By Mary Reid

“Good food doesn’t mean fancy food, good friend doesn’t mean fancy friend, good life doesn’t mean fancy life.”

― Abhijit Naskar, Find A Cause Outside Yourself: Sermon of Sustainability

Raise your hand if you’ve ever jumped onboard one of those diet fads that radically change what and how you eat only to abandon the whole thing in a few weeks?

Instead of changing your whole diet, start by adding just 10 days per month of healthier eating to your normal dietary habits. Go on a quest to find meals that not only fit your lifestyle and budget but also get you excited about trying them. Believe it or not, healthier eating doesn’t have to mean less enjoyable eating. Sometimes we just need to break the habit of eating what we always eat.

We have known for a long time that there is a link between alcohol consumption and diet. Drinking alcohol can increase junk food consumption and inhibit our body’s ability to absorb nutrients. You can read more about the link here. This 30 day abstinence period is a perfect time to see how your body responds when you give it healthier, more nutrient-dense food.

If you continue to add healthy and delicious meals to your meal repertoire, you will eventually increase the number of healthy eating days in your normal eating routine because you like what you’re eating!

Do you have a couple of healthy recipes that you think are delicious? Send them to us at moderationmonth@moderation.org or share them in the Miles for Moderation facebook group. We’ll create a collection that we’ll share with all of you and future Miles For Moderation participants.

Here’s a couple of recipes I really like from America’s Test Kitchen’s Complete Mediterranean Cookbook:

Roasted Green Beans with Pecorino (or Parmesan) and Pine Nuts

Greek Style Braised Pork With Leeks