Reclaim Your Health – Episode 2 – Food

Welcome to Episode 2 of “Reclaim Your Health!”. Last month we talked about moving your body and how that can change your health. This month we are going to talk about food! During the last year we have seen so many people gain weight. If you have found that your clothes are tighter you are not alone. In fact I would have to say the majority of patients that have come in have commented on how they have gained weight. Weight gain is usually more of the result of what we are eating and less about how much we are moving. The old saying that a six pack is made in the kitchen is so accurate. You can exercise all you want but if you’re not eating properly you’ll never hit your ideal goal. The more we exercise the hungrier we get. The foods we eat determine how many calories we consume. Many years ago, before I became a chiropractor and understood about nutrition,  I was training for a marathon. I was running 5 days per week. My short runs were 1.5 hours and my long runs were 3 hours. When I finished my run I would chug back a bunch of pop to quench my thirst and to reward myself of running the long distances. I was so confused why I wasn’t losing weight when I was exercising so much. It wasn’t until someone told me how many calories were in the pop and how few in comparison I was burning on the runs. I was literally drinking the equivalent of my runs in pop. Blech!!! Once I cut out the pop I dropped a ton of weight in no time.

One thing we know about this last year is that junk food sales hit an all time high. Baking supplies were low in all the grocery stores and alcohol sales were through the roof. All these sales were in an obvious response to people consuming comfort foods and drinks to handle the stress. I totally understand and I will admit I consumed many comfort foods over this last year to handle the stress. That being said, we are now talking about reclaiming our health. We need to focus on putting healthy foods back into our bodies and removing the comfort foods that only add to the caloric load we are trying to decrease through the day. This may seem like a daunting task but the key things to consider are that you need to have a variety of foods in your diet. You should be consuming more vegetables than meats and decrease your carbohydrate consumption (sugars, breads and pastas).

I know that this can be a very complicated area to manage, thankfully, we have Monique Burke in our office who can assess your dietary needs and teach/educate on how to eat healthier. So, what are you waiting for? Today is the day to begin to reclaim your health! Feed your body properly today.