Ugh!
I tried to write this post for about two weeks now. Seriously.
Life
has gotten in the way of both this blog and of my 4% challenge.
Life
= HUCKLEBERRY
Huck
is our adorable new Dane baby, who came to us with a less than stellar
digestive system. In the first two weeks
with him, we spent more time in the emergency vet office than out of it and
more money than I spent on my wedding dress.
Thankfully
he seems to be on the upswing. And he is
terribly cute and goofy.
But
Huck, and his **surprised ** vet visits
and mid-night/early morning potty breaks, have thrown off my routine. So I did not lose the 4%.
I
also added a job in there, and finally finished school!!!! (yeah!)
Needless
to say the gym fell by the wayside as I opted for sleep over the gym with any
free time I had.
However,
I had focused more on my nutrition.
I
am a firm believer that, while working out is great, the number one thing you
can do to become healthy is change your diet (notice I used “diet” as a noun,
not a verb).
Yesterday,
between yelling at Huck to stop eating our potted palm trees and studying for
my boards, I stumbled across a documentary on Netflix called, “Hungry for
Change.”
In
short, it’s about how as a nation, we have an abundant of food, but we are
starving to death (from a lack of nutrients).
It’s a bit scientific, so if you are nerd, like me, you’ll love it. Seriously,
I LOVE learning how the body works, and this doc definitely explains why and
how the body gets fat.
While
I think you should watch it, some points I’d like to share:
-
Biologically we seek fats and sugars. I
believe I read once, that back in the hunter/gatherer days, sweet food equaled
safe to eat. So our ancestors knew that
if food was sweet (like a fruit), they wouldn’t die from consuming it. That being said, we still have that instinct
to eat when we see food due to our biologic-program of feast/famine. Except
nowadays, there is no famine.
- I
pulled a line about “abusing sugar.” We’ve all heard fat-free basically means
other chemicals added to food. One of
the experts mentioned he could slap a “Fat
Free” label on a 2lb. bag of sugar.
But once ingested, sugar spikes blood glucose (blood sugar). The pancreas responds by secreting
insulin -- a fat-inducing hormone. Insulin also increases our drive to eat. So people that do fat-free diets are usually
constantly hungry. FATS DON’T MAKE YOU FAT.
It’s important to eat HIGH GRADE
fats in avocado, chia, flax and salmon.
-
They likened white sugar and white flour to
cocaine; all are processed products of a natural substance. (Coca tea/mate de coca is a very widely used
medicinal herb with no addictive side effects). All cause disruptions in your
body.
Finally,
they touched on that in order to protect itself from the chemical/toxins in our
processed food, our body either produced mucous or fat. Most of these chemical
are fat-loving, so not only do they induce fat, they are stored in fat. Cleanses are important, but none of this
cayenne pepper-lemonade only cleanse.
The best cleanse is to start with high quality organic chlorophyll-rich greens, include parsley
with cleanses blood and cilantro with binds with heavy
metals (very important if you eat fish!) 
Also,
gelatinous foods are good too: chia seeds, aloe, seaweed. They become like a
gel, bind to toxins and impurities and then pass them.
I
know for a lot of us, buying everything organic or completely cutting sugar
isn’t realistic. Here's a handy little chart of what is important to buy organic, and those you can lax on.
I hope these little insights can help you make a healthier decision this week.
