Eat the Rainbow

Keeping one's body healthy has a positive affect on all aspects of life. When we are sleeping well, eating well and exercising regularly, we feel better and have ample energy to give to our life experiences.

Sometimes it can feel daunting to try to 'do the right thing' with regards to our bodies, especially when it comes to eating healthily.

I heard a commentator on TV once give a great and simple approach to facilitate an instant improvement in one's diet. He talked about trying to eat as many colors in one meal as possible. I believe the goal he suggested was to eat 7 colors at every meal. This simple suggestion has changed the way I eat!

Sometimes I go a little crazy and try to create salads with as many different colored vegetables as possible! I amuse myself by counting up the ingredients, and racking my brain for one more color to add!

I also come at my meal's 'color assessment' from the opposite direction sometimes, by realizing that my meal is 'monochrome' as in a choice of chicken tortilla soup and cheese bread... which is ALL orange! I try to stay away from monochromatic meals, as a rule. I also monitor a day's food intake and try to make sure that it is balanced overall.

This is a really fun thing to work on with kids too! They enjoy the challenge of 'eating the rainbow.'

The more colors you eat, the more variety you are getting in your diet. Americans have notoriously unhealthy eating habits, based in a lot of white flour based products. A turkey sandwich with turkey, white bread and mayonaise is ALL WHITE! Not a great choice. Change out the bread for some dark pumpernickle or whole grain selection, add some lettuce, tomato and red onion and you've taken the 'all white' meal to a 5 color success! Put a little bit of mixed bean salad on the side and you might throw in a few more colors! See how fun this is?

Eating better can be as easy or as hard as we want to make it. If all you did was increase the number of colors you eat on a daily basis, you'd almost be guaranteed to have a healthier diet.

Give it a try and enjoy the process!