As we approach the holidays, many of us start to think about our health goals for next year.
I know many of you struggle with weight gain, fatigue, brain fog, and general weakness. It’s not you, it’s our environment.
We all are over extended, over committed, and over stimulated like never before. We live in this information age where we are constantly bombarded with alerts biding for our attention.
Our brains are becoming addicted to distractions, checking our social networks, email, and app alerts.
Problem is that this results in declining productivity with things that are important to us. This may include our creative goals, spending quality time with family, and making progress in our lives.
As the holidays approach, we know there will be lots of food, celebrations, and vacations with family. This also means potential stress from family drama that tends to accumulate.
I want to help you to have a successful year next year creating health.
Whether you want to lose weight, have more energy, or simply feel better all around, I’ve got 10 rules I’d like you to follow to create lasting, sustainable results as we head into 2020.
1. Listen to your body
I’m going to ask you to ignore all the “fad” information regarding specific diets. As a Registered Dietitian for over 20 years, I’m here to tell you diets don’t work.
You need to work on getting tuned into yourself. This means listening to your body by learning to pay attention to your physiological, emotional, and psychosomatic clues that your body sends to you every minute of every hour.
We often ignore these clues because we are preoccupied or too busy to pay attention. I tell my patients all the time, don’t nurture disease.
As soon as you feel a bit of “not so good” feeling, pay attention and address it.
2. Elimination diet for 90 days
If you’re up for this, New Years is a good time to eliminate and detox from all the inflammatory and addictive foods and drinks.
This will allow your body to have a break and begin to reset and heal. All your body needs is a little support to establish homeostasis.
If you’re looking to lose weight, this is the secret:
Help your body detoxify all toxins out of your systems so you can be metabolically optimal, allowing you to become the healthiest version of yourself.
Starting with a short term elimination diet is the best way to do this!
3. Intermittent fasting
We‘ve all heard about intermittent fasting.
My version of intermittent fasting is easy. Just give your body 12 to 16 hours of rest from ALL foods. This means if you have dinner at 7 pm, don’t break your fast until 7 am up to 11 am the next morning.
When you allow your gut to rest, the body focuses on regenerating rather than digesting foods. Regenerating keeps our bodies doing what they do best, which is establishing balance to heal.
4. Eat mostly vegetables
Whether you’re following a Paleo diet, Vegan diet, etc., we all know that we should eat more vegetables.
Make every meal, including breakfast, be 60% vegetables. Starchy vegetables like potatoes don’t count.
For breakfast, you may include lots of spinach or tomatoes in your omelette. At lunch, opt for a salad with dressing on the side. For dinner, steam broccoli or any vegetable of your choice with a protein source.
There is lots of conflicting information about what you should and should not eat. Don’t pay attention to that information unless you are doing an elimination diet.
The goal is to be able to eat ALL foods in moderation.
The problem is admitting that eating in moderation is very difficult for most of us. So constraint and structure is not a bad idea sometimes.
5. Eat foods in season
We are so used to eating just about anything all year round.
In Macrobiotics, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, we recommend avoiding foods that are not in season. This is because when we eat foods out of season, we are breaking the natural law.
We are one with our environment, meaning all “elements” of the earth are within us. Therefore we must respect natural order when eating.
As we approach winter, it’s a good idea to cook foods, rather than eating them raw as we do in the summer. This is because in the fall and winter, we become more yin and need yin supportive foods. More on this later.
6. Chew your food
Learn to sit down for your meals and chew your food. When was the last time you paid attention to what you were eating and savored every bite?
We are often too distracted, multitasking during meal times and can’t sit long enough to enjoy the meal.
Slow down and pay attention.
This will not only have you pay attention to your body, but be more present. Your body will be able to focus on digesting the foods rather than being distracted by all the demands you place on your body.
Our bodies are like a computer. If you give it too much to do at one time, it freezes and becomes inefficient over time.
7. Stop eating when 75% full
When you pay attention and practice the art of chewing your food, you will know when you should stop eating.
Don’t focus on finishing everything on the plate, let your body tell you.
It’s a good idea to stop eating when you are about 75% full.
This will not only provide you with energy after the meal, but it’ll prevent the post meal fatigue we typically get from stuffing ourselves.
8. Get organized with your cooking
Choosing what to eat is easier when you’re organized with different ways of cooking. Here’s my breakdown:
- Soups and stews
- Stir fry
- Salads
- Roasted or steamed veggies
As I mentioned, opt for eating more vegetables. Easy way to do so is to make soups where you can easily incorporate vegetables.
You can also make stir fry dishes which include a protein source, or salads or roast vegetables with protein on the side.
Cooking this way allows for you to enjoy the different flavors of each vegetable. You can also experiment with various spices and sauces with your dishes.
9. Supplement the gaps
We live in the 20th century. Our vegetables and live stock are substandard in their nutrient content as compared to our Paleolithic ancestors.
While supplements are overrated, I do feel we need to strategically fill the gaps where we lack, at least temporarily or sparingly.
Remember, because supplements are not regulated by the FDA, you want to make sure that whatever you’re taking is high quality.
10. Get adequate sleep
This is a no brainer. There’s a growing number of scientific studies to validate the importance of sleep and regeneration.
Sleep is the time when our bodies can heal and reset. If we don’t get proper rest, our health efforts will not be successful.
If you’re having trouble sleeping due to various medical issues, we have holistic solutions to help you get to the root so you can get the rest you need.
Alkaline Transformation 2020
Did you know we have various solutions available to help you to achieve all of the above?
We are creating wellness packages and we also have our Alkaline Detox Protocol and supplements to help you become the healthiest version of yourself.
As a Lupus patient for over 20 years, my mission in life is to help you to bridge the gap between sick care and healthcare.
Don’t nurture your disease. Get to the root and shift your body back to health.
This is easier to do when you have a health mentor.
We have an Alkaline Transformation 2020 program to help you to finally shed the pounds, become empowered, and live your healthiest life.
At just $49 per month (for Alkaline Yoga Members), you can work with myself and our nutritionist Leslie Lipsius for weekly coaching Mondays from 10:00 – 11:00 am where we will help you to stay on track to transform your health.
Alkaline Transformation 2020 will include
- Alkaline app for meal plans, recipes, and tracking
- Monthly coaching topics on shifting your mindset
- Accountability
- Supplement prescription
- And more
Starting in January, Alkaline Transformation 2020 coaching will be every Monday from 10 – 11 am.
You’ll be in a group environment where you’ll be 100% supported.
For more information or to sign up, click here.
Thank you again for watching.
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See you next time.