We don’t like the word “diet”. “Diet” sounds so strict and like something you would just temporarily do. Instead, what we like to instill is a “lifestyle change”. You are merely shooting for eating a healthy diet, rather than going on a diet, you dig? Rather than tell you to cut your food intake to 1200 calories a day, we recommend learning to eat the correct food for your body type, as well as learn what foods are best for you and most beneficial. Our bodies need to consume food to survive, long live the motto: “ You are what you eat”. In fact, you are just that! Our bodies’ repair millions of cells daily and over the course of 7 years, our bodies completely regenerate. If you are only putting in foods that aren’t rich in nutrients which are the building blocks to rebuilding your body, this is where you will begin to eventually see problems down the road, for example onset diabetes, cancer, etc. You should be eating nutrient rich, healthy, organic foods and drinking plenty of water since our bodies are made up of about 90% good ol’ H20. Cut out processed food and sugars, cut back on alcohol consumption and try cutting gluten (Google it!) from your diet (you may just be amazed!) Add a digestive enzyme to your protocol at meals and add vitamin B12 to your diet…you may just be amazed how good you feel and decide that you never want to go back to the old way of eating!

Sure you can have cheat days, but try to stick to the 80%-20% rule: 80% of the time, try to eat healthy and pay attention to what goes in your mouth and body. The other 20% of the time live and if you must, enjoy having a glass of wine or a piece of your favorite cheesecake. No one wants to eat lettuce and carrots forever; we all have our foods that make us feel good. Just remember to do it in moderation and get back on the healthy bandwagon the next day. Diets don’t work because they aren’t realistic. You have to learn how to properly eat to truly make a difference.

Everyone, and we mean EVERYONE should be getting to sleep by 10-10:30 PM. Your body does it’s giant job of cellular repairs between the hours of 11-2AM. Most of you have probably felt this before…here’s the scenario: You go out with a group of friends and stay up having fun until 3AM. When you get home you hit the sack and wake up at 11:30AM. Funny thing is here you have slept for the right amount of hours, however you still feel sleepy and need a good cup of “joe” to get moving and feel like your are dragging all day. Sound familiar? It’s true! You need your beauty sleep. This is when your body repairs all the pipes, tubes, layers and limbs. Necessary? YES! Most people function nicely on about 7 to 7 and half hours of shuteye. Others need a full 8 hours, while some function great on 6.

You should try to get all you eating done about 3 hours prior to bedtime. This way, your body is not using energy up trying to digest what you decided to fill it up with right before bed, and it can instead focus on repairs, repairs! You will also be thankful when you don’t have those crazy dreams associated with the giant bowl of ice cream you like to eat at bedtime. You may actually get a restful night sleep and feel rejuvenated the next day! Who wouldn’t want that?

Remember you are “breaking your fast” when you wake, so have a glass of that lemon water we talked about, then about 30 minutes later (ideally), have a smoothie or make some fresh green juice. You may even opt for a cup of oatmeal and some fresh blueberries or eggs. Some nice herbal tea would be good too…

When you are traveling or out to dinner with the family, friends or whomever, you need to know what to eat. There are so many tempting items on the menu, it all sounds good but the real question is, are you going to feel good after you eat this and is your body going to love or hate it? Pay attention to this. Every time you eat, be it in the home or out, how do you feel afterwards? Are you bloated and tired? When we go out for a night on the town, or are traveling, most of us consume WAY too many carbohydrates when we eat out. Same as Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners…it’s carb overload. We have appetizers, dig in to the bread basket, a eat a huge salad drowning in dressing and drink a big tall glass of soda or wine or sometimes even those foofy-drinks and that’s all before we are going to actually eat our big dinner! How on earth are you going to eat half a roasted chicken, veggies and a potato to boot? Do you see the pattern? Every single item I just mentioned, with the exception of the chicken, is a carbohydrate! Talk about carb overload! You will be lucky to make it through that movie you are going to afterwards, unless you order a super-sized soda and some chocolate (a sugar and caffeine rush to get you through). It’s not impossible…but I can almost guarantee you that you will be bloated and sleepy and most likely have a grumbly tummy to boot. You will be so excited to get home, put on your sweats, and take some Tums and head to bed.

Instead of forcing your body into digestive chaos and overtime, try having a nibble of someone else’s appetizer, drink water with lemon or plain ice tea instead of soda, order a salad with vinegar and oil and order a grilled chicken breast with some steamed veggies. As I always say, to eat clean, eat like a caveman. Vegetables, meat and fruit. Order the simplest items on the menu and you should be a little better off. Skip the hydrogenated sauces and dressings, avoid the fried fatty foods and sugars and try your best to stick to foods recognizable to Mother Nature.

If it comes out of a box or is a concoction of five different pig parts, it is processed beyond all recognition and most likely won’t even be recognized by your body and cells as something it is supposed to be flourishing on and rebuilding YOU with. Thus the creation of free radicals floating around your body, but that is another whole subject!

When traveling, you will of course find that you can’t always get good healthy food. If you are accustomed to eating organically or gluten free, you know what I am talking about! It is tough to find restaurants that are aware enough to offer these items, in many places.

If you are intolerant of any foods, be sure to research all the foods that may have traces of the particular food you are sensitive to and be aware. Most people that have sensitivities or allergies are usually pretty aware of what will make them miserable or worse. Many food items and dishes have ingredients that you may be allergic to lurking in the marinade, sauces, etc.

We always travel with our RP Protein, trail mixes and I tend to throw gluten free food items that will make my life more pleasurable into my travel bag. GF crackers, rice tortillas, rice chips, and GF oatmeal seem to make things feel better when I go places that have no clue about gluten anything. You can always mix up a protein shake in a shaker cup for a quick little on-the-go meal and trail mix is good anytime, anywhere! We usually throw some apples in the bag and sometimes even a mix of fresh berries, almonds and walnuts (pre-soaked overnight and dried, of course) in a small glass Pyrex container with a lid for quick snacking. Plan for having healthy foods to snack on with you at all times, so you aren’t tempted to stop in for a Snickers or nasty, processed chicken nuggets or worse. If you get in the habit of carrying a little lunch bag with you whenever you leave the house, this will soon become second nature! You will rarely forget to make your snack bag for the road, once you start your good habit.

Depending on your body type and whether or not you tend to lean more towards carbs or protein, this is where things get a little tricky.

Carb types are those that do best on lighter fare. They may be just fine eating 2 meals a day and tend to feel best with small meals. For example, carbs types do well with low fat yogurts, low fat milk, lean chicken and fish and leaner cuts of meat. Carb types will find that they actually feel better and have more energy when consuming these lighter types of foods. You most likely will crave these types of food, as well as your general carbs such as bread, fruits, and vegetables and in that mix as well is sugar and caffeine. Not that it is good, it’s just that carb types tend to over do the carbs, then they crave sugar because they did not eat enough protein with their meals. Carb types should have a plate with 60% carbs, 30% protein and 10% good fats.

Protein types are generally people that live to eat. They burn through carbs very quickly and tend to be hungry more often. Protein types do better with full fat products, such as whole milk, yogurt, red meat, heavy cream, etc. See the pattern? A protein type will stay full and feel satisfied longer if they eat the right amount of full fat protein. It just serves their make up better! Protein types often struggle with carb overloads which lead to feeling lethargic and bloated. Protein types seem to struggle with hypoglycemic conditions more often because they burn through carbs so quickly, which leads to low blood sugar. Proteins types plate should have 60% protein, 20% carbs and 20% good fats.

Carbohydrates include foods composed of starches, sugar and/or fiber. They are the most common source of energy found in food. Most carbohydrates break down into glucose (a specific type of sugar).

Protein is a nutrient made up of essential and nonessential amino acids. Your body manufactures 13 nonessential amino acids, which aren’t available from food. For the body to process protein properly, the foods that you eat must contain the nine essential amino acids that are available only from dietary sources. Protein helps to maintain and replace the tissues in your body, and it’s found in almost every living cell and fluid. Your muscles, organs and many of your hormones are made up of protein, and it is also used in the manufacture of hemoglobin, the red blood cells that carry oxygen to your body. Protein is also used to manufacture antibodies that fight infection and disease and is integral to your body’s blood clotting ability.

Now let’s talk fats. Dietary fat is one of the nutrients that fuels the body. Unlike carbs and protein which give the body 4 calories per gram, fat is more than twice as energy dense, providing the body with 9 calories per gram. Though fat is associated with greasy foods such as hamburgers and pizzas, it is a necessary nutrient that has important functions within the body. Dietary fat has some key functions, which include aiding in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and producing hormones. One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding this nutrient is that eating fat will make you fat. Fat does not make you fat, excess calories is responsible for that.

There are two main types of fat, saturated and unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are usually referred to as the bad or unhealthy fats while unsaturated fats are referred to as the good or healthy ones. The difference between the two fats is their chemical makeup resulting in a different behavior inside the body.

Trans fat is a ‘special’ kind of fat. Its main purpose is to help improve flavor and extend shelf life. These benefits come at a cost. Trans fat tends to increase levels of bad cholesterols (LDL) while decreasing levels of good cholesterols (HDL). Sources of trans fat include pastries, peanut butter (the non-natural kind), vegetable shortening, margarine and any food that contains fully or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

So most of us have heard the term “gluten free” or may know someone that is gluten free, has a gluten allergy or that may even be celiac.  It is becoming more and more commonly diagnosed as people have become more aware of what gluten really is.   I am personally completely gluten free.  I was diagnosed years ago as being on the cusp of celiac disease and was warned if I did not stop eating gluten, that I would soon be joining the club.  Clearly, my body despised gluten and I had all the signs; a distended “pooch” in my lower abdomen, I was sluggish all the time, often felt like my brain was “foggy” (yes, I am blond, no that had nothing to do with it), I was always sick with some illness and caught everything going around and I always had stomach issues and pain associated with them.  I do recall having eczema and rashes that would just appear also.  Gross, I know.  So, I was diagnosed and being really young at the time, I stuck with it for a bit, but then I rebelled against my diagnosis and went back to eating gluten.  It was a terrible choice on my behalf and when I realized I was spending more and more time at the doctors office somewhere along the way, it finally clicked.  I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.  I have been extremely active my whole life and the way I was feeling was from the things I wanted to do.  So, one day I just made a conscious decision that I was going to give up gluten completely and since that day, I have not looked back!

So I write this through the eyes of experience and over the past 17 years, I have read and learned as much as I possibly could about gluten and it’s effectson the body.  I have always felt that knowledge is power but experience is wisdom, so you must experience something to truly know it. When I was diagnosed and decided to become completely gluten free for good, I wanted to know everything there was to know about my condition.  So I am going to share some of my knowledge with you and bear with me, as I will try to take it easy on your brain and not overwhelm you!  They say too much information and a confused mind makes people just say “no”…that is not what I want to achieve here.  I hope you can gain something from reading this excerpt on gluten and becoming gluten free.   Here we go!

What is gluten?  Gluten is a special type of protein that is commonly found in rye, wheat and barley. Therefore, it is found in most types of cereals and in many types of bread. Not all foods from the grain family, however, contain gluten. Examples of grains that do not have gluten include wild rice, corn, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, teff, quinoa, sunflower seeds and oats. Gluten enables bread to be able to rise before it is baked. In addition, gluten firms up when it is cooked and, with the help of starch, helps ensure the bread maintains its proper shape. Gluten also has an absorbent quality, which is why bread is capable of soaking up broth. On the downside, gluten is believed to be partly responsible for causing bread to become stale.

Incidence of gluten intolerance is widespread. 70% of Americans with a European descent have a gluten sensitivity or worse and many don’t even know it.   Upwards of 15 percent of the entire American population suffer from this condition, but only about five percent of these people have been diagnosed and treated.

These are symptoms for gluten intolerance and celiac disease.  The two conditions somewhat fall into the same category, however they are very different at the same time.

• Weight loss or weight gain
• Nutritional deficiencies due to malabsorbtion e.g. low iron levels
• Gastro-intestinal problems (bloating, pain, gas, constipation, diarrhea)
• Fat in the stools (due to poor digestion)
• Aching joints
• Depression
• Eczema
• Head aches
• Exhaustion, low energy
• Irritability and behavioral changes, mood swings
• Infertility, irregular menstrual cycle and miscarriage
• Cramps, tingling and numbness
• Slow infant and child growth
• Decline in dental health

Celiac disease is an immune reaction, a severe onset allergic reaction, to gluten. While celiac disease is initially an autoimmune disorder, it is also a disease of malabsorbtion, because essential nutrients are not absorbed. Therefore one of the most devastating symptoms of long-term undiagnosed celiac disease is malnutrition. Gluten intolerance often has a slower onset than celiac disease, and may be hard to diagnose due to the broad range of symptoms and causes. Many people experience different symptoms or have symptoms that are similar to another condition and are often misdiagnosed.

The simplest way to discover whether or not you are sensitive or intolerant is to take 2 weeks off of gluten completely.  Do this when you don’t have any big parties or fun things going on so you can stay on track.  Now when I say completely, I mean do not even have one bite of something containing gluten. No soy sauce, no soup with a sprinkle of wheat, not one bit of pizza…it’s only for two weeks and if you feel better it will be the best thing you could have done for yourself! Now, once your two weeks of no gluten is done, start introducing gluten back in slowly with different foods, one by one.  If you get a reaction, you will know what food causes it.  You will know if you feel better without the gluten almost right away and if you do, cut the gluten for good!  If you don’t really notice a difference, go back to the gluten life you were leading.  Plain and simple, no doctor bills involved!