Many of us can read forever about the many ways we should make changes, but they are often particularly difficult to enact. How much easier it is to be a couch potato wolfing down unhealthy foods and beverages than to find the discipline to make some changes for our bodies’ sake! More often than not, we are prone to make a grand gesture of change such as: “tomorrow I’ll give up all junk food forever and exercise for 90 minutes every day” without the awareness that those two major changes would take many months or years for even a highly disciplined person to accomplish. A few hours after we enact such an impossible program, we discard it like last New Year’s resolutions. We can then blame our failure on advertising, stress, travel or our job. Or we can reinforce our own lack of self-esteem by considering ourselves a failure. Instead of blaming ourselves or others, it would be far healthier and more effective to self-talk along the lines of “I tried that and it didn’t work – now I’ll try something different”
NOW is the time to try something different …
What Foods Do I Need To Avoid?
Grains/starches (corn, soy, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes) – Quinoa and wild rice are grains. Quinoa contains saponins, a concentrated source of anti-nutrients which increase intestinal permeability and lead to “leaky gut” which in turn may promote low level, chronic inflammation. Quinoa also contains phytates which inhibit the absorption of nutrients such as iron and zinc. Wild rice also has similar gut irritating qualities.
It comes down to whether or not you can OWN it. If you are not sure, the best answer is always avoid it until you are clear.
Sugar – ANY caloric, natural (honey, agave, cane juice, evaporated cane juice, maple syrup, coconut crystals, Truvia, etc) or non-caloric artificial sweetener (aspartame, nutrasweet, sucralose, etc.). Stevia is fine for this challenge, just be sure you are not preserving a sweet tooth you’d be better off without. Unwire your palate from sweet!
There is also some research that says that there is an insulin response just from the taste of sweet.
Gum and mints are not OK – artificially sweetened or not, they are a violation. There is a reason that people dip and chew tobacco. The mouth and gums are a highly permeable entranceway to the bloodstream. Whatever you chew in your mouth ends up in your system.
Alcohol, soda, juice –. No soda – it’s either sugar or artificial sweetener, so lay off. No alcohol. No juice allowed. It’s just liquid sugar, people.
If you choose to drink any of these, portions for 1 point are:
- 1 oz. liquor, 16 oz. beer, 4 oz. wine, 1 mixed drink
- 12 oz. soda
- 8 oz. juice
Dairy – Only butter is permitted. No milk, raw or not, yogurt, cheese, kefir, etc. If it is made from the milk of any animal and is not butter, it is not allowed. That’s the rule.
Diet or processed foods – nothing artificial, nothing processed in anything besides traditional cooking or preserving methods (curing, cooking, drying). If it required a lab, it’s not OK.
The same rules apply for additives –if its almond butter, but has some additive that was made in a lab – Nope! It’s not allowed!
