Would you like to know where to start your journey to a balanced diet from?

There is no perfect diet for all. We are all so different. We vary in metabolism. We have unique life-styles. Each body presents different weak-spots that seem to constantly fail. Even though this seems obvious, we often hear about nutritional theories that have been engraved in stone. They are supposed to give us unbeatable super-powers and to ignore them will lead us to a certain and painful death!

I really try to not fall into this dogmatic way of applying nutrition. I am open to listen and investigate on almost any theory that I am presented with. I test through kinesiology, I prescribe, I read, I try out on myself, I listen to the feed back you all give me. I am open to dissociated diets, macrobiotic eating, no-glut, vegan, anti-inflammatory, paleo, fasting…you name it! Each of these ways of eating might be useful at any given moment in our lives. You never know!

What seems to be true is that if you are feeling a little lost and if you are following the standard supermarket, counting calories, microwave dinners and pizza-on-a-Friday diet and your body is letting out some warning signs, you might find that it is time for a change! Let me suggest a few very basic steps:

Eat Real Food – this may seem obvious but, unless you really pay attention to what you shop for, it is very easy to pull everything you eat out of a package. This can increase your input of additives and other chemical substances that your body doesn’t recognise. The idea is to look for foods in same form as they are found in nature – cereals in wholegrain rather than flour, pulses and legumes, raw nuts and seeds, seasonal raw fruit and vegetables, wild-caught seafood (rather than the factory farmed animals) and grass-fed beef, for example. To fulfil this point, you will have to plan your shopping and cooking but you will also find some savings in your food and pharmacy bills!
Cut down on animal protein – remember that we can also find protein in plant foods. The real Mediterranean diet included about 50% of its’ protein sources from pulses/legumes, nuts and seeds. It is very easy to over ingest protein when we only think of meat, fish, eggs and dairy and forget the plant-based foods. Excess protein in our diet could cause tension (yang energy) leading us to crave sugars, refined flour, alcohol, coffee, chocolate (yin foods) to try and compensate. We must also remember that unless you are buying organic, all animal products contain hormones and antibiotics.
Keep balanced sugar levels – Sugar is not only an anti-nutrient (it actually burns up and sequesters minerals in our cells) but it also is highly addictive. Every time our blood sugar levels go up, our natural hunger-saciety mechanisms go out of whack making us eat more than we need. These ups and downs of blood-glucose can also take us on an emotional rollercoaster that can make us feel quite crazy!

If you need help in any of these steps, please don’t hesitate to contact me so that I can make you a personalised guideline.

Photo by Raquel Banchio