Getting Started
Are You New To Eating Differently?
This page is for the people who are new to eating differently. This is for people who have never really tried to change their diet, of did so and failed. It is often for a person who might be young and has been eating whatever he liked all his life and is now for the first time feeling that there might be some health issues attached to those decisions.
This page is for you if you feel overwhelmed. Maybe you just had your first appointment with me and I told you a lot of things but you don’t know where to start or you don’t remember it all.
This could be for you if someone else dragged you into my office but you really didn’t want to go but after seeing me you do realize that you need to make some changes.
My programs are done with me in a series of visits. The website is to help back up what I told you. This way you don’t have to remember everything all at once. Depending on the questions you ask in our visits I will give you and answer and then suggest you read something again. Repetition is the key to learning.
Let’s Talk About Junk Food
If you want to be healthy you need to get off of junk food. If you are eating a lot of junk food you are addicted. You feel that you can’t change or you have an idea that you will eat better for a while and you want to know when you can eat junk again.
Maybe you have the idea that you will change a little. Maybe you think that you will change your habits little by little. That rarely works. Unless you get some results quickly you will quit. It is better to go full force get results, know what it is like to feel better, and then try your junk food again.
Hopefully when you try your junk food again it won’t be as satisfying as you think it will.
Right now YOU MIGHT BE PHYSICALLY ADDICTED to junk food. The same chemical processes that go on with drug addiction are going on in your brain. The first step in getting over an addiction is admitting you have one.
Then make a decision. Know that it may not be easy at first. However, I can make it much easier for you.
Common questions:
What is junk food?
Junk food is dairy, sugar and grain. Also, processed foods, foods with lots of chemicals, table salt as opposed to sea salt are junk food. However for this article we are talking mostly about dairy, sugar and grain. If you can change that you will feel much better.
Dairy is anything that came out of a cow, but you can have butter. No milk, cheese or yogurt.
Sugar is almost anything that tastes sweet. The obvious sugar is soda, candy, cookies. You need to know that fruit juice and energy drinks are also loaded with sugar. Even so called sports drinks like Gatorade, Vitamin Water and Propel are loaded with sugar.
If something says “corn syrup” or fructose then that is sugar.
Drinks with fake sugar such as diet soda are even worse.
Fruit is not a good idea but is OK at the beginning. The sweeter the fruit the more sugar it has. Bananas and citrus fruit has a lot more sugar than apples. There are certain people that can’t have fruit at all but there are people who can. If you are trying to come off of a lot of junk food then it is OK at the beginning to have fruit to start off.
Stevia is the only acceptable sugar substitute. You can get it plain or in a variety of flavors such as chocolate, lemon, orange etc.
Honey, Agave and whatever they come out with next week are not OK, although in a pinch they are a little better than sugar.
The worst sugar substitutes are: Aspartame, Equil, Nutra Sweet, Sorbitol, Splenda, Sucralose, Sweet and Low, or Saccharin.
When eating a processed food remember this “If it taste sweet it has sugar. I say this because when people start getting off of sugar they start drinking rice milk, almond milk, soy milk , coconut water etc. They taste sweet because they have sugar. There are less sweet versions of these products which are OK.
Grain:
Grain is Wheat, Rice, Oats, Corn (not technically a grain but it behaves like a grain). These foods break down into sugar very quickly. If you can stop all of these then do so. If that seems too harsh then at least get off of all wheat products.
Permissible grain is quinoa. If you really do not cook, then rice is preferable to wheat, so try that. There are other lesser known grain substitutes such as amaranth, buckwheat, and chia.
If you are buying things like crackers and bread substitutes then get non gluten products. Be careful about non gluten products, many of them are loaded with sugar; specially the non-gluten cookies. My favorite crackers are called “Mary’s Gone Crackers.”
Sometimes eating non gluten foods is an easier first step to going to “no grain at all.” Some people do well on no gluten.
WARNING: If you are trying to lose weight then eating “no grain” is much better than no gluten.
How do I start?
I understand that it is difficult to make all these changes all at once and I can help you manage your changes no matter where you start but to do that YOU MUST TRACK WHAT YOU EAT. This is imperative, if you don’t track your food I can’t help you manage it. Get the app called “My Net Diary” and start tracking everything you eat.
It will ask you for your health goals. Put anything you like because we are not going by their recommendations.
It will rate each food you eat, ignore that.
It will ask you for exercise, we don’t care about that.
It will ask you to put in your breakfast, lunch and dinner in different categories. Forget that, just put everything under breakfast. This will make less work for you.
All I care about is the amount of Fats, Protein and Carbs in your food. I don’t care about the vitamins and the minerals.
I don’t care about the calories.
You will have to take some time to get used to the app. If you put in a food the app should know how many carbs, protein and fat there are. If it does not know then you can look it up on Google. Once you put it in it should remember it for the next time.
For many packaged food you can scan the bar code.
If you don’t know the exact amount of your servings then estimate them. If you want to be more exact you can get a small kitchen scale at a kitchen supply store. After you measure a few foods you will know from there on out.
If you are going to take away the food I like then what can I eat?
The best way to eat is to eat a lot of good fat, 50% to 75% of your diet should be fat. (But for now don’t worry about the percentages- that will come later).
Good fats are:
Avocados, Olives, Olive oil, Coconut Oil, MCT oil, Butter
Butter must be grass fed (also known as pasture raised) organic butter, raw unpasteurized is better. Note: “Pasture raised” and “pasteurized” have completely different meanings.
Protein:
Protein is anything that is an animal or came out of an animal (but still do not eat dairy as stated above).
Chicken, beef, pork, turkey, fish, eggs. Use common sense. Which means try not to eat foods with a lot of chemicals such as bacon. Try to eat organic foods as much as possible. Try to get as much grass fed protein products as possible.
Protein drinks can be very helpful. Protein drinks must be either from peas or rice. No whey protein and no soy protein. I find that if I blend in some pasteurized eggs into a protein drink it tastes better and has a smoother consistency.
Nut butters are not my favorite choice but they can be OK. They are almond butter and cashew butter is better than peanut butter. But do not eat raw nuts. The reason is that they are hard to digest.
The other reason that nut and nut butters can be a problem is that they often have mold and depending on how bad your health is that could contribute to your problem.
So this will be OK for some and not for others.
Seeds: No raw seeds. Be aware that some fruits have a lot of seeds, such as strawberries.
Chia Seeds: You can have chia seeds but you MUST soak then for 24 hours in water, then you MUST put them in a food processor or blender so they turn into much. Then you can add them to a protein drink.
Generally speaking you should have at least ½ of your body weight in protein a day. So if you weigh 150 pounds you need at least 75 grams of protein a day.
Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates should be the lowest thing in your diet. Grains, sugars, fruits and vegetables are all carbohydrates.
Try to get all of your carbohydrates from vegetables.
Good carbohydrate choices:
Olives, Avocados, spinach, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes any vegetable that grows above the ground are good choices; especially green vegetables. Zucchini and other types of squash are good choices. Root vegetables are not as good except for yams.
YAMS YAMS YAMS YAMS YAMS…….Yams are awesome for so many reasons. I hope you like or can develop a taste for YAMS.
Yams are the only vegetables that actually taste sweet. They have that starchy feel like bread or a potato but since they have a lot of fiber they burn slowly unlike a potatoe that turns to sugar very quickly.
There are many ways to season a yam but I find one of the best ways is us a lot of butter. Raw, grass fed butter. This is a good fat.
Salads are OK for some people but it is much better if you cook your food. If you are having digestive problems then I really suggest that you do not eat salad. However, if the only choice you have is salad versus fruit or rice or bread I would choose the salad. So everything is relative.
Do not eat raw nuts or seeds, especially if you are having digestive problems. Nut butters (almond butter, cashew butter etc.) are OK.
Seasonings: Any seasoning is OK but you must switch to Sea Salt from regular salt.
Juicing:
Juicing is good if you only juice green vegetables. Most people start juicing carrots, beets and apples, which are loaded with sugar. I generally juice only green vegetables, however if you are starting out you can juice mostly green vegetables with just a little bit of apple juice.
I know this is a lot especially if you never really thought much about your diet before and I don’t expect you to be perfect from day one. My programs are not designed to be done by yourself. I will help you get to this way of eating
What should I drink?
Drink water. Preferable Kangen ionized water. I will give it to you for free if you bring a bottle. Other than that, drink water from a good filtration process.
Coffee is OK for some people but not for others. It depends on how acidic you are. We will figure that out in further appointments in your program. If you want to drink coffee for now try to make it organic coffee if you can.
Green tea is the best choice. Do not have the sugary green tea from the store. I’m talking about green tea from tea bags. Use stevia for a sweetener.
Other teas are OK as well, but green tea is the best.
Can you suggest recipe books?
There are books called Paleo Diet” of “Mediterranean Diet” , “Protein Diet.” They all have recipes that can be used. Be careful as some of them use nuts, and dairy. So use them with my guidelines. I also have a recipe book under the “All About Eating “section in this web site.
Can you help make this easier?
Be Prepared:
I suggest you carry food with you at all times. Get a thermal bag and make up some protein drinks and some ice to keep it cool. Whenever you get hungry have a protein drink. Also keep protein bars with you. Here is a link to see the protein bars I recommend. https://blog.holistichealthsolutions.com/modified-fasting/
What if I’m Eating Out
When eating out just order some type of meat and vegetable. Butter makes vegetables taste better. I know that restaurants don’t have the type of butter or salt I suggest but just do what you can.
Fast Food: Try the protein style burger at In N Out. It does not have a bun. There is almost nothing worse to eat than a french fry.
At most fast food places there is usually a meat and vegatele option is a meat and salad option. I know I said you should cook your food but for this situation this is the bast way to go.
What should I buy:
Shopping list:
Protein Drink: I suggest Total Vegan By NuMedica – get this at my office
MCT oil by NuMedica. – get this at my office
Grass fed meats and eggs
Grass fed butter (raw is better)
Vegetables: Yams, Avocados, Olives, Spinach, Mushrooms, Onions, Zucchini, Tomatoes
Protein Bars
Sea Salt
Thermal Bag
Mason Jars to keep protein drinks in.
Optional
You could also get almond butter, unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened rice milk. But water is preferable.
You could get chia seeds if you want to blend them into your protein drink.
Organic Green tea
Organic Coffee
Other organic tea
Good filtered water. Ionized water is better (free at my office)
Read the following pages in the “All About Eating” section of this website. Some of the information is repetitive, that is good. You need to read this many times. Read them every week while you go through this process.
Is Your Olive Oil Fresh Or Fraud
If you are starting out, here is what you need to do:
Start using the App called “My Net Diary.” If you don’t track what you eat I won’t be able to help you.
Do your best to stop eating sugar, dairy and grain.
Don’t worry about anything else until your next visit. Don’t worry about how much food you eat or when you eat it. Don’t even worry if you don’t do it correctly. Just start tracking the food and do your best.
Do you have recipies?