The Foundational Diet

I consider myself an absolute foodie. I love everything about food, and because emotional eating tops my list of hairy demons, sometimes I try to fill some ridiculous void inside with treats. I'm tortured by a brain that craves sweet all day, so please don't think I don't eat things like bacon or ice cream. I love bacon. I cook with it's rendered fat, and think there's nothing wrong with including it in my diet. I eat pizza, often. Chocolate and I have a personal and somewhat secret relationship that I won't discuss here. Such things are best worked out in therapy, with hand puppets. I so enjoy the dalliance between sweet and savory sins that I find myself mindlessly overindulging, then dying of guilt afterward. Point is, I get it, this stuff is really hard. 

Luckily, I've always considered the hubris of dumping any old thing into my body and expecting optimal performance unrealistic and kinda dumb. So careful consideration goes into all my meals, because nothing kills goals faster than inconsistency. I try to work under the very guidelines with which my body functions. If it seeks even keel (homeostasis), I give it even keel with rigid consistency, developing an almost symbiotic relationship with it. If I help it do it's job, it pays me back by helping me reach my goals (And not just fitness).  

I also find that I go through periods of ultra strict eating. It seems the more uncertainty I feel in life, the stricter I get. I've experimented with this diet now for more than a decade and adopted it as my foundation. Now that previous posts have addressed some general guidelines, let's look at what I call a Foundational Diet. It's not necessarily a weight loss plan as much as an insurance policy that all your nutritional needs are met. This is stage one of taking back the reigns of your metabolism. It takes you out of starvation mode, if that's where you live, and most importantly, lays the groundwork for continued and sustainable loss and gains of your choosing. 

Developing a faster metabolism is like building a fire, you need ignition. Then there are two ways to feed it once it's started; dump all the fuel for the day into one roaring twenty minutes, then freeze, or offer a log every two hours, and create a slow steady burn. Over time, that slow burning fire has a deep, thick layer of coals. This is your fire, not the logs. The best fires have the best bases, that beating red glow under the grate, that disperses heat evenly over time. 

How many calories should I be getting, where should they come from, what shouldn't I eat, are all valid questions. Food labels are more misleading than Ikea instruction booklets on how to build space shuttles. I think anything can be considered healthy or unhealthy depending on who's eating it, how it was grown, what it was treated with, and how far it was shipped. It's wonderful to eat blueberries in January, but they probably grew far away, and whatever process was used to protect their freshness en route effects how healthy they are. Buying locally and seasonally ensures what you eat is the freshest possible.

The change over to a Foundational Diet is like building the foundation of a home. Every successive floor depends on the sturdiness of the foundation. Built on sand, your results will wash away with one relapse into old habits. The point here is not only a nutritional change, but a behavioral one, and new behaviors require consistency. How much consistency? Science says it takes engaging in a behavior fifteen hundred times before it becomes habit (I'll let that sink in).

Please don't start this or any diet until you're ready to start putting you first. Whatever you're currently putting ahead of you're own health and well being will ultimately suffer. The greatest gift you can give to those you love is the healthiest you possible. There's tremendous power in the message: Me first, so I can be stronger for you.  

Upon first glance at the diet, you may think I hate people with nut allergies. I don't. I just think nuts are nutritional powerhouses. If you have a nut allergy, you'll need to modify, obviously. You'll also need a blender. I use a Magic Bullet. Eighty bucks, and I'm pretty sure it can blend another blender. I won't automatically assume you plan on buying organic, but know it's preferential over conventional. I use mainly frozen, organic, veggies. 

Breakfast: Two pieces of sprouted wheat toast with any nut butter whose ingredients include nuts and salt only. Sourdough is an option besides sprouted wheat, both should be organic and list as few ingredients as possible. 

Red Shake: Base ingredients: 1/4 cup of any bean, ¼ cup of any nuts, organic juice (your preference), 2 fresh strawberries or ½ cup of blueberries. ½ cup ea. of carrots, beets, squash, red and yellow peppers.

Lunch: 3 eggs with fresh veggies mixed in. You can prepare the eggs any way you like, except deep fried.

Green shake: Base ingredients 1/4 cup of any bean, ¼ cup of any nuts, organic juice (your preference) with; ½ cup of spinach (fresh), 1/4 cup of frozen brussels, 1/4 cup broccoli, 1/4 cup organic kale, and 1/4 of a green apple in place of strawberries and/or blueberries.

Dinner: Lean protein, the size of a deck of cards, and a vegetable. Be creative with spices here, a good spice rub can make or break you in later weeks, so try to avoid getting bored early on, spice it up!

Snack: 1/3 of a least 55% cacao dark chocolate or handful of nuts.

Sunday: Cheat day. Eat whatever and how much of whatever you want. I want rich, organic, syrupy, sugary, fatty, salty treats, all day. Stuff yourself!