Fueling Your Body

The food we eat becomes our cells, our blood, our organs, our bones - every single part of us.

Why What We Eat Matters

So, why would we fuel our body with junk? I know the answer – because it’s everywhere, it’s easy and we’re bombarded with advertising! When I look back at how I ate for years and years, I just cringe. But, I didn’t really know any better at the time.

It seems easy enough now to understand that we can’t eat junk and expect to feel energized, perform well, thrive and avoid disease. I wish I knew this 10 years ago! Perhaps you feel the same way.

What We Eat Absolutely Matters.

We’ve been told to eat low-fat, nutrient-deficient foods and then we wonder why we’re always hungry and can’t lose weight. We think it’s our fault! We’ve been following bad advice for too long.

What if we changed our focus to eating healthier with whole foods? What if we changed our focus to GETTING healthier rather than being focused on losing weight? What if we focused on NOURISHING our body and giving it what it needs to thrive?

I believe the biggest difference would be that you will lose the weight as part of a lifestyle shift, not just because you went on yet another diet that you can’t maintain indefinitely. The end result will be better because you will have improved your health in the process! Now THAT is truly priceless!

Fueling Your Body for the Best Results

Our main focus besides counting calories, but on the types of foods that fuel us and give us what we need for optimum health. When this is implemented as part of a mind and lifestyle shift, the result is achieving and maintaining an ideal weight range and having a healthier relationship with food.

“While calories do count, good health depends on far more complex factors – and simply reducing calories (or fat) isn’t the answer. The foods you eat exert a powerful psychological influence, stronger than any act of willpower: They influence your hormones, silently directing your metabolism. They affect your digestive tract, your body’s first line of defense. And they impact your immune system and your risk for any number of diseases and conditions. Your good health starts with the foods you eat.”

Basics

In addition to micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals), fuel for your body comes in the form of macronutrients. Whole food (think real food) macronutrients (protein, fat and carbohydrates) contain the highest levels of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), which are critical for our health and wellbeing.

Micronutrients are lacking in diets that include a lot of processed foods. This is why focusing on the quality of food and maximizing your intake of nutrients is so important and why our focus is not all about counting calories. When we eat processed foods we are getting very few vitamins and minerals.

Counting calories may be helpful, but it’s important to remember to always choose quality over just the number of calories a food contains. For example, chips worth 200 calories is not going to give you even close to the amount of what your body needs in nutrition as the 200 calories in fruits, vegetables or other whole foods.

“Macronutrients are nutrients that contain calories. There are only 3 macronutrients - fat, carbohydrates, and protein. Macronutrients give us the calories we need for energy and growth. All natural foods contain a mixture of fat, carbohydrates, and protein, although some (primarily animal products) contain only two of the three.”

Joel Fuhrman. M.D.

The Macronutrients

Protein

"Protein is an important essential nutrient because your body uses it to build new cells, maintain tissues, and synthesize new proteins that make it possible for you to perform basic bodily functions. Proteins are nutrients that are essential to the building, maintenance and repair of your body tissues such as your skin, internal organs and muscles. They are also the major components of your immune system and hormones.

Proteins are made up of substances called amino acids -- 22 of which are considered vital for your health. Your body can make 14 of these amino acids, but the other eight, known as essential amino acids, must be obtained from what you eat.”

mercola.com

Where Do You Get Protein?

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are important for our bodies for many reasons including giving ENERGY to all our cells and aiding in the recovery from physical activity. Carbohydrates can also be a good source of fiber, which is very important.

Where Do We Get Carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates can be categorized as refined or unrefined; they are also called processed or unprocessed, simple or complex.

Unrefined carbohydrates are full of nutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals, which are necessary for the production of energy in the human body. Examples of unrefined carbohydrates include: vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

BONUS! By adding fresh, whole foods into your diet, a big benefit you may notice right away is improved digestion and elimination. Yay!

Refined Carbs are stripped of nutrients and other additives and chemicals have been added to take the place of what was taken out. Many of the additives are addictive and harmful to our health. These are some of the foods that cause us to have energy crashes and put us on the sugar roller coaster ride.

Refined carbohydrates include foods such as: packaged cereals, white bread, white rice, white flour, chips, most pasta, cakes and candy.

These foods, obviously, are best to limit in your diet. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a ‘treat’ now and then, but just be conscious of how much you consume each day. Awareness is the first important step and this is where tracking your food can be very helpful.

One thing we do NOT focus on in our programs is feeling guilty about food! Food is meant to be enjoyed and the more healthier choices you make each day, the better you will feel and the less frequently you’ll even WANT the processed, refined and less nutritious options. You body will start to CRAVE the healthy foods!

Fats

Consuming sufficient amounts of fat in the right forms and proper proportions has been shown to offer significant health benefits. Among other things, it can strengthen the immune system, enhance brain and nervous system functions such as mood, intelligence and behavior, greatly reduce cardiovascular disease, increase energy and performance, give you healthy skin, hair, and nails, regulate body weight, and improve organ and gland function. Fat is also critical for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K, as well as optimal hormone function.

“But, wait, I though fat was bad for me!” This train of thought is due mostly to the debacle called the “Low-Fat Diet Craze” that caused most Americans to run scared from all dietary sources of fat. The fat was replaced with sugar and other chemicals to make foods taste good. This did not bode well for our health or our waistlines. The time period of the low-fat diet craze is when the rate of obesity in this country really started to skyrocket. In fact, some medical sources now refer to the low-fat diet fad as “the great American experiment in obesity.”

‘Consuming dietary fats does not mean that you will get fat; in fact, fats and oils are essential to optimal health. Your body needs fats to build cells and manufacture key hormones. Just as with all foods, however, you must consume high-quality fats and oils for your body to effectively use them—remember, You are what you eat.’

Paul Chek, Eat Move and Be Healthy

Where Do Fats Come From?

Healthy fats are found in foods such as meat, eggs, nuts, seeds, and oily fish, like salmon. Purchase the highest quality you can if your budget allows.

Other good fat sources include olive oil, coconut oil and avocado (i.e. olive oil as part of salad dressing; coconut oil for cooking, baking and more; and avocado in smoothies or on your sandwich or salad). Remember you only need to eat a little of these to get all the benefits from fat. See the list of healthy fats included with this session.

Healthy Fat Sources

A good fat source should generally come from an organically grown, plant-based source with minimal processing to preserve its “raw” nutrient state. Look for oils that are virgin and cold pressed and have not undergone a distillation or purification process.

In addition to olive oil, there are many other oils you can include in your diet: hemp seed oil, flax seed oil, and pumpkin seed oil. They each have a different taste so try some and see what you think.

Not all fats/oils are stable at higher heat points. Oil for cooking at high temperatures above 350º include: clarified butter (ghee) and coconut oil. Olive oil is reported to be fine for low to medium temperatures up to 325º.

When you add healthy fats/oils to your diet, you may also notice an improvement in your skin texture, including a reduction or elimination of dry skin patches.

Healthy Fats

Unhealthy fats abound in fast foods, processed foods, chips, crackers, cookies and many snack foods. Most processed foods contain hydrogenated oils, which are highly processed oils that we want to avoid. These cause inflammation in the body and inflammation is the leading cause of chronic diseases.

Just like adding protein to your meal will help keep you full longer, adding some healthy fat will do the same.

Ideally, you want to have some protein, carbs and a little healthy fat at each meal to have a healthy, balanced diet.

Begin Your Day Right

The way you begin your day can set you up for success.

Consider adding some protein to your breakfast. You’ll likely discover that you will feel full longer and not experience a mid to late morning crash.

See what works

Try a different breakfast each day for a few days and see which ones give you sustained energy, keep you full longer and have you feeling better.

Be open to trying new foods. You can start with one meal at time if that makes it easier.

Which new foods would you like to try this week?