SIWIKE tools : Health – Nutrition

When working with clients I will often start with making sure some fundamentals are taken care of. I’ll often start with their health: nutrition, exercise, sleep being three important pillars. If those aren’t taken care of then the rest of the career journey becomes much more difficult. 

Nutrition is relatively simple, BUT that doesn’t make it easy. With all of the tasty treats out there, avoiding them can be challenging. Simple guidelines are: eat real food, not too much, and mostly plants.

Real food: choosing food that has minimal processing. Ones that are as close to the original source as possible. Plants are great because they are often picked straight from a tree, from the ground or wherever. Meats can be good as well along with the fats they carry. 

Dairy is often a point of contention as our prehistoric ancestors wouldn’t have been consuming much from livestock.

Grains are also debated as well since they are often processed from their plant origins. 

A good rule of thumb is that if you’re going to eat something, go to the fridge instead of the pantry. Understanding that it’s usually the preservatives and other additives that allow something to sit in the pantry for days, weeks, months if not longer

Not too much: The conventional wisdom is that people need to consume between 1500 and 2000 calories per day. That number varies wildly based on the type of work you do and other hormone configurations. Much of the research agrees based on some of our less-than-active lifestyles we need much less than that. keeping in mind that it’s less about the number of calories you consume versus the quality of the calories that you consume. 

Intermittent fasting is also another habit to consider. If you think of our earlier ancestors, they didn’t have ready access to their pantry, a supermarket. They would have to grow or forage or hunt for their food. That would probably mean going hours, or days without food would be quite normal. 

Mostly plants: Well I’m not a vegetarian, I do realize that having half a plate of vegetables or more does me better than filling with greens and other filler foods.

Although there are many different, potentially conflicting codes to nutrition, beer gluten-free, vegetarian, Paleo, keto, and many more, The general consensus is to move away from processed foods. That simple choice can help you make healthier nutrition decisions.

I’ll probably have more guidance, and these are the easiest to follow. What are your favourite nutrition tips?