Eating To Support & Heal Your Body

If you've been with me in the Soul Aligned Self Care world then you know that I'm very passionate about nutrition and using that to support and heal my body.  If you're new here then I would like to share with you this passion.  

It started in 2007 when I had a stroke and started eating a vegan diet and then in 2015 I became certified as a health coach and continued on to become certified as a culinary nutrition expert and educator and life coach.  I've managed to put all these things together into one package to help my clients put the best version of themselves into the world while feeling incredible.  I believe being mindful about what you put into your body to fuel your body is epically important.  

The one time that this was very noticeable almost instantaneously was when I was training for a triathlon. During that time period, I also went vegan and so I knew how I felt before I was vegan and after.  The difference was very noticeable. I had tons of energy, I recovered a lot quicker from my workouts, and I even lost a little bit of weight. I was amazed.

Needless to say, I was pretty hooked.  Nowadays I call myself plant-based because I do not eat a totally vegan diet.  I definitely eat honey and sometimes eat eggs,  and if someone gives me a cookie or a piece of birthday cake at a party I eat it, no questions. 

I always joke around and say I'm on the Tina diet.  and even though it's a joke I'm pretty serious about it because what you really have to look at is what's good for you not following some fad diet to the T. What's important to you is what matters.  If you're vegan because you don't want to support an industry that makes animals suffer or you want to do it for the environment then that's awesome.  Some people do it for their health.  I found that I did it for my health but when you start to eat a plant-based or a vegan diet you become way more empathetic and aware of the suffering that eating animal products causes. I believe over time it makes you a very empathetic caring person.  Now if you eat animal products don't get offended I'm not saying people that eat animal products aren't empathetic or caring.  I'm just saying it was amazing how much more aware it made me.

Since that time back in 2007  I've learned so many ways to support my health and my body.  and being mindful about what I eat is always one of the things that is at the top of my list. 

So today, I want to go over a few steps that could be really helpful in getting you started.

Let's get into it 

Getting started

Be mindful of what you're putting in your body.  Every time you go to drink or eat anything ask yourself the question,  does this support my body and my health,  or does this support disease in my body?  this isn't about being a perfectionist with everything you eat.  This is just about becoming more aware of what you're putting in your body.  

Eat Real Food

Many of us go day to day snacking and eating in our busy lives and we don't really know what's in the food that we're eating.  The key and I believe the most important thing is to eat real food.  Now this sounds really simple and it is but it's not always easy.  You see, when we go to the supermarket we're surrounded by things that are processed and full of chemicals that even can have many false health claims on the labels.  When really what you should be eating are the things without labels.  Or at the very least things that have limited ingredients on the labels.  So your job is to actually look at the labels and read the ingredients and then figure out what all that stuff is.  If you don't know what it is. look it up. Then you should ask yourself the question, would I feed this to a baby or my child, if the answer is no then you probably shouldn't eat it either. 

 I've learned so many things by reading labels. These are just a few.

-Sometimes there's more than one type of sugar on the label. They just use many different names. 

-They legitimately put milk in everything and they don't need to. WHY????

-food companies actually make healthy versions of specific foods for other countries because these other countries banned some of these ingredients.  But they still feed us, in the United States the crap. 

- They put maltodextrin in soooo many things and this is bad for your gut health and your blood sugar levels. This is why it's good to learn about what you’re eating. If you're prediabetic or diabetic or suffer from disease from gut dysregulation then this is important, right?

The next thing I do is not only look up the ingredients that I don't recognize but also look up if they are safe and that's when you learn how bad a lot of the stuff is for you.

But you will also learn that some of it is not.

Now you might say the FDA approves all this stuff and sometimes that might be true, but the thing is the FDA does not police the companies, the companies police themselves. so we can all imagine how that works out.

I have a little bit of a warning.  Once you start doing this you can't unsee it.  But now you can just get better options. Which will support your health.

This leads me to The Next Step.

Find better options

So after you learn about some of the things that you eat on a regular basis, and you decide you don't want to put these things in your body anymore, the next step is to find some better options.

The way you do that is slowly and with small steps, at least that's the easiest way.  I'm not saying you should throw everything out in your pantry and your fridge. What works really well is when you find something that you just don't want to buy anymore or consume, when that runs out and you go to the store to buy a new one find a better option then.  Unless you're so upset about the ingredients, then I guess you could throw it out and find another option right away.  I'm just trying to show you the easiest way to transition into eating to support your health and your body.

Everything I talked about today is just one small step, a starting point so to speak.  I’ll be going deeper into this for the next month mainly on my Instagram,  you can find me at @tinastinsoncoach.

I'll be sharing with you what I eat on a daily basis and it might help you learn what you can swap unhealthy food out for.

I feel like These are enough steps to get started and I want to encourage you to take the steps. It may be a lot of upfront work but the long-term effect can be life-changing for your health.

If you plan on joining me on Instagram please send me a private message and let me know you're there watching. I love hearing from people in the community.  Also, reach out if you have any questions

Xo T

I hope this helps you get yourself started in the direction of better health. These steps are some of the practices I use with my clients and I also use my online plant-based meal planning program, Plant Based Made Easy, I see how having all of these meal plans at the tips of their fingers can help my clients be successful in hitting their health goals.

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