QUANTITIES: This is not meant to be calorie restrictive. As you eat for health and beat the inflammation and intolerences to specific foods your body will settle into a truly healthy place. That being said it is possible to overeat on a daily basis. Less likely though if you focus on whole foods. Use this guide to generally eye ball appropriate serving sizes: Make sure that you are filling up on vegetables.
Protein portions should be moderate, 3-5 oz.. The old adage of the size of your palm works. Larger than your palm for white fish.
Complex carbs should be around 1/2 cup to 1 cup or a single medium potato or 1/2 squash.
Fat should be 1-2T.
I do not want you to measure, but be aware. There are ways to beef up your portions. You can do this with vegetables, lettuce, salsa, roasted vegetables, and more.
Paramount to all of this is a good relationship with food and laying the foundation of knowing what foods do in your system. Do not mess with quantities until you feel you have a good handle on having a positive food relationship.
If you want to get a handle on how much you are consuming I would suggest the myfitnesspal app. I am NOT for consistent and daily calorie counting, I want you to be intuitive, but if you have a goal that you are not reaching it may be a good idea to see how much you are actually eating. That way you can adjust the amounts accordingly. If you decide to do this I can help you. This is not for everyone!
HYDRATION: We all know that hydration is good for us, but do you know exactly why? Hydration is a powerful state that when met jacks your metabolism, hydrates your muscles so they move their best, gives you mental clarity, reduces pain and headaches, flushes out impurities and aids in digestion, keeps you from cravings, satisfies your hunger, gives you energy, and protects your heart.
PROTEIN AT EACH MEAL: The amino acids in the macronutrient protein stabilize your blood sugar. Stable blood sugar minimizes cravings and keeps your energy going. Having a protein at each meal ensures that you stay fuller longer in between meals.
VOLUME: When your gut is literally full of density and weight it sends signals to your brain that you are satisfied. This act staves off hunger for hours, diminishes cravings, and slows down desire for more food to keep you fuller between meals longer. When you fill your body with fibrous vegetables and to a lesser degree fruit you are giving your body the volume to aid in the above. This act will have a compounding impact when you implement consistently over time. For example: when out to eat, order what you WANT (using your new empowerment about what you feel best eating), then ask for a big salad and steamed vegetables on the side. Eat the fibrous foods first and you will be eating less overall because your gut is full and satisfied. This is a highly impactful habit.
PREVENTATIVE EATING: To stay lean and healthy and living a lifestyle that benefits your body, mind, and health the key is to strike a balance that serves you emotionally and physically. Learn how to roll with the punches and maneuver external and internal influences so that you are serving your body best. Influences like stress, hormones, overtraining, social occasions and dinners, emotions, and cravings can throw you off your game. When you feel influenced or uncertain about food with dealing with a social occasion I STRONGLY suggest a PREVENTATIVE MEAL. This is a habit I created years ago that has SAVED me many times over. A preventative meal is something that will send a strong signal to your brain that you are satisfied. Meals that help me are usually high in volume and protein: Smoothies, BIG salads, steamed or roasted veggies with oils and pink salt, and eggs. I do not worry about the quantity, I think of the nutrition and the volume. Never ever fails.
KNOW THE TYPES OF FOOD YOU FEEL BEST EATING: You have learned this over the past two weeks. When you start to feel yucky or unmotivated, go back to the basics without judgement and with grace. You are human.
POST WORKOUT NUTRITION: If you do not eat (fast) prior to your workouts make sure that you refuel with a meal or snack within 30-40 minutes post workout. This would be a situation where you wake up and workout fasted because you feel better doing so. Which is completely healthy! If you do eat prior to your workout (maybe you workout later in the day) this is not an issue. A postworkout meal speeds up recovery, refills your glycogen storage (stored energy in muscle used in some workouts), decreases inflammation due to stress of workout, and controls the backlash of hunger that will hit you with a vengeance later on in day if you do not have a post workout meal.
This meal should consist of 2 parts carb (fruit or plant based starch depending on goals) and 1 part protein.
Smoothies are a great option.
ALCOHOL INFLUENCE: Alcohol is a poison that your body flushes out as quickly as possible, leading to dehydration. Dehydration can and will negatively impact how well your muscles move. Which can cause strain or injury.
Dehydration also causes low energy. Be aware and make sure to hydrate if you have any drinks. A good B complex vitamin is helpful too as alcohol depletes and may lead to headaches and depression. B vitamins in our systems help us stay happy! Dehydration is confused by our bodies with hunger. When you are dehydrated, you may eat more because of this confusion.
Alcohol can interrupt sleep. Sleep is when we produce the hormone that tells us that we are “satiated” and to stop eating, this hormone is Ghrelin. Alcohol also increases Cortisol which is our stress hormone. It can raise Insulin which raises blood sugar and reduces with your energy and metabolism. All important to know when you are on a path of well-being. Knowledge is power.
SUGAR INFLUENCE: Not all sugars are equal. Glucose is a byproduct of photosynthesis and present in plants, fruits, and vegetables. Our bodies even create it when needed. It is used as energy and/or stored as glycogen in muscle for energy. Fructose and Sucrose are found in fruit. Incredibly sweet and healthy to consume as the fruit offers so many vitamins and minerals necessary for optimal health. Both are simple sugars and needed in certain quantities. This program focuses on consuming simple sugars because of the health benefits, necessity, and easy digestion.
There is also Lactose, a byproduct of breaking down dairy, many people do not possess the enzyme necessary to break down Lactose, thus why dairy isn’t optimal and can cause stomach distress.
All sugars are carbohydrates. Starch foods have more complex sugars/carbs to break down. The overflow of sugar means high insulin levels and high insulin levels means storage in your organs and fatty tissue. Thus, why too much sugar and too many carbohydrates can cause fat, disease, and poor well-being.
80ish%/20ish% Rule: The majority of your daily intake should be whole foods. Your plate should look close to what they have been looking like during this reset. To make sure you do not feel deprivation and as if you are missing out on what you love, social occasions, etc. You CAN allow for 20% (give or take) of your daily intake to be FUN/ENJOYMENT. This could mean that drink at dinner, the slice of birthday cake, the cheese sprinked on your eggs, the ranch salad dressing, and so on. One day you may not feel like you want any “fun” foods, the next you may feel like you want all the fun foods, let yourself ride and flow. If you implement all of the other stategies that we have covered you should have no problem with this.
Additional Foods to add in to increase your repetiore.
Protein Bars with little to no sugar.
Dairy
Non Dairy Alternatives
Snack Foods (sparingly)
Healthy Salad Dressings
If you have not been successful in integrating workouts/movement into your lifestyle. Now is the time. We will never feel as if we have all the time in the world. We need to make it. Take out your calender and designate 2 days/times per week when working out is non-negotiable. Working out does not mean a half hour or an hour of high impact (although it can be). It can be a mile walk or 15 minutes of stretching. Any movement is healing and healthy. My training membership website is full of content. Many descriptive (videos) of total body training workouts for all levels. If you join the membership site as a member you can participate in this Nutritional Reset Lifestyle program at no charge each time. https://my.somelikeitfit.com/product/monthly-membership/
Take a look at everything else you consume in your daily life. Cleaning products, perfumes, beauty products, etc. Many of the strong chemical ingredients in cleaning products, bleaches, antibacterials, detergents, were put there specifically for their antimicrobial properties. The impact is not selective. These chemicals do clean and sanitize but also are absorbed through skin and into lunges and can destroy the microbiome (gut cavity) and disrupt our endocrine system (hormones, which are the messengers of all actions in the body). Many of these ingredients, such as parabens, ammonia, chlorine bleach, QUATS, Triclosan, and triclocarban, have been shown to upset health. What we choose to “consume” daily can have a slow burning impact on our wellness down the line.
I have teamed up with Safe and Clean Beautycounter. Chronic exposure (repetitive/daily use) to skin care and makeup can be our biggest exposure to carcinogens. The US has little to no regulation on synthetics and chemicals in skin care and makeup. Learning and researching the link endocrine disrupters have on our health led me to try out products from BeautyCounter. Beautycounter has banned over 1800 chemicals and carcinogens in their products and lead the mission for FDA product reform. This is something we can control, our daily chronic exposure. I fell in love with the results of the products and teaming up became a no brainer. You may have interest in swapping out some of the items used most with these clean and safe products. My website is www.beautycounter.com/jenzuba. New customers use code: cleanforall20 for 20% off (some exclusions) We have skin care (results are amazing), makeup, bath products, lotions, hair products, etc. For household products some clean household products companies are: the Honest Company, Mrs.Meyers, and Seventh Generation Sold in grocery stores.