“Please Switch to a Plant-Based Diet,” Says Your Body with Love I encourage clients to optimize their body’s potential through healthy choices. Living in America, we’re constantly bombarded by advertising to consume foods that we’re told taste good yet are heavily processed, sugary and toxic to our bodies. This programming begins at an early age. Remember learning about the food pyramid? (Well, it’s inaccurate.) By learning how to tune into our Body and shut out the false advertising, we as a species can eat what is truly delicious and nutritious for our body- ketogenic. Every person’s body is different- from our genetic factors to the demands we place on our body. And day to day, our dietary needs change. As we release the external beliefs and programming that we have absorbed along the path of life, we are left with our basic human needs. The solutions to many diet and health questions are answered through an evolutionary perspective. Many modern ailments have been created by the radical shift of our society towards technology, sitting for long periods day in, day out, and of course the industrialization of our food supply. Optimum health and weight loss is not achieved simply by finding your calories in=calories out equation, but by eating nutrient dense foods (plants) when your body signals that you’re hungry. First of all, I recommend you rate your hunger on a 0 to 5 hunger scale throughout the day when you are thinking about eating: Hunger Scale

0……..…………….……………………..3………………..…………………………..5

Empty                                 Comfortable                                      Stuffed

Eat at a 1 or 2 and eat just enough to take your body to a comfortable 3. And drink plenty of water before you eat to make sure your body isn’t simply thirsty. We want to avoid the ravenous sensation of feeling starved. We may eat anything in sight at 0 because we lose discernment at that point. Unless of course it is an intentional fast, in which case the hunger will pass once your body goes into its metabolic detoxification processes. Our body functions well when we maintain a low level of hunger instead of eating by the clock and feeling full (5) and tired throughout the day. Stepping back in time, what did our hunter gatherer ancestors eat? There were periods of feast and famine and our bodies evolved to live off internal storage. We ate all parts of the animals- organs, blood, marrow, muscle and fat! In between successful hunts, leaves, tender sprouts and shoots, roots, flowers, nuts and seeds sustained us. We learned to season and preserve food with plants, animal fats and ocean life fats. We learned to ferment food and dehydrate food to get us through times of food scarcity. By saying “No” to processed foods, we are saying “Yes” to our body’s highly specified mechanisms of metabolism, detoxification and optimized health. Even our brains have evolved mechanisms of detoxification while fasting that have been linked to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and “brain fog.” Intermittent fasting at night for 12-15 hours shows a significant impact on mental and physical health and seems to be an evolutionary way of eating and living that our bodies have adapted for optimized health. Our bodies also have highly evolved reward-seeking mechanisms that fly in under the radar of our conscious mind. Sugary foods turn on this reward circuitry much like a drug, often to the demise of our health goals. So be mindful and kind when you notice a craving (or you’ve already sunken your teeth into that doughnut!) or wait a few seconds to let your conscious mind catch up and analyze whether it’s a healthy craving or not. This attends to eating as an addiction and mitigates the negative impact of our unconscious, highly evolved reward-seeking behaviors. When we can eat for our Body’s health, we no longer need to reward and appease our Emotional health/cravings with unhealthy food. Today is the day to start honoring your Body and all of its wonderful mechanisms for health by eating from Nature and simplifying your dietary life. To learn more healthy information, go to www.Onnit.com