Eating Nourishing Foods for Your Body

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:03  
At that moment, I really had to rethink the pizza. The Chinese food, a Haagen Dazs ice cream. They were delicious. But for me, they were really dangerous. So I snapped out of it at that point, that was my cue that I was getting way too big and way too out of control when it came to my carb addiction. Okay, and I had to get it under control. Now since then, I've had since that wake up call, I've had a lot of other Wake Up Calls. But that was the instrument that was the big one. Okay. 

Hey there! Welcome to Your Health Moment with Dr. Fitness. On this podcast, I want to give you the tools to start, continue and never give up on your journey towards health. Whether you struggle with your weight, eating the right food, drinking enough water, exercise, or even time management, you are in the right place. And I'm here for you. If you want to take the next step on your health journey, I'd invite you to reach out to me, and we'll put together a plan that starts right where you are. So get in touch with me directly at www.iamdrfitness.com or my instagram @iamdrfitness. And it's spelled I A M D R fitness, my name, Dr. Fitness, and this is Your Health Moment. 

All right, let the shenanigans begin. Welcome to Your Health Moment. I am Dr. Fitness and today's area of focus is about nutrition. So if you'd like to eat like I do, then you're in the right place because we're going to get into not just eating foods, but eating nourishing foods for our body. This is a not so fun fact, I think you should know that 85% of the people that are eating plenty of food are still effectively nutritionally challenged 85%. So 85% of us. And what that means is the majority of our meals don't contain enough nutrition. Poor nutrition is connected to a lot of different health problems, joint pains, skin disorders, digestive problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and even some cancers. And when you're more susceptible to things like COVID, or flus, a lot of times it's impacting your immune system as well. So it's not just about being overweight or underweight. It's really about the energy that you have, and the overall quality of your life. Are you too tired to like go out with your friends? Do you find that you don't have the energy to visit relatives. But did you know when your body doesn't have enough essential nutrients, it takes it from other places in your body. Like if you're not getting enough calcium in your diet, it's gonna leach it from your bones within your bones will be weaker. Well, the same thing happens because your body leeches minerals that it needs to just function from organs and places in your body. So your nutrition impacts a lot of aspects of your life. And there are areas that we're going to explore for example, one is how to get enough nutrition. Okay, to why you should try different foods. Three, how to set yourself up to eat, right? Okay. It's easy to set yourself up the wrong, you know, all your friends that he wrong, all you got to do is hang out with them and you'll be eating wrong. Okay. So we're going to change some of those things. So making sure that you're getting good nutrition is number one. Again, number two, expanding and adding foods, expanding your palate and spending your taste and adding foods to your weekly menu. Number three is a smart meal prep. It ties it all together. Because when you're when your food is prepared, you know What you're having and you've organized it, boom, you've knocked it out. You got to nutrition. You're doing the different foods. And it's you're not setting you're setting yourself up for success. Okay, knock it out. When I was younger, I'm the youngest of seven. My mom prepared really balanced meals for us all the time that she cooked literally, probably at least five times a week. And I never felt hungry. So I was really blessed in that way. There was always enough food for seconds on vegetables. But usually there wasn't no extra chicken wasn't no extra steak. But, to my dismay, there, sometimes I wouldn't get dessert. Okay, let me put it out there. It's coming from a self professed sugar addict. My family when you're the youngest, I have relatives and brothers and sisters who would often get to the dessert before me. And I turned around and there is no dessert. Okay, it's time for my share. There is none. So, this is when I began hiding sweets. From my greedy siblings. Okay. I would get my little candies, get my little sweets, get my little desserts and I would hide. Sweets were a very valuable asset in my house growing up, okay. I would eat them in secret to stop my family, my sugar addicted family and friends from stealing them from me. You know, when you're the youngest, you come up with ingenious methods on hiding sweet and hiding things that you want. So I'm curious. Am I the only one who was hiding? Sweet? Did you ever hide any candy? Did you hide any tree? But I discovered when I was 18 that this wasn't a common thing. Okay. But it's a sign that I may have a carbohydrate addiction. Okay, it's out there. Now, it was awkward, tried to explain to my girlfriend why I would hide sweets. Okay, now really thirsty. It's crazy. When you start patterns when you're younger, for whatever the reason. Sometimes as you get older, you have to learn to let go of those things because they don't work in your best interest. So being a secret carb addict wasn't so secret. When I started gaining a lot of unwanted belly fat. I realized that, you know, I have a serious sugar addiction. I realized that if I was left to my own devices, I would happily I would have just happily lived off of sugar alone. And for a period of my life, I attempted it. But my belly fat made it very unsuccessful to continue that as a lifestyle choice. Not a good thing. Okay. Now, most of my siblings were overweight. And so it's not like I was there by myself. But I when I was in college, I had trouble concentrating. And I had difficulty sleeping. Now there's the you know, the freshman challenges. You're putting on weight. You're out you're doing stuff. But I think this got worse than what was typical. And I realized, for me, it was food. That was the challenge. So when my girlfriend said to me in the most loving way that no matter how big you get, I'm going to always love you. At that moment, I really had to rethink the pizza. The Chinese food. My Haagen Dazs ice cream.

They were delicious. But for me, they were really dangerous. So I snapped out of it at that point. That was my cue that I was getting way too big and way too out of control when it came to my carb addiction. Okay, and I had to get it under control. Now since then, I've had since that wake up call. I've had a lot of other Wake Up Calls. But that was the instrument that was the big one. Okay. And I improved my eating and I got serious about wellness In learning about wellness and learning about healthy, particularly when I've had so many examples in my life, from loved ones, that, that would just eat anything they want, and also had carb addictions and weren't paying attention to the food they were eating. So I had plenty of examples of people that if I picked up their habits, it would sabotage my health. So I'm sure you have had moments that you get food feedback from friends or family, that's been helpful for you. But I'm also just this sure that sometimes the food feedback that you received can be really hurtful. Okay. So understand that. That's one of the things when it comes to opening yourself up. And so part of the reason I would hide my eating is so I wouldn't have to listen to anyone encouraged me to change, okay? Because having someone in attempt to encourage you to change people aren't can can say pretty mean things. And, and I understand why anyone would want to avoid that. And particularly when it comes to nutrition, but so that we're all in this together, we are all together on a nutrition continuum. Okay, so picture, a horizontal straight line, and to your left side is zero. Okay, these are people with a really poor eating, and nutrition habits. And on the right side is 100. And these are people who, quote unquote, eat perfectly, and I call them my low sugar, vegan, high fat eaters, okay? So most of us are somewhere in the middle of that line. And determining where you are on the food continuum continuum is really an important and necessary thing to do. Now, I say this, because most of us are working progress. You know, some of us don't realize we're working progress, but most of us are savvy enough to realize that now with each meal, we are moving to a new place on that nutrition continuum, we're either moving closer to the people that are at the 100 level, or closer to the people at the zero level. But you're always moving on that line, whenever you choose a snack. Whenever you choose a meal, whatever you choose to eat, you are putting yourself on that line. Now the goal is to put yourself near the people that are 100 more often than you do the people in the zero because of course, you know, when you start doing the averages, you don't want to be on lower side, okay, of that food continuum. And you know, when it needs to improve, and if you're not sure, like, how do I know where I'm at on the food continuum? And, you know, I think I'm doing great. Okay. few simple questions. Do you have high blood pressure? If you say yes to the high blood pressure, okay. Then if you have sodium in your diet, and you're not drinking enough water, you're always going to believe be below that 50% point. Okay. Diabetes, see what I'm saying here? Well, it means you're under the 50%. On that scale of the food continuum, obesity, you're below 50%. If obese, obesity is a challenge for you, okay. And if you're experiencing other metabolic challenges, you are below the 50% point where it comes to your food choices and what you're doing on the food continuum. You have skin disorders, immunity challenges. You are somewhere below that 50% marker. So if you are below the 50% marker, because of ailments or symptoms that you're experiencing, it's in your best interest to really be more diligent about eating in a way that puts you above that 50% line in the continuum, because what you've been doing is kept you below that 50% line. Okay. Now I believe everyone should have a primary care physician. This is because the health markers are really important. Knowing your blood sugar level, knowing your blood pressure is critical information to know. Okay? Now a lot of times your primary is not going to be talking much about your nutrition, okay? But it's important for you to take ownership of that improving your diet can also improve your health markers, blood sugar, blood pressure, and all the other markers of health, okay, that we need to be looking at. Now, I personally believe that you should work to improve your nutrition before using pills to correct your numbers. If pills were the be it of all, I believe that I believe that nutrition won't work at all. But just think of it if you're putting a pill in your mouth and it's working. Why couldn't you put the right foods into your mouth in the light of lifestyle and habits to have that work as well. You know, now, I am not anti medicine. So I'm pro modern medicine, I believe that you should see a doctor, I believe you should continue to get health care. But what I'm saying is that nutrition should be a big part of your health care program. A big part of what you eat what you put into your system, it is medicine. Now, some people instead of putting in food in a way that's medicine, they put in food in a way that's toxic to them. Okay? And if you're below that 50% point on the continuum, that's where you are. And you can tell that by getting those numbers from your primary and those doctor's appointments, they tell it to you, okay? It's an area you need to be mindful of. But that's going to be a really great discussion for another time. Okay, well, how healthcare in nutrition and how they kind of work together, but just keep in mind 85% of us pizza, Chinese food eating pasta lovers are eating plenty of food. But we are still woefully malnutritioned and are below the 50% on the food paradigm, okay, on the my food continuum. So I invite you to first determine whether or not you are one of those people. Okay, one of the 85% of us faster Chinese food pizza lover ice cream chocolates on a regular basis. And you do that by understanding what's going on with your blood pressure, your blood what's what your body fat percentage is,

if you're struggling with blood sugar challenges, elevated body fat, or any kind of diet related health challenges. I'm suggesting you stop suffering in silence. And you take the doctor fitness wellness assessment, or do research for yourself to learn more about the nutrients that you need to improve the quality of your life. Know that I'm here. I'm here to help. Make sure that you come back to listen each week. My contact information is in the show notes, so do not hesitate to reach out. All right. Thanks for joining us for this episode on nutrition and nourishing your body. I invite you to join me next week to explore how to choose the right exercise for you to get the result without hurting yourself. So whether you're a novice or expert when it comes to exercise, the best exercise is going to be the one that you can do consistently. I am Dr. Fitness and this is Your Health Moment. 

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Your Health Moment. Learning what tools will help you to live a life you love is so important. And I encourage you to check out some of the other episodes. If you're ready to take the next step for your health. I'd love to have that conversation. Head over to wwwiamdrfitness.com or go to my Instagram @iamdrfitness and that's spelled I am Dr. Fitness to get in touch with me and we will put together a plan that starts right where you are today. My name is Dr. Fitness, and I will see you next time on Your Health Moment.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai