The deafening sounds of rifle fire, intense yet fluid-like hand-to-hand combat, and twisted car crashes were all but lacking in the movie Gemini Man which revolved around a younger version of Will Smith trying to kill himself. This is how I defined my relationship with nutrition. The younger version of myself still trying to kill me if I continued on the path of ritualistic whole pizza Fridays, Taco Bell Tuesdays, and cake every other day if not every day. The only reason I wasn’t busting out of my pants when I was 25 was because I exercised so much my calorie intake was negligible. For some unknown reason in my early twenties, it never occurred to me that my cognitive or physical performance could have benefitted from eating what my body needed compared to what I demanded from it. There was no epiphany or a dream that sent me forth to eat kale that changed my dietary life. My start with nutrition came with my own age and slowly realizing that I needed to pay attention.
I have long considered nutrition in its simplest form as what goes into your body. You can do minimal exercise, eat clean, drink pure, and feel like you can conquer life. On the other hand, sometimes you can be lulled into a near sleep like laziness from a devastatingly good double bacon jalapeno cheese hamburger which I often call the hamburgler effect. It all comes down to what you want from your body. If you want to reach that divine state of body balance where what you eat is in sync with what you demand from your body, then it all starts with listening to yourself. That means paying attention to what goes in and how you feel within minutes, hours, and days. If you feel like you are lagging, drained, or sluggish, without being ill, then something is not quite right. Either what you are putting into your body is wrong or what you are asking from your body doesn’t even out. Because you often do not get to determine what you demand from your body, changing what goes into your body in variety or quantity may be the only thing in your control. You can figure out what goes in for yourself or, if you have the money, hire someone to tell you exactly how to fuel your body because that level of expertise is everywhere now. Regardless of how you do it, the long-term benefits of balancing your body and defining what goes into it is a life-altering endeavor.
The societal lessons on nutrition are everywhere you go plastered on walls, menus, and billboards. You cannot scroll through Instagram, Tik-Tok, or Facebook without seeing another health food startup preaching their version of health through nutrition. Beyond all doubt, our society as a whole has caught on to the importance of nutrition which is really a timeless concept. What has changed over time though is our access to knowledge and the variety of what goes in. With all of this knowledge and variety comes a flood on how best to body balance. I attempt to live by ten simple rules:
1) Drink water whenever possible despite the siren calls of Fanta in the checkout aisle.
2) Eat or drink greens more than any other type of food. Shake it up when you can.
3) Treat yourself with fruit to hit that sweet spot.
4) Snack on nuts or berries between meals. Going a little neanderthal never hurts.
5) Little to no processed sugars because you are already nickel and diming yourself with everything else you eat.
6) Limit caffeine to less than 120 mg because the good coffee is now $10 a bag.
7) Limit dairy. For my own personal reasons.
8) Eat one form of probiotic a day to soothe your stomach.
9) Don’t be afraid of meat or carbs especially after a solid or breaking workout.
10) Don’t ever get hungover.
This is how I start to get my zen-like mental and physical clarity without planning out what I am eating every meal of every day. Nutrition is thousands of choices that culminate within your body and establishing some simple ground rules for yourself is key to helping you make decisions on what routinely goes in. If you choose, meal planning everything that you eat and drink can be highly beneficial especially if you have the time. It's all a choice in the rising.
Comentários