Healthy eating secrets from Julia Korneva (Live Up!)

We met with Julia, Live Up! blog author a realy long time ago (it was the first day of that Gaudi printed Seat test-drive, as far as I can remember:) ), but somehow this interview stayed undone for many months. Well, I might have a couple of ideas, why!

Julia is such a strong and determinated person. Three years ago she changed her life and eating habbits totally. And I’m still here, dreaming, but not making it. But let me feel shamed now! Hope, this post will make me stop finding reasons for another peace of chocolate.

About 60 000 people read Julia’s blog monthly now. And I can understand, why! She is a perfect writter, has some creative ideas and impressive knowledge of the subject (I remember, how she once refused to write something for marieclaire.ru, cause yet wasn’t sure she knows enough about it). “I’m not a doctor, I only take classes of nutrition specialist. But I already graduated 8 courses, devoted to food, food and fitness, food for kids, read tons of science literature, researches, books. Now I evaluate all the information into easily to be read and understood. I’m not forcing anybody, just stimulating thinking proccess”. Well, yes, that person can be trusted!:)

I ask Julia how she managed once to switch onto the healthy eating, cause previously, while working as a TV-chanel deputy chief, she was eating junk food, drinking coffe and even alcohol, smoking. “Now I quite understand that made it too extremely that days, For example, I refused to eat anything, that had to do with animals, cause had read that diary and meat are dangerous. Of couce, the results very only possitive, but now I’m sure – in case you don’t have serious health issues, son’t force yourself to switch at once, do it step by step, getting to know your body”.

Diets, nerves, two week long retreats, to much sport – all these are stress for our body. And it doesn’t need additional stress at all, in case you don’t want negative effects.

How to switch onto healthy eating?

When you decide to choose healthy eating, do everything step by step. If you don’t have any big health issues, don’t act radikal. Don’t be too serious with what you eat, otherwise you can loose the balance. For example, fat. There are low fat and high fat diets, both of which literaly have an army of fans. But there are different types of fat and without some of them our body can’t exept vitamons. Or carbs – no carbs, no energy! Who wants to be lazy and depressed?

Julia recommends to step by step reduce dangerous products, switching them with healthy ones. Scientistd do not recommend to eat vegetables before the main dish for no reason. The thing is when your stomach is full with salad already, you will only eat one sousage insread fo three. Good result!

That is not only psyho way to lower stress, but is as well healthier for your body. Listen to it and you will understand what you need. “As soon as I reduced diary, skin problems were gone. But from day to day I can drink regular cappuchino if they don’t have soy milk. I feel the results immediately! You can see this reaction after any toxic product”.

You will understand what is bad for you and will never eat it again. Some people easily reject meat, others – pastry. No one needs to eat poison, eberything else is optional.

Which products are you better get rid of?

First of all, all the processed products that iclude ingredients we have no idea what they mean: concervants, preservatives and so on. They do not only include thousands of dangerous elements, but as well contain sugar. Actually, almost everything industrial made has it: ketchup, soy sauce, yogurts, fruit bars (excluding Bite). Americans even made an experiment to find out that morning muesli have almost the same amount of sugar as donut.

Stevia is the only natural sweetener, but there are not many products where it can be found.

The main mistake is to think you don’t eat sugar if you don’t drink tea or coffee with it.

Dairy is the other forbidden zone for Julia. “I always had a bad skin. And how did I cure it? With yogurts, curds and cheeses. But now I know a lot more about cow milk and been sure that anything made with it is dangerous for our health”.

Many people eat dairy products to receive calcium. The truth is milk helps to get rid of it, not to gain. Many healthy systems like macrobitics are based on this idea. A few years ago I avoided dairy for 4 months and, you know what, it really helped my skin! Though I’m such a fan of yougurts and cheeses that slowly they came back to my everyday eating…

Here is Julia’s opinion: “Cow is not made to produce so much milk. So they give her grow hormones. In Russia it is forbidden, but we still have antibiotics to avoid inflammations or epidemy. And God only know what this cow was eating. I’m not sure I want all this inside me”.

Yet another “never to” is meat. The first thing to argue about when talking about health:) Julia is vegetarian, though she is not that strict to others here: “It’s only your choice. But if you can’t avoid it, you better buy big pieces of meat and cook it. Not sousages orcutlets. Who knows, what they put inside to make them look so yummy”.

Some interesting ideas to lower down meat eating without any torturing:

1. Paul McCartney once decided to organize meatless Mondays. His idea was very simple – we normaly eat too much on weekends, so a little detox on Mondays won’t here. Millions of people follow his idea today.
2. One more option – “up to dinner vegetarian”. These people do not eat meat for breakfast and lunch, though they do it in the evening. Not difficult, but healthier!

So what can you eat afterwards?

“I got used to plan week ahead. Every Sunday I cook buckweat with quinoa, can make humus or stew eggplants with pepper. I always buy a lot of veggies! During the week I cook fish or chicken for my husband. He loves that cooked with spices in oven variant”.

The problem is, we have no idea how many amazing and healthy products there are! Clearly, you can’t do it long with only potatoes and carrots. But there are not less that 6 types of cabbage, soying nothing about others! And it’s cheaper than sausage, by the way.

Julia recommends fruits, berries, dried fruits and nuts as a snack. I remind that nuts are high in calories. “Yes, but you don’t have to eat a bowl of those. Full hand will be enough. Snack means something to help you in between foods, not the food itself. Giant plate of fruits eaten as luch won’t do any good as well”.

We speack about problem of choosing again: “If you suddenly fell hungry and there is nothing healthier than chips nearby, when, then choose not the potato ones. They usualy just dehydrate them and add some salt. Better anyway than potato chips”.

Why to torture yourself, if we all die anyway?

I just couldn’t have skipped this question:) People can also be interested in why to make effords in poor Moscow ecology or if they enjoy this junk food.

“Tomorrow nuclear bomb can happen and we will all die. And if there is no bomb, I will live till 120 years and others untill they get to 50-60. Just imagine, I have an opportunity to see and feel twice as much! I suddenly realized it after I had a babby”, – smiles Julia. – “According to the statistics, about 86% of people in Russia die before they get old because of the deseases they could have skipped by only eating healthy. All the others are crushes and different disasters. But again, car accident is a documented reason. And why did it happen? Too much alcohol or too little sleep”.

How to behave healthier? “Try to understand: there are products that are made to be healthy and not. Plants are always healthy. Yes, they might have been grown in a bad conditions, but they are anyway healthier than sousages. And if you have an opportunity to eat veggies from your mother’s summerhouse, it gets even more healthy”.