Healthy Eating, Smart Home Appliances, and Your New Year's Nutrition Resolutions

Healthy New Year's Resolutions  

If you've made it this far for New Year's resolutions, congratulations. If you tripped and fell, slow motion is better than no motion. If you haven't made healthy habits resolutions, healthier food and easier cooking are still great to have.

Healthy nutrition and a healthy weight can be easier when you're more balanced physically and otherwise. Reducing the effort to keep a 21st century home going means using the best parts of modern technology and automation. Think about 15 minutes per day--15 minutes--added to your disposable time because the lights, the heat, the shades, the alarm system are exactly as you planned without a single flip of the switch.

Self-care and avoiding junk food sounds a lot easier then, huh?

Eating & Nutrition: Food as An Experience  

If you're fortunate enough to have traveled abroad, hopefully, you tried street food. Doing so sounds like one of those counterintuitive food choices. But it can be part of a balanced healthful lifestyle. The crashing sizzle of oil in the pan, the flames of a precarious gas grill licking up the sides, and the smell of the saffron, rosemary, or curry -- because it's so immediately fresh, it's still reasonably healthy.

But it highlights something else: wherever you are and whoever you are, food is an experience. The main place that experience happens, (with or without cooking skills) is the kitchen. From seeing something by Guy Fieri to planning meals to making the list, to grocery shopping, to cooking, to serving, to eating, to storing, food is an experience.

How to Experience, Really Experience, Healthy Food, and Healthy Living

• try trading up vs trading off: do healthier versions of favorite foods
• plan plan plan: staying on track and developing healthy eating habits is remarkably easier with a map, as it were
• go gradual vs HIIT: introduce one superfood per food week as half a portion substitute, then as a full portion the next week

But what exactly are superfoods?

Launchbreak: Better Health and Wellness Goals through Superfoods  

Despite being a tad jargony, the term actually does fit. Extra-healthy foods can be superfoods. As we already know, they are those that come out of the ground (or water, or air) as is. Nutrient-dense foods and plant-based foods are a vital part of mindful eating and resolutions for a balanced overall (overall is key) lifestyle.

The practice of healthier eating habits involves the microscopic elements you see on the food label. A report card of sorts. These foods have grades. (As you might expect, more produce is the main thang).

Nutrition Label Honor Roll: Superfoods for Eating Healthier

• berries: antioxidant-packed berries also can aid in reducing various inflammatory ailments and, as we all know, they have some serious flavor
• dark leafy green vegetables: these are so popular among nutritionists, they have an acronym (DGLV - Dark Green Leafy Vegetables) DGLVs have loads of folate and fiber
• olive oil (or, in Texas, olive "ole"): it's gotten a bit of bad press the last few years, but it's still an ideal "healthy fats" staple for your diet
• salmon: making health claims for food can be dodgy but the National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School say salmon is strongly tied to heart health; it has healthy omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, potassium, selenium (just don't do it for every meal)
• others: nuts, legumes/beans (includes peas), tomatoes, whole grains

More energy from the right foods also comes from mindful eating habits. The right preparation is key and can cut down on food waste.

Gadgets: Cooking Healthier Foods is Easier in the 21st Century  

In days of yore, the physical activity and fitness classes were what you did to get the food. Hulling rice, churning butter, grinding out cornmeal, splitting wood for a cooking stove was "meal prep." With blenders, refrigerators, ovens, microwaves, we can (overall) wring a lot more personal health from every food item we buy. And we can do so with much less effort.

Here are some of the newest fun kitchen gadgets to help us.

Food Gadgets in a Post-Infomercial World

• smart countertop herb garden: https://thegadgetflow.com/portfolio/smart-herb-garden/
• smart in-home *actual* garden: www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/best-indoor-garden-kits-ncna1267376
• single egg-maker: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hamilton-Beach-25477-Breakfast-Electric-Sandwich-Maker-Black/
• adjustable rolling pin: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091QO3RK
• food prep pad for weighing mixed food items and giving nutrition metrics as is: https://www.control4.com/blog/376/smart-appliances-and-the-kitchen-of-tomorrow

Nice kitchen tools are great, but meal planning means bringing some horsepower to your smart goals. You can still do that elegantly, and with the best parts of technology.

Yes, Up to and Including the Kitchen Sink: Appliances  

Evolve Technology knows it's great to have an amazing home theater. (We are actually part of the Home Theater Association. A trade association with less than 20 companies in Texas making the cut.) But everyone's gotta eat and we can certainly help in the kitchen.

Seura smart screens is a US-based company. They specialize in weatherized devices. Yet it's not just about rain from the uncontrollable Dallas weather: you can put a smart screen above the kitchen sink. More than just playing Spotify on a water-safe screen, you can do much more.

Kitchen Smart Screen Uses

• integrate with Control4's 12 frames per second camera to keep an eye on the kids outback
• interactive, stop-start, audio-visual for healthy recipes
• get caught up on the markets, the weather report, or other work needs while you make your morning coffee

Control4, Evolve's go-to digital eco-system for smart home controls, has a lot more to help your healthier lifestyle goals in the kitchen.

Control 4 Kitchen Benefits

• natural, adjustable lighting through Lutron lighting: this can dim the lights to a gentle evening hue or rev up your mood with a bright sunlight emulation for gray winter days
• the open-platform digital eco-system of Control4: Alexa can take down your grocery list and you can operate dozens of other third-party apps and programs
• all-at-once: set up the kitchen to cook by telling Alexa to set for "cooking" scene and get the right lighting, open or close the blinds, and automatically start a pre-set music playlist
• the OS3 newest version of Control4 includes a 10.4-inch touch screen but also the NEEO remote with a simple interface and a 3-inch touch screen: you're in control

Keeping the Home (including Data Use) Properly Fed for Smart Kitchens  

For keeping all these smart devices and systems fed, Evolve can set the digital and electronic table. Our team works with pre-builds on CAD design for optimized smart homes. We also service and install in-century homes with all-in multi-zone security and lighting systems. Or, if you're just thinking of a nice home theater (with the business-strength, jet-speed wifi to make it cruise) we can do that too. We can create a specific package for you.

We maintain top reviews. Our newest policy is the expert chat feature. The Ten-Spot will get you in touch with an expert 24-hours a day if there is even a small irregularity in your smart home.

Healthier Living: It Can be Made Easier  

A New Year's resolution is not perfect and we all know it. (We already knew that if we're resolving to change something). But the kitchen can be a lot nicer to be in, to cook in, to eat in. The experience of food and healthier meals can be easier than it's ever been before. Call us for a consultation today!