Five Tips for a Healthier and Happier Life NOW

Here are five of my key tips to improve your life daily:

1. Be grateful for something every day. If it’s only the fact that you woke up and opened your eyes and you express gratitude, it will help your attitude. The more gratitude you have, the better you are likely to feel.
2. Practice the 80/20 rule. Whatever you do 80% of the time has the biggest impact on your life. you don’t need to strive for perfection, for it may not arrive but what you do most of the time has an effect.
3. Avoid white flour, white sugar and processed foods most of the time. Follow suggestion 2 above, unless you notice that eating these foods causes you to crave more of them — then do not let them near you.
4. Move daily. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 15 minute walk or a 10 minute walk after each meal, or 20 minutes of yoga, or dancing around the house. But moving makes a huge difference physically and in your attitude. We are designed to move daily.
5. Take care of yourself. Do something good for yourself every day. This can be a simple as cutting a rose and putting it in a vase, eating vegetables as snacks, rubbing lotion on your hands, hugging someone or getting a hug, stroking your pet, reading, smelling an essential oil or whatever makes you feel good.

There are many more things that I coudl add to this list but this is a good start.

To help you with number 3, which is my area of speciality, here is a recipe for quinoa (keen wa) which is my go-to grain. It’s packed with protein and makes great leftovers. This is the basic version but I’ve added suggestions to veg it up.

Quick Quinoa Pilaf

Serves 4 – 6

Quinoa makes a great base for all kinds of flavorings and vegetable additions. You can vary them according to the season. The best part is that quinoa tastes the same or better the next day.

 

¼      cup minced onion

1        cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 3/4  cup water or broth

¼      teaspoon salt, to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

2        green onions, sliced for garnish

 

Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the quinoa and cook a minute or two, stirring often, until the quinoa is toasted. Add the water or broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Add the salt and pepper. Top with green onions.

 

In the last 5 minutes of steaming, you can add broccoli florets, fresh or frozen peas or corn, snow or sugar snap peas, summer squash, green beans or your favorite quick cooking vegetable. Add toasted sesame seeds, toasted pine nuts or almonds, chopped olives and your favorite herb blend. Think of using quinoa in any way that you’d use rice.

 

© 2010 The Veggie Queen™, Jill Nussinow, MS, RD www.theveggiequeen.com  from my cookbook, The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment