What to eat?
Are you ready to for some detective work?
There is no one miracle diet that will work for everyone. When figuring out the right diet plan for you there are some key factors that I recommend to consider:
- Food intolerances
- Your heredity (it is incredibly interesting topic)
- Your geographic location and environment (and toxins related to that)
- Microbiome
The first two can be tested but it is does have a price (and usually not very cheap). However based on your own experience if you have ever tried different diets you should have some ideas what doesn't work for you. If you don't know it can be very difficult to rule out the particular foods that are causing you issues.
Tired of quick fixes?
If you have issues losing weight and/or you think there is something wrong with you based on your energy levels, mood, endurance, bowel movements or even the clarity of your mind and you have tried several things before then here is one solution to try. And I need to say that one more time: here is one solution:
Elimination.
If you eliminate some most common foods that are causing issues for 30 days you will see. After the 30 days you can try to add these foods back one by one and see what happens.
- Wheat, barley, rye, oat, rice, corn
- Legumes
- Dairy
- Any added sugar, sweeteners, processed foods
Make sure to speak with your doctor before starting any new diet plan. This obviously needs to be said. Because doctors know.
The rules to follow
- Eat real food
- Eat when you are hungry and as much as you need
- Drink 2-3 litres of water every day
Your typical day could look like this:
| When | What to eat |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | 2 eggs, mushroom, tomato, spinach, onion (and ghee or coconut oil for the pan) An orange |
| Lunch | Chicken breast, broccoli, carrots, red peppers, green leaf salad, cucumber, seeds, olive oil and a banana |
| Dinner | Potato wedges, cauliflower, zucchini and salad + organic or grass-fed beef. Half an avocado |
| Evening | Frozen berries, coconut cream, chia seeds, dates smoothie |
If you feel like you don't have any issues with any particular foods but you would still like to eat better and lose some weight then you can also go with counting calories and macronutrients. There is nothing wrong with that if it works.
Rudy Mawers blog is one source for great information on diet if all the foods suit you. He has vegetarian and even vegan diet plans and he seems to be very successful and popular among women. We have our differences in hormones and it does play a part.
Diet is the most important part of your wellbeing
I know everyone is talking about balance and how it all needs to be considered. All means exercise, sleep, social aspects, etc... It is my opinion that diet is the best way to start creating a healthy life. If you have severe nutritional imbalances or you are eating foods that are causing inflammation and perhaps autoimmune reaction in your body it can be VERY hard to to stick to an exercise plan for several reasons.
However if you are happy with what you are eating then next blog posts will be about moving and learning your body. Stay tuned.
Further reading:
- https://chriskresser.com/
- https://gutbliss.com/
- https://celiac.org/celiac-disease/understanding-celiac-disease-2/non-celiac-gluten-sensitivity-2/
- http://www.calciumlie.com/five-types-hypothyroidism/
Images from Pixabay.
I'd say you're absolutely right!
Nutrition is the remedy to almost anything (these days there are more and more articles on the bowel system flora's connection to depression etc). And as for shedding pounds, a person would have to exercise quite a bit to lose weight but maintain unhealthy eating habits.
Eating proper food enough many times a day helps on so many things, with me it's at least temper(haha), concentration and general feeling of being content
Excellent post!