I recently shared the two focuses for ‘lazy’ (or really busy) gals to lose fat and get fit. Let’s talk about #1: Eat Real Food. I want to get your perspective on this, too, so leave a comment below this post and share it on Facebook too. Everyone’s thoughts count!
I believe that eating real food creates more time in our lives because it’s one activity that influences every thing else in our lives. Doing one thing well, eating, is much easier than doing five things well in addition to everything else on my already-packed schedule.
Real food also (easily) cultivates what we really want instead of what we initially think we want. It provides the raw materials, or ‘building blocks’, necessary for optimal physical, cognitive, and spiritual functioning. Sometimes our struggles, like anxiety/depression, are as solved as simply as eating high quality real foods consistently, thereby providing our nervous system with the necessary materials to function properly. This produces happiness, contentment, and meaning in our lives – almost ‘miraculously’- in ways that no drug will ever do.
The Path to More TIME
Whether you are really busy or really lazy, getting healthy should not consume your life. It’s a TOOL, a foundation, a launching point. Not the end all, be all. It’s like meditating, praying, or scheduling quiet time. These are all tools, avenues to a desired end, but NOT the end by themselves! When someone meditates, their goal isn’t not to spend more time clearing their mind, but to experience more peace, serenity, and mindfulness in their lives, usually in service to others. Prayer is a way of opening connection with God… the connection is what counts, NOT the amount of time spent in prayer in and of itself. Time spent quietly produces peace and objectivity in a person, it allows them to return to their center – the core of who they are – not simply to get away from the world and it’s busy-ness.
Eating effectively is a HUGE way to free up lots of time in your life. By focusing on ONE thing instead of FIVE, you have less to worry about. NO calories to calculate, no points, no amount of time spent exercising, and immediately have more time and willpower to focus on things that truly deserve your precious attention INSTEAD of the throws of dieting or the problem of how to schedule more exercise.
Because eating real food does much more than simply shed fat, this ONE FOCUS is a comprehensive solution for many (if not all) of your struggles and issues. Eating real food is the foundation of health, energy, brain functioning, and more. Your body cannot burn the excess fat (and maintain it healthily, happily, and effortlessly) without getting healthy FIRST.
Instead of dieting for weight loss, exercising for fat loss and energy, taking vitamins, supplements, and prescriptions for health, and reading lots of personal growth/self-help books for thinking and behaving… eating real food provides a solution for all of these, because the quality of the food we eat affects every single area of our lives, from our physical cells to our ability to think and make good decisions!
What You Really Want
Most women say they want to lose fat, but what they really want is to be a positive example to their families, to have more confidence to be themselves without apologies or regrets, and to serve more effectively in their chosen profession, humanitarian efforts, or ministries. These are worthy, deep longings in the hearts of most women who simply cannot put their finger on how to make it happen in their lives.
Getting healthy is the starting point. Losing fat, decreasing pants sizes, and looking better in the mirror are positive “accidents” that occur when we focus on eating real food.
Without first focusing on getting healthy, we will always have to add one more thing on top of our already-busy plates in order to realize some piece of our dreams. But always adding on one more thing means that we are only able to catch glimpses of our dreams and bring pieces of it into fruition because we can only handle so much at one time.
Getting healthy, however, is the seed that produces the fullness of your dream in the world! When you feel better, when your brain physically works better, when you think better, when you generate overflowing energy, you live with more confidence, you are empowered to be yourself in all situations, you act according to your character instead of react to circumstances, you are kinder to your husband and more patient with your children, you live love in the world. Everything is affected by a seed of health.
Your Get Healthy Assignment:
1. Pick one meal this week and prepare it with all real foods (e.g., Paleo/Primal foods) using this formula:
meat/seafood + veggie + healthy fat
Some ideas include: Salmon + steamed broccoli topped with olive oil, Steak + kale sauteed in coconut oil, Pecan crusted chicken + roasted root veggies, salmon patties (no flour!) + curry cauliflower, etc.
2. After your meal, check in with yourself and notice how you feel. Jittery? Tired? Energetic? Moody? Hungry?
3. Comment below with the meal you ate and the results of your check-in! (Photographing your food and posting it on my Facebook page is even better!)