Martine Rolls: Quest for healthier lifestyle worth the effort

Healthy food is a key aspect to happiness.

A friend put on Facebook yesterday that music and exercise are the best ways to make you happy. I would like to add food.

I lived with a chef once, and I didn't cook much during those years. I made salads, pizzas, garlic bread, and my signature dish was oven chips. As long as I didn't actually have to cook it, it was all good.

When we split up, all that changed. Dining on your own isn't much fun so I started experimenting with recipes on the nights I was alone.

If it was horrible, I could bin it without anyone knowing. If it was a success, it made eating by myself more enjoyable.

Thanks to all the experiments, I'm now a pretty good cook. My favourite dishes have exotic flavours and lots of chillies. Although some take hours to prepare, I like making them from scratch.

Cookbooks are great and I own plenty of them, from good old Edmonds to Peter Blakeway's Fresh! but in my experience, the best recipes can be found on the internet.

Sometimes I just put whatever I have in the fridge and pantry into Google, and cook whatever comes up.

Yesterday, this resulted in a fabulous prawn and salmon soup with coconut milk and chillies. It warmed me up all the way to my toes and it was so easy. Thanks Nigella.

Because I've started a rigorous exercise programme five weeks ago - you can read all about it in indulge magazine soon - my focus is on healthy foods. Lots of green leafed vegetables, seafood, no sugar, and anything that's high in protein.

On forbes.com, I found an analysis by David Grotto, a dietitian and author of the book The Best Things You Can Eat, which lists foods that are the lowest in calories and most nutritious in terms of vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, fibre and protein.

I'm not keen on legumes and I doubt I can stomach beef liver, but serving up yoghurt, oysters, salmon, lobster, spinach, pork and mushrooms on a regular basis sounds decent.

A story on fitnessmagazine.com says that lemons, broccoli, dark chocolate, walnuts, avocado, garlic, plus salmon, legumes and spinach, again, should not be missing from our diet.

All up, I'm doing pretty well but isn't it a shame that eating healthy is so expensive?

Did you know that a Lebanese cucumber costs $4.49 at the moment at the supermarket? Tomatoes cost $9.99 and fresh New Zealand garlic is $22.90 a kg.

You can grab a tub of natural yoghurt for $6.99. Have you seen the price of salmon lately? I know I can't afford to buy it unless it's reduced to clear. And seriously, who can afford crayfish or oysters for tea a few nights a week?

Meanwhile, you can grab a burger with chips and a fizzy drink from any fast food outlet for $5. It's quick, easy, and it fills you up.

Just cruise to the drive-through and get your "food" in a minute. Does it really surprise anyone that New Zealand's obesity epidemic has reached crisis levels?

On nzherald.co.nz, I found a recent international study that has shown Kiwis have a higher rate of obesity than Australians, with two-thirds of adults classed as obese or overweight.

Those are pretty serious numbers, and I was well on my way to becoming one of those statistics.

I've been a little overweight for a good few years and the number on the scales kept moving in the wrong direction.

I realised it was time to make a change, and I'm approaching this the same way as I did with cooking. One step at a time, not overdoing it, drinking green smoothies, and stocking the freezer with salmon whenever I see it reduced to clear.

I still get seriously puffed and I don't enjoy how my belly wobbles when I go for a wee run, but I'll get there.

It costs time, money and effort to work towards a healthier lifestyle, but I know it will be worth it in the end. Losing weight isn't even the goal. I do it because it makes me feel so much better. No matter what the scales tell me, I'm keeping it up.

Martine Rolls is a Tauranga writer and digital strategist - www.sweetorange.co.nz