About the Site

Hi!

My name’s Elizabeth, and I live with my family in East Anglia, in the UK. What started out as a sea change in the way I feed my family has turned into this website, Healthy Eating Made Easy.

Over the last few years I’ve become seriously interested in giving the whole family a healthy diet – without losing sight of my belief that good food is one of life’s real pleasures, to be enjoyed and savoured. And without putting too much pressure on myself, as a busy work at home mum.

How it began...

For a while when the children were tiny, andI was in the busy-busy phase of being a mum, I stopped thinking so much about what we were eating. It became more a matter of keeping us adults fuelled, and finding foods that kids would eat without tears.

Now, the kids are older – good grief, my daughter’s 15, my son’s 11. How that time has flown! They’ve become (slightly) more adventurous eaters. There’s more time to plan meals, more time to cook, and – most important – my whole attitude to food has changed.

The healthy eating journey begins...

But then I was offered a freelance writing job, on the Jamie Oliver School Dinners website. If you live in the UK, you’re bound to know about this celeb chef’s hugely popular campaign, that prompted schools – and then the government – into making big improvements in the food served to kids for school lunches.

Part of my brief for that job was to do some in-depth research into fast foods and convenience foods.

What I discovered was appalling. I had no idea how manufacturers adulterate foods – bulking them out with fillers, lacing them with flavour-enhancers, salt and hundreds of different chemical additives, using every trick in the book to sell us the least possible amount of low quality ingredients, for the highest possible price.

There were days when what I was reading made me feel quite ill. I’ll spare you the most revolting details but honestly, some of the stuff that’s found it’s way into chicken nuggets you wouldn’t feed to your dog, never mind your kids. UGH!

Making the change

I made some decisions. Out went the ready meals, bagged salads, prepared vegetables. I cut right back on choccy biscuits for lunch boxes, manufactured cakes and pastries and factory-produced bread.

I began to use my local shops instead of the supermarket, buy lots and lots more fresh fruit and veg and choose more organic items.

My husband bought a bread-maker, and makes a fresh wholemeal loaf every day thanks, darling!). I ventured into cake-making, cut down on red meat, and upped the number of meals we eat based on vegetables, grains, fish or poultry.

The result? Well, the kids didn't leave home(!), we’ve all got bags of energy, good skin, can concentrate, aren’t overweight, and I really believe that our health will benefit long-term.

One thing’s sure, we’re enjoying really delicious, satisfying meals, and no, I’m not busting a gut in the kitchen from dawn to dusk to achieve it. The little bit more time I do spend is well worth it to enjoy far nicer food, and have the satisfaction when the kids clear their plates and say ‘that was lovely!’.

My healthy eating philosophy

STOP!

I can’t cope with all that stuff. Plus there’s always new research coming along, telling us to eat this, or not to eat that… Ok, it’s interesting, but I want to see good, long term proof before I’ll adopt a new food.

My philosophy is simple:

Eat plenty of fresh, seasonal foods. Cook them simply. Include lots of fruit and vegetables, don’t overdo the fattier foods, look for balance.

Cut down, down, down on fast foods and processed foods. Check labels and avoid additives like hydrogenated vegetable oils. Reduce your intake of sugar, salt and fat.

Don’t see healthy eating as some sort of endurance test. Once you’ve tried a few meals made with simple fresh ingredients, frozen lasagne just won’t cut it any more. Forbid nothing, but keep less healthy stuff to the occasional treat. You may even find you don’t like it as much, once you’ve switched to healthier alternatives.

Enjoy good food. It’s one of life’s great pleasures.

And that’s it.

About this site

Once I’d discovered that eating more healthily really is possible, even when you have a zillion other things going on in your life (as I’m sure you do), I thought it would be fun to share some of ideas and information I’d discovered on a website.

I chose a web host called Site Build It to build the site because it’s perfect for beginners (although very experienced site builders also swear by it). I kept coming across SBI on the web, so I decided to give it a go. If you'd like to learn more about how it all works, watch this mini-video:



The whole thing was made much easier because SBI provide a step by step action guide, plus loads of other tools like site templates, help with search engine ranking, and loads of invaluable online help. Best of all, you learn how to make your site pay its way.

How does it work? Well, I can put masses of info on the site which people can access for free, and still earn a profit using Google ads and affiliate programs.

It works beautifully, so that I not only cover my costs, but see a nice profit as well.

I expect you landed up on the site because you found it on a search engine. And it’s because of the help I get from SBI that lots of my pages rank so highly with the main search engines, and they send me plenty of visitors.

Then I use Google’s AdSense program, which means I place text ads on my pages which earn me money.

It’s all very simple, and now I make money every month – and the bigger I grow the site, the more I’ll be able to earn.

Follow your passion

Take a look. This is a list of SBI sites that get high traffic. Notice what a wide range of topics they cover. The people who made those sites picked topics they really loved – like I love healthy eating. A few have even been able to give up their day jobs, because their sites have done so well.

Try it for yourself!If you’re looking for a fun new interest, and have a few spare hours, why not give it a whirl? I suggest it because I use it myself – so I know it works.

The best approach is to choose a subject that you’re really keen on. I think about healthy eating every day – because it’s part of my daily family life, as well as being the foundation of my website. What are your passions? Gardening? Playing with your kids? Pets? You can choose any topic that excites you, and build an information-packed site around it.

There’s no risk if you have a go at building a site, because Sitesell promise a full refund if you decide that it’s not right for you, and there are no hidden catches. They can offer you a watertight guarantee because they know that their product delivers what it promises, and sites like mine prove it.

I love the way SBI has fitted into my busy life, and I love the steadily growing income even more! Why not give SBI a try and see where your passion could lead you...