If you are feeling horrible throughout the day and hanging on to weight you just can’t lose, the answer starts with breakfast (or lack thereof)…
My belly used to expand as if air was being pumped into me…
One of the problems was that I used to eat bread with every meal…
I could not imagine life without bread…
I used to eat a lot of foods that I didn’t realize were damaging my gut…
When I understood what it meant to have an autoimmune condition (a damaged gut), that’s when things changed for me…
That’s when I started to change the foods I ate…
80% of your immune system is your gut flora… the health of your gut flora determines the strength of your immune system…
Your gut flora is affected by the foods you eat day in and day out…
This is the biggest problem you have to solve… it’s when you begin to understand that the foods you eat are actually feeding what is in your gut… and what is in your gut determines if you are fed well or not…
If you get gas, bloating or constipation when you eat, then your gut flora isn’t feeding you… it’s making your body toxic which makes you feel tired, brain fog and nutrient deficient…
Making changes to your diet is about choosing what type of bacteria you are going to feed in your gut…
Once I understood this, I started to incorporate certain foods into my diet to restructure and optimize my microbiome…
#1 Green Juice
The first change I made to my diet was to add green juice as the very first thing I would do upon waking…
(This is before I understood the importance of staying hydrated and drinking water first thing in the morning)…
Then again, green juice is a hydrating drink…
… but most important is understanding that it’s detoxifying and the bad bacteria in your gut don’t eat this type of food…
This allowed my body to get nourishment without feeding bad bacteria in my gut…
My green juice recipe:
- 4 organic cucumbers
- 1 whole head of organic celery
- 1 stalk of organic parsley
- 1 organic green apple
- 3 organic lemons
- 2″ organic ginger root
I have a Kuvings Juicer which I love using whenever I have time…
When I’m on the go, I like to use Organifi which is a green juice powder… just add water and stir… takes less than 60 seconds to make VS an hour plus when making fresh pressed juice…
The difference is that fresh pressed juice gives you live enzymes which are important for digestion…
Organifi makes up by including ancient superfoods that are both highly nourishing and detoxifying…
Another superfood I would do in the mornings is blue green algae…
Blue green algae is rich in chlorophyll (needed for vitamin D), and contains all essential amino acids and minerals the body needs…
When I first started my journey, I had a hard time digesting protein, so blue green algae was what got me through until I fixed my digestive issues…
I believe that following a liquid diet is what helped me recover faster, but keep reading for “solid” food options…
#2 Healthy fats for breakfast
When I look at what I used to eat, it’s clear as day to me why I had low vitamin D and low hormone production…
I used to eat carb heavy meals for breakfast…
If it wasn’t oatmeal, waffles or cereal, I would definitely have at least a couple slices of bread with eggs…
Here’s what’s important to understand…
Carbs feed a lot of your bad bacteria in your gut. This is what ferments that makes your belly blow up… and it only happens when you have gut issues… people with healthy gut flora can eat the same food and not experience gas or bloating…
What I’m sharing with you is because I had autoimmune conditions and this is my road map that got me out…
Vitamin D and hormone production requires you to eat healthy fats… coconut oil, avocado, hemp seeds (oil), grass fed butter, bone broth, etc.
To be digested more efficiently, healthy fats need an environment with no fermentable carbohydrates…
My go to “breakfast” is
- Grass Fed Bone Broth Gelatin (I buy in bulk from AZ Grass Raised Beef)
Or if I want something a little more solid
- 2 pasture raised free range eggs
- 1 organic avocado
- Wild caught salmon
- Greens (arugula, micro greens, etc.)
Notice the lack of carbohydrates…
Notice the quality of ingredients… all organic, not conventional… conventional eggs or farmed salmon doesn’t give you the same effect… it worsens it!
… which leads me to…
#3 Remove inflammatory foods
Where I see most people go wrong is in the little details…
The biggest one I see is following a high protein, low fat or worse using vegetable/plant based fats & oils…
Vegetable oils are inflammatory foods… they are very common, especially in packaged foods and restaurants…
These are oils like
Canola oil
Palm oil
Corn oil
Soy oil
Sunflower oil
Safflower oil
Many people have their fats and oils mixed up… many people think these plant based oils are healthy but that’s not the case…
The word vegetable oil sounds “healthy”… but these types of fat are harder to digest and oxidize easily.
Real butter on the other hand, from grass fed cows, is the type of fat the body needs… it has cholesterol! and cholesterol is good!!
Yes! cholesterol is good because that’s what the body uses to make hormones!
Most people are afraid of these fats, and then wonder why they are not producing hormones…
They think that eating these fats will make them fat, but actually, these fats actually help you burn fat… it’s how I’ve been getting lean…
It’s counter-intuitive, but again, eating healthy fats is what helps your body uptake vitamin D and cholesterol which the body uses to produce hormones…
Here’s a diagram as shown in the book Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Root Cause by Izabella Wentz
Every steroid hormone is derived from cholesterol which you find primarily in animal based fats like dairy… but the key thing is that they must be from grass fed, grass finished cows…
… and better if they are not pasteurized… raw milk has the nutrients and enzymes you need to digest it… when you pasteurize milk you kill all the beneficial bacteria… milk from a healthy cow doesn’t need to be pasteurized…
Milk only needs to be pasteurized if it comes from unhealthy cows or if it’s going to sit on shelves at the store… which means you have to source it out from a farm and get it fresh…
This means you are faced with a choice to go out of your way to get food that nourishes or choose convenience and become nutrient deficient…
This is where most people are… nutrient deficient because they’ve forgotten where their food comes from…
#4 Address Nutrient Deficiencies
Last, and possibly one of the most important parts of dietary needs is making sure your body is getting all the nutrients it needs…
This can be tricky depending on your ability to digest food…
Again, when I started, I had poor digestion so I had to turn to a plant based diet to detoxify first…
Many of my nutrient deficiencies I solved with blue green algae and following a raw vegan diet with a root to fruit approach…
That means that I had to include a full spectrum of foods from roots (beet roots, ginger, turmeric, etc.), leafy greens, to fruits (and nuts & seeds) in order to get all the nutrients the body needs…
If you are able to eat animal based proteins, what you have to understand is that you don’t get all the nutrients you need just by eating beef, chicken, or fish…
You have to follow a nose to tail diet… that means you must also include beef organs in order to get nutrients like…
Vitamin A
Vitamin B12
Heme Iron
Selenium
CoEnzyme Q10
… and more
I get beef organs from Ancestral Supplements… (you can use code “Hip Hip” to get 10% off and help support this blog.)
Beef organs is where all these nutrients and vitamins are in highest concentrations…
Modern day diets don’t include these types of foods… diets that include beef organs or fermented foods are known as ancient nutrition or traditional foods…
If you need meal plan ideas and want to learn how to cook foods that give you energy and help you restructure your gut flora then check out Traditional Cooking School.
This is what has helped me get energy and what I’m teaching in my programs…
If you want to learn how to get more energy, sleep better and feel better then check out our Energy Bootcamp program…
