index, meaning some foods will keep you fuller longer for equal calorie portions. For example, 1,000 calories of lean proteins and potatoes will satiate you much longer than 1,000 calories of candy bars and donuts. This relates back to calorie balance because it’s easier to overconsume lower satiety foods.
Third, macronutrient amounts are important. Macronutrients make up food and calories. One gram of carbs or protein equals 4 calories, while one gram of fat equals 9 calories. Macronutrients seem to be where a lot of seemingly contradictory advice originates. A keto diet focuses on high fat, adequate protein, and very low carbohydrates. A vegetarian or vegan diet is likely higher in carbohydrates and lower in protein and fat. A bodybuilder’s diet prioritizes high protein. However, assuming the same total calories and meeting minimum nutrient needs, all three can be perfectly healthy. This is where reflecting on your goals and experimenting with different macronutrient amounts becomes crucial.
If you’re constantly ordering takeout or delivery, start by picking one of your favorite foods and making it at home. There are three levels: restaurant recreation, macro-conscious recreation, and a very low-calorie alternative. Let’s take fried rice as an example.
Level one is restaurant recreation. Restaurants prioritize taste and large portions. Here, you’re recreating the dish to match the restaurant, but this can be healthier due to portion control and potentially using less fat. Restaurants control portion size and therefore total calories. You might realize a restaurant serving is 1.5 or 2 times what you’d serve yourself at home.
Level two is macro-conscious recreation. Here, you adjust total calories and macronutrient amounts by using less fat, carbs, or more protein, depending on the recipe. For example, in a fried rice recipe, you could overcook the rice to absorb more water (no calories, but adds weight and volume), use less oil, and substitute shrimp for chicken (higher protein, lower calories).
Level three involves significantly changing a key ingredient for a much lower calorie alternative. For example, using cauliflower rice instead of white rice. This drastically reduces calories but fundamentally changes the dish. Other examples include cauliflower pizza crust or egg white omelets.
Next, learn how to season lean proteins. Lean proteins are high in protein, low in calories, and keep you full, but they can be bland. A seasoning framework can help: learn a technique, apply it to a lean protein, choose a form factor, and add condiments and toppings. For example, you could season chicken breast with various spice rubs like garlic powder, red pepper, and oregano for hogies or pasta salads.
Then, control your carbs by replacing some with lean proteins and vegetables, or by using lower-calorie alternatives like corn tortillas instead of flour ones or high-protein ramen noodles.
Finally, keep a variety of low-calorie condiments and garnishes on hand, such as fresh herbs, pickled items, hot sauces, vinegars, salsas, mustard, citrus juice, and Greek yogurt. These add flavor and interest without many calories. You can also create your own low-calorie condiments, like a jalapeno ranch with less mayo and more sour cream.
The last concept, and perhaps the most important and hardest, is finding routines and protocols you can stick to long-term. Meal prepping may not work for everyone. Find small cooking tasks you can integrate throughout the week. For example, salting your protein in the morning, trying new spice rubs, starting a braise on Sunday, keeping frozen vegetables on hand, or making high-protein snack wraps you can freeze.
You can use these concepts to create your own recipes. The most crucial part is finding what works for your individual lifestyle and integrating it with the fundamentals of healthy eating.
