I want to eat right: where do I start?

So you’ve decided to eat right. Fortunately, you don’t have to count the calories of every meal you eat and organize your healthy food into containers. All you have to do is get your body used to eating healthy foods. This may seem like a daunting task. Adhering to the principles of healthy eating is indeed not easy, but fortunately, only at the beginning. If you carefully follow the advice, they will gradually enter your life. The body will adjust to the necessary mode, and your food desires will finally coincide with your needs. With the help of the book “What should I eat to lose weight?” from the culinary project #Sekta, we were able to compile a few recommendations that will help you in your transition to a proper intuitive diet.

We invite everyone to the presentation of the book “What should I eat to lose weight?”. Save the dates: December 20 at 19:00 (St. Petersburg, “Bookvoid”, Nevsky Prospekt, 46); December 22 at 19:00 (Moscow, “Chitai-Gorod” in Evropeisky).

8 simple but extremely important tips:

● The volume of one meal is 250-300 ml
● Interval between meals – 2-4 hours
● Breakfast should be hearty and unsweetened.
● Don’t forget to eat vegetables
At least 2 meals with slow carbohydrates.
● It is important to eat proteins, at least 1 meal of vegetable proteins.
● The diet should contain sources of fats
Try to drink plenty of water (increase the amount of water you drink gradually).

In order to restructure your body to the desired mode, rules alone are not enough. In the first week, it is recommended to follow an ascetic diet, i.e. to deliberately limit yourself in food. It will help your body to change its eating habits. By following the principle of asceticism, your taste buds become more sensitive over time and learn to distinguish the natural flavor of foods.

To nullify your taste buds, you need to remove additives, sauces, and any spices from your diet.

It is important to eliminate sweets, flour, pasta, fatty, fried and fast carbohydrates. Simply put, you can not even fruits and dried fruits. With such restrictions, there is no desire to adhere to a healthy diet, and in general, all these rules seem too boring. Do not despair. Only the first week requires constant monitoring. However, this is its great benefit. Dishes that you will try after the “strict” week, will surprise with its variety of flavors!

After an ascetic diet, you can gladly return to the use of natural spices and salt in the preparation of dishes. You should do it gradually, adding spices in small quantities. Now you will have to learn to analyze your sensations and pay attention to the primary and secondary tastes. After your receptors begin to perceive the natural flavor, you can add culinary herbs and spices to dishes. Salt, pepper, ginger, cilantro, thyme and mint. Many more spices and herbs used to create a special flavor in dishes. With so much variety, it’s mind boggling. How to determine what to add to your diet is simply necessary, and what is better to delay? A newcomer to proper nutrition in solving this problem will not be easy. With this we are ready to help and offer several recipes.

Perlovka with pumpkin and beans

Ingredientes:

● 1/2 cup of pearl groats
1/8 head of red onion
● 100 g of pumpkin
1/4 carrot
● 1/2 stalk of celery
A handful of green beans
1/2 clove of garlic
2 sprigs of parsley
2 sprigs of green onion
● Curry on the tip of a knife
Salt, ground black pepper
● 1 tbsp. olive oil

Preparação:

● Rinse the pearl millet and, after drying, fry it in a dry pan for 1-2 minutes until brown. Then pour water and cook over low heat for 1.5-2 hours. Make sure that there is always water in the pot, if part of it boiled out, add hot water. The readiness of the groats can be checked “on the tooth”, in the center it should be soft. As soon as the peppers are boiled, drain off the excess water.
Dice the onion, garlic and celery into small cubes. Peel the pumpkin from its seeds and skin and cut it and the carrot into medium-sized cubes.
Sauté the onion, carrot, celery and garlic in oil for 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the pumpkin and curry and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, salt and pepper to taste. If the pumpkin has not released much juice, add 2 tbsp of water.
Then add the cooked groats and beans and stew all together for 5 minutes at minimum heat.
When serving, sprinkle with chopped green onions.

Bulgur with green peas

Ingredientes:

● 1/2 cup bulgur
4 cherry tomatoes
1/4 fennel
● 1 tsp. canned corn
● 1 tsp. green peas
2 sprigs each of dill, parsley and cilantro
1 sprig of thyme
Cumin seeds
Salt, ground black pepper
● 1 tsp. olive oil

Preparação:

● Rinse bulgur under running water, pour 1:2 boiling water, bring to a boil, salt, add thyme sprig, cook until tender.
Cut the cherry tomatoes into 4 pieces.
Dice the fennel into medium-sized cubes.
Coarsely chop the herbs.
● Fry the fennel in a hot pan, add the corn and peas, olive oil and cumin, braise for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt, pepper if necessary.
Remove from stove, cool, add herbs and stir.

Spinach and feta casserole

Ingredientes:

● 100 g feta
1/4 sweet pepper
3 tbsp. of defrosted spinach
1 tomato
● 1/8 head of onion
● 1-2 tbsp. chickpea flour
● Nutmeg, salt, ground black pepper

Preparação:

● Onion and sweet pepper cut into straws, fry in a dry pan until golden, add spinach and braise for 2 minutes.
Cut the tomato into 4 pieces, peel off the seeds and slice.
Fry the flour in a dry pan, stirring vigorously with a whisk, then add 50-100 ml of water in a thin stream. Bring to a thickening boil and remove from the heat.
Knead the feta.
Mix the feta with the stewed vegetables, add the tomatoes and flour base. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
● Place in a baking dish. Bake at 180 °C for 20-25 minutes.

Salad with cheese and fresh vegetables

Ingredientes:

● 100-130 g of Adygea cheese
1 tomato
1/4 cucumber
● Juice and zest of 1 orange
● 1 small bunch of arugula
● 1 tsp. soy sauce
● 1 tsp. olive oil
2 sprigs each of dill and parsley
● Salt, ground black pepper

Preparação:

● Cheese cut into medium-thick slices (3-4 per serving)
Cut the tomato into 4 parts, cut out the core and seeds, cut the pulp into medium slices.
Slice cucumber into rounds.
Mix the chopped vegetables, coarsely chopped herbs and arugula in a large bowl.
Dress with olive oil, soy sauce and orange juice and add orange zest.
Season with salt and pepper, if necessary. Stir to mix.
Place on plates, garnish with cheese.