By Lauren Haas
Studies show 80% of people that make New Year’s resolutions fail by February.

Instead of making unrealistic resolutions like, loose 20 pounds, exercise everyday, only eat organic or take on an extreme way of eating, use my Simple WOW Tips to achieve a life full of health, happiness and balance.

1. Eat real food from the earth not a factory: That means loading your plate up with vegetables, fruits, organic meat, wild fish, nuts, seeds, gluten free grains, beans and healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, coconut oil and organic ghee.

Eat organic when possible: Unless you live on a farm and/or rarely eat out, eating organic all the time is pretty unrealistic. Instead, try your best to keep the kitchen 80% organic and try to follow the Dirty Dozen Clean 15 List.

Cook at home: By cooking at home, you have control over what you are eating and what goes in the food. As much as I love to eat out, I have also worked in a kitchen and I know what actually goes into restaurant food. If you do not know where to find delicious and healthy recipes, that you can trust, check out my website in the Recipe and Blog section for tons of great options:

https://www.wildorganicwellness.com/blog
https://www.wildorganicwellness.com/recipes

Stick to protein and veggies: Then add a sprinkle of fat, like 1/3 of an avocado, and ½ cup of a cooked whole grain carbohydrate, like quinoa, black rice or brown rice, or 1/3 cup of your favorite beans or legume, or ½ cup of a colorful starchy vegetable like yams, sweet potatoes, or beets, to make a satisfying and balanced plate.

Eat a variety of food: This way you won’t get bored! If you like having a smoothie in the morning, switch up your plant based protein powder flavors and blend them with a different fruit each time. If you love eggs for breakfast, add different types of cooked vegetables, like chard, mushrooms, spinach, roasted yams, zucchini and broccoli. You can also add a serving of dairy free cheese (I like the brands, Kite Hill, So Delicious, and Pamela’s Nut Cheese), or even throw in some turkey bacon or chicken apple sausage for added protein.

Be open to new foods: Who knew bison, coconut oil, super food berries from the Himalayan Mountains and Japanese pumpkins were so YUMMY!?! If you see something interesting in the market, buy it and Google some recipes or email me: Lauren@haasholistic.com

If it is worth it, have 3 bites then put your fork down: The 4th or 5th bite or the whole bowl of ice cream isn’t going to taste as good as the first. Do your best to savor that one piece of crusty homemade sourdough bread or learn to share dessert. By controlling yourself, your internal voice a few hours or the next day will be so much nicer verses your internal voice beating yourself up for going overboard.

Only eat dessert when HAPPY: Eating a bag of cookies will not make your problems disappear. Instead, it will make you feel worst because once again, your internal voice won’t be so kind. Many times when my clients “go off the deep end” due to emotional eating, it takes an enormous effort, intense coaching and loads of self sabotage, tears, and tight pants to finally get back on track. My best advice is to practice intuitive eating.

Ask yourself the following 6 questions before you indulge to bring some awareness back into your minds eye:

1. How am I feeling right now? Anxious? Depressed? Mad?
2. Why do I really want that insert unhealthy option?
3. How will I feel if I eat that now? How will I feel if I eat that in 10 minutes? 2o minutes? 30 minutes? 24 hours?
4. Will that feeling be worth it?
5. Will eating insert unhealthy option lead to self-sabotage and a cycle of unhealthy eating, binging and harmful thoughts?
6. Think of yourself as your own child and ask yourself, “If I knew insert unhealthy option would be harmful to my child, would I give it to him/her?” The answer would probably be “No.”

After you have asked yourself these questions, take 5 minutes to sit with yourself and really think if eating XYZ is in your best interest. Use your best judgment and make the right decision.

Lauren Haas is a holistic nutritionist and creator of http://www.wildorganicwellness.com