4. Essentials For Excellent Digestion

Mindful Eating

It’s easy to get hung up on which foods make you feel great and which ones don’t. That trap tends to coincide with language such as “I can’t eat this” or “That food is actually bad for you because..” There’s a lot to unpack in that way of thinking but that’s not even the first step in the journey to better nutrition. The foods that are best for you (and which foods are barriers to your healing) are what matter most. These foods are ever changing. Advanced muscle testing and resonance techniques can help guide someone through which foods are best for them but then what? Must you regularly see a practitioner for an update? Absolutely not. Hang with me and I promise to share skills that will make you more self-reliant, self-aware, and confident in your eating choices than any blood test or resonance test ever will. If you choose to be tested it can be a great jumping off point, but you still need to learn these skills so that you don’t have to do it over and over again.

Here’s the big secret…How you eat is more important than what you eat.

Dialing in how you eat will allow you to dial in what you eat. It’s more important than what you eat, not by much, but it is. It doesn’t matter if you eat the very best food for you if you eat it in a manner that is averse to effective digestion. You will likely still experience symptoms you dislike.  A happy doughnut is healthier than a sad salad. Those words are truth. Those words don’t make a doughnut a nutrient-dense food but they do appropriately represent the power of your eating actions.

Implement these four concepts and what to eat becomes clear.

1.     Only eat when you have an appetite. 

Your appetite is your cue to eat. Eating when you aren’t hungry is like putting oil in your car when it needs windshield fluid. You haven’t solved the dirty windshield and you created a problem now that there’s too much oil in your car.

If you’re bored, create something, spend time with friends or family, read a book… do something. If you are tired, then rest. If fatigue is chronic then your lifestyle must be addressed. In the absence of an appetite, feeling anxious, angry, sad, scared, lonely or any other emotion is a cue to address your life, not to eat. Sometimes a feeling isn’t really supposed to be solved but simply felt. If you honor that feeling it will likely dissipate the way it is meant to (even if it takes time). Feeling things makes us human and there isn’t a cure for being human.
In the absence of an appetite and the presence of a desire to eat, determine what the desire to eat is about and solve that problem.  Step one is to help you become more aware of when your physical body needs nourishment through food. Without an appetite, you do not eat.

There are a few caveats to this. Sometimes due to poor circadian rythym (your body’s natural 24 hour cycle, largely determined by your habits), hormone imbalance, stress, past or current eating disorders, poor microbiome health, or poor genetic expression, our appetite cues can become a little weak or poorly timed for good performance through the day. Use your common sense to note when you should probably refuel your body. Make a nourishing snack or meal and take a couple bites. If your hunger cues were just off, generally your appetite will awaken. If your body really didn’t need to eat, you won’t feel your appetite kick in and you can put the food away for another time. Be honest in this step. If you start eating and just want to enjoy the food even though your appetite isn’t present, you must still put away the food.

2.    How do you feel? 

You must feel good when you eat. You may not eat if you feel rushed, angry, frustrated, resentful, worried, restricted, or anything else of this nature.  These emotions tell you that you are in a sympathetic state (fight, flight, freeze). Eating in this state is like stumbling upon a bear while out for a hike, and the bear chases you. Your body would be concerned about one thing, staying alive, and it would be very odd for you to stop to munch on some berries while you were literally running for your life. Your body puts all its resources into getting you out of that situation so that you live. It’s not concerned with digestion. Well, your nervous system doesn’t care if it’s really a bear or if you’re just in a rush because you’re late for an appointment. Either way, you don’t get to eat until you feel good again. 

There is a catch to this step. Sometimes you will go through prolonged periods of unavoidable difficulty. For example, you may lose a loved one and experience grief for quite some time. It’s unwise and unhealthy to wait until you feel better to eat since the feeling won’t likely pass quickly. Imagine that this step is a green light with a dimmer. It’s ideal to eat when that light is shining brightly, however, sometimes it may be a little dim. You may eat when the light is a bit dim. Do your best to bridge the gap of not feeling entirely good but still requiring nourishment, by eating very nourishing food (this isn’t a great time to eat food from a gas station for example), taking deep breaths before you eat, thinking of a few things you’re grateful for and so on. Do a few things that will help your body mitigate the effects of not feeling your best when you eat.

This step is so important because when you are in a parasympathetic state (rest, digest, restore), your body produces the digestive cocktail necessary to digest food. It makes stomach acid, bile, and enzymes in a perfect balance for the food it’s expecting and is more capable of adapting to what you consume if you surprise it. In the absence of the proper digestive cocktail, the food will sit in your gut and rot. Normal bacteria present in all of us will begin to eat away at the food as it rots. Then you can’t know if the stomachache, gas, heartburn, reflux, heart palpitations, constipation, diarrhea, anxiety, headache, or other symptoms you are experiencing are from your food or from how you ate your food. Remember… this is how the way you eat will give you the knowledge for what to eat. You must get back into that relaxed state so your body can digest. 

3.     Prepare your meals. 

Cooking for yourself gives your body time to see and smell the food you will be eating. Sight and smell trigger the production of gastric juices in your gut. You have a clue that this is happening because good food makes your mouth water. Preparing your meals also gives you time to get excited about your food which helps you feel good when you eat it. Eating is a joy and a pleasure. Preparing your food has an added benefit to your digestion because it allows you to make the food exactly as it best suits you. This step is like dating yourself, and you’re worth it! Implementing this step means you won’t eat out often but that doesn’t mean you can never go out, just implement a tactic or two. When you eat out, imagine how the food is made. Look at the food being served around you. Take in the sights and smells as a substitute for being able to prepare the food yourself. Feel gratitude for your food!

4.    Chew, Chew, Chew!

Masticate your food until it’s the consistency of applesauce. Aim for a minimum of 30 chews per bite and 50 is even better when the food is more resilient, such as steak. Food will begin to breakdown from the saliva in your mouth (especially carbohydrates which don’t breakdown well in the stomach and small intestine). Additionally, your tastebuds will signal to the gut what is coming. Your gut will make the perfect digestive cocktail for the protein, carbohydrates, and fat that will enter soon. Chewing your food is like preparing for company. If your expect two guests on Saturday, but four people show up unannounced on Friday morning, you’d feel frustrated and unprepared. Similarly, your stomach needs time between the food going into your mouth and the food arriving in the stomach to prepare for digestion. Your stomach doesn’t have teeth so make sure you get the job done right in your mouth. This strategy will also help you determine when you are 80% full. This is a great time to stop eating since there is a delay to the brain when you eat, by the time your brain registers 80% full you’re completely full. Savor every tasty bite while exerting your best manners for your digestive system!

In case you didn’t catch it, start reading from the first blog Principal Number One so that principles and concepts build on one another.