FOR THE INNOVATIVE MAN |
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Starting out a new lifestyle journey is very difficult. It wasn’t too long ago and I was not a very happy vision of myself and needed to make changes so I would feel better about myself, enjoy who I was on the outside as much as I enjoyed who I was on the inside, and overall was able to enjoy all that life and The Lord created. Over this time of personal development there was a dramatic learning curve, one I am still learning, lessons learned I am still relearning...repeatedly, and changes which have dramatically improved my life overall. With food it started with I am going to eat more vegetables and fruits and have since evolved into a whole personal philosophy.
My philosophy in this is very simple, listen to your body. That is it, plain and simple. If you create an internal environment which your body is able to communicate and you listen, you will feel better, feel energized, and be healthier overall. I truly recommend doing a few things to start off this journey. First, learn your sensitivities in food, those foods your body gets mad at your over. Typically it’s the ones where shortly after your eat you can tell your body is pretty upset and making you uncomfortable in a multitude of ways. I am sure everyone knows what I am talking about.
A good way to tell these foods, even the ones with the slightest sensitivities, do a clean eating cleanse of sorts. Avoid all starch, carbohydrates, and sugars for four to five days. The first three are the worst because your body detoxes the sugars and carbs out and the cravings are intense. The way to do this, eat nothing meat and vegetables and drink water, and no potatoes are not vegetables. I am talking the green ones. Stick to chicken, steak, and pork chops. No sugar, meaning no fruits, and salad dressings like Balsamic Vinegar, high quality Italian dressing. After 4 days or so of this, eat a plain potato nothing on it, no butter or anything. If you find you have digestive issue from this, there is a good chance you have a bad bacteria in your gut, most common is Candida. If this is the case, I would research methods to treat this naturally, most often continuing this diet of meat and vegetables for 20-30 days works because it thrives and survives on sugars.
Pass the potato test? Move on to a plain slice of bread. If digestive issues of any kind ensue or reactions of other kinds, for me my sinus’ start running in the awesome allergy kind of way. This a strong indication you have wheat gluten sensitivities, maybe not Celiac, but definitely sensitive it. Remedy for this, cut the wheat gluten from your life. Promise you this does amazing things!
Next to try are dairy products. For this, ice cream or some milk will do the trick. This is far more common of sensitivity in people than is truly realized. If this is an area of sensitivity for you, than all the symptoms or some of them for lactose intolerance come into play. Watch primarily for digestive discomfort. For me I can also immediately notice it in my sinuses, much like the bread or wheat products.
Why is this so important? Sensitivities are irritations to your system. Our immune response system creates histamine to address these sensitivities, as well as, increase inflammation. In the instances of these foods, inflammation is created in your digestive track, something no one really wants. In addition, there are plenty of studies out there that show links to increased and sustained immune responses such as these inevitably causing auto-immune responses like rheumatoid arthritis. Is this proven? No. However, if these things cause inflammation and you have arthritis, than common sense to me would dictate you do not want to increase inflammation in your body. Cut these out, cut out the irritations and inflammation in your body. Seems pretty straightforward why you would feel better after that.
Learning to listen to your body in this manner will allow you to realize not only what food not to eat at all, but also how much you can get away with and not face a food hangover the next day. Maybe you find your body really reacts to dairy so ice cream is out. Maybe you are the type of person that can cut ties to such a delicious treat, I am not. By listening to my body I have found that having it in small amounts, maybe a cup of it or less occasionally will produce little or no irritation. Is that satisfying and not just a tease? Sometimes, but others it leads me to a full over-indulgence which leaves me in a food comma. But each time I it has, I eat less and less of it because it seems my body and brain ties the two things together so slowly I am changing my habits and living healthier each day!
From here I would truly recommend some additional small changes found in my beginning living guide.
