Sunday Story...Food cont'd.

Sunday Story…Food, continued

Over the centuries we have changed our dietary eating habits to accommodate many things. And many of these habits do not serve to take us into “optimum” health. What they do is allow us to survive. A diet of Calorie Rich But Pathetic (CRAP) food will keep you alive but it will not allow you to thrive. It will not allow your physical body to be all it was designed to be. We drop bags of wheat off to starving people around the world and it keeps them alive. The same with powdered milk. So there is always a question of scale.

The most common comment I hear clients say in my dietary practice is “I eat pretty good.” This is always a comment that requires more explanation. And it begs the next question: Compared to what? What I am about to propose to you will seem more than a little radical. But the fact is certain food groups are having a negative effect on your health without you even knowing it. Foods like grains, dairy, and legumes are pervasive in our diets. These foods came about thousands of years ago and our digestive systems have never evolved to properly digest these foods. These foods do things inside our bodies that our bodies react negatively to.

Ask yourself these questions:
Are you energy levels inconsistent or non-existent?
Do you have aches and pains that exist without injury or overuse?
Are you still carrying a few extra pounds that you just can’t get rid of no matter how hard you exercise?
Do you have skin allergies or other skin related issues?
Do you have digestive problems?
Do you have seasonal allergies?
Do you have chronic conditions? (Asthma, Lupus, CFS, etc)
Many of these symptoms are related to your diet. Even if your diet is organic and “clean”. So even healthy stuff may not be good for you!! These food groups (grains, dairy, legumes, even potatoes) are inflammatory, insulin spiking, calorie dense, and nutritionally sparse. You need to eliminate them from your diet completely.

Yes you read that correctly…FOR 30 DAYS…no grain (bread, pasta, rice, tortillas, corn, quinoa, noodles, etc, etc,), no dairy (yogurt, milk, cheese, butter, cow, goat, etc.) no legumes (beans, peas, peanuts, peanut butter), no potatoes (russets, yukons, new), no sugar or sweeteners (white sugar, stevia, sucralose, agave, maple syrup), no processed foods (if it comes in a box don’t eat it including protein bars), no alcohol.

Eating like this will change your life. This is a fact borne out by testimonies and more by hundreds of people who have already done it. It will change your emotional relationship with food and that would be reason enough for most of us. We are attached to food through our emotions, often our self esteem and self control are all tied up and messed up around food. Eating like this has the potential to change the way you eat for the rest of your life.
Whatever will you eat?
Real food…food that is identifiable by origin…food that does not require a label or a box to come home in…Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, some fruit, nuts, seeds, coconut, olives, olive oil, and avocado. In other words food that are the ingredient list. Food that is fresh and natural. Eat it raw, steamed, broiled, sautéed, baked but never fried.

Some notes…
• Processed meat is ok if you can find it without nitrates, glutens, dairy, and casein.
• Sun butter can be used as long as it has no sugar added.
• Be very careful with dried fruit…they are the candy bars of the natural food world. And the last thing you want is that insulin spike that sends you the candy dish.
• Green beans, sugar snap and snow peas are ok since they are more pod than bean.
• Coffee and black tea in moderation or go hard core and test your caffeine addiction/sensitivity and let those go too. Drink them black or if you must, a little coconut milk.
• Vinegar is ok in small quantities for salad dressings and the like.
• Go easy adding salt to your food.
Simple right? So how are you going to do this? Here is the step by step approach:
1. Decide to start now. Right now. Today. Figure out the 30 days and go to the health food store, whole foods, farmer’s market, grocery and buy the food you will be eating.
2. Just do it. Cold Turkey. No excuses, no reasons why not. You job over the next 30 days is to only worry about food choices. Not your weight, not how much you are eating, not your measurements. Just your food choices.
3. Figure out how to do this in a restaurant or at a friend’s house.
4. Give it the full 30 days. The first few days will be the most trying…your body will be healing and changing, your brain will need to get used to doing without all those sugars and sweets.
Keep in mind the healing process will take at least 14 days and the drive to create new habits take at least 21 days. And the mental addictions and emotional connections to sugary foods, large amounts of carbohydrates (also sugars), and the chemically created and altered flavors will take even longer.
Be prepared to change the way you eat forever. If you only do this as a challenge you are shorting yourself. Start thinking about what you are eating, why you are eating and how you feel, before, during, and after you eat it. There is a magic in eating this way. But the magic requires a serious buy in and effort on your part. You will need to make sure you are eating enough. You will need to plan meals, decide what you can eat when you eat out. And develop the will power to say no. You do not HAVE to eat anything. You get to choose and decide what goes in your mouth.

Getting in shape is not easy. Eating this way is not easy. But neither is it “hard”. Let’s be honest…quitting heroin is hard, walking 5 miles each way for dirty water every day is hard, fighting cancer is hard. Eating vegetables and drinking black coffee is not hard so give that up.

Here’s the reward for your buy-in:
You will feel better
Your performance will improve
Your recovery will be quicker
Your body composition will change (think less fat and more muscle)
You will be amazed at the wonderful fresh, natural and delicious foods out there that you can prepare with joy and love.
Go ahead and give it a try…you really have nothing to lose (except your aches, pains, unwanted and unsightly fat, chronic disease conditions and more!).
If you need coaching on doing this… call me. I am here for you!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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