Start Here: A Simple Way to Begin Caring for Your Health

I’m so glad you’re here. If you want to take better care of your health but aren’t quite sure where to start, you’re in the right place.

Green Food Crush is a place to learn how everyday choices can support the way you feel today and the health you’re building for the future. My hope is that you leave here feeling informed, encouraged, and excited about what your body can do with the right support.

One of the things that has fascinated me for more than 20 years of studying nutrition and lifestyle is just how responsive our bodies are to the way we care for them.

The food we eat, the way we move, the quality of our sleep, the time we spend outside, even the ordinary rhythms of our days—all of these give our bodies information and resources they can use.

And that gives us an incredible opportunity.

We get to participate in our own health every single day.

You may be here because you want more energy. Maybe something about your health has gotten your attention. Maybe you’re ready to make some changes, and you’re wondering what actually matters most. Or maybe you already feel great and want to keep feeling that way for a very long time.

Wherever you’re beginning, there are meaningful things you can do today.

Let’s start there.

Start With Food

If you spend much time around Green Food Crush, you’ll quickly discover how excited I get about plants. 😊

There’s a good reason for that.

Vegetables, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, beans and lentils, fruit, berries, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices provide an extraordinary variety of fiber, vitamins, minerals and protective plant compounds.

And every plant brings something a little different to the table.

Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, kale and cabbage contain glucosinolates that can be converted into biologically active compounds, including sulforaphane. Berries are packed with colorful polyphenols. Beans and lentils bring fiber, resistant starch, protein and minerals. Flax and chia provide fiber and alpha-linolenic acid, an essential omega-3 fatty acid.

Then there’s the fiber.

Fiber travels through our digestive tract and becomes food for communities of microbes that make up our gut microbiome. Some of those microbes turn the fiber we eat into short-chain fatty acids and other compounds that interact with the cells lining our intestine and have effects throughout the body.

This is one of the reasons I find nutrition so fascinating: that cabbage on your plate isn’t just cabbage. There is an entire biological conversation happening after you eat it.

So this is where I would begin:

Bring more whole plant foods into your day.

Put berries on your breakfast. Add greens to a smoothie. Toss beans or lentils onto a salad. Snack on fruit. Add another vegetable to dinner. Sprinkle ground flax over oatmeal. Try a vegetable you’ve never eaten before.

There are so many delicious ways to begin.

And as those foods become more familiar, keep exploring. Different colors, different families of plants and different types of fiber give us an opportunity to nourish our bodies—and our gut microbes—in wonderfully diverse ways.

Make Nourishing Food Easy to Reach For

A green smoothie is one of my favorite ways to make plant nutrition easy on busy mornings.

Knowing what we want to eat and having it available when we’re hungry are two very different things. This is where a little preparation can make healthy eating dramatically easier.

Keep fruit where you can see it. Stock frozen berries and greens. Have beans or lentils ready in the refrigerator or pantry. Wash a few vegetables when you bring them home. Make enough dinner to create tomorrow’s lunch. Keep simple ingredients around for the meals you know you enjoy.

And find a few easy foods that can become your regulars.

For me, one of those foods is a green smoothie. If you’d like to make one yourself, my guide to making a green smoothie will walk you through it. Greens, fruit, and a few other ingredients go into the blender, and within minutes I’ve started my day with an enormous amount of plant nutrition.

Your easy food may be oatmeal piled with berries, a big salad you genuinely love, lentil soup, chia pudding, bean tacos or a baked potato loaded with vegetables.

Healthy food becomes much easier to eat regularly when the ingredients are already waiting for you.

Let the Rest of Your Life Support You Too

Food is a huge part of what we talk about here, but our bodies experience our entire lives.

Regular movement supports cardiovascular health, metabolic health, our brains, bones and muscles. Strength training becomes especially valuable as we move through midlife and beyond because maintaining muscle and bone helps preserve the strength and capability that allow us to keep doing the things we love.

And movement can happen in all kinds of ways.

Walk. Lift weights. Garden. Hike. Ride a bike. Stretch. Take the stairs. Find ways to use your body throughout the day and ways to challenge it enough to stay strong.

Sleep deserves that same attention. While we sleep, our bodies are actively involved in processes affecting memory, metabolism, immune function, hormonal regulation and tissue repair. Giving ourselves adequate opportunity for restorative sleep is one of the most valuable things we can do for our health.

Then there are some wonderfully simple things: drink enough water. Step outside. Let your eyes experience natural morning light. Spend time with people you love. Make room for rest and things that bring you joy.

Health is built through an entire life, and so many of its building blocks are available to us every day.

One Good Thing Still Counts

Here is something I really want you to remember.

Sometimes we know exactly how we’d like to be eating and living, and then life gets busy. The week fills up. The refrigerator gets empty. Plans change. And it can be easy to think, If I can’t do the whole thing, why bother?

Because one good thing still counts.

The greens in your smoothie still contain their vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals.

The beans you added to lunch still fed your gut microbes.

The ten-minute walk still moved your muscles.

The berries you ate still brought their fiber and polyphenols along for the ride.

The water you drank still hydrated you.

Your body doesn’t wait for an entire day of healthy choices before it begins using something good you’ve given it.

I think this is one of the most freeing ways to approach health.

Each choice gets to stand on its own.

And then, when you have room, you make another one.

Build From What Works

Some people reach a point when they are ready to make a lot of changes at once.

If that’s you, wonderful.

Stock the refrigerator. Make the smoothie. Cook the lentils. Fill your water bottle. Start walking. Give yourself enough time to sleep. Try some new recipes. See how you feel.

You may discover that feeling better becomes its own kind of motivation.

And if one change feels like the right place to begin, start there.

Maybe breakfast becomes your thing.

Make a green smoothie every morning. Let it become so familiar that you hardly have to think about it anymore.

Then perhaps you add a walk.

Later you start making a plant-filled lunch you love.

Over time, these choices can become less like things you’re trying to remember to do and more like the way you live.

There isn’t one correct speed for getting healthier.

There is simply your next opportunity to care for yourself.

Create a Healthy Home Base

A little preparation can make nourishing foods much easier to reach for later.

This may be one of my favorite ideas of all.

As you discover foods and habits that make you feel good, keep them.

Let them become your home base.

Maybe you know exactly what goes into your favorite smoothie. You have a lentil soup you can practically make with your eyes closed. There are always berries in your freezer. Your walking shoes have a home by the door. Your water bottle follows you everywhere. You know which simple lunch you can pull together in five minutes.

Those familiar things make healthy living easier.

And when life gets especially full, your home base gives you somewhere familiar to begin.

Make the smoothie.

Take the walk.

Fill the water bottle.

Something good still counts.

Stay Curious

Broccoli sprouts are one of my favorite little examples of how much nutrition can be packed into a tiny plant!

There is another part of caring for our health that I hope you’ll discover here at Green Food Crush:

It can be absolutely fascinating.

I’ve been studying nutrition and lifestyle for more than two decades, and the more I learn, the more amazed I become by the human body.

What’s so special about broccoli sprouts? What exactly is sulforaphane, and why is it worth knowing about?

Why do our gut microbes care how many different plants we eat?

What are fermented foods doing in the microbiome?

How does morning light affect the clock in our brain?

Why does building muscle become increasingly important as we get older?

These are the kinds of questions I love exploring.

Because when we understand a little more about why something matters, healthy choices begin to feel different. We’re not simply following somebody else’s list of rules.

We understand what we’re giving our bodies and why we’re doing it.

Knowledge gives us choices.

And those choices can add up to something remarkable.

Where Would You Like to Go Next?

If you’re ready to keep exploring, follow whatever interests you most.

I want to eat more plants.
Start with my Beginner’s Guide to Whole-Food Plant-Based Eating.

I want to understand my gut.
Come explore What is The Gut Microbiome? and discover the incredible ecosystem living inside you.

I’m curious about fermented foods.
Start with my Health Benefits of Fermented Foods and learn what makes these foods so interesting.

I want to know why cruciferous vegetables get so much attention around here.
Oh, do I have an article for you. 😊 Read my guide to Cruciferous Vegetables and Sulforaphane.

You can explore all of them eventually.

For today, choose the one that makes you curious.

You Can Begin Today

Taking care of your health is something you get to practice over a lifetime.

There will always be more to learn, more foods to try, more ways to move, and more discoveries about these extraordinary bodies we’ve been given.

Take what you learn and put it into practice in ways that fit your life.

Choose what fits.

Keep the things that work.

Build from there.

And remember that every time you give your body something nourishing—a beautiful meal, a glass of water, a walk outside, a good night’s sleep—you’ve done something worthwhile.

One good thing still counts.

And you can do one good thing today.