The holy grail of diets: Personalize your plate Rx
The holy grail of diets for optimal energy and nourishment
Transcript
Last week we did a little overview of the subtle energy systems, the koshas, the layers that are a little beyond the physical body. We talked about how everything can affect these layers of your energy.
For fit pros and anyone interested in their own health and wellness you might be wondering why you should care about the subtle body. Well I told you my story last week and n other podcasts about how I thought I was doing everything right according to exercise science and how on paper I looked healthy and yet I didn’t feel healthy. I was in pain all the time. I couldn’t sleep well. I was living on anti-inflammatories. As a result of my questionable behavior and disordered eating patterns, I was riding the edge of anxiety and depression, but not to the point where I might have been diagnosable, but still reinforcing messages to my body and nervous system that I was not safe. I was so good at covering for myself it had become a way of life for me. You could say I was a high functioning anxiously depressed, chronically stressed woman with insomnia, IBS and a twisted body image. Basically just like so many other mothers out there, fit pros too. People think if you work in fitness you’ve got your shit together when it comes to nutrition and exercise but we’re just like everyone else with all our baggage, we just bring it to the front of the room.
Anyway, the difference for me and maybe this was a blessing was that I'm open to trying new things in general and I got to the point where none of the “right” things were working so I had to change them. Those changes started with my diet. Only because that was the loudest alarm was.
Like we talked about last week, I really think it’s important to use some awareness first and let that guide your direction. Awareness Discernment and Regulation is a system that comes straight out of Pain Care Aware teachings from Lisa and Neil Pearson and my friend and teacher Colleen Jorgenson who you have heard on this podcast in the past. I have an interview coming up with her later in the month too. I teach a similar system within my trauma sensitive integration course designed for fit pros. You can get a free guide to that system on my website.
Today we’re talking about fuel for energy beyond the physical body. How to personalize the prescription on our plate for the best energy and nourishment. Our body is how we interact with the world so it’s important to take care of it. It is our vehicle. When something goes wrong in one system it affects all the other systems. So how can we fuel and nourish it in a way that supports our energy beyond just physical? The question most fit pros get more than any other (myself included) how should I eat? What should I eat? What’s the best diet if I want to get x,y,z? So let’s start our work IN.
In all things awareness comes first. Whenever something isn’t right with your internal security system an alarm goes off. Sometimes those alarms start off kind of quiet or they’re being drowned out by other things so over time the problem gets worse until the alarm turns into pain. That’s basically what happened with my gut pain saga. I mean, everyone gets a tummy ache now and then right? I ignored all of those for way too long.
Anyway, because my alarm was loudest at my gut I started there. Your alarms might be going off in other places.
Now I said I had been doing everything “right”. What that means is that because my activity level was so high throughout the week I gave myself permission to eat very high carbohydrates. You know because carbs are fuel. Because I was eating such a high carb diet my blood sugar would take these wild swings about every 2 hours. I thought that meant I needed to eat every 2 hours. But in reality it meant that I was slowly killing my body's insulin sensitivity, turning my blood to syrup and heading toward type 2 diabetes.
Ideally when you eat anything, insulin gets released to help carry all that energy into the cells that need it most. Muscles and liver first and then any leftovers get stored in fat. Insulin insensitivity is when those cells stop allowing storage and leave that energy (sugar) floating around in your blood.
I was spiking those levels over and over throughout my day.
Plus, fun fact about your gut. The only sensation it can feel is pain. I didn’t know that. Before all this happened I didn’t really know anything about digestion or the intricate microbiome balance. I only understood fuel. The breakdown of food into energy. The kicker is, it’s not the body that does that, it’s all those billions of bacteria.
So I started a very long journey to find the holy grail of health, the perfect diet.
Spoiler alert - there isn't one. And what I mean by that is there isn’t ONLY one. And what I mean by that is that there isn’t ONLY one for your WHOLE life.
I was looking for a way to eat that would let me back off on the killer exercise and maintain a healthy weight, and give me all the energy I wanted and let me sleep like a baby, and let me eat cake, and let me drink wine. Yep the holy grail.
But the diet culture, media and yes, even the government health guides have misled us all. There is no one size fits all when it comes to how you should eat to optimize your health and energy. It’s just not possible. There’s many reasons why and I want to share some of the most outstanding ones.
Men and women are different. Men and women of different ages are very different. So what works in a lab for a 20 year old man is not going to give a 50 year old woman the same results. Because, hormones people. SO you as a consumer of health information and a share-er of that information if you're a fit pro need to be very careful about what you’re recommending to clients. There’s a lot of good quality studies out there but there’s just as many weak results. And mice are not men or women. Neither are worms and some of those studies on diet and metabolism are done on worms.
Humans have evolved to adapt. We have adapted to times of caloric restriction over thousands of years. (this is why intermittent fasting can be effective across the board and also why it can be done soooo many ways) What we have not yet adapted to is convenience and abundance. The body always seeks balance but it can’t do that if it can’t recognize what you’re eating. Fancy way to say processed foods, loaded with hidden sugar and preservatives of all kinds need to go. It doesn’t matter if it’s fortified. If it comes in a package it’s probably got stuff your body doesn't recognize.
We are omnivores. We can eat plants. We can eat meat. We can create food that looks like meat but isn’t. We can domesticate animals for dairy. We can hunt and fish and trap. And yet there’s still this tribal need to identify ourselves with one diet or another. Vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, paleo, keto, mediterranean, etc. Without any thought why these things make us feel better for a while and why they stop working. Because they all work. And I don’t think I’m alone in my hunt for the holy grail diet, so many people think oh I’ll try keto, it works great, I’ll do it for the rest of my life. But then it stops or you realize how restrictive it is, how completely unrealistic it is. But if you really think about how we’ve adapted to survive. Our ancestors didn’t have the luxury we have now of getting strawberries in december. No. They ate fresh veggies when they could get them, and fruits when they were ripe. Meat when they could get it. Fish when they were lucky. We survived by cycling with the abundance of the earth. You see this seasonal diet approach in TCM and Ayurveda but not in our western culture. Not just seasons of the year but also seasons of a person's life. We need to start recognizing the different needs of our bodies as we age and respond accordingly.
Beware anyone telling you what or how you should eat. Beware the plate prescription. All food is a solid form of energy. That energy can nourish you beyond simply providing x number of calories. We take energy from that food and we can infuse energy into our food by how we prepare it and how we consume it. How you think and feel about what you’re eating can make a significant difference in how your body responds to it. How it uses that nourishment. Several mindset studies from Dr. Ali Crum back this up. For example if you rush through a meal that you eat standing up in your kitchen or while you are racing to work in the morning, it doesn’t really matter how healthy that meal is. It’s a very different message that you’re sending to your energetic self than if you were to sit down at the table, chew your food and savor it. It tells your energetic body that you don’t really have time for this, for you. You aren’t important enough. We’ve talked before in previous podcasts about the importance of what you think and feel about what you’re eating and doing and how it can have a measurable impact on your health. In Ayurveda when you prepare food with love and care you also pass that along to those who consume it. Doesn’t matter what it is. In my opinion, and I’m no expert but I think it’s through these energetic pathways that this happens.
So what’s the best way to eat? What’s the holy grail of diets? The answer as always is that it depends. I want to tell you Yours of course. But that depends on where you are right now. The truth is, the perfect way to eat for you is going to change and it should. We change. Our energy requirements change our activity levels change. A lot of the most popular eating patterns like intermittent fasting, keto, carnivore, vegan, etc. are great but they’re even better when you cycle on and off of them for balance. And it’s really important to be aware of what your body needs. That means listening. Learning how to notice your energy levels, sleep patterns, performance. How many of us really pay attention to that? I will, but it’s exhausting. Half the reason we like those restrictive ways of eating is so we can pay less attention. We want to just follow the prescription.
But, and I can’t say this enough. Men are different than women. Women in there childbearing years are different than women post menopause. There’s no judgment in recognizing that.
There’s a lot of politics these days around bodily autonomy and sovereignty. Well here’s a perfect opportunity to start to embrace yours.
Is the vegan or vegetarian life very healthy? Yes. But if you aren’t able to get enough protein and calories to support your activity then pure veganism might not be right for you. But what about the blue zones, you ask? Well we could do a whole episode on blue zones but what you have to understand is that there’s more going on in those communities than just eating vegetarian/vegan that affects health and longevity. Specifically the community connections and activity levels there. So we can’t say it’s only the food. That’s one part yes. But not the only variable.You can be a vegan your whole life and negate the health benefits by never exercising, leaving your house and having no friends or family connections. Do people on the carnivore diet experience amazing health and healing benefits? Yes. That doesn’t necessarily mean you can get all the nutrients your body requires if you stay on it forever.
What I’m trying to say here is that it’s time to write your own prescription for your plate. You can do that by noticing how what you’re eating now is working for you. Awareness first.
I’ll use myself as an example. I’ve cut way back on alcohol lately. But what I noticed first is that it doesn’t actually make me feel all that good. Seems like it used to but not anymore. Then I noticed that it doesn’t really taste all that good anymore either. It changes my sleep patterns, and not in a good way. And if I’m going to consume extra empty calories I’d rather have them in chocolate form. There’s a part of me that still wants to have access to it. For me Prohibition is a sure fire way to trigger cravings. So I still give myself a choice. When I do have a glass of wine I try to be very aware of the taste, the effects and the consequences. Kind of a running pros and cons list in my head. I’m finding that I choose it less and less because I’m noticing that I don’t really like it all that much anymore. And that’s ok by me.
I used to be a hard core paleo girl. I felt hungry all the time and had a headache for 6 weeks straight but otherwise felt the best on this one. I’ve done 40 day food cleanses to reset my gut. (totally worth it) I tried Keto for a bit but it was not practical for my lifestyle and I got into ketosis on the paleo diet so I think I need a bit more fuel overall to make it work. I was a vegetarian/vegan for about 9 months. At first I felt pretty good. My gut really liked this. But I lost a lot of muscle mass and started feeling weak and kind of fragile physically. I’ve done all kinds of intermittent fasting from 12:12 to 3 day fasts. There are benefits here. The human body isn’t meant to be as well fed as we are.
So my personal prescription for my personal plate, based on my experience and purely unscientific n of one data, is a clean plant based paleo diet with random intervals of fasting, the occasional glass of wine, daily coffee and dark chocolate everyday if I can get it. But that’s just me. You’re not going to find that in any book. Although maybe I should write one.
The Holy grail of diets for optimizing your energy and health is ultimately going to be something you can and will do for the rest of your life but it doesn’t have to look the same for the rest of your life. You can cherry pick the things that you’ve found that work for you. Stitch them together like a fantastic food quilt. Create your own diet prescription. Start small and build habit by habit with things you like, that make you feel better and drop the things that don’t. There’s more to you than meets the eye and you and your subtle body deserve to be nourished in a way that makes the most sense for you.
Thanks for listening! If you’re in the Cincinnati Dayton Columbus area of OHIO and you want to learn a little more about balancing that subtle body energy through yoga and the chakras. Check out our Shakti Encounter coming up on November 12. It’s a one day all inclusive retreat held at Aberlin Springs in Morrow OHio. Learn more and sign up at savagegracecoaching.com/shaktiencounter. I’d love to see you there! And you can find all our show notes as well as other great episodes of the work In is to visit savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin
If you like what you heard and are curious to see some of these things in action you can follow me on Instagram at @realsavagegrace or on Facebook @savagegracecoaching And I would be forever grateful if you would give The Work IN a like and share or a 5 star review on Apple or spotify. You can find links to everything we talk about on this podcast in the show notes and the easiest way to get to those is to visit savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin
Thanks everyone and I’ll see you next time!
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