Written by Connie Rogers

The art of nourishing through colors in food is nature’s way of keeping us smiling, healthy, sexy, and satiated. There are healing powers in colors from the oceans to the forest and food is no exception. When we choose colorful foods we increase the information that’s inside these beautiful fruits and veggies. At your next meal make it a piece of Art and feel the colors feeding
your soul.

The kitchen for many of us ‘health nuts’ is the best place in the house to hang out- surrounded by foods that build immunity and relieve anxiety. Your creativity begins here. That being said, if you love to eat but find yourself challenged with adding unwanted inches around the waist, I have found it important to actually PLAY with your food first. Cut them up in bite size pieces. Pick them up and taste them one by one. Chewing foods instead of gulping improves digestion.

Feast your eyes on these healing foods from Mother Natures Table! Choose a plate of organic colorful vegetables, fruits, soups and salads. With this powerful ‘language of color,’ we can discover how to use it to enhance our well-being and brighten up our taste buds.

Taking this one step further, vibrant live foods provide the frequency, phytonutrients, vitamins, and fiber to keep us alive. These include organic kale, spinach, colorful salads, organic bell peppers, asparagus, tomatoes, fresh salsa, and more. You get the picture.

If we ate like this we wouldn’t gain all that extra weight over picnics, birthdays or holidays. Next time, when you’re invited to a party, bring and share one favorite colorful food you know you’ll enjoy. Be creative & spice it up! Friends will be amazed that it’s not prepackaged!

Remember: Food connects groups of people and is a language all its
own, most times, spoken without words.

Too much alcohol adds weight, bloating, wrinkles, and disrupts circadian rhythms. When drinking alcohol it’s too easy to drink more than one with the end result of belching and gas! Why? Because sugar doesn’t contain any fiber. Avoiding alcohol for an appetizer, and replacing it with a mocktail, you might drink less, and enjoy your food more! Here’s one mocktail made with tomatoes, carrots, cilantro, ginger, and apples.

What if table offerings by well-meaning friends are loaded with stuffing, mac and cheese, potato salads, dumplings, rice pudding, pretzels, flat breads, and french fries? Are these calling your name?

FIRST ask, “Do they have beautiful colors or just sugar?” And if sugar is doing the calling … say hello to the fruit plate on the adjacent table. Visualize vibrant energy that your body can thrive on when you bite into that scrumptious kiwi.

Food fuels energy. Increasing energy, gives you the ability to enjoy every day of your life. When we focus on spending time incorporating new positive habits, finding joys in whole foods, and opening our mind to new ways of thinking, we find peace.

In the ‘buffet of life’ there are certain things we do every day not knowing the impact it may have on our health or waistline. Make beige-eating a thing of the past. Feast your eyes on greens… greens… glorious greens.

Spinach fights belly fat with it’s mouthwatering green color filled with phytonutrients. Phytonutrients provides us with anti-cancer properties. I purchase 2 boxes of organic spinach a week and freeze one for smoothies. Spinach is found beneficial to protect us from UV radiation and boost collagen levels. This means spinach is a anti-aging food. Not only is spinach good for our skin, it’s good for our eyes, our brain and our bones! Made famous from the original Popeye cartoon, you’ll find spinach tasty in salads with a few walnuts and green apples, and in smoothies with ginger root,
cilantro, and green grapes. Spinach contains protein and is a good source of calcium, antioxidants, beta-carotene, manganese, zinc and selenium. A must have at least two times a day.

I love avocados. Good fats are not your enemy, they’re brain food! If you’re looking for sustained energy throughout the day, it starts with healthy fats that don’t spike your blood sugar levels and leave you hanging out to dry. These beauties decrease cravings, are loaded with fiber, protect against heart disease, breast cancer, osteoarthritis, diabetes, inflammation, and improve cognitive function. They are rich in magnesium, potassium, folate, B6, vitamin E, and prove beneficial for adrenal health, eye health, skin health, and can fight belly fat. I love to stuff these lovelies with fermented sauerkraut, or mix them in baked sweet potatoes.Yum!

Green apples present the body and brain with more energy than a cup of coffee. They also help boost collagen levels and fight premature aging. Organic green apples are loaded with fiber, vitamin C, calcium and protein. High fiber foods help to improve cognitive function, depression, and dementia.

Cilantro is not only a superfood, it helps to boost our energy levels and enhances our beauty! According to the Journal of Pharmacy & BioAllied Sciences, “Cilantro fights free radical damage, and possesses hepatoprotective activity in liver injury.”(1) “It’s also highly praised for lowering blood sugar levels in diabetics.”(2) Cilantro is an easy herb to grow indoors all year long. You’ll find it a simple addition to salads, vegetable dishes, and guacamole recipes.

Asparagus are a member of the cruciferous family of vegetables. They are a great source of micronutrients, and magnesium which is why they’re found beneficial for reducing belly fat. And if that isn’t enough, they are rich in glucosamine which helps relieve arthritis symptoms.

You can enjoy these deliciously simple colorful, tasty foods without much preparation. Plus, you may discover indigestion, insomnia, belly fat, brain fog, and poor skin health, is a thing of the past!

Health is what happens when you stress-less and eat foods that love
you back. It may not be easy to ditch old habits, the ones that don’t serve you anymore. However, if you replace one boring food a week with
color you’ll be on your way to a fresh start.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and get the support you need from a
certified health coach.

footnotes:
1- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3178952/
2- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22671941
For Brain Health “Eat foods that love you back.”

Connie Rogers is a Certified Integrative Nutritional Holistic Health Coach, Brain Health Coach, Published Author, & Gluten-Free Chef.

Connie believes health and wellness are established with proper nutrition, fitness, and mindfulness. Connie takes a natural and holistic, common sense approach to rebuild well-being from the ground up.