Change
Saturday July 30, 2011
The empowering theme of the 2008 election had a profound effect on everyone,
regardless of your politics: Change! and "Yes We Can!" Strong words,
and as we are seeing now with the financial debacle, late in the game.
In many ways our health is the same. We spend years and years taking our bodies
for granted, burning the metaphors at both both ends and the middle. It is
about this time that I generally see a new client. Exhaustion, and often a
health scare, like high blood sugar, has prompted them to finally take a real
look at what they are doing to nourish and support the body that they have
largely ignored. When they think of body care, it is cosmetic much more than
health related.
The empowering theme of the 2008 election had a profound effect on everyone,
regardless of your politics: Change! and "Yes We Can!" Strong words,
and as we are seeing now with the financial debacle, late in the game.
In many ways our health is the same. We spend years and years taking our bodies
for granted, burning the metaphors at both both ends and the middle. It is
about this time that I generally see a new client. Exhaustion, and often a
health scare, like high blood sugar, has prompted them to finally take a real
look at what they are doing to nourish and support the body that they have
largely ignored. When they think of body care, it is cosmetic much more than
health related.
And it is tough. Easy enough to decide to change everything in your life in
order to regain your health, but difficult to implement. We create habits for a
reason- because they fulfill us. Giving up foods we love and activites we enjoy
takes an immense amount of willpower. Most times it doesn't work. What does
work is slow change, a habit at a time. Certainly the food industry didn't go
from an 8 ounce bottle of soda being considered a serving to a Big Gulp
overnight! I know it is appealing to read the accounts of weight loss that
require no change on our part, just a small and expensive supplement. I love
that fantasy too. But deecades of eating have taught me that what I need is
health, and the rest will take care of itself.
Here are some things to make eating a nutritionally dense diet a little easier.
Try one idea every couple of days, and some will stick. Over the course of a
year, that can make an enormous difference.
1) Fill a box with vegetables at the salad bar. It is worth checking the prices
to see if the bag lettuce or the salad bar is a better deal. But pick up some
prepped vegetables as well. There is nothing like an hour of washing and
chopping and bagging food to make a bag of chips appealing.
2) I have been 99% grain free for a year, which I will explain in another post.
If you have noticed the surge in celiac disease (gluten intolerance) abstinence
might be something that you want to consider as well. Americans sit down to
very few meals with no grain on the table, and the 10,000 years that we have
had to learn to assimilate them hasn't been quite enough time. Having an open
faced sandwich, or using thinner slices of bread, oreven using a couple of
lettuce leaves instead of bread can save a lot of empty carbohydrates and
calories.
3) Have a big glass of water before your meals. I try to drink a liter of water
in the morning as soon as I wake up. While there is a lot of conflictabout warm
water, cold water, etc., I like my ice water and stick with it. Tim Ferris (The
4 Hour Body) claims that it speeds your metabolism. I just know I prefer it,
and having a big glass before a meal not only helps you feel full, it also
stimulates the good HCl you need to digest well.
4) Eat within a half hour of waking. This one is huge. Usually there is a 12
hour gap between dinner and breakfast, and a lot goes on in that time. Sleep,
the time when we heal, is also the time we burn fat. Once we wake, and our
metabolism kicks in, if there is nothing to run on (ie: breakfast) our
metabolism drops down a few notches, making us tired and low energy. Remember,
until a very few years ago, an abundance of food was unknown. No food meant
conserving energy for a hunt.
5) Eat a big breakfast. This reassures your body that you can keep your energy
levels up for the day, since it now has plenty of calories. I shoot for 500
calories, which, since I am still on no grain, and few refined carbs, can be a
little challenging. An egg is a nearly perfect food, and around 100 calories.
Three eggs, some vegetables from the night before, a little cheese and maybe a
coconut milk and whey protein shake, and I have spent less time than I would have
in the drive through! Michael Pollan has it right: "Eat anything you want,
as long as you cook it yourself."
Austin Nutritional Therapy by Elaine DiRico