The Nutrition Principles to Thrive from Real Food.

The goal of this post is to share all my secrets to feeling my best day after day. This is my personal nutrition philosophy and the foundation of everything I educate with my clients. There are lots more layers to healing, but this is where I recommend everyone start no matter where you are.

Before we dive in, I have the inspiration to create a 30-day Real Food Nutrient Dense Program. The goal of this program is to educate you on the basics of fueling yourself properly and healing the body daily. Not only will this program include a 30-day meal guide so you know exactly what to eat, but you will have all the principles to keep your energy, hormones, and digestion in balance. If this sounds like something you are interested in, please send me an email at chelsea@cjwellness.com. I want to make sure this is something of value to you all and if there is interest!

How do you Nourish Yourself Well??

That is the question and the goal of this post is to share the foundation of my nutritional beliefs so you can physically feel your best. After you read this post, I hope you can learn something new to apply to your life.

Grass-Fed Beef and Plants.

The core of what I believe in starts with real food. I believe that meat can be just as healing as plants and there are a time and place for both depending on your personal situation. I believe that most women thrive off meat and are extremely nourishing for the health of your hormones and fertility. Many of the trusted functional medicine practitioners that I study from agree with this perspective. I don’t believe that someone is “healthier” if they choose to avoid red meat.

Foods that Inflame Are Your “Bad” Foods.

The question of is food good or bad is a question that needs to be answered on a personal basis. Avocados are a healthy food, but if they give you brain fog, stomach pains, and migraines – they aren’t good food for you. In general, all real food is equally healthy. The question we need to answer is what works for YOUR body.

Eat Enough Food.

I do not believe that we all need to eat 1200 calories and work out 1-2 hours a day. This is not “health” advice. This is advice that is starving us and giving us no energy to live our purpose. We need to eat plenty of real food. A great place to start is to aim for 2000 calories.  And then adjust based on your hunger and energy expenditure. My goal is to avoid counting calories. If you eat processed food, you need to count calories. But if you eat real food, you need to make sure you eat enough. That is why limiting processed food is a huge step towards nourishing your body well.

Eat 3 Meals Per Day.

Most people should eat 3 meals a day. It establishes an effortless habit, regular bowel movements, and stable energy. I don’t generally recommend fasting unless there is a specific reason that you need to.  This is especially for women of child-bearing age, as they tend to not eat enough if they fast. If you do fast, you need to make sure to get in enough calories in 2 meals. Fasting has tons of great benefits, but you do need to be smart about it.

All Macronutrients are Required.

Carbs, fats, and proteins are all required in the body. One of these will always be demonized by the public on the quest to lose weight. The truth is there is no one ratio of macronutrients that is best. If you like structure, I recommend an HTMA test to find your oxidation rate. But in general, I recommend building a meal that looks like my meal prep recipes which include all 3 macros. You can find those here, here and here. I educate my clients on how to eat without measuring because most of my clients have been obsessed with “perfect” eating and restriction.

Create Effortless Habits.

My goal is to make food and nutrition effortless. I recommend creating a list of go-to real food meals, practicing cooking as often as possible, and playing with different portion sizes for lunch and dinner. And taking notes of your energy and hunger levels. I believe in systems, so I have created my own process to make this part of my life easy. I can teach you my way, and then you can tweak as you need to.

Cut Out Energy Sucking Foods.

There are lots of foods I recommend that everyone avoids. I am a big advocate for real food. I even suggest you limit your healthy organic paleo processed food. Other foods I recommend avoiding include gluten, canola oil, msg, artificial sweeteners, soybean oil, carrageenan, processed corn ingredients, food colorings, trans fat, and yeast extract. Processed sugar is another ingredient to avoid as it is hiding everywhere! Sugar names include cane juice, corn syrup, corn sweetener, fructose, glucose, maltodextrin, maltose, etc.  Overall, I recommend avoiding as many processed foods as possible and if you do purchase packaged food, avoid these ingredients.

Sprinkling in Dessert.

Generally, dessert should not be a meal or replaced as one. As a kid, you were probably told you must eat all your dinner before dessert. Then once you reach adulthood, you realize you can do whatever you want. The reality is that real food keeps us full and balances our blood sugar. I have eaten a “sweeter” dinner and it always fails on me. Not only do I spend the rest of the night eating the fridge, I never feel satisfied and full. Sugar and processed foods are not filling. If you want to enjoy dessert, enjoy it!! But make sure it is after you eat a balanced meal. This will help you not to binge on sugar too!

Daily Check-Ins.

Once you include all these steps, check-in with yourself and how you are feeling? Listening to your body takes time to slow down and notice what is working and what is not.

Questions to Ask:

• When do you feel most tired and depleted?  Are you eating enough food to last until dinner? Do you have consistent energy all day long?
• How is your digestion?
• Are you pooping daily?
• How do you feel overall?
  

Keep a journal if you can and start to make connections about the food you eat and how you feel.

What’s Next?

This is the foundation of feeling good each day. After this is mastered, I like to add in the other layers that lead to a blissful and healthy life.

This includes:

Reducing Toxic Load
Adding in Daily Detox Habits
Finding an Exercise Routine
Upgrading your Water
Personalizing Supplements
Functional Medicine Testing
Cultivating a Positive and Growth Mindset
Managing Stress and Anxiety
Mastering New Habits
Learning More About Who You are Meant to Be
Developing a Spiritual Practice
Connecting to your Intuition
Designing your Life
Living your Purpose

Each layer can get as deep as you need it to be! That is the magic of wellness and meeting yourself where you are at! *Above I have linked a few of my older posts that directly talk about that specific topic.

Let me know if you have any questions about my personal nutrition philosophy or any of the topics listed above! My goal is to continue to create content that educates you! So ask your questions and I will help!