How can I be healthy if I don’t “watch” what I eat?

👆 This is a totally valid concern when we’re immersed in diet culture’s restrictive thinking!

And we all know what happened to the guy in Super Size Me, right? You obviously can’t eat McDonald’s every day and expect to be a picture of health. 😬

But between restrictive, “I can’t eat this” mentality, and “I’m going to fuel my body on junk,” is this beautiful place where eating gets to be so much easier.

…where we can stop stressing about whether or not we’re going to gain weight and focus our energy on what matters most: Living our dang lives! 🙌

It’s about how we live our lives most of the time — not the ice cream you treated yourself to yesterday — that matters.

The 5 Practical Upgrades

The Why Behind

So let’s talk about the why behind the guiding principles I shared in the images above.

1. In her work helping thousands of people heal their chronic issues (including reversing autoimmune disease), Dr. Susan Blum (M.D., M.P.H.) found that by following the plate ratio of 1/2 veggies, 1/4 starch, 1/4 protein, inflammation was drastically and this ratio also supported healthy immune function. It’s no surprise, though, right? Veggies are anti-oxidant-rich powerhouses that help our bodies lower oxidative stress. Lower oxidative stress = lower chance of chronic disease.

2. Compared to their conventional counterparts, grass-fed beef is higher in vitamins A, B, E, and other antioxidants. If grass-fed beef or pasture-raised poultry isn’t available at your grocery store, the next best thing is USDA Certified Organic. These animals aren’t exposed to antibiotics, growth hormones, or pesticides in their food supply at the same rate as conventional meat. As for conventional meat, we can cover animal cruelty and farmed meat practices another time. 😉

3. Rotating your non-dairy milk helps to ensure you’re ingesting a range of vitamins and minerals.

For example, almond milk is high in vitamin E, magnesium, fiber, phosphorus, and riboflavin whereas oat milk is rich in manganese, copper, phosphorus, biotin, B1, fiber, and protein. Hemp milk is different from both because it boasts omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, along with vitamin A, calcium, vitamin D, B12, iron, phosphorus, and zinc. You get where I’m going with this!

4. Fat is crucial to absorb vitamins A, D, and E, so without fat, you can be eating vitamin-rich veggies, protein, and milk all day long and not be receiving all the benefits.

5. The more processed the food, the harder it is for your body to digest. Plus, the stuff you find in the aisles of your grocery store is shelf-stable because they’re full of salt, sugar, and other chemical preservatives. It’s not all bad, though, so be in the habit of reading your labels and getting curious about the stuff you don’t recognize or can’t pronounce.

As always, it’s all about progress, not perfection. So do not, I repeat, DO NOT beat yourself up if you grab a bag of your favorite chips and enjoy a hot dog for national hot dog day. (That’s today, who knew?😆)

When you take good care of your body, you can enjoy the dang hot dog occasionally!

So, which one are you feeling called to commit to this week? Which are you already practicing regularly?