I am sure you are paying attention when I say: Do Not Diet: Do this instead!
The reason I am saying “Do not diet” is because you go on a diet, you go off a diet. Then when you go off, not only do you gain it all back, but most times (and in my experience)….. it’s “and then some”. You will weigh more than you did before you started the diet.
I had someone call me the other day, talking about testing for celiacs disease. I was told it was going to be weeks, before they knew if she has it. But here’s the deal: while you are waiting for tests to come back, or for your life to change, or to fit into those old jeans…. there are lifestyle changes you can make now, that will not affect your outcome except to make it better (no matter what you are waiting for).
I am here to support you and give you some ideas of what you can be doing. And here they are:
- Stop eating all cereal with sugar
- Add cook top oatmeal (not the fast kind in packets)
- Understand that Pasta and bread convert to sugar
- Know that sugar = inflammation and inflammation = disease (as motivation)
- Put a plus sign on your plate with 2 knives. You will then see 4 portions to the plate.
- Make sure that one portion is protein, one portion is complex carbs and that the other two portions are vegetables
- Love your vegetables – Go to the store and find some vegan dressing. Add a tablespoon to vegetables (raw or steamed)
- Flavor up vegetables with fresh spices (preferred to dry spices)
- Understand that vegetables are a vehicle to get nutrients into your system
- Google food combining to see that when you add olive oil to tomatoes, it helps release the lycopene – it’s important to make those nutrients available to your system
- Stick to a few oils like grapeseed, olive, sesame and walnut
- Know that a teaspoon is 100 calories
- Realize that olive and walnut go no higher than medium on your stovetop
- Realize that grapeseed can go high on the stovetop
- Understand that sesame oil is a dressing, drizzled on afterwards and should not be paired with heat
- Add more (maybe a handful) almonds and walnuts to your dishes – so you are ‘flavoring’ them with nuts (and adding some valuable nutrients and protein to lunch and dinner
- Store nuts in the fridge so that the oil in them does not go rancid
- Add avocado to your salad instead of salad dressing, to what little bread you are eating (instead of jam or butter)
- Remember that our bodies do not process milk or milk products like cheese
- Use hard cheeses like parmesian
- Soak, sprout and ferment dry beans before eating (like buckwheat and quinoa)
- Get that wheat ‘fix’ under control and each day replace something wheat will a vegetable or brown rice
- Consider intermittent fasting: eat no later than 7pm and wait till noon to eat again, a couple of times a week
I hope some of these suggestions are baby steps for you, to tiny lifestyle changes. One or two changes each week can make a real difference to your digestion, your gut biome, your weight and your nutrition.
Healthy Happy Eating,
