Hungry for Change

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.