Healthy Eating Tips for Autoimmune Disease
Welcome! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog! I know life can get sometimes unbearably busy. I am a realist when it comes to recommending lifestyle changes with my client's needs to be attainable small goal setting...because guess what, that mindset works and helps achieve behavior change and consistency!
I am a busy professional, wife and mother. I have learned that you cannot do it all 100% everyday. I have learned to set expectations everyday as part of my daily intentions. I have also learned that prioritizing my health to be successful to reach my daily intentions and goals is not a selfish approach to living and should be everyone's priority. Why, you may ask, is my mindset to focus on myself? Well, it is this simple...
1. I cannot achieve any of my goals to the degree of quality that I want, may that be in my profession, as a mother and wife, IF I do not set my body and mind up for success to achieve said goals. I won't be a good clinician, wife, mother, daughter, sister, or friend.
2. Fueling my body, is ESSENTIAL in me being successful as a human being. This may not speak to you but it has for me throughout my life as I high performing athlete, to now a busy adult navigating this high paced world we live in. If I do not fuel my body for success, I tend to not achieve to the level of degree I desire, or I find myself not even barely meeting the minimum goal of achievement for that day.
3. Yes, I take life sometimes day to day- somedays it is survival- but I remain to not skimp on my quality fuel- because I prioritize. I try very hard to take time to ensure I am feeding myself and my family with nutrition foods to ensure at a cellular level their body and mind is performing at the best of it's ability. This daily mindset takes practice, and then becomes completely natural to do on a daily basis.
Many people tell me- "Katie, I have no time to cook myself meals or plan for meals throughout the week with meal prepping. " My answer to this is simple- YES YOU DO, you CHOOSE to have a mindset that says you do not have time because you have chosen to not prioritize your body and health as you should. Another common question I get is- " I never ate breakfast and nor do I enjoy it." All I can say to this is I urge you to try, I am not asking you to eat an iHop level breakfast, I am asking for you to turn your metabolism on and feed your neurons with healthy fuel to jumpstart your day. If we are working towards healing your body, we need to work on retraining your metabolic system, and coffee on an empty stomach is not a meal:) I am not knocking coffee I too enjoy my cup in the morning but I do put some good nutrition on board as well! I am realistic and absolutely not advising you to stop your coffee- now not all coffee is created equal but that is for another Blog another day!
Behavioral changes take time. Most dietary fads become obsessive and short lived with a variety of physical and emotional changes that just eventually have you bouncing back to your baseline. Practicing new behavioral changes should be slow and small changes and you work your way up to big changes.
So with that, here is my challenge.
I challenge you to make ONE change for this week. Just one. Plan to eat breakfast everyday- if you are a parents- this is a WONDERFUL way to instill healthy behaviors to littles by showing them healthy behaviors start when we place our feet on the floor every morning when we climb out of bed.
Now when you make this ONE change. Do not shove a muffin or a donut in your mouth while guzzling 20 ounces of coffee. Mindfully plan how you want your breakfast to go and have it be MEANINGFUL foods. I have great ideas for quick 2-3 minute prep morning breakfast to 10 minute prep morning breakfast tips.
Also overnight oats or even meal prepping your breakfast is an INCREDIBLE time saver! Or some Muesli and greek yogurt!
After you make this ONE change, I want you to do just this one change of a HEALTHY morning start everyday for 30 days. Is it getting easier for you to do this? Have you found an increase in your productivity, energy, reduction in irritability and mid day burn out? If you are filling your tank with something smart as you start your day you will find as your body adjusts, you metabolism also adjusts, your mood and energy will also adjust! Then we work towards more changes, throughout the day, fueling your temple, this aids in cellular healing and gut healing to a level of allowing your inflammation to slowly turn down a notch and your immune system to chill out.
The key in maintaining good health is understanding with good things take time. Because these modifications do not come in an injection, a pill, or a quick fix surgical intervention. This is retraining your mindset and your behaviors to move towards a shift to living a healthier life. Consistency, small attainable goals and increasing these goals overtime ensures success. No one else can do the work for you. We live in an instant gratification life and live in a mindset that there is no time for anything. Slow you thoughts down and reorganize your life, set small priorities and you will find these extra few minutes in preparation per day will yield to long term positive gains!
