HERE WE GO!
For Day 1, I’m showing a recap from yesterday’s meeting.
Summary
We started the meeting by discussing how the body naturally cleanses.
We discussed the benefits of supporting the liver by lowering the toxins that come in to the body and supporting the organs that process the toxins.
We discussed healthy eating habits and the importance of supporting the body’s natural cleansing process.
We emphasized the need for a balanced diet rich in nourishing foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, high fiber, prebiotics, and probiotics.
We also underscored the importance of staying hydrated, increasing exercise, and decreasing stress to further support the body’s cleansing process.
We discussed the importance of making informed choices about processed foods and maintaining a healthy diet.
We encouraged the group to read food labels and to consider individual dietary requirements.
We emphasized the need to avoid simple sugars, white flour, and non-nutritive fats, and to focus on fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy grains.
The strategy for maintaining a healthy diet is to have the right ingredients on hand and to plan meals in advance.
It’s helpful to prep food into portion size to maintain the correct intake of calories.
We talked about the difference between complex carbs and simple carbs and the importance of whole grain, high-fiber carbohydrates and complex carbs.
We also discussed the benefit of healthy fats in our diet and how non-nutritive fats (extra fat without nutritional benefits) should be kept to a minimum.
Cravings and temptations came up as a question as to how to deal with them.
We talked about getting rid of any items in our house that were “unhealthy” and tempting.
Talked about boxing them up and having a friend keep those items AT LEAST until the 7 days were up.
We talked about not feeling deprived and to PUSH OUT the not so healthy items with delicious and super healthy items.
(ie – apple with nut butter and cinnamon in the afternoon.)
We discussed different protein powders, and know that we have to read the label and determine if the ingredients are healthy.
We talked about sweeteners and blood sugar.
Healthy sweeteners can still spike your blood sugar.
Honey, Maple Syrup would spike the blood sugar, although they are healthier than white sugar.
Coconut Sugar is still considered an added sugar, although it will not spike your blood sugar.
Agave was dismissed as being processed directly by the liver and therefore putting more stress on the liver.
Date sugar is NOT considered an added sugar because it is the whole fruit that has been dehyrdrated and ground up. (Although it will not melt in coffee!)
Monk fruit USUALLY has Erythritol in it – so read the labels!
Stevia is a suitable alternative sweetener for tea or coffee. (Too much will become bitter)
We talked about pesticides and how they not only stay on the fruit or vegetable, but also are systemic.
Washing methods could mitigate pesticide residues, but did not remove them entirely, so it’s important to use organic products to avoid these chemicals.
Try to eat organic as much as possible.
We talked about “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Clean Fifteen”
(I will send a separate email about this.)
We discussed the optimal methods for steaming vegetables to preserve their nutrients, using minimal water and a quick steaming process for.
Roasting vegetables is not as optimal as steaming for nutrient preservation HOWEVER if roasting vegetables gets you to eat more vegetables, than by all means, do it!
Be careful not to roast the vegetables to the point of “charring” as that creates acrylamides (cancer causing).
We talked about staying away from inflammatory oils such as canola (always) or certain seed oils UNLESS they are expeller-pressed.
High heat oils that are most desirable are avocado oil and organic grapeseed oil.
Coconut oil can be used as a replacement when a recipe calls for butter, but don’t go crazy on it.
Coconut oil still has SATURATED fat, although it doesn’t have any cholesterol, which makes it more desirable than butter.
Do not use olive oil over 350 degrees and always use Extra Virgin, Cold Pressed Olive Oil.
To Life - To Health 