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4 Tips for Healthifying Your Food
What’s you absolute favourite food?
Does it happen to be something you “shouldn’t” be eating? Something you’re sensitive against or even allergic to? Or something that isn’t good for your condition, but it’s not causing you enough trouble to let it go?
Oh boy. The amount of times I’ve had to battle this for myself.
Since forever, my favourite food was pasta with a green pesto sauce. I LOVED that stuff and could have eaten it at any given point of time.
It’s something about the slight chewiness of the al dente cooked pasta in combination with the fresh, green and actually quite healthy taste of the pesto that has always been AHMAZING. Also given the carb and fat combo that the pasta and the oil makes, it starts off a whole array of reward reactions in the brain.
And before you ask, yes, I definitely used to eat this while being diabetic. But it was before the start of my earth-shattering New Life that I started at the time of my education to become a nutrition coach. With that came all the information and knowledge of what starches get up to in your body, and although I didn’t see it coming, it changed everything.
In many cases, it’s too easy to get stuck on the foods you used to eat. What’s even harder is to get used to the “new food” that you’re most probably feeling a little “meh” about.
Why should I eat this healthy crap instead of my favourite dish in the whole wide world? I don’t feel THAT bad when I eat the good stuff? How much would it REALLY change if I went for the healthy version of it?
The answer is: quite a lot, actually.
Do you honestly feel better when you eat the stuff you know you shouldn’t? Not necessarily mentally, but physically? After which food do you have more energy? Does it have any consequences on you, your body and your health when you gulp down that burger? Transfats, pure sugar and artificial flavours is just the beginning of your problems.
Add to that the inflammation response in your body that an elevated blood glucose causes, for example. Can you see the spike of insulin your body needs in order to fix that?
I think both of us knows what happens when your blood glucose is elevated for too long (days, months, years) and the body has to produce more and more insulin to compensate… After a while it’s pretty easy for the insulin receptors in your cells to not recognise the insulin anymore, causing something called insulin resistance and, eventually, Type 2 Diabetes. Not fun. And nothing you will want to handle.
When it comes to healthifying your food, the biggest issue is that you’re definitely looking to find foods that “replace” the old yummies. But what if you could find something else entirely that makes your mind and body sing? And that this food also “happens” to be healthy?
These are my top 4 tips for when you’re changing your food:
1. Do an elimination trial
Try to eliminate the food you think might be causing you problems (most commonly gluten, grains, milk or soy) for 1 month and see if you notice any changes.
2. Focus on how your food makes you feel.
Really feel how your body reacts to certain foods. Do you feel tired, sluggish and out of sync? Perhaps try something else next time. On the other hand, do you get happy, feel full and energised after a meal? BINGO, you’ve found something great!
3. See the “new food” as a welcomed addition
If you only think of the foods you miss and aren’t “allowed” to have anymore, instead of seeing it as adding a plethora of new tastes and culinary experiences, you’re starting off on the wrong foot. Sure, you’ll be putting aside a few good old go-to recipes for a while, but what about the things you’re about to taste, feel, see and enjoy? Give it a chance! You might just experience something wonderful.
4. Remember, it’s probably not forever
When you start out trying to figure out what’s good and not-so-good for you, it’s a bit like an obstacle course of trial and error. While you say good bye to milk products for a while, doesn’t mean you’ll never have it again. If your body can handle it, and you feel good eating it after your break from it, then by all means, go ahead and keep it in your cooking repertoire.
The important point is to try how you do without the food in question. Do you feel better without? Then you should probably leave it for a longer period of time. Do you feel fine (or even better!) with it? Add it back in!
What about you? Have you discovered a particular food that wasn’t that good for you anyway? Have you tried to eliminate a type of food for a while? Please comment below and help others who might just be like you!
Are you ready for it?!
Here it finally is.
You’ve been asking me several times, and all I’ve answered is that it’s coming “soon”.
Well, “soon” is here!
What if you could still eat bread without having any trouble? And not even realise it wasn’t traditional bread you were eating, but an awesome healthy version of it? This “bread” recipe is a collection of the most awesome bread recipes I’ve found out there. So I picked the raisins out of the cake and took the best features of each bread to make my own.
It’s suitable for allergies such as gluten, sugar, lactose, milk and yeast, but if you’re allergic to nuts (almonds) or eggs, I’d suggest you try to find alternative ingredients. I can help you with that, just comment below!
GrainBrain’s Awesomest “Bread”
You’ll need
• 5 dl almond flour
• a little less than 1 dl ground flaxseed (you can find this at a health food store. Or DIY!)
• 1 teaspoon whole flaxseeds
• 3/4 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 + a little dl psyllium seed husk (you’ll find this at a health food store, too)
• 6 tablespoons butter, ghee or coconut oil
• 4 whole eggs
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 dl coconut milk (I’ve also used goats milk yoghurt, which was good too. Experiment depending on your boundaries!)
Do like this:
1. Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl
2. Melt the butter/ghee/coconut oil in a saucepan. Let it cool for a few minutes.
3. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl.
4. Mix the dry and wet mixes together until it forms a batter but not longer than that.
5. Put your awesome batter into a greased loaf pan. Put some seeds on top of the loaf (flax seed, hemp seed, sunflower seed…)
6. Bake your yumminess of a bread at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes. Check with the good old toothpick trick to see if it’s done.
7. Try it in a big slice with your favourite sandwich toppings. Enjoy!
(8. Don’t blame me if you get addicted. 🙂 Yes. It’s that good.)
Please let me know what you think once you’ve tried it out!
Should lactose intolerant people drink milk?
I bet your answer is HELL NO.
So.
Let me ask you this: should people with diabetes eat pasta?
A little more hesitant perhaps? You know, because I’m asking, the answer should be no. But what about all you’ve heard and all the advice you’ve gotten from health professionals?
I took a stand 2,5 years ago.
During my education as a nutrition coach, I was taught how the body digests different foods, what happens in the body as a result, and how to best avoid unwanted effects. And this was for healthy people, without diabetes or other chronic diseases. I was shown, and I swear I saw it in slow motion, how insulin reacts in a healthy body when you eat sugary and starchy things. When you use this process too much (aka eat too much sugar and starch), it puts a tremendous amount of stress on your body. I quickly transferred this into my own body, that happens to not even produce insulin. At all.
And there the fundamental question was born: why the hell am I being advised to eat 60% grains with every meal when I can’t even produce the hormone that converts it into energy?!
I felt cheated. I felt lied to. I felt sick.
I wasn’t even given the chance to respect my body enough to be able to take care of it as well as I possibly can. Because that’s what it is about for me, respect. Respecting my body and my disease and keeping it as manageable as possible.
So I drew the following conclusion that I still swear by to this day: if having diabetes means your body can’t process sugar and starches very well (if at all) and using common logic, you should stay away form something you can’t process properly.
That’s the moment I cut out all grains, sugar and processed crap (also known as “food” 😉 ) from my life. And I have rarely looked back.
When you feel like shit for a long time, it becomes your new “normal”. When you’ve been made to feel like shit for 25 years, starting to feel better feels crazy weird. (This happens when I do look back and “treat” myself to something I know I shouldn’t have. I feel like shit.)
Starting to feel better is a long journey that only you can do for yourself, if you have the willpower, the desire and are only a little scared of what awaits you. And in many cases you need to try out different things to see what works for YOU. But although you are ultimately responsible for your own transformation, you’ll still benefit from supportive people around you, perhaps even someone who has gone through this transformation themselves.
If we stick to the example of diabetes, although similar changes can benefit everybody, whether you have another chronic condition or are perfectly healthy, and we shouldn’t be scoffing down pasta, rice, potatoes, cereals, grains, sugars and sweets, what should you do?
Go back to the roots. Go back to the pre-1970’s idea of not being afraid of good, healthy, beneficial fat sources. Because that’s what happened when the whole low-fat and light BS “food” came about – the fat was removed from the food and substituted by a bucketload of sugar. And I certainly can’t deny that things like avocado and olives impact my blood glucose readings differently than pasta and bread.
Cutting grains out of your diet is no miracle cure, as a diabetic you would still use insulin. I do too. But it makes it that tiny bit easier to manage. There is no magic formula to keep your blood sugar fully at bay. But there are ways you can minimise the bumps as much as possible. Does this mean my values are always perfect? Definitely not. Not by far. But mine are one heck load better than they were when I was still eating cereal and grains.
But hold up!
What about the holy grail of “health” – whole grains? Now that IS healthy and everyone should be eating it, right? Well. No. Not everyone. It still has a huge impact on your blood sugar, it just takes a slightly longer time.. So if you do have problems with elevated blood sugar – stay away from that too. In my world of number crunching and guesstimating, whole grain is the same as wheat – same shit, different name.
If it was as easy for me (and every diabetes is different. its a very individual disease) as to eat whatever i want, count the carbs and then inject insulin for it to have relatively stable numbers I would definitely do that (although because I know the science of what sugar etc does to you body, I’m not sure I’d do it every day. But i’d definitely treat myself to things more often!) But it’s not. And I can’t. Also, why should I add to the already numerous chances I take every day with adding some serious guesstimation work in terms of dosages and food choices? (A carb is not always a carb either, just like a calorie isn’t a calorie.)
It’s essentially all about finding smart substitutions for foods that you used to eat. I, for example, found an amazing recipe for a grain free bread that barely impacts my blood glucose levels at all. (Would you like the recipe?! Comment below!), I use zoodles (zucchini noodles) instead of pasta. And you can see all of this in my virtual food diary over on Instagram. Or, you can get an idea of what I eat by signing up at the top of this page to get 11 recipes I frequently use!
When big pharma companies and nutritionists tell us to eat starches, grains, rice, bread and pasta with every meal, it is really like telling a lactose intolerant person to drink milk instead of water. And who would want to cause that pain on a person whose body can’t break down lactose?
What about you? Are you eating something you know you shouldn’t? Or would it be time to thoroughly go through your eating habits? Maybe you have questions about diabetes and carbs? Please leave a comment below!
What defines you?
I had something completely different in mind for today’s blog post.
But then I stumbled upon a TED talk that I just couldn’t ignore.
It hit me right in the heart. My soul summersaulted, and I couldn’t look away.
It’s just so amazingly impressive.
And although you may have already seen it, I ask you to watch it again. It’s 13 minutes better spent than scrolling Facebook, that’s for sure.
This is Lizzie Velasquez TED talk. She was named the world’s ugliest woman.
Just listen to the power in this amazing woman.
Wow.
“Can I scrub this syndrome off? It would make my life so much easier if I could.”
I don’t want to draw parallels to my diseases from Lizzie’s. She’s going through something completely different, and I don’t want to even try to claim that our situations are similar in any way. For one, most of my stuff isn’t visible, so they go unnoticed easier by people I meet. But: there are similarities in the personal perceptions and reactions toward the conditions.
She brings up a super valid point, that it’s important to take a step back and look at the benefits of your disease with some distance from yourself – what have you gotten from your condition that no one else has?
For me, it’s the courage to say when something doesn’t feel right. To realise that I’m so much stronger than I ever thought I was. I’ve become so good at always being on time. That I can help people in similar situations. I very rarely forget to so or bring something somewhere. That, until recently, I had no problems jabbing myself with a syringe in the middle of a restaurant (now I’m on an insulin pump, significantly lessening the jabbing incidents). To mention a few.
You do have to acknowledge the difficulties too, though.
It’s a roller coaster life, but that’s OK (But I don’t enjoy them much at amusement parks, either.). And scary things have happened. And that’s OK, too.
And for a really long time I’ve let all of what’s going on on the inside of my body define me. I’ve been defined by a number, a value, most days even several different values a day. Judged by doctors and caretakers, saying it’s “not good enough”. Dreading the next check up, blood test and “what if’s” and “oh no’s”.
It took me an even longer time to realise this. And do you know what helped me? What made me see that I’m so much more than some diagnoses on a piece of paper? My top 3 is:
- Acceptance. Accepting that this is part of my life, and will most probably always be so. It’s given me a sense of freedom, to keep fighting and to never give up.
- Ignoring smirky caretakers. The number of times I’ve swapped doctors because I want to be taken seriously is not few. (Just did it again this week, actually, after a particularly rude doctor didn’t do his job well enough.) It sounds really harsh. But, I do expect the doctors that treat me to do their job properly. Especially in this part of the world.Building my awesome dream team of doctors, nurses and yes, even receptionists, ready to help me, has helped me so much in realising that yes, this is part of me, but it’s not ALL of me.
- Eating properly. My values are volatile as it is, and I really do not need to complicate everything further by eating a menu full of BS that has been fed to me by aforementioned (and “fired”) care takers. That’s why I’ve come up with my own solution, that doesn’t clog up my system as much. That leaves me feeling better, with more energy and a happier perspective on life. (And if you want, I can teach you how to do it, too!)
You have to be able to mourn a bad result or a flare up; you have to trust that you’ll pick yourself up again after a set back or break down. That’s part of having a chronic condition. But it’s up to you to choose to accept it as a part of you and decide where you want to go in life. You can use the negativity to make you better, just like Lizzy says.
I really take my hat off for Lizzy, whilst giving her a standing ovation. For having the immense courage it takes to talk about yourself in such an amazing, authentic and open way. For not giving a damn rats ass about what people think. For being a fighting spirit and so crazily strong. And for being an incredible inspiration. If she can, so can you and I.
“My goals, success and achievements define me, not what i have.”
The world’s your oyster and the sky’s your limit.
Chronic Revolution
Are YOU ready for it?
I’ve been so eager to tell you about this for the longest time. Or at least it feels like it.
But the timing hasn’t been right. And then came Christmas. And New Years.
Now that we’ve both moved past those, let’s take a good look on what 2014 will bring!
I’m not a huge fan of resolutions, especially not those fuelled by a few (too many) glasses of champagne on New Years Eve. On the other hand, I think setting goals can really help you develop as a person. There’s a big difference between those two, though.
So, your current goal is to finally get your chronic disease on track, right?
I’ve got the answer for you, right here.
Let me introduce to you my newest offering, fresh of the press, especially for you:
Chronic Revolution
This is a program that lies very close to my own heart. As you may remember, I’m fighting a few myself.
So what can you expect?
The results vary from person to person and obviously it depends on the energy YOU invest, but here are some results you can expect:
Alleviating symptoms, like sky high blood sugars, or blood pressure, head fog and bloatedness, to mention a few.
Become more confident and secure about the control of your health (no more hiding your results from your care team!)
- Get super supermarket confident
- Know what YOU need to feel better
- More freedom
- Have a longer, more qualitative life
- More stable blood glucose levels, lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure
- Take less medication
- Get restaurant cocky
- More joy
- Get more energy
- Become a brunch goddess
- Less stress when it comes to food
- Have more time left for things that matter, more fun!
And how do we get to all these fantastic things?
Your Chronic Revolution is a 60-day online program for you, if you live with a chronic disease and want to turn your life around, as well as take back your health with the help of proper nutrition (and without further medication.)
It’s all about changing your life in easy steps. A fun take-you-by-the-hand mentoring program, leaving you hopeful about your future.
It’s completely tailored to your needs, no cookie-cutter approach because we’ve learned that two people with the same chronic disease will still have completely different challenges to cope with.
So, if you’re a fun-loving person with a chronic disease (such as: diabetes, thyroid problems, Crohn’s disease, celiac, arthritis, fibromyalgia, epilepsy, osteoporosis etc) with a positive attitude who are ready to feel empowered in your health, read more here!
Are you tired of terrible and agonizing advice that only confuses you more? Jump on board! Are you also willing and eager to do the work to get clarity and more energy, then this is just for you.
You can read all about it right here!
Even if you don’t feel ready for this just yet, it’s ok too. But stick around for more great information, fun facts and fantastic ideas! 🙂 You can also schedule a Pay What You Want call with me to figure out questions or thoughts you have. (Or forward this to someone who might be ready for it.)
I’m so glad I’m able to offer you this amazing opportunity – it’s helped me so much to go through this and I know it would help you too.