What I Wish More People Knew About Getting Healthy: Healthy Eating Doesn't Have to Be Complicated

If you've ever decided you're going to “eat healthy,” you probably know how quickly that can get complicated.

Suddenly you're searching Pinterest for recipes, buying ingredients you've never used before, trying to figure out how to meal prep six different meals on Sunday, reading food labels, counting calories, tracking macros, and wondering whether the food you're eating is actually “healthy” enough.

And don't forget the list of foods you're now supposed to avoid.

No sugar. No carbs. No processed foods. No eating after 7 p.m. No eating out. No desserts. No fun.

Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic. But sometimes it feels like we've made healthy eating so complicated that you need a spreadsheet and a full afternoon just to figure out what you're having for dinner.

I get it because I've been there.

For most of my life, I thought losing weight meant finding the right diet. Name one and I'm sure I tried it. And every time I started something new, there were new rules to follow and new foods to buy. There was always another list of things I should or shouldn't be eating.

Eventually, after losing more than 60 pounds and learning a lot about nutrition along the way, I realized something that I wish I had understood much earlier:

Healthy eating doesn't have to be complicated to be effective.

In fact, I think we often make it much harder than it needs to be.

Start with the basics.

When people ask me what they should eat to get healthier, I don't start by giving them a list of “good” foods and “bad” foods. Instead, I want them to look at where they are starting and see if they're doing the basics.

Are you eating enough protein? Are you getting enough fiber? Are you eating fruits and vegetables? Are most of your meals made up of foods that help you feel good and keep you satisfied? Are you eating in a way that gives you enough energy for your day?

Those things matter a whole lot more than whether you found the perfect recipe on Instagram.

Two things I especially like to use as simple anchors are protein and fiber. Protein can help with things like maintaining muscle and staying satisfied, while fiber is important for digestive health and can also help you feel fuller after meals. You don't need to turn every meal into a mathematical equation, but making an effort to include both throughout your day is a simple place to start.

And when I say simple, I really mean simple.

Breakfast could be eggs with egg whites and some veggies. It could be Greek yogurt with berries and a serving of granola. Lunch could be a turkey sandwich with vegetables and some plain Greek yogurt mixed with ranch seasoning. Dinner could be chicken with a microwaveable rice packet and frozen vegetables. Maybe it's a bowl of oatmeal with protein and some chia seeds or psyllium husk mixed in. Maybe it's cooked shrimp and stir fry vegetables.

None of those meals are particularly complicated. They aren't Instagram worthy, and you probably aren't going to see someone making a 45 second Reel about how to assemble them.

But they work.

And I think that's something we sometimes lose sight of when we spend so much time looking for the next healthy recipe or nutrition hack. Food doesn't have to be exciting to support your health. It just needs to work for you.

Healthy food doesn't have to be complicated food.

I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about healthy eating.

Somehow we've convinced ourselves that if a meal is healthy, it needs to involve a complicated recipe, expensive ingredients, multiple cooking steps, and a pretty bowl.

It doesn't.

One of my favorite ways to make healthy eating easier is to have a handful of meals that I know I like, that I know how to make, and that I can put together without thinking too much about it.

Because let's be honest: when you're hungry at 6 p.m. after a long day, you probably aren't looking for a new culinary adventure. You're looking for dinner.

And if the only healthy food you have available requires an hour of chopping, three pans, a trip to the grocery store, and an ingredient that you've never heard of before, there's a pretty good chance you're going to choose something easier.

That's why having repeatable meals can be so helpful.

You don't need 30 different healthy dinner recipes. You need a few breakfasts you enjoy, a few lunches you can rotate through, and several easy dinners that you know you can make when life gets busy.

That's also why I don't believe meal planning has to mean eating something completely different every day. There is nothing wrong with eating the same breakfast several days in a row if you like it. There is nothing wrong with finding a lunch that works and sticking with it for a while.

In fact, boring can be incredibly useful when it comes to healthy eating.

The fewer decisions you have to make, the easier it is to follow through. And when your goal is to create something you can do for years instead of a few weeks, I'll take simple and repeatable over complicated and impressive every time.

And yes, convenience foods count.

This is another area where I think we can make healthy eating much harder than it needs to be.

Frozen vegetables count. Bagged salad counts. Pre cooked chicken counts. Canned beans count. Microwaveable rice counts. Rotisserie chicken counts. Pre cut fruit and vegetables count.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using convenience foods to make it easier to put together a balanced meal.

I've spent years working in commercial kitchens, so I know what goes into preparing food from scratch. I also know that most people don't have a commercial kitchen, a prep cook, or several hours every Sunday to dedicate to cooking.

And even if you do have the time, that doesn't mean you have to spend all of it in the kitchen.

Your goal isn't to prove how much work you can put into your meals. Your goal is to feed yourself in a way that supports your health and fits into your life.

Sometimes that means cooking from scratch. Other times it means opening a bag of frozen vegetables and putting a piece of chicken in the air fryer. Sometimes dinner is a recipe you've been making for years. Other times it's whatever combination of food you can throw together after a long day.

Both can be part of eating in a healthy and sustainable way for the long term.

Eating better doesn't mean eating perfectly.

I think this might be the most important part.

You can eat a healthy breakfast and still have pizza for dinner. You can eat vegetables all week and have dessert. You can meal prep on Sunday and order takeout on Thursday because you had a crazy day. You can eat more protein and fiber without giving up the foods you love.

Healthy eating isn't about creating a list of foods you're never allowed to eat again.

It's about looking at your overall eating pattern and asking yourself, “What could I do a little better?”

Maybe you're currently eating very little protein, so you start adding some to breakfast. Maybe you rarely eat fruits or vegetables, so you start adding one serving to lunch. Maybe you're constantly grabbing takeout because you don't have anything easy at home, so you keep a few convenient options in the freezer. Maybe you drink very little water, so you start carrying a water bottle with you.

You don't have to fix all of those things this week.

STOP TRYING TO FIX EVERYTHING AT ONCE.

And just like I talked about in the first post in this series, you don't have to make your first step impressive.

You need it to be repeatable.

That's what makes this approach so different from another diet. A diet often asks, “What can I eliminate or restrict so I can get the fastest possible result?”

A sustainable approach asks, “What can I add or change that I can realistically keep doing?”

Those are two very different questions.

Make healthy eating fit your life.

When I look back at all the years I spent trying to lose weight, I wish I had spent less time searching for the perfect way to eat and more time figuring out how to eat well when life wasn't perfect.

Because life is going to happen.

You're going to have busy weeks. You're going to go out to dinner. You're going to have nights when you don't feel like cooking. You're going to travel. You're going to have birthdays and holidays and weekends when your normal routine looks completely different.

If eating healthy requires you to spend three hours meal prepping every Sunday, cook every meal from scratch, never eat at a restaurant, and follow a complicated set of food rules, you're probably not going to be able to maintain that.

But if healthy eating means having a few easy breakfasts you enjoy, keeping convenient foods on hand, adding protein and fiber to your meals, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and leaving room for foods you love?

That sounds a whole lot more realistic to me.

Because the goal isn't to eat perfectly.

The goal is to create an eating pattern that supports your health without taking over your life.

You don't need a perfect diet to get healthier. You need an approach to eating that works in your real life.

Keep it simple. Focus on the basics. Start with one or two things you can improve. Give yourself some room to be human.

And remember: eating better is not the same thing as eating perfectly.

You don't have to make food harder to make your health better.

Sustainable does not = perfection.

YOU GOT THIS!

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