The Perfect Kitchen

When people tell me they want to lose weight or get healthy or even simply eat better, the first thought that comes to mind is, “What’s in their pantry?”

I have a bit of an obsession with sorting through pantries and refrigerators and pruning them until they are beautiful in my sight. It is my idea of interior decorating.

So if you are interested in making some healthier choices for your life, I’m here to help.

Designing Your Dream Kitchen

The first thing to understand about cleaning out your pantry is that you never go in and throw everything away. Frankly, that’s just wasteful. Instead, understand the method behind it.

Grocery stores are marketed in a way to draw your attention to what they want you to buy. Style your pantry in the way that you want to eat.

Keep the nutritious food at eye level and easy to grab. Take all the junk and place it at the bottom shelf or hard to reach places, even out of sight if you need to.

And while you could donate the food to those in need, be sure you aren’t cutting out the junk cold turkey. The more junk food you have in your pantry, the more difficult the withdrawal will be. You may need to gradually eat through it until it is gone along with those strong cravings.

Stocking Your Kitchen

So what should you stock in your pantry?

Begin by making sure your kitchen is stocked with the basics. Going back to our Grocery Tips post, the basics would include pretty much what you find on the outside isles. The exceptions would be items such as spices and grains/ baking supplies (flour, baking soda, oats, etc.) Basically, you’re looking for single ingredients.

Keeping the basics on hand provides you with the convenience that most people want. If ever you’re out of a product or having a craving, you know you can always make it at home.

As an added perk, in the process of putting the effort in to cooking, you will actually be burning calories and speeding up your metabolism before you even consume anything!

This simple strategy is what will help lead you straight to achieving your health goals.

Why is this so important?

Because you will be making your own food!

If you’ve read our post of Grocery Tips, you have probably learned that you cannot trust what goes into the products you eat. But you can trust your own hands at what you put into your meals.

As we have gone over in past posts, your body is created differently from everyone else’s. Your body requires its own daily amount of calories and nutrients. Pre-made food is made to satisfy the average. Do you consider yourself average? Or do you feel your body deserves more?

The food industry makes our meals appear convenient, sending them right to your door. But this pre-made food is all loaded with way more calories, sugar, salt, and fat than necessary. You’re not even safe with getting a salad at most places. There is no effort or love in giving your body what it needs to survive. Put some work into making sure your body gets exactly what it requires.

And you can solve the dilemma by making your own food.

Use Your Kitchen

Craving pancakes? What extra work is it to make them from scratch than to use a boxed mix?

Instead of using mixes, find out what ingredients go into them and learn to make it from scratch. Cut out the preservatives and added ingredients. You be in charge of the salt content!

Take a look at Taco seasoning for example. A packet of a popular brand of taco seasoning contains 12 ingredients, including maltodextrin, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, silicon dioxide, and ethoxyquin (what?). It also contains 300 mg of sodium per serving. Why buy this when you can easily make your own taco seasoning with the simple spices you have at home and no mystery ingredients.

Instead of buying boxes, bags, or freezer food, do the same as with mixes. Learn exactly what ingredients are in the foods that you love and learn how to make them at home. This goes the same with fast food and restaurant food.

We all have access to the internet. I guarantee you can find mock recipes of your favorite dishes and tweak them till they meet your needs.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you found your own food to be better than what you could get somewhere else. After all, it’s fully customizable to your liking!

Of course there are countless ways to work towards being healthy, but why not start simple in the comforts of your own home?

Clean up your body by cleaning up your kitchen first.