Fresh Start Sunday

Unfortunately, it is Sunday and I still have not made the sweet and sour chicken as planned. My resolution to cook more is going to need some work, hopefully I'll be more successful once I fly back to Houston tonight. It's hard to be healthy away from my kitchen. I am planning a new year grocery trip tomorrow that includes making some simple, but important swaps in my kitchen to shift from holiday eating to healthy eating. First, all those cookies, cakes, fudge, and desserts are being donated to my parents house. If I need to appease my sweet tooth, I'll enjoy Skinny Cow's Cookies and Cream ice cream cup. It's only 150 calories and tastes almost as good as Blue Bell! Next headed out the door are sodas-- all those cokes, sprites (even diet) are out. They will be replaced with water, sparkling water or Ocean Spray's Diet Cranberry Juice (just 5 calories per cup). Next on my must remove list are any casseroles, creamy pastas, and high calorie, high fat leftovers. Last but not least is a simple glance through the pantry and fridge for any high fat, high calorie foods that need to hit the road. Once my kitchen has been purged of it's holiday calories, hopefully I will be as well!

Next step is to make a list of things I do want in my apartment, such as nonfat greek yogurt, hummus, light soy sauce, low calorie salsa, organic peanut butter, whole wheat bread and, most importantly, I want to add seasonal fruits and vegetables. What's in season you ask...I'll tell you: beets, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, celery, grapefruit, spinach, winter squash, some oranges and tangerines and strawberries are right around the corner in Feb. Lastly, I have two very important tips for grocery shopping.

1) Pay attention to the serving size!! Food manufacturers are tricky. They know you are looking for low calorie foods and when you think something is too good to be true, read the label. If a serving of potato chips is only 50 calories-- the serving size is probably only 4-5 chips.

2) Ignore the word "natural." There is barely any regulation on what foods can be labeled all natural and you are much better off ignoring this phrase all together. In fact, your best bet is to ignore all the claims on the box and head straight for the ingredient list. If there are more than 5 things you can't pronounce, you should probably put it back on the shelf.

Why is there so little regulation? Well, for example, chickens naturally have sodium in their bodies, but very little. So when a chicken farmer pumps his chicken breasts full of sodium, technically that is still all natural, even though there is 500% more sodium compared to what I would consider a natural chicken.