Hellobee Boards

Personally, healthy eating means a balanced diet. Trying to eat veggies, whole grains, lean meats, but not beating myself up if I want a cheeseburger and fries on a Friday night.

Eating natural as much as possible on top of low cal and low fat. I've been trying really hard to stay away from high fructose syrup lately too.

Food as close to its natural state as possible. My husband didn't grow up eating healthy, and sometimes has a hard time making the healthiest choice, so the rule in our house is that if it didn't exist when our great grandparents were growing up, we don't need it. Makes it easy!

For me it means eating a well balanced diet of whole foods. I like the definition of "real food" that the author of the blog 100 Days of Real Food gives. Basically she sticks to whole foods or things that have 5 or fewer ingredients that she would keep in her own kitchen (so buying bread is fine but not a bread with lots of dough conditioners etc.-- just flour, salt, yeast, water, honey).

At home we mostly stick to this-- breakfast cereal and the odd ball frozen meal from Trader Joe's are the exceptions and neither is awful. Going out to eat or eating on the road while traveling are places we have room for improvement.

@Mrsbells: I know some people who are like the ones in your office, I literally saw one father offer his kid a bag of snacks before a sporting event and he spelled out the "healthy" reasons he was offering them: an oatmeal raisin cookie for complex carbs, fruit snacks for fructose-- a rush of energy, a gatorade and honey roasted peanuts which the kid promptly declared he hated. And this was for a 60 minute soccer practice at the elementary school level!

Same as babyboecks, avoiding processed/sugars and having a balance of fruit/veggies, protein, etc.

Balance of veggies, carbs, meats, fruit. Cutting down on processed foods and sugary snacks. My downfall is candy. I just love it too much!!

I don't count calories, and i don't really care for health fads. I love food, and i just focus on getting the right balance and making sure it tastes great for our family.

@MapleMoose: This for us, too.

I also try to mostly shop the perimeter (with the exception of canned and dried goods, but I refuse to walk down the chip/cookie/soda aisles so as not to tempt myself.

I've been working hard at not drinking my calories. I stick to water (even though I crave soda hard) with the exception of coffee and sometimes milk. And beer, but we've cut back buying it a lot because neither of us want beer guts.

Passing on the ranch when I have pizza...not getting extra cheese on my Subway...eating half a row of Chips Ahoy instead of a full row... Hahahah, oops.

Agree with pp's that eating healthy means food as close to the way it was raised/grown.

We pretty much don't eat any processed foods; we cook 9/10 meals. We do eat meat, but only naturally raised meat. We eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, organic if possible.

We limit sugar intake. The only sweeteners we use are natural like Raw local honey, pure maple syrup and coconut sugar.

I don't eat fast food ever, it actually makes me sick... But in general I follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of what I eat is meat, produce and healthy grains (quinoa, sprouted wheat, buckwheat, millet, and rice), with small amounts of dairy.

I agree with you about calorie counting. We never choose "low fat" items because they're further from their natural state.

Also I believe in healthy fats. We eat a lot of grass-fed butter, pure coconut oil, olive oil, avocados etc and purposefully eat foods high in healthy far contents.

Low fat, high protein, low(er) carb foods in the right amounts and at the right times. Low sugar.

Clean eating. Realistically though, sometimes convenience wins out. Personally, I try for a balanced diet and to get enough protein, fruits and veggies every day.

Similar to above, lots of fruits and veggies, lean meats. I'm noticing it more now that LO eats solids full time. I'm on WW, so it's been helping. I'm still battling diet soda, but Crystal Light has been huge for my DH and cutting his soda intake.

Whole foods and a wide variety of them. No artificial crap.

I cook real food too. I don't use boxes or mixes or seasoning packets.