DIET AND LIFESTYLE
Three Golden Food Rules
To get the most out of our products we highly encourage you to follow our Three Golden Food Rules as much as you can whilst using HALT Hunger and going forward:
1. Eat living things and organic where possible.
Tips:
- Aka fruit, veg, meat.
- Question anything in a packet.
- Avoid processed foods.
- Avoid additives and artificial sweeteners
2. Avoid seed oils. Including: canola, sunflower, corn, soybean, cottonseed, grapeseed, peanut, rice bran, rapeseed etc.
Tips:
- Look at ingredients labels.
- Be aware most restaurants cook with seed oils. There are ways to minimise exposure for example ask to swap the salad dressings for olive oil instead.
- Anything deep fried (unless by you in fresh non-seed oil) - it is toxic, no matter how good the restaurant is.
3. Avoid grains. Grains cause inflammation and are one of the main causes of visceral fat and fatty liver.
Tips:
- Especially those containing gluten should be avoided full time. Get familiar with what food contains gluten. Click here.
- It is generally agreed that white rice is well tolerated and ok to eat.
- If you have the occasional homemade popcorn made with a healthy fat like coconut oil, don't give yourself a hard time but whilst you are on this programme do try to avoid all grains and see how you feel.
Other Diet Tips
- include adequate protein which is key to maintaining muscle mass (aim for over 0.6 grams per pound of lean body mass). If you are struggling to eat enough protein try essential amino acids. Collagen and gelatine are also important additions.
- include and do not limit plenty of good fats (esp butter, ghee, tallow and coconut oil/MCT oil).
- include organ meat once a week. If you can't face it, have a spoonful of liver pate regularly.
- include carbs, especially fruits and cooked vegetables with plenty of fibre. Raw vegtables are hard to digest apart from grated or well chewed raw carrot (see the work of Ray Peat). We highly recommend his daily carrot salad....daily! Click here for the recipe.
- as a general rule good bacteria like fruit and veg and fibre and bad bacteria like sugar and additives. Glucose is a valuable energy source and needed to maintain proper thyroid function but the type of sugar and what it is paired with is key. Sugar is often combined with grains, additives and/or unhealthy fats, the best sugar is from natural sources ie fruit and honey.
- avoid industrial meats, eat grass fed and grass finished where possible.
- alcohol isn't great for you.....save it for special occasions!
- if you want to go extreme (keto, carnivore, vegan) be careful to look after your microbiome by supplementing with prebiotic fibre. Also be mindful of missing nutrients and be aware of the common pitfalls, it takes a LOT of work to be healthy on a vegan diet.
- counting calories is not helpful. A good appetite and high metabolism is a sign of good health. Nutritional impact and toxic additives that are more important to track.
- give attention and gratitude to the food you eat, as you eat.
Use HALT Hunger to help you follow these Three Golden Food Rules and eat a sensible quantity.
Other supplements to help your gut that may work in combination and are worth researching are Lactoferrin, BPC 157 and L-Glutamine.
Exercise
We all know exercise is vital for health.
Prolonged sitting is considered a significant risk factor for chronic diseases. Numerous studies have linked extended periods of sitting with an increased risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, as well as increased mortality rates. Reducing sedentary behavior and incorporating more physical activity into daily routines is strongly recommended for better health outcomes.
Equally overtraining can lead to injuries, weakened immune function, chronic fatigue, and hormonal imbalances.
Try to incorporate regular movement throughout your day, including weight training two to three times per week to build muscle and boost metabolism, avoid sitting for prolonged periods and incorporate activity into your week. Get moving with walking, cycling, skimming, playing sports or dancing around the house!
Stress
Stress has a significant impact on how we metabolise food. When you're stressed, your body releases cortisol, a hormone that tells you to store fat. This is because your body thinks it needs extra energy to handle whatever's stressing you out. On top of that, stress can make you crave junk food and can lead to overeating.
Stress also messes with your sleep, which can throw off the hormones that control hunger, making you feel hungrier and less satisfied after eating. This combination of hormonal changes and stress-induced eating can make it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it.
Our probiotics will help with this but it's also important to step back and take a look at your lifestyle.
Always being on the go keeps your cortisol levels high. It's like your body is always in fight-or-flight mode, never getting a chance to relax and recover. Think about your habits and how you spend your days.
Ask yourself, is your bucket full? If so, have a rethink about your priorities - learn to say no, ask for help with household chores, set boundaries, prioritise sleep, get out in nature and remember that natural light is important Click here for more information.
Aim to have at least 10-30 minutes quiet time each day for yourself to rest and recover and calm your mind, be it to meditate, stretch, breathe, journal, have a bath or reflect.
Detox your lotions and potions
It's estimated the average woman applies over 168 different chemicals to her skin every day. Your skin acts is permeable and allowing substances applied to it directly into the bloodstream.
Stick to only putting things on your skin that you would be willing to eat and throw out the rest. You are better off wearing nothing on your skin than many of the beauty products on the market today.
Perfumes for example cause rapid skin aging, another example is sodium lauryl sulfate which can disrupt hormones. There are many offending chemicals and there are a few helpful websites that will rate your products, an example is here.
Detoxing and clearing out these unnatural substances is an important step in maintaining optimal health and wellness.Go through all the things that you put on your skin and spray in your house.
Other environmental factors include things like mould, air pollution, dental infections, excessive chlorine and heavy metal exposure which we won't cover here but these are factors to consider when thinking about your health.