How to Fuel Your Body To Feel Your Best
Most people on an average day go about their lives simply not feeling great. Symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, and bloating are so commonplace and accepted that they’re not even viewed as symptoms anymore: they’re simply the new status quo.
Some people may realize they don’t feel good but aren’t sure what’s wrong. Some people don’t even realize how yucky they feel because they’ve just never known anything different!
I have seen so many clients, who thought they were eating pretty healthy, dial in their nutrition with me only to realize that they feel better than ever before!
The way we fuel our bodies plays a HUGE role in the way we feel. This might sound obvious, but it’s an often underrated aspect of “feeling” good. In this post I will cover everything you need to know in order to start feeling better, simply by making a few small changes to your diet! Plus, find out about the three most common culprits that most people don’t even realize are making them feel yucky!
Food is Fuel
I don’t like to label foods as “good” or “bad.” Food is simply fuel and the fact is, some fuel is more efficient than other fuel. When people label a whole food group – like carbs, for example – as “bad,” that’s a recipe for disaster. The truth is our bodies need carbohydrates, as they provide the energy we need to perform basic functions. However, some carbohydrates provide the most benefit to our bodies, such as whole grains or whole foods like vegetables, potatoes, or fruits. Instead of restricting all carbohydrates, it’s better to focus on choosing quality carbohydrates.
The same principle goes for the rest of nutrition: instead of restriction, focus on things like quality, balance, and variety. Your body is incredible, capable of many amazing things. It’s time to start thanking it and caring for it the best you know how, and that includes learning what things help it and what things hinder it.
Single-Ingredient Food
The simplest thing to keep in mind is to try as often as possible to consume single-ingredient food. This type of “whole” food packs the most “bang for your buck” when it comes to nutrition. Your body can more easily break down whole food in order to make good use of the vitamins, fiber, and energy stored inside. Processed food with a lot of added ingredients can cause your body to store more calories, upset the balanced ecosystem in the gut, and ??
While it’s incredibly difficult (and impractical) to stick to a fully single-ingredient diet, by prioritizing whole foods where you can, you can significantly increase the quality fuel your body is receiving, optimizing body functions, increasing energy, and improving your overall sense of “feeling good.”
Learning to prioritize single-ingredient food does not happen overnight. It begins with awareness and making small, sustainable changes over time. Start paying attention to how you feel after you eat fast food or drink those sugary cocktails. Start reading nutrition labels, look for simple swaps to some of your pantry staples (peanut butter is a good one!), try an easy, new recipe once in a while. Your body will tell you what it likes and what it doesn’t like; it just takes practice to listen and adapt, little by little!
If you want help knowing where to start, download my meal prep guide! This guide gives you all the recipes, grocery lists, and macro breakdown you need to make TEN meals that taste good and make you feel good, all in 75 minutes or less! If you want to take the guesswork out of your next grocery trip, download the guide for free today!
3 Common Culprits
With my training, education, and over 14 years of experience, I’ve narrowed down three sneaky yet common culprits that can have a huge effect on many people’s health, whether they even realize it or not. If you’re finding yourself feeling sluggish, bloated, fatigued, or in general discomfort, I would suggest paying attention to your body right after consuming these three things:
1. Gluten
Gluten products can trigger a host of issues for many people, even those without a gluten allergy or Celiac’s. People with a sensitivity to gluten can experience mild to severe symptoms including stomach pain, anxiety, bloating, brain fog, fatigue, headache, skin rash, or more. You would be surprised how many times I’ve recommended my clients avoid gluten for a period of time (at least 21 days) as an experiment, only to have them report feeling less bloated, having more energy, and even their headaches disappearing.
2. Dairy
Another common product that can cause unwanted symptoms is dairy. Dairy is found in many different foods, even beyond milk, cheese, or butter. Most people who reach adulthood find themselves more sensitive to dairy and may even develop an intolerance. Because of how gradual this change can be, a lot of people may not even realize the effect that dairy has on their body.
One of the things I challenge some clients with is to avoid dairy for a period of time and take note of any changes they may experience in their body. More often than not, the client is surprised at the significant improvement they see and feel when they are not consuming dairy. If you suspect you may have an intolerance or a sensitivity to dairy, it’s not a bad idea to try an experiment: go dairy-free for 30 days and see how you feel! You might be surprised.
3. Alcohol
While not technically a food, alcohol is such a big factor in people’s health that I can’t NOT talk about it.
While Warrior Fit Academy is not an alcohol-free program, we do encourage our clients to first pay attention to how alcohol makes them feel, and then practice it in moderation. Some clients choose to give up alcohol completely either for a time or permanently, while others choose to have set limits and put a plan into place to help mitigate their consumption.
Alcohol itself is made from sugars, and oftentimes is combined with other sugary mixers such as soda, syrup, or sugary flavors. Alcohol is also incredibly difficult for your body to process, especially in large quantities, and can wreak havoc on your gut health.
In addition to the alcohol itself, most situations in which people drink are also situations that include food: appetizers, snacks, greasy fast food, etc. As you know, alcohol lowers your inhibitions, which means less self-control and more compulsive snacking or eating. Often this leads to consuming way more calories than you might be aware of.
The Role of Consistency
What I’ve found over my career is that many people think they’re eating fairly healthy when in reality they’re consuming more processed foods or drinks than they’re even aware of. That splash of creamer in a cup of coffee, an impromptu donut at the office, or even that “health” bar are all small and seemingly insignificant things. But just as small habits over a long period of time stack up to BIG changes, small concessions stack up to big obstacles when it comes to your health.
The solution for this can be tricky. For most people, keeping a simple food journal can be helpful. Whether it’s on a phone or in a physical notebook, the act of writing down exactly what you eat can be eye-opening. Even something as simple as taking pictures of your plate and saving it to a folder is a quick way to keep yourself accountable and give you insights into your eating habits that you might not even be aware of.
However, for people who have spent many years enmeshed in the diet culture of counting calories and restrictive diets, the idea of measuring food or tracking macros can be extremely triggering and counter-productive, which is why I don’t always recommend this for everyone.
The bottom line is, in order to experience real results with your diet, you must have a strategic nutrition plan that is attainable, sustainable, and balanced, AND you must stick with it at least 6 days a week. Each week, we assess our clients and award a 4.6.1 champion. In order to be a 4.6.1 champion, you must log 4 workouts, follow your meal plan for 6 days, and attend 1 accountability call with your coach. If a client hits each one of these milestones, they’re in what we call “transformation mode.”
Consistently following a meal plan designed with your lifestyle and body in mind can not only help you lose weight and gain muscle, but will also give you more energy, reduce brain fog, and even get rid of other physical symptoms like headaches, abdominal pains, bloating, gas, and more.
Rounding it Up
Now that you know the crucial role nutrition plays not only in weight loss but also in your overall health, where do you start?
The best thing you can do to set yourself up for long-term success is to focus on small changes! Start by increasing your self-awareness of what you eat and how it makes you feel. Then, try eliminating one of the 3 common culprits I outlined above. See if you notice a difference after three to four weeks. Finally, invest some time and money into building a meal plan that will enable you to consistently fuel your body with quality food that you love to eat.
Want to take the guesswork out of meal planning? You can download my free guide that walks you through the recipes, grocery list, and directions to meal prep ten meals in only 75 minutes or less. These meals prioritize whole foods while giving you lots of flavor and variety, and are easy to make and store ahead of time for quick grab and go meals!
If you’re tired of not feeling good in your skin, give me a call. I’d love to hear from you and help you strategize how to heal yourself from the inside out, AND feel good while you do it!
Feel stuck? Join our program to jumpstart your transformation!
Our 6 Week Feel Good program is a BRAND new program designed just for you! You’ll get:
daily support
custom meal plans
weekly calls
app access with custom workouts
mindset support
And MORE all with no long-term commitment. Don’t wait; invest in yourself now before it’s too late!
