Eating Healthy...How Do I Do It?

Well, I’m not going to lie, I’m definitely a foodie. I love food and I love gourmet cooking. But that’s all right because…

DISCLAIMER:

The following statement may be shocking to some.

It’s okay to love food!

You just have to make sure that you’re putting the right food into your body as much as possible. When I first started eating ‘clean’, my eyes were opened to an entirely new world of cuisine and flavor.

We often hear the term ‘diet’ when speaking about the foods we shouldn’t be eating. I don’t like the word diet because it’s restrictive. ‘Diet’ speaks to a narrow way of looking at food. I want you to stop thinking about dieting and start thinking about cleaning; cleaning your body. When it comes to health, don’t focus on what you shouldn’t be eating, focus on what you should be eating.

For a long time I thought about food in a very narrow way… 

For 46 years I ate whatever was in front of me. I thought that I was invincible and that the food I ate wouldn’t affect me. I found out the hard way that that is simply not true. Your body will either pay a price or reap rewards for everything you eat at some point down the road. Whole body health starts in the grocery cart. Healthy eating can be incredibly fun, if you go into it with the right mindset.

When I decided to clean up my body and get healthy, I tried a number of different things. I followed a plant-based diet, I ate raw for a long time, I got heavy into juicing... the list goes on. All of these ‘diets’ helped me clean up my body in different ways, but what kept bothering me was how restricted I felt. Maybe you can identify with this:

So often, I’d look around and think to myself, “Wow. There is literally nothing I can eat here… ”.

I decided that I wanted to be able to eat healthy, but still enjoy life.

I decided to stop basing my food choices on what others said was right for them and start looking at what was right for me. I started listening to my body.

At this point in my life…

I don’t follow any specific kind of diet or meal plan. I eat high quality, clean food. For me, quality means food that comes from local farmers who care more about maximizing the nutritional value of the food they grow than the profits they make. I try to get food from farms that take care of their soil. I make sure that I’m eating whole, unprocessed foods at the right times and in the right combinations. I eat a broad spectrum of foods, but all in moderation. Too much of anything is bad for you (believe it or not you can eat too much spinach). I try to eat clean foods that are non-GMO and organic as much as I can, even though sometimes that’s not an option.

The most discouraging thing is the feeling that you can’t eat anything around you. That’s why it’s important to not get too obsessive about it.

Sometimes I’ll go to a restaurant where there is no way of knowing where the food came from or maybe I’ll end up at a friend’s house who isn’t concerned with clean eating like I am. Either way, I don’t starve myself or stress out over it. I allow myself to ‘cheat’ when I can’t control the circumstances, because I know that every day at home I’m eating the right foods, I’m eating clean, taking the right supplements and laying the foundation for a healthy body that can weather the storm.

Don’t stress.

The mental toll of stressing over not being able to find a raw, vegan, locally grown, non-GMO, certified organic, gluten-free meal is worse for your health in the long run than just eating what your friend is grilling on the barbecue. Keep yourself happy and do everything you can to eat clean as much as you can. Make sure that your body isn’t deficient in any of the building blocks it needs. Then let the rest go. That’s what I do.

Your body tells you whether what you’re eating is good, so get tuned in.

You know almost immediately after eating something whether or not your body is digesting it properly. Listen to what your gut is telling you. A healthy gut is the first essential step toward a healthier and happier life. Give your gut the right nutrition for optimal function and it will reward you. Deny it the nutrients it needs and there’ll be a price to pay down the road.

If you want to optimize your gut function so that your body is actually getting maximum nutrition from your food, check out the link below. I talk about how to double the nutrients your gut absorbs by adding just one thing to your diet.
Click here to discover how to DOUBLE the nutrients your gut absorbs.