HOW TO EAT CLEAN – INTRODUCTION and PART 1
Forget the juice cleanses, fasts, and fads. Check out the following tips for creating a clean eating plan that can help you detox, achieve optimal weight, body composition, hormonal balance every single day … it’s a lifestyle folks!!!
This two-part series is an intro, thought provoker, teaser to help you jumpstart the journey of taking your health in your own hands, overcoming chronic illness, or reversing/preventing nasty modern-life diseases like diabetes and cancer.
Active Life eXperiment will help you look and feel great, be happy and healthy, THRIVE, one bite, one step, one breath, one thought at a time by giving you the tools and the roadmap to tackle head on the three major causes/contributors to disease: poor diet, wrong way of exercising (not lack of!!!), and toxins/chemicals.
Adopted in part from article by Amie Valpone, HHC, AADP from “better nutrition” magazine published by the awesome Natural Grocers.
ONE SIZE, OR DIET, DOES NOT FIT ALL
Can we all benefit from a cleaner and greener diet? Yup! That doesn’t mean approach to this is prescriptive and you eat exactly what we put on our plates or what your doctor/dietitian/nutritionist tells you (unless it’s a serious medical issue and then you better follow the plan). Meal plans don’t work well, you don’t learn, and don’t build sustainable habits. And it’s all about habits!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle
And it’s not about labels either, whether vegan, frutitarian, Paleo or ketogenic. And it’s also not about “low carb”, rather “slow carb”, if we can borrow the words of Dr. Mark Hyman.
The most important thing is to eat clean foods that make your body feel good and healthy.
What are they?
EAT WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU YOU YOU
It does not matter what’s trending, what’s hot, what’s recommended by a friend, “influencer” or the “buzziest” superstar author. You and your body are the best experts on what you can eat. Your body’s internal mechanisms are far superior to any program, mechanism, tools modern society create to tell you what to eat.
Your friends, family, trainer, co-workers can talk about goat dairy “till the cows come home”, yet if it makes you feel ill, skip it. Plus dairy …. hmmm, you know how we feel about being the only species on Earth drinking milk of another species. Consume it as a treat!
What about animal protein? Some people swear you should not eat it. There is no need to feel guilty if you feel best after eating grass-fed pasture raised burger. Really. Food should make you feel healthy, energized, satisfied, not sick or sleepy.
Eat what’s right for you. What’s our take on this?
VEGGIES – green, root, tons of them, in season
FRUIT – mostly tart fruit and selectively. It’s nature’s desert!
***And since life happens, recreational drugs like sweets, alcohol or pizza/pasta on special occasions or occasional treat days are just fine.
HOW to tackle this day to day? HOW to make conscious decisions about when, when, why we eat?
Take this quick ALeX diagnostic and always stay active!
DETOX IS NOT A FAST OR A JUICE CLEANSE
This is a common mistake.
Let’s take spinach, a green powerhouse and a juicing favorite, for example. Spinach is also one of the most contaminated vegetables from pesticides. It’s on the Dirty Dozen list published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
Apples are another example – super popular juicing ingredient that can be full of toxins. And the cumulative effect of exposure to these toxins may contribute to weight gain and endocrine system disruption.
CONVENTIONAL APPLES RANK #1 on EWG’s Dirty Dozen LIST!!!
Putting them in a blender with other fruits and veggies, drinking the juice, smoothie, whatever through the straw does not make them healthier. You are just delivering the toxins to your body in a easy-to-absorb (not digest) form. This is on top of a fact that you are likely consuming way tooooooo much sugar in the first place and “drinking” your food. Apple here, strawberry there, mango, carrots. Let’s blend it all up. Ton of nutrients and vitamins? Sure, along with TON of sugar. Fruit is nature’s desert and just like all food, best consumed in its “whole form”.
The best way to detox is to eat clean, organic (especially with items on the Dirty Dozen list, meats, and eggs) and completely bypass the toxins that make you sick, fat, and bloated.
Detox does not happen over the weekend. Stay tuned for Part 2 and always stay active!
activelifeexperiment 