Easy Steps For A Healthier You!
Our food choices have way more power over our health and wellness than we have ever been led to believe.
Switching to a whole food plant-based diet years ago has changed my life in the most wonderful way. I had several concerning health issues that I needed to resolve and was blessed enough to stumble upon the power of plants for healing.
I became a certified health coach and started this website to share this information with as many people as I possibly can!
I will share my best tips for implementing simple daily habits into your life that can help you improve energy, sleep, fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, auto-immune, and many other common ailments and illnesses.
Define your WHY
First, let’s define your WHY. Why do you want change in your life? Maybe you want to be able to travel, have the energy to spend more time with loved ones, wake up ready to tackle the day, or, like me, be able to hike up mountains! Write it down, or better yet, record your why on video, just for you.
Play it back to yourself. There is something compelling in hearing those things spoken. If that’s not something you’re comfortable with, recite what you wrote to yourself. Doing that every morning sets your thoughts with a goal and desire to succeed.
The first two weeks of changing your diet are the most challenging. Going from the standard American diet, also known as the SAD diet, can be a big change.
Some people report feeling tired, cranky, achy, and even like they have the flu. This is your body going through detox. When the body starts receiving the nutrients needed to heal, it will start releasing toxins.
Stick with it; it will get better! Cravings can also be intense, especially in the second week. This is where being focused and having a clear vision for WHY you are doing this comes into play.
Next, dive into the amazing plant-based world through documentaries and books. Don’t worry they are very entertaining and fun! This will help you learn and get excited about embracing this fantastic lifestyle!
Documentaries
Forks Over Knives-watch on Youtube
Game Changers-watch on Netflix or Youtube
What the Health-watch on Netflix or Youtube
Cowspiracy-watch on Netflix or Youtube
Books
Fiber Fueled
The China Study
Eat For Life
Undo It!
How Not to Die
Goodbye Lupus
Goodbye Autoimmune
Just Start!
We can spend so much time getting ready to get ready. JUST START! Think of this as a fun experiment; go all in! I am a jump-in-and embrace-it kind of girl, so if that’s you, too, go for it! If you do, you will see the most significant results in the least time.
Hypernourishing
Dr. Brooke Goldner coined the term hyper-nourishing.
It is an intentional overdose of the nutrients missing from most people’s diets. This is where I recommend you start. You add in what you are missing but continue with your regular diet.
However, if you embrace a whole food plant-based diet simultaneously, you will see even better results.
The following protocol is the one she recommends to her patients to start, and it will make a big difference in how you feel pretty quickly! If you are new to healthy eating, you may want to start slowly so your tummy has time to adjust to all of this fiber.
The official protocol
1 lb dark leafy greens/cruciferous veggies a day
1/2 cup chia or flax seeds daily (Omega 3’s). Buy fresh whole seeds and grind with a coffee grinder right before use; this helps prevent oxidation and gives you the most anti-inflammatory benefit. You may also use cold-pressed, refrigerated flax or chia oil. 3 tbsp = 1/2 cup of seeds.
Minimum 96 oz of water a day
The easiest way of consuming these things is through a GREEN SMOOTHIE! They are quick to make, easy to take, and packed with tons of vitamins and minerals that help regenerate your cells and improve your immune system.
Sounds like a win to me! If smoothies aren’t your thing, you can consume the ingredients in a salad or eat the veggies raw. I’ll cover some ideas below.
How to make a green smoothie
You want your smoothie to be 75% greens/cruciferous and 25% fruit. A kitchen scale is necessary to ensure you are getting ALL the goodness! I just put the blender carafe on the kitchen scale, zero it out, and then add in my greens or cruciferous and make sure I’m hitting the 1 pound mark. You can find plenty of inexpensive scale options online.
Any blender will work, but Vitamix with the 64oz carafe is the gold standard workhorse. It is well worth the investment in your new health adventure and makes an incredibly smooth smoothie. My Vitamix has been used multiple times daily for over ten years and is still going strong. As I said, though, any blender you have will work to get started!
After you pack your blender full of the greens, add at least 32oz of water and do a quick blend to make room for the fruit. I almost always use a very ripe banana for sweetness and frozen fruit because it’s readily available and stays good for a long time. Plus, the frozen fruit prevents the smoothie from getting too hot while blending.
Now, you can add your flax or chia and blend again. If you have a high-power blender like Vitamix, you do not need to pre-grind your seeds; if you don’t, ensure you pre-grind before adding them.
The seeds can make your smoothie a little thick, so if you prefer a thinner smoothie, you can add more water or use flax oil. Start slowly with the seeds at first to allow your body to adjust to that much fiber, and work your way up to the 1/2 cup. Note that the water you use in your smoothie counts toward your daily requirement.
This will make approximately two 32oz smoothies. It’s entirely up to you when and how quickly you consume these. I typically have one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but do what’s best for you. Finding a nice insulated cup helps keep it cold if you take it on the go. At home, I often use a 32 oz mason jar.
My favorite smoothie recipe is 1 pound spinach, 2 very ripe bananas a cup of mango and 32 oz of water. It’s mild and delicious!
Salads or veggies and dip
Maybe smoothies aren’t your thing, and you prefer to chew (or do a combination of both). I love salads, so I have one pretty much every day. I have found that cruciferous veggies weigh much more than dark leafy greens, so I can get in the required amount of nutrition with less volume if I use those as the base of my salad. My favorite and go-to is a red cabbage salad with my favorite veggies added.
Sometimes, I will have a big bowl of cauliflower and broccoli florets with a delicious guacamole dip. Most days for me are a combination of two smoothies and a salad or smoothies and veggies and guacamole. The sky is the limit, and you can decide how to include all the required goodies.
Please make sure to weigh your greens/cruciferous to meet your required 1 lb a day, whether through smoothies, salads, or veggie plates.
Make a commitment
You now have some powerful information that can change your life; it’s time to commit! Choose a few weeks or a month to put these things into action.
Clean out your fridge and kitchen space and make room for the staples that will help keep you on track.
I highly recommend looking into Dr. Brooke Goldner. She has had tremendous success helping thousands of people reverse their auto-immune diseases and countless other ailments using her hyper-nourishing protocol and her more strict Goodbye Auto-Immune Disease protocol.
In her books Goodbye Lupus and Goodbye Autoimmune Disease, she outlines what each protocol entails and the success you can have in reversing your illness by using them.
She also does a weekly Q and A on YouTube every Wednesday. This is full of valuable information about healing with her protocol. She is a ray of sunshine and will give you so much encouragement and hope!
It’s up to you to make this happen and discover all the amazing benefits of living this way!
I am genuinely excited for you to embark on this incredible health journey; it can change your life, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have! You can email me at michelle@greenfoodcrush.com
