Food & Nutrition
Fuel for you body
You've decided to embrace a healthier lifestyle, so your focus goes into everything you need to change. Most often than not, the first aspect you address is your diet. It's no news that nutrition is not the strongest suit for many, no judgment here. Eating in favor of your well-being has been altered and polarized so much that it's confusing to eat nutritiously. Low carbs, low fat, keto, fasting, raw, etc. All those rules and restrictions (as correct as they may be) make eating healthy overwhelming and hard to approach. Particularly true, if you are following a trend instead of figuring out a nutrition regime fit for your bio-individuality and circumstances.
But what if you look at those efforts as ways of fueling the body your want/need to live with? What if we treat nutrition as the body's fuel? It goes beyond counting calories, beyond emotional response, or more than transformation rules. Food is the source that keeps your engine (your body) running in optimum conditions (a functioning & healthy human). Food becomes a source of health and well-being, instead of a confusing puzzle with no viable solution. When seen through that perspective, it stops being a burden and becomes a very intuitive action. The only "setback" here is that you are the owner and custodian of how you fuel your body - you can't just mimic others or blindly follow protocol.
If you are ready to own your nutrition regimen, this blog will share a few shifts to get you started. Before jumping into those shifts, below are some facts not accepted by most. One, not all food is created equal. Secondly, one man's meat is another's man poison. Last but not least, food is medicine dosage as such.
The ideal food for your body
Do you know what happens in your body after you eat? How is that food used to support your health? If you don't, please stop reading and do a quick google search. This food-body dynamic is the most important aspect of nutrition that people bypass. It's not about going KETO and not eating carbs or becoming vegan and not eating animal-derived foods. It's about the nutrients and chemical components you are adding or not adding, for that matter, to your body through your food intake. If you are not clear on what's the ideal body response with each diet, don't fall prey to the trends. Before embracing any of the diet regimens in circulation, research their chemical exchange in the body to decide if your body could/should go through that.
Bodily processes like metabolism, hormone production, muscle restoration, detoxification, growth, energy, etc. need nutrients. If you deprive your body of certain nutrients, the fallout goes beyond the weight on the scale - you affect the established processes in the body to run in optimum conditions. Sometimes these dietary regimes work for you, other times effects are transitional as your body changes, and other times create havoc because it is not the ideal chemical response in your body.
The ideal food for your body responds positively to your nutrient needs. It goes beyond the weight. It impacts how you feel, your energy levels, and your sleep quality among other aspects of your life. The bottom line is if you are miserable adhering to a "healthy diet" or cannot sustain it, there is something wrong with your approach to fueling your body.
Quality of your food matter!
As stated before, not every food is created equal. A quick example; all fruits have sugar, and so does candy. Now while your body may process both sugars the same way, the chemical impact of each on the body's processes is quite different. Your body can leverage fruits and all their components, the fibers, the phytonutrients, and even, the healing properties that come with each. Candy does not have the same chemical composition, therefor your body cannot leverage it the same way.
How the food is made or created determines its quality. That goes for all foods. That said, the body has a rudimentary system. The body's system was designed to process and leverage food (fuel) with limited to no chemical enhancements. That's why it can leverage the fruit's sugars and other components better than the sugar and other chemicals in the candy.
It's not that candy (you can add here any food banned from "healthy diets") is evil, but it's not the ideal fuel to run your body in optimum conditions. Now eating becomes a mindful activity to decide when, how, and if choosing the candy (add here any food banned from "healthy diets") is appropriate for what you are trying to achieve with your health. It's not about stripping your food from carbs or sugars altogether but being mindful and diligent with the type of carb/sugar you select and how they impact your body's chemical responses.
To identify the best quality fuel in terms of food for your body, you need to know what's happening in the body. Ask your medical provider for a standard blood work panel to know if there is anything off track. From there, you can adhere to a nutritional regimen tailored to your needs and the chemical response in your body.
Own your nutrition regimen
Another wise starting point is learning to read the ingredients lists in your packaged goods to know what is in your food. Here is a PDF with more info on that.
Shifts to try to use Food as Quality Body Fuel
Below are a few shifts to try to start improving the way you fuel your body. Modify as you see fit. If you would like an even more personalized approach reach out and let’s get on a free call to see what are your options.
From my journey to yours
Be intentional with your fuel!
I used to treat my body as a machine. I was overworked, highly stressed, and had zero nourishment 24/7. After all, my goal at that moment was productivity and professional growth - I had to make it big in this life. As a result, my body crashed, and a diagnosis came in - My thyroid quit on me. The truth is that my goal was not wrong, but my approach was.
My body needed nourishment to support my life goals. I had to be proactive about it as it was not going to magically fall by accident into my life.
The bigger my goals are, the more I have to nourish "the machine" working on them. It's not negotiable. Luckily, I know better now and can make adjustments as needed. I'm more in tune and diligent with my body's needs, and as a natural consequence, it performs in optimum conditions at any and every task I ask of it. The first step was understanding how it fuels. While on this blog post, I only refer to nutrition, to fuel the body properly means to nourish movement and rest with as much devotion as food fuel. More on that in future blog posts.
Until Next One!
Stay happy, stay healthy, Stay BALANCED,
