In our last post, we talked about Mindset and how your thinking can make you sick or make you healthy. We discuss briefly how habits usually work and we tried to start three new ones that should help us develop a more positive attitude, priming our thinking into making us healthier.
We have lived all our lives being controlled by our emotions and by our habits. For good or for worse, in a way, we were always in the back seat, reacting to stimuli, acting upon scripts there were imposed on us by our environment. To break free from cognitive and behavioral patterns, established throughout the years, you have to take over. You have to be determined to stop being a thermometer and start acting like a thermostat. A thermometer changes itself adapting to the environment. A thermostat changes the environment, making it adapt to him.
But, all this is easier said than done. Nevertheless, you definitely can become that kind of positive influence on the environment and take full control of your thoughts, feelings, behavior, body composition, health…if you really want to.
To do it alone is very hard. So, let us do it together.
I put together the intervention Four Weeks Plan program that was designed to help you get a kick start in your transformation. Follow the program for the four weeks period prescripted and after that, you will be equipped to make the design your own self-improvement program.
The First Week
It will be much easier for you to active mental health when you have a relatively healthy body. In the first week of the program, we will focus on Nutrition.
Our main goals will be two: (1) to stop poisoning our bodies and (2) make it more efficient, by changing it into a fat-burning machine instead of a sugar-burning one.
STEP ONE: ELIMINATE
When we think about getting healthy we usually think of things we should add to our diet or exercise regime. But, the most powerful way to make drastic improvements in your health is by removing or eliminating things.
Start by eliminating things there a toxic to your body, like:
- Smoking: For obvious reasons. I will assume you understand how bad smoking is bad for your health.
- Vegetable Oils: Canola oil, Sunflower oil, Corn oil, Soybean oil, Cottonseed oil, Peanut oil, Sesame oil, Rice bran oil.
Vegetable oils are prone to oxidation, causing inflammation, damaging healthy cells, tissues, and organs. This, over time, will be linked to the development of diseases like Cancer, Heart Disease, Type 2 Diabetes, among others.
Read: https://chriskresser.com/how-industrial-seed-oils-are-making-us-sick/ - Simple carbs and sugar: Soda, pasta, white bread, cereals, beer, sweetened yogurt, fruit juices, salad dressing, honey, maple syrup, baked goods, sweets, chips, cookies, and any other food product containing high amounts of sugar.
Simple carbs and sugar a readily transformed into glucose in your body. Glucose will spike your insulin. Insulin will, among other things, signal to your cell that glucose is available for absorption. Too much glucose can be toxic. When you consume too many carbs or sugar, your cells start to become resistant to insulin as a protective mechanism to avoid getting to much sugar into them. Now, you have all this sugar in your blood and your body has to do something about it. He will try to transform most of it in fat and will store it around your organs. The so-called visceral fat. You will first develop a fatty liver. The first step in becoming a diabetes type 2 patient. But, soon enough many other of your organs will be covered with fat. If you keep eating simple carbs and sugar, the sugar that was not transformed into fat remains in your blood causing inflammation that will cause big problems over time like arteriosclerosis, which could lead to a heart attack.
AVOID TOO MUCH FRUCTOSE AND ALCOHOL:
It’s very hard to overdo fructose if you eat fruits as they come from nature. In industrialized fruit juices, you eat a ton of fructose, without the fiber from the fruit that would otherwise make you feel satiated. Fructose can only be processed in the liver. Which, if high amounts, can stress and damage the liver just as much as alcohol does.
STEP TWO: ADD
Once you removed all things that can be toxic to your body you stop causing damage and give a chance to your body to rebuild itself. Without the overflow of sugar in your body, it will be forced to use fat as its primary source of fuel, which will make you lose weight and gain energy. Losing weight will make you more confident and the extra energy will help your willpower to continue improving. In this process, we will have to provide the body with a more clean, efficient, and effective source of fuel and building blocks for a stronger and healthier version of yourself.
Start by adding this:
- Healthy fats and proteins: Avocado, nuts, cheese, dark chocolate, whole eggs, fatty fish, olive oil (extra virgin), coconut oil, full-fat yogurt, butter, grass-fed meat, mushrooms, organ meat (liver), broccoli, cabbage, spinach, green salad, tomatoes, green and red peppers, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, bone broth. *If you are lactose intolerant avoid all milk products.
- Healthy (complex) carbohydrates: Whole grains (oats, quinoa, brown rice), legumes (lentils, kidney beans, peas), and seeds (Chia seeds, pumpkin seeds), some complex carbs (sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkins) and some whole fruits (apples, oranges, pineapple, berries, lemon, grapefruit). *If you are allergic to gluten avoid all kinds of wheat products.
- Supplements: Electrolytes/Coconut water (Sodium, calcium, potassium, chloride, phosphate, and magnesium), Vitamin D (especially if you don’t live in the tropicals) and C, pro-biotics (10,000 cultures), collagen, and omega-3. *Talk to your doctor about taking supplements and what doses you need.
Before starting this program, I recommend that you get some blood work done in order to monitor the improvement in your markers and talk to your doctor about the changes you are going to make in your diet.
Your first-week routine should look something like this:
FIRST WEEK (Daily routine)
06.30 Hydration: 2 glasses of water. (Sometimes with lemon to improve digestion and reduce blood sugar) Meditation: 15 – 30 minutes. (Identify 3 reasons why you are grateful.)
07.00 Coffee: One cup of coffee (without milk or use coconut milk instead).
08.00 Breakfast: Two eggs, or half avocado with oats, or yogurt with red fruits. If you are not hungry skip breakfast.
12.00 Lunch: Big bowl of green leaves salad with feta cheese, onions, olive oil, nuts, and tomatoes.
15.00 Snack: A hand full of nuts and a piece of dark chocolate or one rice cracker with natural 100% peanut butter.
18.00 Dinner: Red meat with mushrooms and pumpkin or grilled chicken with mashed sweet potatoes. (Take your supplements every other day)
20.00 Dessert (Before bed snack): Greek yogurt with blueberries, oatmeal, and honey.
22.30 Bad time: (Listen to audiobooks can help to turn the brain off)
Let me know how did it go. Once you complete the first-week successfully we will move forward with week two of our program.
Be awesome!
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute medical advice.
