Note: You’ll notice I don’t use any citations
for this post. For today, it’s not about
what is or isn’t scientifically proven.
It’s about what I’m doing and what works for me.
But if you’re looking for more resources,
check out some of my favorite people in the world of nutrition and lifestyle
management. Check out their websites,
listen to their podcasts, and buy their books.
You won’t be sorry: Robb Wolf,
Diane Sanfillipo, Liz Wolfe, Sarah Fragoso, and Mark Sisson.
Life is crazy these days. Between the uber amount of traveling for work, coursework for my Heath Coaching certification, training at the gym, supporting a few non-profit causes, loving on my husband, trying to help with the house, yard, and spoiled pets, and some occasional sleep, my weeks move pretty fast.
I'm not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me or to start
a contest about who is busier. I'm telling you this because this is Kelsey's
Modern Life. I would be willing to bet
your life has a similar outline. And we
all know that crazy lives can cause some important decisions to get put on
the back burner.
In Part 1 of this series, I shared with you the catalyst that ignited my
health and wellness journey. When I was diagnosed with MS, I reacted the
way most of us do- "What
medicine do you have to fix this?" I took that medicine for a
hot minute, but I never really felt good. I’m not even sure that I felt
better. I still had numbness and
tingling, no balance, suffered from brain fog, etc, etc, etc. We all know
the difference between feeling better and feeling good.
Good didn't come for me until October of 2011. Good
didn’t come until I figured out a way to holistically solve my issues. Good
came when I was introduced to the Paleo/Primal lifestyle. Specifically the nutrition side of things. It's
pretty simple. Are you ready?
Eat your fill of whole sources of
meat, fish, nuts, seeds, eggs, veggies, and fruits. Avoid eating grains,
legumes, and most dairy.
We can spend hours, days, and years talking about the ideal ratio
of macronutrients, the role of fermented foods and organ meats, and if Paleo
cookies, granola bars, and beer are ok. But honestly- it doesn't matter.
(Well, it does, depending on your goals
and life circumstances, but for what we're talking about today: It.
Doesn't. Matter.)
Here is how I eat on a typical* day:
Breakfast: Pastured sausage and roasted sweet potatoes with kale
and onions.
Lunch: Soup (I love love love love love soup (love it)), a salad
or lettuce wrap, and a side of avocado.
Dinner: Some sort of pot-roast with grassfed butter and
sweet potatoes, burgers with sweet potato buns, or dark meat chicken curry with
riced cauliflower.
*Typical means when I’m not
traveling. I’ll spend time covering what
I eat when I travel in another post.
Of course this gets modified based on seasons, activities, and other things that pop up. But here is my thought on food relating to health:
It seems to me that whenever we’re trying to
cure an ailment with a holistic approach, the first thing we do is try to add something
to our diet to make it go away. For
example, adding cinnamon to your diet is supposed to lower your blood sugar,
chicken soup will help cure the common cold, and supposedly the acai berry
helps fight off everything from cancer to the bubonic plague. And I’m not saying that any of these are bad (I love soup, remember?). But
from my perspective, we don’t often take a moment to do some root cause
analysis of what is causing us to get sick.
From stress to environmental toxins to a couple of harmless germs,
contributors to illness are everywhere. From my experience, highly inflammatory
foods are one of the biggest influencers of health. The most common inflammatory foods are grains
(especially gluten containing grains such as wheat, barley, and rye), dairy,
soy, legumes, and any other highly refined foods.
I’ve found when I eat foods that are highly inflammatory my
digestive, hormonal, and immune systems go seriously out of whack. My most common symptoms are acne, brain fog, weight
gain, disrupted sleep, and, worst of all, MS symptoms.
I cut out industrial foods that were making me sick. The kind of sick that wreaks havoc on my immune
system and breaks my body down cell by cell. The kind of sick that causes inflammation in my gut
and decreases my body's ability to digest and utilize key nutrients. The
kind of sick that slowly chips away
at my life span. And I'm not trying
to be dramatic here (it just comes naturally).
And over the past year, something odd started to happen. I went from feeling Good to feeling GREAT. Of course there are more factors that influence
this such as stress, sleep, and movement, but nutrition was the cornerstone of
this change.
This lifestyle (it is a
lifestyle, not a diet) is not always easy.
To make this work for me, I spend hours prepping meals and cooking every
Sunday. Remember what I told you…. I don’t have a ton of hours in
my week as it is. But for me, this is
super critical. Eating right goes well
beyond looking good in a bikini or getting my deadlift up over 300
lbs. My goal is to be healthy, vibrant,
and mobile for a very long time.
We all have goals. We also all have free will. And every time we exercise that free will to
go off plan, it has an impact on our goals.
Sometimes it’s worth it (frozen custard on a summer night- yes
pleaseeeeee) and other times it’s just not (gluten, dairy, soy-filled fast food
every day because something else in my life took priority- no, just no).
So I would implore you to consider what your goals are, start
thinking about what you need to do to reach them, and own the decision rights
to your life. I really think you’ll be
glad you did. I am.
-Kelsey
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