What’s a healthy overall diet and lifestyle without an indulgence from time to time, right?

I’m a big time foodie…I like cake, cookies, bread, pasta, pizza, wine and donuts too!  But we all know if we eat that stuff all the time, we’re likely not going to experience our most optimal health, vitality and performance… right?

So a component of my system that I teach is 80/20.

What that means is if 80% of the time you’re doing the right things, then you can enjoy that occasional indulgence as part of your “reward day” because your body internally will be able to handle the nutritional stress (physiological load) at the biochemical level.

For some perspective of what I mean, think:  versus the alternative of 80/20, if we’re closer to 20/80 eating low-integrity crap, junk foods, processed foods, etc. most of the time, then when we go to enjoy that treat, internally it’s like pouring more fuel on the fire, where the “fire” is chronic inflammation, sickness, pain, functional pathology, disease, and so on.  Does that make sense?

What are the “right things” with diet?

• Real food:  our whole, minimally processed plant and animal foods found in nature.
• Integrity source:  that same real food from plant and animal sources grown & raised with integrity.
  • plant foods grown without toxic synthetic pesticides and synthetic chemical fertilizers within a healthy soil ecosystem full of life
    
  • wild or pastured animals raised in non-factory farming environments where they can be administered antibiotics, growth hormones, fed an unnatural diet to their digestive mechanics and biochemistry, live an unnatural, inhumane lifestyle conditions and much more.
• Supplementing properly for nutritional deficiencies to support the body from what I call the “double-edge sword” of our current state of health:  we have over 70,000+ foreign chemicals in our world today our great grandparents didn’t have in their bloodstream 100 years ago.  Our liver and detoxification pathways are working over time 24/7!  Coupled with the fact that our food supply has drastically changed in the same 100 year time period and does not contain the same nutrition it once had to support the body due to intensive commercial farming, among other things.  The result?  We end up with more toxic crap + less nutrition from diet to support the body systems from said toxic crap = double edge sword.  It’s unfortunate, but this is our reality of the world we live in today.

So in summary, the right things are a diet that consists of integrity-sourced real food, while supplementing properly for any deficiencies we have due to lack of nutrition from the diet + excess toxic load in today’s world.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, but on that list of the right things we also need to include other healthy lifestyle factors like proper sleep cycles, getting enough water and from the right source, proper movement/exercise, etc.

Are you doing the right things with your diet and lifestyle?   Ask here or get a free consultation here.

What does Reward Day look like in a given week?

Reward day is that day of the week you choose to enjoy your indulgences.

For me, I usually like to do Friday evening to Saturday evening (and the occasional Sunday morning brunch).  This is when I’ll typically enjoy a glass of wine, go out to dinner, eat some homemade bread and pasta (can’t take the Italian out of me, my grandmother would curse me!), and so on.

These are the occasional indulgences I enjoy as part of my Reward Day.  Then on all other days of the week Sunday until Friday evening, I’m dialed in to my every day diet.

Is Reward Day right for me?

Reward day is for someone who is in general good health (see “pouring fuel on the fire” at the top), so there are some caveats to including a reward day in your healthy lifestyle routine.

1. If you’re on a specific protocol like an anti-fungal protocol, liver & gallbladder flush protocol or on a ReBoot Body Transformation Protocol, then reward day needs to wait until you’re off protocol.  After your protocol, you can reintroduce a reward day.
2. If you have a chronic illness you’re addressing, then I always recommend your 80/20 be as close 100% as you can.  If our goal is healing you, then we want to be dialed in.
3. If you have a food intolerance or allergy, heavy metal toxicity, viral, bacterial or fungal infection, other immune system challenges, etc. then these need to be addressed with a specific protocol that tackles the specific physiological load.  How do I know if I have any of this?  You can inquire here to find out.

What can I eat on my Reward Day?

So as we discussed above, if you’re in general good health and not on any specific protocol, you can eat any of your favorite indulges as part of your reward day.

My general rule for “what can I eat it” is always:  if you make it homemade, have whatever you like!   

But remember this:  Eating crap food is not a reward, it’s a punishment.

What do I mean?

Reward day is not a license to go crazy on crap like fast food, junk food, etc. that are loaded with synthetic chemical additives, preservatives, artificial colors & sweeteners, pesticide residues, GMO ingredients, and the multitude of other food-like product ingredients we find that are completely foreign to the body systems (and quick note:  one of the reasons I always say make it homemade, because as a consumer, have you ever noticed the individual ingredients food industry uses in fast food, junk foods, etc. we can’t even get our hands on at the grocery store?  When’s the last time you saw a bottle of High Fructose Corn Syrup at the store?  You haven’t. Ever. Yet it’s rampant in food industry products and HFCS is just one example of thousands of ingredients they use).

We still want to keep the integrity source of ingredients and the foods we eat in mind.

So I’m big on homemade foods and what I also like to call a “real food remix”.

Essentially a real food remix is all of our favorite treats, but the ingredients of said treats that may be highly processed, white flours, white sugar, synthetic chemicals, low-integrity source (pesticide residues, GMO, factory farms, etc) “remixed” using the closest high integrity-sourced real food ingredient alternative.

For example, I love me a good donut, but if I’m going to nosh a donut I’ll scope out a donut shop that uses higher quality ingredients like these from Nomad Donuts in SoCal, or I’ll make a homemade donut where I know the ingredients that I’m putting into it.

If I’m going out to dinner, same ideas apply.  I’ll scope the restaurants that serve healthy ingredient/food options as well.  Try Local Harvest in your area. It’s like Google for healthy restaurant options, among other things like farmers markets, CSA’s, natural/organic food stores, etc. where you can search by zip code (also really comes in handy when traveling!).

For example, if you’re craving a burger for your Reward Day, instead of McDonald’s, find a great burger restaurant in your area that has organic produce, grass-fed beef, etc.  If you’re wanting pizza, rather than calling Pizza Hut for delivery let’s try and find a pizza place with local-farm sourced ingredients, homemade crusts, etc… and of course, my favorite, make your own pizza or burger at home!

So overall we can enjoy our treats and eating out, but we should also remember integrity source of the food/ingredients when we do.  Does that make sense?

You can read more about real food remixed foods, ingredients and example recipes here.