Eating Well on a Budget: Initial Thoughts

Ever since I decided to do this experiment my head has been reeling! I have so many thoughts and ideas, some have been given to me by you lovely people reading; Thank YOU! I feel so fortunate to have a community of people that care about deep nutrition and health. I also feel incredibly fortunate that Johnny and I are able to afford the way we eat. I have been set up for success in my life and I really want to pass that on to others. I know people don't have a lot of time in their lives to figure this stuff out so I will take the time  to do it, because I have the time! This is my life vision; my life calling. That said, I wanted to start this project off with some initial thoughts and tips as I go into this experiment. 

The first: Eating with intention

Your body has two modes: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic. When your body is in Sympathetic mode all your body's energy moves away from digestion and out to your limbs and brain, this is fight or flight mode. When your body is in Parasympathetic mode your energy is focused on your inner organs and more specifically your digestive system. We live in a day and age where eating on the go is normal, or eating in front of the TV is normal. A lot of people don't even gather with their families in the evening for a sit down dinner together. Our bodies are in Sympathetic mode a lot of the time, and we are paying the price for it. Not only is our digestion turned off while we are in this mode, but because of that we aren't getting the nutrients we need and therefore we are wasting money on our food and will probably end up eating more than we would have if we were sitting down and chewing every bite with intention. 

To create a Parasympathetic mode you must start by sitting down, wherever you are, just sit down. It can be on the floor, it can be on a retaining wall, whatever you can sit on, sit on it. Take a deep breath and smell your food. Digestion starts in the brain. Prepare yourself for your meal. Then, chew!!!! Chew that food hardcore. It's recommended that you chew each bite 30x. The larger the chunks you swallow the harder it is for your body to break them down in the time it takes for it to move through the digestive system. Now, that advice is for those of you who are at work or school a lot when eating. If you are at home, this is easier and you can do more with it. Make your meals special, even if its just you; light a candle, put flowers on your table, breath and smell your food, take a bite and put your fork down so you can really focus on chewing. When you do this, you are way less likely to overeat AND you are getting more nutrition. 

Parasympathetic eating can really save you money, and bring health into your life. 

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The second: Eat foods that satisfy deeply

When you consume a lot of carbs, overly processed foods and sugar you are not deeply supporting your body nor are you getting the energy you need for the day. If you start off like this you will usually be hungry again in an hour or 2. This causes excess eating because you aren't satisfied. Spend a little more money on high quality fats and protein and you'll eat less of them; it tends to balance out in the end. Carbs are quick burning energy, so for athletes, this can be helpful around a workout. But the majority of people are eating like marathon runners when they aren't running marathons. A good rule of thumb for most people is 40% Carbohydrates (veggies/fruits are best) 30% Fat and 30% Protein. I see a lot of people in the 60%-80% range for carbs and their sources tend to be refined and processed grains/sugar. That said, it's the quality fats that I really wanted to focus on for this section. Fats give you slow burning energy that lasts, it takes more to break them down and therefore gives a slow release of energy into the system. When I'm speaking of fats I'm talking about using good fats/oils to cook with: Lard & Coconut Oil being some of my favorites. Eating Pasture Raised meats, butter and dairy. Nuts can be good as well, as long as you soak them before hand for ease of digestion. (although nuts are spendy!) Some nuts you can harvest yourself if you know where a good tree is. Incorporating these foods into your diet will give you more hours of satisfying energy than a full carb meal would. Here are a few ideas to start off with:

-Pre-soaked Oatmeal: Add butter or coconut oil into your morning bowl for that fat source. (soak overnight)
-Eggs/Avocado: This is a very satisfying breakfast that will give you long burning energy.
-Meat and Veggies cooked in Lard: Some people are allergic to eggs so why not have some breakfast sausage with some stir fried veggies in Lard. 
-Bone Broth Soup with an Egg: Sometimes I make my bone broth into a breakfast meal by poaching an egg in it.

(Like I said, it's ideal to have pasture raised meats, eggs and dairy with all these)
Another thing I like to mention is some people have poor fat digestion. This can be due to long standing digestive dysfunction and poor diet. Bile is our main fat digesting mechanism in our body and some people don't produce enough. Beets are excellent for bile production so add those into your diet as well as herbs like Dandelion Root. Any questions you have about this I am happy to answer.

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Well that's all for now, I'll be adding more tips as I go. Thanks for reading and I hope this is helpful for people. Bye for now! -Bailey