There is so much information out there about what is healthy and what is not! There are so many Gurus telling you to eat this and don’t eat that and eat at this time and not at that time. To eat carbs. Not to eat carbs. To eat vegan. To only eat carnivore. How do you make sense of all this information?
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| Becky Longacre |
How do you know what’s right for you? Here are some tips to help you get started on an eating pattern/ style/ plan that works for YOU, specifically. Let go of what your co-workers, your neighbors, your friends are doing and stick with what works for you.
Doing what others are doing even if it doesn’t work for you, specifically, is why diets fail. To help yourself move forward here are some tips.
Ask yourself these two questions:
1.) Are you diabetic or insulin resistant? Your doctor may have told you “you need to watch your blood sugar” or you may have heard the term “pre-diabetic” spoken by your healthcare provider. If either of these are true (you have diabetes or are pre-diabetic- AKA insulin resistant), it is very helpful to increase your protein intake, your vegetable intake and lower your carb intake. Aim for less than 60 grams of total carbohydrates per day. Why? Because in order to get access to your fat storage (if you are trying to lose weight or even if you are trying to maintain your weight) you must FIRST burn through your blood sugar and then you must burn through your stored glycogen (more sugar stored in your muscles and liver in longer chains). Once you have burned through these fuel sources, then your body can access fat stores. When you have diabetes, the time it takes to burn through these sugar stores is longer. Therefore, limiting your carb intake will help you get there quicker. Exercise will help you as well. Just going for a 20-minute walk after lunch will help you burn through some of those sugar stores.
The other way to burn through sugar stores is to practice intermittent fasting. This is when you adhere to an eating window and a fasting window. You can practice 14, 18, or 20 hours of fasting and eat for the remainder of the 24-hour day: 10, 8, or 4 (for example). Doing this will give your stomach and intestines a chance to fully empty. Guess what happens after that? Their sensitivity to being full increases over time. So, if you practice intermittent fasting for several weeks, you will naturally start to feel full sooner. This will help in reducing your overall calories.
If there is one food stuff that I call “bad” it is high fructose corn syrup. This highly processed sugar spikes your blood sugar fast and causes a fast drop as well. This fast drop in blood sugar is part of why your brain is “cued” to eat. Minimizing or eliminating high fructose corn syrup from your diet will help tremendously with blood sugar maintenance and therefore less overeating.
2.) What makes you happy? Large meals or smaller meals throughout the day? Knowing this about yourself can help you decide to eat 2 larger meals throughout the day or 6 smaller meals during the day. Whether or not this will work for you will be dependent on if you are being realistic with serving sizes and whether or not you take a hypoglycemic agent (diabetes medication). If it makes you happy to eat 6 smaller meals during the day, go for it! Just really, really, really pay attention to what a serving size is. Do not go out to a restaurant to learn about serving sizes. Restaurants tend to serve 3-5 what the recommended serving is. Read food labels and look up nutrition information on MyPlate.gov | U.S. Department of Agriculture to get a sense for portion sizes. If you want to eat 2 larger sized meals, that’s fine too! Again, just be mindful about the total calories you are consuming. In the end, being mindful of calories will help you stay on track.
The point here is to think about what is sustainable for you. If you are a grazer, be more mindful about grazing on plants like fruits, veggies, and nuts to make you happy. If you like two bigger meals for the day, still eat plenty of plants and lean protein like chicken and fish. Go for 100 percent whole grain wheat pasta and bread. And, drink more water than you think you need to. Truly, most of us are walking around pretty dehydrated and drinking water will help your health on so many levels (from reducing brain fog and muscle soreness to increasing your ability to fight infections and heal wounds).
The common denominator of all of these tips in the end is: Mindfulness. Whatever you decide, however you choose to eat to get healthy, increasing your mindfulness will help you stay consistent. And consistency is what pays off in any health plan. Not intensity. Consistency.
Stay consistent, my friends. I will see you next time.
Becky Longacre is a Nurse Coach for Health Transformers LLC. Send her questions at becky@healthtransformersmaine.com or call her at 207-400-7897. Visit her website at www.healthtransformersmaine.com" <
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