ON FOOD
also known as
Nourishing Ourselves
Generating a body that feels full of life,
for our lifetime
quick tips
Go to your local farmers market and connect with farmers and know where your produce is coming from.
Shop around the outside of a supermarket… all the fresh things are outside the aisles…protein, vegetables, dairy etc.
Buy plastic free as much as you can… plastic leaches into our food and disrupts our bodies function.
Focus on high protein and nutrient density. Bulk up food with vegetables not things like rice or pasta.
Try to avoid spiking blood sugar so have sweet things with protein and fats or after a meal to slow down the insulin response
Eat dinner as early as possible to give your body time to wind down before sleep.
Avoid eating with screen time or in a stressful environment as your body cant digest the food and give you the nutrients it needs, you also won’t be able to register as easily when you are full.
Eat slower and chew more.. your body takes 30 minutes to register it is full
Go for a walk after eating or eat in the sun for better digestion and assimilation
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is around 1300 - 1500 cals for women
and 1600 - 1800 for a man.
This is what your body burns per day without exercise.
To gain muscle / weight you need to be in a surplus of around 250 - 500 cals.
To loose weight you need to be in a deficit of around 600 cals per day.
+ Keep in mind we often underestimate caloric intake / density of food.
Energy in vs out is important, however it is not the be all and end all when it comes to being healthy or loosing weight.
Stress, hormones, lifestyle, environment, previous eating habits and genetics will play a role.
A 6 pack athlete body is not realistic or sustainable or what we are meant to look like.
Aiming for 80% nutrient full of life food is ideal alongside
20% enjoyment and experiencing life and flavours and moments with friends.
Guilt is not healthy for the body, but neither is the “fuck it” - lack of honour for your life force / vitality / vessel for for the rest of your days either.
Building a loving, respectful, devoted and conscious connection with what you consume in your life and your energy is a lifelong journey… it isn’t straightforward- especially in a world that is trying to constantly sell more and take the easy approach.
We are used to having food readily available, but we are totally ok with less calories for a while and seasons of fasting or eating less.
Restricting calorie intake without malnutrition can lead to increased lifespan and slower aging.
Studies suggest that calorie restriction can also reduce the risk of age-related diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
It can help improve insulin resistance, reduce fat in the liver, and stimulate the body's natural stress response pathways and promote the removal of damaged cells and cellular components.
It can also be a reflection tool to see how much we can actually achieve on less, how much we use food as a crutch or an unconscious habit.
Just like food tracking can make us aware of energy density of food and conscious of our choices, periods of fasting or eating less can make us mentally stronger and more emotionally conscious.
Our hunger hormones can reset as well.
Keep in mind with our hunger hormones they will release half an hour before they are used to eating. After 30 minutes this will dissipate and after a day or two they reset to new timelines.
So if you are hungry, distracting yourself.. going for a walk, change environments, brush your teeth, drink extra water etc will shift this.
As mentioned we ideally want to do this in our follicular phase for women.
You never want to be on prolonged periods of caloric restriction or fasting as the body after a while will plateau and also shift certain things like NEAT Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or metabolism to adjust to “period of survival”
The more we are training, the more we are building muscle which helps burn bodyfat, changes our composition and increases our metabolic rate.