Day: April 23, 2018

Nutrition Habits

There are many different diets out there. The best one is the one that works for you. The best way to figure that out is to go all in, try them, and be consistent! Sometimes we need some help, sometimes we need some guidance,  and sometimes we need some additional education. One of the more popular diets today is the Paleo diet. Paleo has become synonymous with CrossFit and with good reason. CrossFit is about getting back to our roots with functional fitness,  and Paleo is about getting back to our roots with whole, unprocessed foods. With both, we are looking to be the best, most healthy version of ourselves.  

The Paleo diet is loosely defined as the 'caveman' diet,  but it is much more than that. This diet can be used for so many different reasons. It can help to manage diabetes, it can reduce with chronic inflammation, manage chronic digestive issues, and it can help you lose weight and reach fitness goals.  It is not a quick fad diet and through proper planning, can become a great guideline for a healthy lifestyle.

The Paleo Diet and Lifestyle is comprised of stripping down your current diet, replacing processed foods with healthier, more whole versions, and then reintroducing foods to see how they make you feel. There are of course certain guidelines. This includes but is not limited to no grains, no added sugars, no legumes, no dairy, and no processed foods. Many of these foods contain anti-nutrients which prevent the proper absorption of our macronutrients. They are also largely refined foods which can cause uncomfortable inflammation in our bodies. Some people even have food intolerances that they were not even aware of. After stripping down your diet, it is much easier to see how foods make you feel when you begin eating them again. As for the day to day lifestyle and way of eating with this diet, it is not generally necessary to count calories or macros on the Paleo Diet either, unless you are not seeing the benefits that you are working towards.  In general, you should be eating foods that give you all the nutrients you need, and in proper portions that will fill you up.

In order to make long standing changes in our life and fitness, we need to address our habits, and sometimes we need help in doing that. We can try to make changes here and there, but the truth is, how we do one thing, is how we do anything.  If you really take some time and dig into your life and habits, you can see this pattern. It can be very overwhelming at first to look at ourselves and even pick out which habits are detrimental to our health. But if we take it bit by bit and piece by piece and have the support that we need, we can make those changes one by one.  Eventually, one day we can look back and see that we have taken ourselves to a place that we never imagined we could get to. The Paleo Diet, especially in the beginning, can really strip down our personal nutrition practices, help unveil those hidden habits, and with proper planning and support, we can put a plan into place to replace those habits, with new healthier ones which will benefit us in the long run.  

by mike metzger