Chris’s 30 Day Reboot Day 4

REBOOT DAY 4

Welcome back to Chris’s 30 Day Reboot, Day 4. Whew, we have a lot to talk about, and we haven’t even addressed some of the big ones, like the reduction of alcohol in his diet. We’ll save that and why it’s important for a different blog post.

Chris brings up several good points in his Day 4 blog post. The ones I specifically want to talk about are:

  1. Bowel Movements
  2. Non-linear progression
  3. Dry skin
  4. Sauces
  5. Late night danger zone
  6. Cooking beans for fun and profit (how does he come up with this stuff? lol)

1. Bowel movements. Changing your diet, your routine, or any of your normal day to day habits can definitely have an impact on how your bowels function. Anyone that has ever experienced vacation constipation knows exactly what we’re talking about here. However, this is fairly normal when making diet changes and will iron itself out. Peristaltic action will re-establish a new normal, without the aid of caffeine stimulating things, which is what we want. Rhythmic intestinal contractions are essential for digestion, nutrient absorption and waste elimination. This is just another reason it’s crucial to have balanced mineral levels in the body, as certain minerals, such as potassium (among others), allow all muscles to contract, including those in the intestines. An imbalance of potassium could inhibit intestinal motility and compromise healthy digestion. Your bowel movements can also help give a clearer picture of what’s going on with your digestion and if there are any issues that need to be addressed, depending on their shape, size, color, etc. I’m sure Chris will keep us posted on the internal workings of his digestion, nothing like some poop talk to start the day 😉

2. Non-linear progression: Truer words have never been spoken. Progress looks like a series of peaks and valleys, and if you get emotionally tied to every peak and every valley then you have signed yourself up for one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride. Focusing on the process of eating real, whole foods is the plan, weight loss is just a naturally occurring side effect. Weight can be affected day to day by a myriad of factors. This includes a long list of variables, including; how much sleep you got the night before, hydration levels, the amount of glycogen stored in muscle and liver, hormone levels, the amount and type of exercise done the day before, bowel movements, and the list goes on. This is absolutely why it’s important not to get caught up in what the scale says. I recommend paying attention to markers that are bit more consistent, such as, are you recovering well from your workouts? Do your clothes fit the way they should? Do your energy levels feel even? Are you sleeping well at night? Take all of these things into consideration and adjust accordingly from there.

3. Dry skin: So this one is a combination of factors. Some of these are within your control and some we just have to live with. If it’s a dry-heat at your work, or excessive hand-washing due to the nature of your job, not much can be done about that internally, although if you want an external product that works WONDERS I highly recommend the Jordan Essentials shea body butter lotion paired with their lotion bar, it helps keep your hands moisturized even after multiple washings. The things that we can control,  or our internal terrain, can be helped through diet. One of the best things to help combat dry skin is getting sufficient essential fatty acids (EFA’s) in the diet as well as vitamins A, D and E. All of these are fat-soluble vitamins, so you must have the EFA’s in your diet in order for the vitamins to do their job. Your body cannot produce EFA’s so you must get them through the diet. Some good sources of these include salmon, sardines, flax, chia seeds and hemp hearts. Getting in plenty of water (even though it’s cold and you don’t feel like drinking) is also important. I’m glad to see the pendulum swinging the other way in people’s mindsets about their opinions on dietary fat, the low-fat diet craze needed to go.

4. Sauces- sauce recipes you say? I bet I could wrangle up a few links to some good ones. But more importantly, if you guys tell me what kind of sauces you’re looking for I can come up with a recipe to make it fit into our healthy eating criteria. But here’s three to get you started:

Wing Sauce

Ranch Dressing

Sweet and Sour

5. Late Night Danger Zone: I’m going to keep this short. This is where if you don’t have a plan, you plan to fail. It’s unfortunate but it’s true. If you know dinner is a struggle when you get home from a late night of work, exercise, PTA meetings, or whatever is that is keeping you out late, then you MUST come up with a plan to address this BEFORE you get home. Starting dinner in the slow cooker in the mornings before you leave for work is one great way to do this, or making yourself a smoothie before meal prepping to take the edge off can help. Figure out what works for you.

6. Cooking beans for fun and profit: Dry beans are an insanely cheap way to eat healthy, but they do require some planning and prep. Be sure to soak them first in some sort of acidic solution. Beans add great value to the diet, but they contain anti-nutrients, such as phytates and enzyme inhibitors, which can detract from their nutritive value. The phytic acid in the beans binds up minerals preventing your body from fully absorbing them. We can reduce phytic acid by either sprouting, soaking or souring.  Soaking is the least involved in my opinion. 

Whew! Ok, and this is where all these thoughts sprouted from:

Chris’s 30 Day Reboot Day 4

30 Day Diet Reboot Day 4

Topics in today’s post:

  • Bowel Movements
  • Non-linear progression
  • Bottomless Starbucks cup
  • Nor’ Easters
  • Dry skin
  • How to avoid the late-night eating danger zone
  • Sauces
  • How to cook beans for fun and profit

Had a good day yesterday.  Got some of my morning routine in.  Got my workout in.  Stuck to my plan.

With my reduction of volume and change in diet my insides are trying to figure out what I’m doing.  Before I started this reboot, due the volume and lower quality of the food, I was quite regular.  That first cup of coffee would instigate a ‘morning meeting’ before I headed to work.

With the new routine my body is trying to find its rhythm again.  I only had one BM yesterday and only after getting to the gym in the office after being up for a few hours.  I thought I might be constipated but everything seems to be ok, just one of the things that your body does when you change routines.

If you’re watching the numbers, you’ll notice that the weight loss is non-linear.  The first few days you’ll see a big drop or two.  This is just the body trying to rebalance itself.  That’s why I don’t focus on weight loss, the weight loss will come, focus on eating clean and keep reading

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