Compassion, An Undervalued Trait, Let’s get back to the Raw Ingredients and Enjoy Yourself

Hi Folks! Connor and Nick here from Healthy Living With Nick and Connor. Thanks again for being on our email list, it means a lot, and we are excited to share our weekly email with you. We hope you enjoy it! Here is what we hope you take away from this one: 

1. Compassion is key.

2. Pare meals down to their rawest ingredients and keep it close to home.

3. Don’t take things too seriously, have fun.

Starter Mindset Tip: Value Compassion

If we focus our energies on being more compassionate it will change the way we feel about the world and thus change the way we see the world—for the better. Compassion is one of those traits that requires nourishment and consistent energy and attention, but if we can enhance it within ourselves, our life will improve. In today’s world, it seems that a lot of us are running on empty in this regard. To be more compassionate means having more empathy, more kindness, more patience, being less judgmental, more generous, having a mindful global perspective and a willingness to help others. Not only does it allow us to fully embrace those things most important in our lives—our relationships and our interaction with our friends, family and community—but we start being more compassionate with the person we can be the hardest on; ourselves. It’s something that is often overlooked as something we think we can’t change, or something that isn’t important enough to focus on; but rethink this. It can be changed, and it can be life changing.

Health Recipe: Let’s Get Back to the Raw Ingredients 

Timing: The amount of time it takes to go get ingredients and put’em together

Level of Difficulty: Medium - Hard

Serving Size: Petite – once a month and build from there

Spiciness: Spicy, zesty, bold, whatever you deicide

INGREDIENTS

You, your recipe, and the raw ingredients

 REASONING AND BENEFITS

If we want to improve the quality of what we’re eating and feeding to our family and friends, we need to cut back on the processed pre-made foods from ‘far away’. The closer to home and the less refined the better. Start choosing a meal here and there and prepare it from its most basic, unrefined elements. Instead of using pre-made burgers, buns and frozen fries, pick up some ground beef, add the spices, bake some buns, and cut up a tater and fry it yourself. Not only will this be healthier, but it allows you to make connections with local butchers, farmers, sellers at the market, and other people in your community, and it gives you a much better appreciation for what exactly goes into your food. It may sound intimidating, but it’s way more fun and it's worth the extra time. It may even inspire you to start a garden to grow some staple herbs and vegetables. If you don’t have the space outdoors, start on a windowsill. Start with one meal a month and then maybe once a week and go from there.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pick a meal you love that you think you can break down into more raw ingredients.

2. Try to obtain ingredients from local sources - local farms, butchers, markets or even your own garden.

3. Prepare the meal from scratch.

4. Enjoy the benefit of getting more intimate with a recipe and the payoff of collecting and combining the ingredients to prepare a homemade meal.

PRO TIP: Watch your cooking skills explode as you start truly appreciating everything that goes into your favorite foods. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t taste perfect the first time or as good as the store-bought stuff, keep learning and refining. 

* Make your own snacks for the week from raw ingredients, such as granola bars – try a variety of kinds.

** Include friends, family and children in the collecting of ingredients and the making of food from the raw materials.

*** For expert level - take things as far as you can possibly go! Mill your own wheat berries into flour, make your own cheese, get your own chickens.

Dessert Quote: 

“Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” – Oliver Sacks

Now we want to hear from YOU! Please let us know what you think of today’s newsletter, and send us an example of how you applied the health recipe to your life! We would love to share how you introduced this week’s recipe into your life’s unique menu. Thanks and have a great Sunday!

Sources: 

Learn more about gratitude:

Sacks, O. (2015). Gratitude. Pan Macmillan.

Learn more about the power of raw ingredients:

Pollan, M. (2009). In defense of food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Penguin.