As a full-time wellness coach, I have the pleasure of working with a lot of different people from different countries and backgrounds. I have noticed that there is a nuance to each individual yet their challenges for the most part are all very similar. Particularly in the case of wellness whether it is weight loss, weight gain, muscle gain, or disease reversal there is a common theme among everyone. Can you guess what this common theme is that they all struggle with?

If you guessed diet you would be correct. Modern society via social media, infomercials, and ads all shout to us we need to get in the gym and we need to take a supplement and buy their product so that we can build the body we desire. At the end of the day no matter what your goal is for wellness the foundation is always going to be dietary. You can have someone who works out all the time but if their diet is bad you will not see the progress you would think you’d see from someone who has been working out for years. I know runners who run endlessly and have been on “diets” and have made no significant progress physically but think running is enough to get them there one day. Don’t get me wrong, running is an amazing exercise but it won’t allow you to hit those goals without a change in diet. Every single workout plan, pill, powder, supplement, or challenge; requires a dietary change because it makes the biggest impact on the body. So why is it not shouted to the rooftops so we can fix our health? There is no money to be made from everyone buying vegetables. You probably can't name 3 major vegetable distributors, don’t worry unless I look it up I don’t really know any either.

The point I am working to make here is simple… We are focused on the wrong things. Diet needs to be the cornerstone of any wellness activity we engage in if we want to change the way we look, think, act, and feel.

Here are 3 simple steps you can begin to take today to get moving on the right path to allowing the body to heal and feel better.

1. Start drinking water with lemon when you wake up. 

   I want you to get up and use the bathroom, as soon as you are done, get 16-32oz of room temp to warm water and squeeze 1/4-1/2 of a fresh lemon into the water and drink it. This helps the body wake up and pushes toxins that are still leaving the liver as we finish the elimination cycle of the circadian rhythm.

2. Begin adding micronutrient raw meals into your daily diet.

   There is a saying that goes; Calories determine your weight, Macronutrients determine how you look, and Micronutrients determine how you feel. We hear plenty of the first two but not much of the latter. Micronutrients are all of your vitamins and minerals that the body uses for so many small and large processes. You will be hard-pressed to find a single soul who is protein, fat, or carbohydrate-deficient, yet you can throw a rock and hit someone who is micronutrient deficient. Make a super simple salad for lunch packed with these nutrients you so desperately need. Romaine lettuce, Cucumber, Pickles, broccoli or alfalfa sprouts, asparagus, red onion, radish, green peas, kale, and Swiss chard. Feel free to add whatever leafy green and raw vegetables you like but the best source of micronutrients will be your leafy greens and we don’t get anywhere near enough of them daily. This will begin to feed your body what it is missing and you will begin to feel better rather quickly.

3. Decrease ultra-processed foods.

   Simply put you have 3 main categories of food. Whole food which are your Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, dairy, and whole cuts of meat. When you make a smoothie from fruit it is now “Processed” technically. When you change a food from its original state it is now processed. Ground beef is processed as well. These types of processing is not inherently bad but we must be mindful that they change the digestion rate and the frequency of the food. Also when not doing this at home we never know what was added to it because it’s been changed. Ultra-processed foods are going to come in packaging, they may say GMO or Bio-Engineered ingredients on the labeling. Whether it is Doritos, Quest protein chips, or Siete tortilla chips, they are all ultra-processed foods. These foods take up over 75% of the grocery store and will typically be in the middle of the store. We will discuss more of this later. Removing ultra-processed foods will change your body from being focused on detoxing the chemicals and processing the calories to being focused on now finally being able to utilize the food you are eating and life will begin to change in a better direction.

Wellness Challenge of the Week

Work to implement at least one of the outlined steps consistently for a week and pay attention to how you feel. Each of the steps individually can make an impactful change in your wellness.