FUEL: Provide your body with fresh, nutritious food for abundant energy and recovery. (Foundation Framework 2 of 4.)
Food is the key to good health. Your decisions about what you eat are vital to creating radient health and abundant energy. And since you can’t put off eating the way you can postpone a workout, you will be forced to make decisions about what you eat several times a day. Rather than counting calories or following a specific fad diet, here are my handful of Rules for Fuel:
1: Eat Food. (Real, fresh from the farm food; not processed, lab-created edible food-like substances that come in boxes or shrink-wrapped packages.)
2: Not Too Much. (Eat until you’re about 80% full, then stop. If you’re current diet has your hormone levels screwed up, your satiety sense may be unreliable. In that case, practice portion control, and no seconds.)
3: Don’t Drink Sweet. (This is non-negotiable: drink nothing that has any form of added sweetener — “diet” anything with fake sugar or “natural” sweetener included. For me, this means water, coconut water, unsweetened teas and black coffee.)
4: Let Your Digestive System Rest. (Space your meals about 4.5 hours apart, with no in-between snacks. This allows your digestive system to completely digest your last meal, rest and recover before working again. You will likely not be able to do this until you master Rule #3, and convert from a sugar-burning metabolism to a fat-burning metabolism.)
5: Only One Starch at a Time. (This simple rule had a massive impact on my digestion, weight and energy levels. At any given meal, never eat more than one kind of starch. Common starches are potatoes, rice, corn, and all forms of wheat and wheat flour. Where just about every meal is expected to have bread, this could take a little work. Do it; it’s worth it.)
6: Combine Foods for Best Digestion. (This is the only rule that’s kind of complex, but the key is to combine foods within a meal that will digest well together. Everything in this list is about maximizing digestion, so selecting combinations of foods that will chemically break down in complementary form is powerful. Google “Gracie Diet” for great example of a combination chart.)
Simple and effective, and not crazily restrictive. Instead of obsessing over “calories,” focus on coaxing digestion into an effortless, efficient rhythm. Provide your body with wholesome, clean fuel and allow your amazing metabolic systems to do what they were meant to do.
