Eating is a Choice with Consequences…Good or Bad
Continually recommitting to eat right happens each time I run out the door without food and stop by a place to eat with the premise that I can find something healthy on their menu. The fact is, unless you go to a “Farm to Fork” restaurant and pay the prices they charge, or go to a good grocery store and read the labels well, you will not find healthy food to eat on the fly.
Eating nutritious food requires due-diligence. It requires planning, growing, harvesting, storing and eating the correct foods. It requires knowing what is in your food and your definition of healthy will seldom be someone else’s definition of healthy.
One thing I know. I want to keep myself on track. I don’t have diabetes, or heart disease, or autoimmune disease. I don’t take antacids. I don’t take medications. I would like to keep it that way and improve my health daily. I know that by putting sugar, hydrogenated fats and oils and pesticides from fruits and vegetables in my body, I too will be in the doctor’s office regularly.
Eating is a choice with consequences. Food is our body’s fuel. Exercise is how our muscles and bones are maintained once we put the right fuel in. Our digestive system is the way we get our nutrients to keep our bodies growing. Eating cheap food, food on the fly and food that is readily available as you drive by a window will not provide our bodies with the long-term health and vitality they require.
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Fuel Rules
Break your all night fast shortly after waking. You have been fasting from food all night and the glycogen stores have been keeping you going. Now is the time to replenish those stores. Eat a good breakfast and just like all the other times when you eat, include 4 basic items. Fuel should always be equal parts of a good protein and a good carbohydrate. Add a non-starchy vegetable and cook in good fats. (The use of glycogen is a short-term solution. Once depleted, the body searches for another source of energy. The body uses amino acids from muscle protein to make glucose, thus breaking down the muscles. This is called gluconeogenesis when glucose is made from a non-carbohydrate source.)
Breakfast is the beginning of your fuel for the day and you will replenish fuel every 2-3 hours. The fuel in-between the meals are smaller but still equal. We like to call them 4-pak-snaks. Again, the snack should be equal parts of a good protein and a good carbohydrate. Add a vegetable and when possible add a good fat in the form of nuts, avocado, etc.
We need to eat foods that our bodies are made from. Eating real food is a Fuel Rule.
Fuel rule # 1 = When you eat something eat four things, Good protein and carbohydrates with a non-starchy vegetable and a good fat.
Fuel rule # 2 – Never skip a meal
Fuel rule # 3 – Eliminate Refined Foods
Fuel rule # 4 – Eat Real Food
Fuel rule # 5 – Drink water daily
Eating is necessary and can be fun. We often get bogged down with meals because it sometimes appears that we get cleaned up from one meal and it is time to prepare another. Use a menu planner whenever possible. There is no rule that states meals have to all be hot with prepared courses. Lunch can be strips of a good white cheese, with a pile of good tuna, a handful of nuts, carrots sticks or cucumber slices and half a slice of sprouted bread and butter. This covers all the areas you need to eat. It is simple and makes it easy to know you are getting a variety. Eat in seasons. When there are berries, add berries. When there are tomatoes, add tomatoes. You get the idea. Eat a variety of food to get a variety of vitamins and minerals.
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You are what you ate, but it’s not too late
Discover how to live life with vigor through proper diet, exercise, emotional wellness, and nutrient dense grown food.
Heartiness Approach is a lifestyle change to reduce the risk of Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, and Heart disease. The change includes how to shop, how to eat, proper exercise, managing stress, getting a good night sleep and caring for yourselves mentally and emotionally.
Heartiness Approach involves being different, not normal. Step away from the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) and refined and processed foods. Step away from a sedentary life and from ever increased stress and embrace heartiness.
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Eat real, unrefined, unprocessed food.
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Eliminate sugar and other stimulants
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Eat a balance of good protein, carbohydrates, non-starchy vegetable and a good fat whenever you eat any food.
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Eat small frequent meals
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Drink water. Eliminate soda, sugar drinks, low fat milk and other empty calorie drinks
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Exercise is not an option. You can exercise more than you think you can. Your muscles and bones and blood sugar levels depend on it.
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Manage stress. This is done in different ways by each person but it must be addressed because excess stress makes unbalanced hormones and insulin resistance.
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Do not eat any diet foods, sugar substitutes,or hydrogenated foods.
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Learn which fats to cook with and which fats to avoid that can cause free radicals in the body causing disease.
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Get 7 to 8 house of sleep each night.
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Learn to grown in nutrient-dense soil or medium to get the vitamins and minerals your body needs from food.
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Use supplements only when needed. Understand the supplements you are taking.
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Hormones must be in balance.
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Heartiness Approach Standards
Eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.
Meals and Snacks contain:
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A good Carbohydrate,
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A correct fat,
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A Good Protein,
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A non-starchy Vegetable.
Skipping breakfast is not an option – Eat it.
Stop eating 2-3 hours prior to going to bed
Send comments to Rhenda@heartinessapproach.com |
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