5 Secrets to Healthy Food Preparation Mastery

November 1, 2014 ‐ Sylvaine HughsonPosted by ‐ Under: Peak Performance

Eating fresh, unprocessed, whole foods based ingredients is one of the best and most powerful ways to fast track your body for peak performance. While eating out can provide a quick and easy fix on a busy night, restaurant food is not always the most high-quality and nourishing way to feed your body… Making home-cooked meals or buying ready-made clean-ingredient based foods can make all of the difference.

Here’s a list of 5 of my favorite food preparation secrets:

1. Get Clear

In a nutshell, getting crystal clear on your goals will help keep you focused and motivated as you transition to a healthier lifestyle. Taking the time to figure out your health and wellness goals is critical – what are they? Do you want to lose weight? Experience more energy? Sleep better?

2. Create a Plan

Factor in your schedule, obligations, energy-levels, etc. Is there a day of the week that you can designate as the food shopping day? How about spending some quality time in the kitchen? If cooking isn’t your thing or it feels too overwhelming – there are alternatives. I recommend buying ready-made meals and salads from shops like Whole Foods. If you’ve been eating out consistently – odds are, this will be a significant upgrade for you from a nutritional standpoint…

3. Organize Your Work Space

Organization is everything. Ask yourself this: No matter what time of day it is, is your pantry full of healthy food choices to satisfy your every need or craving? And when it comes to food prep – have you set up your kitchen workspace so that you have all of the tools that you may need to make it an enjoyable and efficient experience?

4. Get Strategic with Food Shopping

Food shopping does not need to take a lot of time, nor does it need to be complicated. Learn your go-to ingredients from fresh produce to raw materials. As you increase your food shopping repertoire you will, most likely, notice that you are saving money while eating foods that are far more delicious than your weekly take-out meals.

5. Maximize the Mess

If you’re going to make a mess in the kitchen, you might as well embrace it. During my childhood my father owned a restaurant , so I grew up with beautifully home-cooked meals on a regular basis. As a result, today, I recommend that my clients get into the kitchen to play, explore, and engage all of their senses. This is a great opportunity to involve the whole family. The objective is to make dishes that can be used over several days, in various forms, so that you can save time and energy .

Two key things to remember:

Mastering food preparation like anything is a process – you are going to make mistakes and it may feel like a lot of effort in the beginning. That’s OK. Remember that you are taking charge of your health, which is hugely powerful in and of itself.
Ask for help if you feel overwhelmed. I travel all over the US working with clients, privately, helping them to optimize their kitchens and food preparation experience. I also work with clients virtually. Mastering food preparation does not need to be a painful process. I am here to walk you through it step-by-step (and do a lot of it for you) if you so desire.

If you would like to contact me about working one-on-one around this, please click here and contact me under the VIP Intensives section…

Here’s to good eating!