Category Archives: Healthy Weight

How to eat tasty food & avoid weight gain this Christmas

Posted on 20 December, 2015 by | Leave a comment

thrive primal how to watch your weight and still eat delicious food over christmas

Christmas is just around the corner, and with it the vast mountains of delicious yet belly-bursting food. We can already see that you’ve got that yearly look of defeat in your eyes – “oh well” you say to yourself, “might as well just accept the fact that I’m going to eat a lot of junky food over the holiday season and work off the flab next year”. Well, you can wipe that defeated look right off your face, because if you follow these tips you’ll be able to eat like a champion while maintaining your wondrous physique!

Merry Christmas and a Flabby New Year?

Around this time every year, people begin loosening and/or removing their belts, donning their elastic-waisted trackpants, and settling down for an extended onslaught of delicious food. The subsequent collective weight gain across the globe is somewhat alarming, considering it often runs hand in hand with serious health conditions and an almost universal decline in self esteem. But, despite what the mainstream media would tell you, it’s not the amount you’re eating that’s the problem – it’s WHAT you’re eating. If you take heed of the following guidelines, you’ll be able to maintain your trim waistline, stay healthy, AND eat delicious food over the holidays.

1. Balance is king: maintain a healthy macronutrient ratio

Your body needs a certain ratio of fats, proteins and carbohydrates in order to efficiently fuel your metabolism. Advice regarding “healthy” macronutrient ratios varies widely, depending on who you listen to. As a general rule of thumb, however, most diets consider fats to be the enemy, followed closely by carbohydrates. Also as a general rule of thumb, most of these diets are horribly misinformed. Our bodies are designed to run most efficiently off fats – healthy fats, that is, not the nasty kinds which come from ultra-processed vegetable oil or unhealthy animals. As such, you should aim to maintain a ratio of around 30% carb, 55% fat and 15% protein, as determined by extensive meta-analysis and careful data gathering from this source.

It’s important to note that this is not a rigid requirement – our bodies thrive on change, therefore don’t stress out if you can’t always maintain this exact macronutrient balance. It’s also important to remember that your fats should come from healthy sources: avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter and ghee, and fatty meats from grass-fed or pasture-raised animals. There’s plenty more information on how you can optimize your healthy fat intake here. So, if you’re preparing a delicious Christmas feast, cook your meat in coconut oil or grass-fed butter, put olive oil and balsamic vinegar on your salads, and make your desserts with plenty of coconut oil or butter – they both taste great in baking and don’t denature under high heat. The real upside to incorporating more fat into your meals is that they help your body absorb nutrients, so all that vegetable-eating isn’t going to waste :)

2. Avoid gluten and grains where possible

This should be a relatively easy one, as let’s face it – the superstars of holiday feasts are always the heaving platters of delicious glazed/basted/smoked meat. Many grains (not just wheat) contain gluten, which irrigates the gut, prevents uptake of nutrients, and weakens your immune system. It can also cause chronic inflammation – the kind which makes you look bloated and overweight. As such, try to avoid the following where possible:

  • bread (even “gluten-free” bread – often this still contains trace levels of gluten, and typically has other nasty ingredients to make up for the lack of wheat)
  • oats (unless they’re soaked and/or sprouted)
  • pasta
  • pie crusts
  • battered/crumbed meats and vegetables
  • stuffing
  • beer

Glutenous foods just fill you up anyway, and there’s nothing worse than getting full too early on in the Christmas eating binge! If you’d like to find out more about how grains are ruining your health, check out this article.

3. If your food is high quality, calories don’t matter

Shock horror: calories aren’t as important as you might think! Perhaps that’s a little melodramatic, but the point is that you can put away your calorie counter and focus in on WHAT you’re eating, not how much. As explained above, your meat should be from quality, grass-fed/pasture raised, organic, humane sources. Your vegetables will preferably be organic/heirloom and local – if this is too much of a stretch, there are certain vegetables available which you don’t need to buy organic due to minimal use of herbicides and other chemicals. These include onions, avocado, asparagus, sweet potato and mushrooms – this article provides more info on the topic.

As for baked goods – try to keep use of conventional sugar to a minimum, or replace recommended sugar amounts with its equivalent in raw honey, coconut sugar or maple syrup – these are the lesser of the sugar evils. We typically make use of overripe bananas to provide most of the sugary sweetness in our baking. Instead of using typical gluten-laden wheat flour, stock up with coconut and almond flour – these make great substitutions to traditional baking flours. Finally, be sure to incorporate plenty of healthy fats like coconut oil and butter, as these fill you up more and allow your body to more efficiently process the other baking ingredients.

4. Keep stress to a minimum

The holiday season is notorious for placing vast amounts of stress on families, what with rushing around buying presents, trying to finish off last-minute assignments at work before the break, coordinating huge family gatherings, and the general mayhem of having too many people cooped up under one roof for an extended period of time.

Surprisingly less notorious is the impact that stress has on your health. In his article on stress, nutrition guru Chris Kresser provides a compelling argument as to why stress is so damaging to our bodies. It really doesn’t matter how much effort you put into keeping your diet clean over the Christmas period if you’re being put under a lot of stress, as it can derail even the healthiest eater. Stress can raise your blood sugar, weaken your immune system, cause leaky gut, increase hunger and sugar cravings, and result in considerable weight gain.

To keep your stress levels down, make sure you take time to just relax by yourself. If things start getting heated around the dining table, grab a book and go and lie on the bed and read for a while. Even if the weather is nasty, get outside and interact with nature, as many studies have shown that simply spending 5 minutes in natural settings (think parks, rivers, lakes – that kind of thing) can dramatically reduce cortisol (aka the “stress” hormone) production and promote feelings of happiness. Finally, yoga can be a good way to unwind after a stressful day – spend 10 minutes before bed running through a few basic yoga exercises and you’ll find yourself immediately relaxing and feeling like you’re actually ready to go to sleep. This DVD comes with spectacular ratings on Amazon and has loads of great yoga workouts perfect for both beginners and pros.

Comments? Thoughts? Let us know how YOU plan on watching your weight while still enjoying the culinary delights of the holiday season!

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Does bacon really cause cancer?

Posted on 24 November, 2015 by | 2 comments

Does eating bacon result in cancer?Bacon, loved by our tastebuds but hated by nutritionists, has long been under the chopping block for it’s purported lack of concern for our health. Recently, public uneasiness towards bacon has intensified in the wake of a WHO report which claimed that processed meats, including bacon, can cause colorectal cancer. This post examines the science behind these claims and seeks to provide you, the taste-conscious yet health-savvy reader, with the bottom line in whether you should eat bacon, or avoid it like the plague.

The WHO lowdown on processed meats

Last month, 22 scientists from ten countries met at the the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to quantify the potential carcinogenicity from consumption of red meat (more on meat vs. health here) and processed meat. Based on the research findings, they determined that processed meats, such as bacon, hot dogs and sausages, can cause cancer – specifically, colorectal cancer.

Diving down into the numbers, the IARC research found that eating approximately 1.8 ounces of processed meat daily (roughly equivalent to slightly less than 2 slices of bacon) will increase the risk of colorectal cancer by around 18%. Colorectal cancer is the third most common form of cancer, excluding skin cancers. The lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is approximately 5%, therefore, by that reasoning, eating processed meats would increase your lifetime risk of this cancer to 5.9% – not a huge jump, but nothing to be scoffed at, either.

Is bacon really all that bad?

Bacon is generally hated on by nutritionists worldwide for a number of reasons, including it’s high content of “artery clogging” saturated fat, high sodium levels and nitrates/nitrites required for curing. Ancestral nutrition (i.e. paleo) proponents, on the other hand, can’t get enough of the stuff, even going so far as to consider it as “meat candy”. So, is bacon really as bad as most people would have you think?

In short, the answer is a big fat (pun intended) NO. Extensive scientific literature reviews have found no links between nitrates or nitrites and cancer, with recent research even going so far as to suggest that these compounds may in fact be beneficial, particularly for heart health. This is due to the fact that our bodies produce far more nitrates and nitrites than can be found in food, and they may play an important role in immune and cardiovascular function.

With regards to saturated fat, if you haven’t had the chance to read some of our other posts regarding this subject, you may still be under the opinion that it should be avoided at all cost. Well, we’re happy to tell you that this is not the case, with bucketloads of peer reviewed scientific research firmly proving that not only does it NOT cause heart disease, it actually plays an important role in fueling our bodies and helping to absorb nutrients from the food we eat.

Finally, our old arch-nemesis sodium. Popular consensus would still have us believe that salt is a harmful substance and should be dramatically reduced from our diets. The truth of the matter is, however, that sodium is a vital nutrient for humans. It is a major component of extracellular fluid and is essential for maintaining normal cellular metabolism. Check out this article for more information on the importance of salt.

How often should I eat bacon?

As with everything, moderation is key. We don’t want you to read this article and assume that you can embark upon a “bacon binge” and eat to your heart’s content (or malcontent, as it were). The main point of this article is that bacon is not the villain it has been made out to be, but as always we want to stress the need to find good quality sources for this particular food. This means pastured, organic, humanely-sourced bacon. It also means that you should check the ingredients before you buy – your bacon of choice shouldn’t contain anything other than pork, water, salt and nitrates/nitrites. Some bacon is cured with sugar, which is ok in small amounts but should be avoided if possible. Finally, cook your bacon slowly in its own fat – you don’t need to add any other oils, as the high saturated fat content in bacon is sufficient for cooking purposes, provided you don’t fry the crap out of it.

With these guidelines in mind, it shouldn’t do any harm to eat 3 pieces of bacon a couple of times a week. Many people on paleo diets eat bacon every single day for breakfast, however we generally recommend cycling intake of certain foods to avoid developing allergies. As such, try to take at least a day or two off between your bouts of delicious bacon eating. Enjoy!

 

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The great exercise hoax: How the gym is keeping you exhausted & flabby

Posted on 19 February, 2015 by | Leave a comment

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Do you stress out about getting to the gym, obsessively scheduling your days to grab that precious hour or hour and a half so you can go work out?

Do you feel the burn of guilt when you haven’t made it often enough, thinking things like “I’m never going to be fit, I’ll always stay fat and a loser because I just can’t get to the gym”.

Is your gym membership burning a hole in your pocket? Like wow, I pay 60 bucks a month for this thing, and I haven’t been for 3 weeks.

So now we’ve got money guilt AND fat guilt.

And when you finally do haul your lazy butt to the gym, do you exhaust yourself for 45 minutes or more, running yourself ragged on the machines, and getting so freakin sore the next day, that you COULDN’T go back to the gym for a week, even if you wanted to or could find the time?

Well, I want to share an idea with you. Maybe this whole gym, exercise, workout thing is a BIG. FAT. HOAX. Maybe it’s just a sad excuse for health & fitness that’s an unfortunate byproduct of our modern post-industrial lifestyle.

Unfortunately, the popular wisdom of the past 40 years – that we would all be better off doing 45 minutes to an hour a day of intense aerobic activity – has created a generation of overtrained, underfit, [flabby], immune-compromised exerholics. (extraordinarily well put, Mark Sisson!)

It turns out exhaustive occasional exercise won’t help you lose weight or get healthier. And by “exhaustive occasional”, I mean anything that happens in a burst, including even if it’s for 45 minutes every evening after sitting at a desk for 8 hours, or a couple of times a week sprinkled into a mostly sedentary lifestyle. Even a single daily burst isn’t enough to make up for the 95% of the time that we spend with our butts parked in a piece of furniture or a car.

According to Mark Sisson of The Primal Blueprint:

The fact is, our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t ramp up their heart rates significantly for over an hour every day, and I don’t think we should either. They walked at a very low level of exertion, burning almost entirely stored fats. Once you get into the zones where less fat is burned [ie typical sustained “cardio” exercise] and where there’s a big dependency on glucose to fuel muscles, your body goes into a less efficient mode of fuel oxidation. […] I don’t recommend pushing this limit or even approaching it. Why bother? This kind of training (and diet) raises cortisol levels, increases oxidative damage, systemic inflammation, depresses the immune system and decreases fat metabolism. (source)

Here’s another tidbit from holistic health expert Chris Kresser, about how the typical way most of us “exercise” these days is actually leading us to poorer health and burnout.

While short, intense workouts can be great for inducing fat loss, increasing aerobic capacity, and reducing risk for cardiovascular disease, excessively intense exercise can cause a variety of health problems, especially for those dealing with other concurrent stressors. […] Another major effect that extreme exercise has on our bodies is an immediate increase in cortisol, the hormone that is released when the body is under stress. […] Chronically high levels of cortisol can increase your risk for a variety of health issues, such as sleep disturbances, digestive issues, depression, weight gain, and memory impairment. Excess cortisol also encourages fat gain, particularly around the abdomen. (source)

Chris goes on to explain that this can be the reason exercise leaves us feeling rundown, we have trouble gaining muscle mass and losing fat, and feel constant exhaustion. These can all be signs of excessive exercise of any type.

I want to share a mind-shift with you. Let’s stop beating ourselves up about getting to the gym. It’s not helping us anyway (as explained above).

I’m proposing a more loving, holistic approach to exercise, that’s less about guilt and prolonged self-torture sessions on the treadmill, and more about smart functional movement for a strong resilient body. (specifics to be discussed in a future post, for now check out great resources at this page or this page)

Why exercise is about way more than weight loss

Let’s explore some of the incredible things movement does for the body, so we can get into that holistic self-love space. Be in awe of how your body is a self-regulating organism that WANTS to be balanced and youthful and healthy. Cultivate awareness of how your body feels and what it needs, so you can move more regularly because you WANT TO, and in ways that support whole health, rather than pushing yourself toward burnout.

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Lymph movement

We all know the heart pumps blood around the body, and this is called our circulatory system. Turns out there is a second part to our circulatory system, which is called lymph.

Your lymphatic circulatory system works directly with your cardiovascular circulatory system to keep blood and lymphatic fluid levels in balance and flush toxins out of the body. It also carries immune cells throughout the body to help defend against infections. (source)

I find this SO interesting: The lymph fluid doesn’t actually have an organ like the heart to pump it around. It relies on us moving our bodies to create a flow. That’s why you feel sort of “blech” when you sit around for too long – your lymph is stagnating!

SOLUTION: Get up and move around as often as you can, at least once every half hour. Jump, dance, do squats, wave your arms!

Anti aging

Exercise keeps us youthful not only through the direct effect of being toned, strong and balanced. We also actually age slower on a cellular level thanks to regular movement.

In particular, exercise appears to keep the telomeres from unraveling and becoming damaged. Telomeres are areas on DNA at the end of chromosomes. If these areas become damaged and unravel, DNA does not continue to replicate in the proper fashion and the end result is aging. (source)

Moderate healthy levels of impact during exercise also increases bone density. We actually need to walk to stay healthy. The vibrations from our feet hitting the ground travel up our bones and spur the release of minerals to build healthy bone density.

Explosive movements that use our big muscle groups spur the release of anti-aging and fat-burning hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone. When you do squat jumps, it sends a message that you should stay lean and strong, not fat and shlumpy.

SOLUTION: Try these anti-aging exercises, as recommended by the Huffington Post.

Digestion and detox

Exercise is a great way to improve the major detoxification pathways through the skin and the digestive system. Sweat isn’t nasty and dirty, it’s beautiful and healthy! If you stink when you sweat, it just means you’re not sweating often enough – and when you do, there’s too much nasty junk coming out.

SOLUTION: Get a light sweat going, and heart rate boosted, once a day if you can! Even jogging up a couple flights of stairs will probably do it. Or try doing 30 jumping jacks! Phew! You can even do these in the bathroom at the office, or in an empty meeting room ;)

Exercise also promotes a faster travel time through the gut, meaning you’ll have healthier poops. Movement helps resolve bloating and gas, and moves things along to prevent constipation.

SOLUTION: Try this simple detox yoga flow to help your tummy feel super.

Pelvic floor and organ health

Your organs are suspended in a bouncy, stretchy network of tissue within your abdomen. If you sit still all day, your cortisol rises, your body gets cranky and kicks off an autoimmune response. This network of tissue actually begins to slowly calcify and harden.

Your pelvic floor also suffers when you don’t move enough. Walking and squatting keep the pelvic floor healthy and supporting all of your organs.

SOLUTION: Move as often as you can to relieve tension, and keep your tissues soft and flexible! Practise deep squatting and as much walking as you can.

Stress, anxiety & mood

Have you ever watched a nature show, where the antelope gets chased by the lion, and after it gets away, it sort of “quakes” for a while? This is an instinctual, automatic way that animals actually physically discharge the stress hormones released during a ‘fight or flight’ situation.

We can use the same chemical pattern by purposely moving our body, or even by imitating the antelope and actually SHAKING ourselves. (source)

SOLUTION: Try it right now – just stand there and SHAKE your body for 20-30 seconds. It feels good right? This chemically shuts down your stress response! It’s a great way to relieve anxiety fast.

Exercise also releases endorphins – we all know that right? It feels GREAT. The body feels alive and well, the blood is flowing, the thoughts are clearer. Research shows that it’s as simple as moving those large muscles, like the glutes and quads. Just going for a quick walk helps tension resolve rapidly. (source)

SOLUTION: Again, even just something super quick like popping 10 quick squats or jumping jacks is enough to get that blood and lymph moving, and lift a storm cloud that might be hovering over your head. It’s so quick, there’s no excuse!

Memory and mind connection

Although this seems like a bit of a no-brainer (PUNNY!), exercise also helps protect a healthy memory and ability to learn. Studies show that getting your heart pumping “appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.” (source)

SOLUTION: The study involved just 120 minutes of brisk walking per week. That’s only 17 minutes a day! Get walking!

Has this inspired you to move because you love your body?

I find that when I learn the amazing things my body can do, I appreciate it more, and want to take better care of it! Please share some of your favourite awesome effects of movement and exercise below. Or maybe you have a story about how you quit chronic cardio and started a more self-loving approach to movement. Share in the comments!

 

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The Best Clean Paleo Primal Protein Powder

Posted on 29 January, 2015 by | Leave a comment

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Scary junk in commercial protein powders

First things first, let’s start with why you don’t want to go buying that typical protein shake from Walmart or GNC or Herbalife or Isagenix. As explained in this article by leading natural physician Dr. Mercola, commercial protein powders often contain concerning amounts of heavy metals like mercury and cadmium.

Also if you read the ingredients, you will find a long list of things like artificial flavours, sweeteners, thickeners, texturizers, gums, and waxes. Plus the protein is from non-organic milk, so you’re getting all the hormones and pesticides from that. Consider that in making the whey the milk gets concentrated, so those chemicals get concentrated too.

Finally, they are high-heat processed so the protein molecules become denatured and aren’t as useful to the body. Basically commercial protein powders are a massive waste of money, and could actually be toxic.

But isn’t whey isolate best?

When we were initially researching the best protein powder, Dave Asprey the Bulletproof Exec was recommending cold-processed cross-flow microfiltered whey isolate. This was supposed to be the cleanest, purest source of protein to eliminate all those nasty toxins & ingredients mentioned above.

However, excuse my dumb non-sciencey language, but whey isolate is basically a “chemistry molecule”. Kind of like taking a vitamin C supplement instead of eating an orange. It’s just one constituent of the food and the body doesn’t quite know what to do with it. When you eat the whole orange (or get all the proteins from natural milk), your body understands how to use it most effectively. (Dave Asprey has now changed his recommendation to a less-processed form, see more below – his product is my second best go-to)

Ok, so real-food protein powder is better

Will gets all the credit for finding our current favourite, and in my opinion the Best Paleo Protein Powder. He wanted to get more muscley and wanted to do it in a healthy way. Sounds good to me! ;)

He found that Protein 17 is the most minimally-processed, well-sourced, real-food based protein powder on the market right now (that we know of!). When they use minimally-processed complete milk proteins, you’re getting all the goodness of the milk, (not just the “chemistry molecule”! ha.) This includes enzymes like lactase, and minerals like magnesium. Protein 17 is actually a pretty good source of magnesium, which is something our diets often lack.

From the Protein 17 website:

protein 17 best paleo protein powder

I like how Protein 17 gives the most information about exactly how the whey powder is processed. There are a number available that say they are organic and grass-fed, but they don’t specify nearly as much about how the delicate immune-supporting proteins from the milk are minimally processed so that they remain intact.

They even explain on the container how there are no additives to make it blend with water (like most protein powders have), so it’s necessary to use a mixer or magic bullet.

It currently has 207 five-star reviews on Amazon which I found pretty dang impressive and clearly those folks are super-discerning customers. The only grass-fed organic whey on Amazon that has more reviews (Tera’s Whey, 275 reviews, 4.5 stars) doesn’t specify their processing methods, so I’m not as apt to trust it.

The second best choice for Paleo protein powder

If you see anything on your protein powder that says it “mixes easily with water” or “dissolves instantly”, that should be a red flag for additives. However, if you can’t deal with having to blend Protein 17 every time, my next best recommendation is Upgraded Bulletproof Whey.

It also contains coconut MCT (a healthy fat) for brain-power and colostrum for immunity.

Dave Asprey is a badass and does his research to the max, so I would be open to trusting and buying his products. In fact I have his Upgraded coffee beans, toxin-free vanilla, and MCT oil.

If whole foods are better, why would you use protein powder at all

Good question, and totally valid point. Generally speaking we certainly stick to whole foods 95% of the time, (and real food 99% of the time! except maybe the very occasional hung-over McDonalds feast. GASP! Yes, I said it!)

However, as discussed above, Protein 17 is pretty darn close to a whole food. And 3 other things come into play here:

  • convenience – sometimes we just need grab-and-go nutrition!
  • cost – having protein as a supplement helps save a bit on buying whole meat, poultry and fish
  • “eatability” – Will wants to consume more protein for muscle-building, but a normal person in a normal daily life can only physically eat so much. While lean muscle is awesome, neither of us really want to eat 1.5 lbs of meat at every meal. And that would get mighty expensive.

What we use protein powder for:

  • to add nutrition to our “paleo treats” recipes like muffins, loafs and pancakes, as well as to smoothies. We make baked stuff for easy breakfasts sometimes (see one of my recipes here)
  • Will has a protein shake every day after working out (raw organic grass-fed milk and Protein 17) for manly muscley purposes

That’s basically it. What do you use it for?

Share your experience with paleo protein powder

What are your thoughts on using protein powder as a smart nutritional supplement? What protein powder do you think is best? Has protein powder helped you achieve your goals? Has this article enlighted you to reconsider your approach to protein powder? Let me know your thoughts below!

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Wanting to detox and beat sugar cravings? Think about your genes.

Posted on 3 November, 2014 by | Leave a comment

I’ll be the first one to put my hand up and say I feel like I’ve spent a lot of my life struggling against my body. Having a naturally stockier build, or ‘sausage body’ as I like to lovingly call it, I definitely went through a chubby phase in my tween years.

Struggling to lose weight & feel good

It’s a classic story a lot of people can probably relate to, men and women alike. Working through puberty, wanting to look good and feel attractive, all while being bombarded by all sorts of confusing, conflicting and media-hyped messages about fitness and nutrition. I remember always being told that if I exercised enough, I could eat whatever I want. However, being a bookish kid, I usually didn’t exercise much, but still wanted to eat tasty snacks. So I would feel guilty about food and always be trying to “eat less and exercise more”.

How guilt-inducing, frustrating and exhausting is the Eat Less & Exercise More approach?!

All too many people, myself included, find that that whole thing only ends with disappointment and hating your body even more. It’s high time for a better strategy.

Surprise: you’re an animal!

Here’s a thought: last time you went to the zoo and you were looking at those chimps and gorillas, did it strike you how similar they are to us? How despite all our fancy clothes and perfumed soap, we’re really just animals too?

Animals don’t sit around stressing about whether they ate too many bugs or leaves, they just know what’s right for them to eat, and how much, and they just go on enjoying life with a fit, muscular, healthy body. Shouldn’t we feel that way too? Wouldn’t that be incredibly liberating?

If we look at ourselves as the ‘humanimals’ that we are, living in our habitat, we can gain insight into what our genes are programmed to thrive on, and understand why we may seek out or crave certain foods. From that basis of simple knowledge, we can move forward eating and enjoying food care-free, while having that fit, healthy, happy body.

 

 

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Understanding the ‘humanimal’ mind

You’re going to be so relieved after you read this. There is a solid scientific reason you crave, dream about, and feel drawn to all those tasty sugary naughty junky foods. Your brain is literally programmed to be able to pick them out of a crowd.

The reason is that we’ve evolved very little since we were hunter-gatherers, living off of the land and what we were lucky or clever enough to find/kill that day. Therefore if we were scanning the landscape and there is a calorie-rich food source visible (let’s say some nice sugary berries) our eyes snap right to it and we feel alarms in our brain like “FOOD! RIGHT THERE! OMG FOOD! EAT! EEEEEAT.” This is because in general the hunter-gatherer approach would be to eat more when food is available, since we don’t know if it will be available tomorrow.

Well, your brain has precious little, if anything, different from that hunting-gathering ancestor of yours. So you get precisely those same EATRIGHTNOW signals when you slap eyes on an ooey-gooey grilled cheese sandwich, or a picture of a chocolate cake. (I started drooling typing that, wow. There’s the animal brain for ya!)

Cravings are not a bad thing

We’ve been taught and guilted into feeling like whenever we crave a food, we are naughty naughty bad and we should just quell that down and control ourselves. If we give in to cravings we will just be fat and ugly forever.

Newsflash: those cravings are literally programmed into your DNA. They are your body telling you what it needs right now.

But, this message comes with a very important caveat. These days, our body’s signals can be a liiiiiittle bit confused, what with our modern flashy environment and unnatural foods and chemicals and distractions, etc. So, your body may be telling you that you “need to eat 2 burgers and an ice cream after yes definitely the ice cream”, however there is a lot at play there.

You also may crave more food after you’ve just eaten because the food may not have been very nourishing, or you may be needing water. Therefore your body sends signals to eat more because it is seeking more water or nutrients.

It doesn’t know how to tell you “I need vitamin C!” or “Feed me some omega 3’s!”, all it can say is “eat!” and hope that it can get some of what it needs from there.

Our ancient brains are overwhelmed in this modern world

Studies show that historically food would definitely not have been constantly available, and we would have been a lot more programmed to be able to survive off of fat stores. We would be easily able to switch to burning our body fat to get us through a few days of not finding much food.

The problem is nowadays we have food available constantly. Our monkey brains are programmed to pick out high-carb, sugary foods to be able to survive and get energy fast, but now we’re literally surrounded by those foods, at arm’s reach, ALL the time. And our monkey brains still want them just as bad.

Foods high in carbs and sugars convert to fat the fastest when we eat them. They are a quick easy source of energy and our bodies just love to store them away for later use. That includes a sweet potato or whole-grain cereal just as much as a cupcake or chocolate bar.

Because these foods burn the fastest, they often leave us in the lurch. We swing from “Mmm yummy i’m full that was delicious” to “OMG I am HANGRY, FEED ME NOW”, waaaay too fast.

The thing is, once you understand WHY you have cravings and get hungry way too often, it’s so easy to re-program your approach to work WITH your genes and that crazy monkey brain.

It doesn’t need to be complicated. The monkey brain is simple, and we can have it in our palm in no time. How to get there you ask? It’s all about breaking the sugar/carb addiction, and choosing more nourishing foods.

How to keep your monkey brain happy, not hangry

  1. Eat more fat – Yes, fat! Avocados, salmon, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, full-fat milk, full-fat greek yogurt, quality cheese, eggs. It’s aaaaall good baby!
  2. Eat good quality protein – Organically raised, happy, free-range animals and fish. Dairy and eggs from the same.
  3. Get good sleep – Those hunger signals we were talking about before get just sooo much more confused when you are tired. The energy has to come from somewhere, and if you’re not rested, you’re going to be mighty tempted to get it from a chocolate chip muffin.
  4. Use a proven plan – I love programs like the 21 Day Sugar Detox, which is wildly popular and gets rave reviews left right and center. It’s a fast and well-tested way to press the reset button and learn how to work WITH those genes instead of against them.
  5. Lose the body shame! – Once you understand what you’re genetically programmed to want, you realize it’s not your fault. Using a simple program like the 21DSD teaches you to be confident in the right food choices, enjoy eating, and get on with living life! Enough said!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these guidelines on how to make your genes work for you.

If you want a well-engineered plan to take away all the mind-sweat and give you an excellent kickstart, more info on the 21 Day Sugar Detox can be found by clicking the image below! Cheers!

Balanced Bites

 

 

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