Burn Fat and Increase Energy with these Facts and Tips

Too Much Acidic Foods Might Be Making You Sick

Numerous scientific studies have shown the benefits of an alkaline approach to eating for an arsenal of health issues such as rheumatoid arthritis, kidney disease, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, acid reflux, gout, loss of bone density, and more! Adapting an alkaline diet rich in fruits and vegetables will tremendously help you burn fat and increase energy. A highly acidic diet, which contains primarily grains, commercially raised meats and processed foods makes red blood cells stick together, impeding blood flow and nutrient delivery.

QUICK TIP: Replace grains at meals with a fruit or a vegetable and replace grain fed meat with pastured meat or grass fed meat at meals and eat less of it. Most grains, commercial dairy and grain fed meat are highly acidic.     

Make Half of Your Intake Veggies and Fruit    

Boosting your vegetable and fruit intake will have an incredibly positive impact on your blood alkalinity and thus your cell health. You’ll be repairing your body on the cellular level. A large review of the literature in 2004 looked at the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and the incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and deaths from other causes. The study included intake from 71,910 females and 37,725 males. Of the food groups investigated, green leafy vegetables had the strongest protection against major chronic disease and cardiovascular disease. Essentially, the more greens consumed, the lower the risk of all disease and overall death.

QUICK TIP: Aim for eating a colorful salad with dark leafy greens once a day as a the main stay of a meal or as a side dish to a meal and drink a smoothie in the morning to start your day with a large handful of leafy greens such as organic spinach or kale. See recipe below.

Energizing Berry Green Smoothie        

• ½ cup fresh or frozen mixed berries
• 2 cups loose organic spinach or kale
• 1 small beet or ½ large beet roughly chopped
• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup coconut cream (Thai Kitchen coconut cream)
• or 1 Tbsp Udo’s Oil (Flora)
• 3-4 ice cubes
• 1 scoop vanilla flavored plant based protein powder
• or grass fed whey powder (optional)
• Blend until smooth in a blender

Eat More Raw Foods

When is the last time you treated yourself to “raw” food? Chances are it’s been a while because the majority of our diets depend on cooked meats, steamed veggies, and canned or boxed pastas and sauces. These options are quick and tasty, but there’s one major problem: Nutrients are destroyed or leached out during the cooking process. Raw foods possess and give you more energy. Basically, you get more energy because raw food is high in enzymes and nutrients. Your body needs these enzymes and nutrients to work right. Without them, it begins to sustain damage.

QUICK TIP: Aim for eating at least half of your food in its raw form such as fruits, veggies, raw nuts and seeds, raw fats such as avocados, oils pressed at temperatures below 98 degrees Fahrenheit (all oils by Flora, Omega Nutrition, Green Pastures, olive oils pressed below 86 degrees Fahrenheit, raw milk cheeses, raw pastured eggs in smoothies or shakes, fish and red meat that is cooked rare).

Eat Good Quality Protein at Each Meal

Protein provides satiety and balances blood sugar.  Free range or pasture raised beef, lamb poultry, wild game, eggs,beans and legumes, organic cultured dairy, good quality cheeses, nuts and seeds, good quality protein powders should make up the majority of your protein intake.   

QUICK TIP: Aim for the size of the palm of your hand at each meal.  

 Fat Isn’t the Enemy

Forget all the old school propaganda about fat! Healthy fats include virgin pressed plant oils such as olive and coconut, nuts, and avocados. Saturated fats are not a villain. Healthy animal fats such as organic and grass fed butter, cream, fat from pastured free range animals are healthy!. Bad fats such as margarine, hydrogenated fats, most store bought oils such as canola, corn, soybean and vegetable oils are bad because they are highly heat processed. One of the largest studies ever done on fats and heart disease—the Framingham Study—tracked participants for 20 years, and among other measures, compared butter and margarine consumption and their effects on heart health. The study revealed that consuming just five teaspoons of margarine (in other words, what you could spread on two pieces of bread) per day significantly increased the risk of coronary heart disease when compared to eating the same amount of butter.

QUICK TIP:  Cook with coconut oil, drizzle olive oil on raw or cooked foods after they are cooked and use real butter. You’ll get quality energy-giving fats that will stabilize blood sugar, satiate your appetite and give tons of flavor. 

Coffee is Depleting Your Energy!   

You may think that daily coffee is getting you through the morning, but the truth is really quite jarring. Caffeine beverages (namely, energy drinks, coffee, and soda) hit our bodies with a strong dose of caffeine, which wears down our adrenal glands and wreaks havoc on our blood-sugar levels. Out-of-whack hormones and dwindling energy result.

QUICK TIP:  Start your day with a good quality energizing green drink (Perfect Food by Garden of Life, Berry Greens by New Chapter, Athletic Greens, Energy Greens by Yuri Elkaim, Essential Greens by Genesis) or freshly juiced green juice made with leafy greens, celery, and a small amount of high carbohydrate vegetable such as carrots and beets or a green smoothie.

Our Long Distant Ancestors Didn’t Eat the Wheat We Eat Today.

The wheat of today is very different than the wheat and grains eaten thousands and even just hundreds of years ago.  Many cultures did not eat wheat and the ones that did prepared wheat berries in a specific way in which all of the minerals in the wheat berries were absorbed and utilized by the body efficiently.  All indigenous grains eaten by people living in a variety of regions around the world were traditionally prepared by sprouting before cooking or making bread.  Wheat did not have nearly as much gluten in it as it has today.  By sprouting the whole grain, the amount of gluten that was contained in these traditional grains was neutralized; rendering the grain as a nutritious food.  The best recorded example of this type of grain preparation is found in Ezekiel 4:9 of the Old Testament in the Holy Bible:  “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself” – (NIV).

QUICK TIP:  If you’re tired or bloated by the end of the day, try giving up gluten for 7 days, and see if the problem doesn’t resolve itself. Though it will be tempting, stick to fruits & veggies, and avoid the gluten-free substitutes. They’re often loaded with junk ingredients your body doesn’t need. If you can’t give up breads and pastas then switch to organic sprouted grain breads or spelt sourdough bread and gluten free pastas such as brown rice pasta to increase energy and burn fat.