Transitioning Kids to Eat by Design

Transitioning the kids to Eat by Design has been a bit challenging. I'm ashamed to say it (only because I know better) but our kids have become cereal-aholics and bread-aholics. Luckily, they love fruits and veggies. So, we have not had a problem at all with adding those things into their diets. They were already there, but now they're just there in higher amounts.

I have been struggling with how to get them off of cereal in the morning and sandwiches at lunch. We always have farm-fresh organic eggs in the house and I offer them to the kids every single morning. Most mornings, they decline my offer. I have started offering cottage cheese with Polaner All Fruit as an alternative. I understand that cottage cheese, and dairy in general, is not necessarily By Design, but it is better than cereal, toast or oatmeal. Sometimes they accept, but again, most times they decline. I've been giving in and allowing them to eat the cereal, but I'm coming to the point where I would rather them have no meal at all instead of a toxic meal.

As for lunches, Little H packs her lunch. She loves to take tuna fish sandwiches. One day I replaced the bread on her sandwich with leaf lettuce and she loved it! Ate it right up! SCORE! I guess all of her sandwiches will be lettuce wraps from now on.

Now, if I can just get Little N to break his peanut butter and jelly addiction, we'll be on our way ;)

What I ate today:
coffee with heavy cream and agave nectar
chicken salad with a little mayo
3 slices of bacon
grilled chicken
salad
11 tbsp fish oil

How I moved:
walked for 1.5 hours in noon-day sun - it felt so good to be in the sun and to move. My sore achy quads felt great during the walk.

Fish Oil

Okay, so I started taking my fish oil yesterday. Fish oil is one of the supplements that is recommended by Life by Design. Other supplements include Vitamin D and probiotics. The purpose of the fish oil is to help reestablish and maintain an optimal Omega-3 : Omega-6 ratio. Ideally, the ration should be 1:1 or 1:2. However, considering what I've been eating my whole life, I would hazard a guess that my ratio is more like 1:20 (I don't know...never had it tested, but I can guess it's pretty skewed). So, as was recommended by mentor, Dr. Jamie Richards, I began with fish oil supplements to help restore the balance and to help my body get out of a chronic inflammatory state. Nothing good comes from a chronically inflamed body and nothing but good comes when you break that cycle.





So, as per Dr. Jamie's recommendations, I am megadosing fish oil for the next 3 weeks. The theory behind the megadosing is to force the omega-6's from my tissues so that balance can be restored. Megadosing in conjunction with Eating by Design willl really help me get on the right track.





To figure out how much fish oil I should be taking I used the Robb Wolf Fish Oil Calculator on Whole 9 Life. It's really simple. You just plug in your weight, the EPA and DHA values from your fish oil bottle and your factor. Most of us that are new to Life by Design are a factor somewhere between 0.75 and 1.0. I used 0.75 as my factor. So, when you enter all this information it will tell you how many teaspoons of fish oil you need per day. Mine came to 34 teaspoons (about 11 tablespoons)/day for the brand that I bought. That's ALOT! They don't call this megadosing for nothing! Wow! But, it's only for 3 weeks and then I can back down to a maintenance dosage.





I wanted to ease myself into taking fish oil. Dr. Jamie mentioned that I may experience some digestive upset if I start out take the full amount. So, yesterday I took 5 tablespoons at dinner time. That's half of my daily amount. And, you know, it wasn't all that bad. I'm taking the liquid form because it higher EPA and DHA values than any pill. It was citrus flavored and the taste was actually pretty decent. What I did have a problem with, however, was the oily-ness. I tried the first tablespoon by itself and didn't like it, so I thought that I would try the rest in a glass of hot water. My thought process was that it would be something like tea. Well, I was wrong. The oily-ness coated my lips and I just didn't like it. However, I managed to get it all down. Surprsingly, I didn't have any fish burps or digestive upset for the rest of the night. Maybe tomorrow I'll try mixing it in to my shake or using it as a dressing on my salad.





What I ate today:


coffee with heavy cream and agave nectar


whey protein shake


salad with left over chicken breast from last night's dinner, olive oil and salt for dressing


Ground beef, carrots, onions, garlic, green peppers with salt, pepper, cumin, and some tumeric





How I moved:


foam roller for mobility training


ramped-up full squats-added weight until I had 110 lbs on the bar and did 5 reps


ramped-up dead lifts - added weight until I had 100 lbs on the bar and did 5 reps


ramped-up bench press - added weight until I had 50 lbs on the bar (my arms are much weaker than my legs. Increasing upperbody strength is something I am focusing on for my body.

Step One - Brain-Body Connection

As chiropractors, we were already doing Step #1 (Brain-body connection). We, Greg & I, already adjust each other at least once a week and we check our 3 children every week, as well. All 3 of the kids have been adjusted since birth and will continue to be checked and adjusted for the rest of their lives. For us, it is an essential component to health. It is because of their regular checks (and adjustments when needed) that they have never had an ear infection, have never taken any medication, don't get the flu shot, and only go to the doctor for the annual physicals as required by school. When they start to experience symptoms of their immune system being challenged, the first thing they do is ask for an adjustment. The next thing they do is ask for some water and some fresh veggies. You see, in our house and in our chiropractic practice we talk about the good guys and the bad guys in the body. The good guys make up the immune system and we ALWAYS want them to be strong to they can win every fight. The bad guys are the viruses and bacteria that we encounter on a regular basis. When the good guys are nice and strong they can fight the bad guys with no problem. Most of the time, the fighting is going on and we don't even know about it. However, there are times when the bad guys are extra strong or the good guys are a little weak. It is during these times that the good guys have to fight harder. As a result, we may experience a fever, a stuffy or runny nose, coughing, sneezing, vomitting, headache, body soreness, fatigue, etc. While none of those symptoms are comfortable and no one enjoys having a fever, they are simply signs that the body is fighting. At this point, we can make one of 2 choices. We can either take a medication that is going to kill the bad guys (antibiotics) and also kill the good guys in the process, or at least make them weaker, OR we can help the good guys to get stronger. In our house (and in our practice), we choose to help the good guys get stronger. Because strong good guys can ALWAYS beat the bad guys.

The kids and I had a discussion not too long ago about what we could do to help our good guys get stronger and this is what they came up with:

• get adjusted



• drink lots of water



• no milk



• no sugar



• eat lots of veggies



• get lots of sleep - go to bed early when experiencing symptoms



• play outside - the sunshine and exercise help the good guys



• pray - as Little N says, "Jesus can take it away."

So, my challenge for you is this: Are you going to continue to focus on killing or getting rid of the bad guys (and in turn weaken the good guys), or are you going to help your good guys get stronger?

What is Life by Design?

Life by Design is the brainchild of Drs. Jamie and Joel Richards, chiropractors and owners of Cafe of Life Chiropractic Studio in London, Ontario. It is simply understanding how to eat, move and think congruently with your body's design, so that you can tap into the unlimited potential for health that lies within you. There are 5 components to living a Life by Design.

• #1. Maintain a clear brain-body connection. This can only be achieved through chiropractic care. A good nerve supply is essential to health and life. At the core of all cellular function, from glands producing hormones and stress chemicals, to muscles contracting for optimal performance, to the immune system defending against foreign invaders, to tissues and organs undergoing healing and repair, is the nervous system. Wellness Chiropractic focuses on correcting interference to this delicate and important system, establishing a base of quality communication upon which integration of the other Life By Design steps can be maximized.




• #2. Eat by Design. Knowing and understanding the body's innate nutritional requirements is tantamount to living a full, healthy, rich life. When we give our body the nutrients that it needs and remove the foods that are toxic to the body, we experience greater and greater levels of health and healing. Eating by Design can be a difficult transition. Most of what we have been taught by traditional medicine, Western society, the FDA and the food pyramid runs extremely counter to Life by Design. However, recent research along with the Paleo and Primal movements in the nutrition world are picking up steam and are starting to open the eyes of the American public to what our bodies needs really are. The foundation of Eat by Design is roughly Paleo or Primal in nature. It is based on an understanding of our genetic requirements for specific nutrients and eating more closely to how our ancestors ate. At the core of Eat by Design are the following principles. Completely eliminate grains (wheat, corn, rice, flour, barley, oats, multigrain anything, breads, pastas, tortillas...you get the picture). There are a multitude of reasons why grains are toxic to your body and we'll get into them in a different post.

Completely eliminate grains (wheat, flour, corn, oats, barley, rice, breads, multigrain anything, pastas, tortillas, . . . you get the picture). We'll get into the reasons why these foods are toxic for you in a later post.

Completely eliminate processed sugars (sucrose) and limit fruit sugars (fructose). Again, we'll explore the reasons why later.

Eliminate legumes (including peanuts and peanut butter).

Eliminate dairy.

Add in LOTS of good quality lean proteins (lean meats, bacon, fish, poultry, eggs, etc.)

Add in LOTS of vegetables. Fresh and raw veggies would be the ideal source. However, cooked or steamed are okay, too.

Use nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, etc.) as condiments. While a great source of protein, some nuts contain too much Omega-6 and can have a toxic effect on your body.

• #3. Move by Design. Again, Move by Design is based on your body's requirements for movement. It requires an understanding of how your body was created and it built for movement. The principles of Move by Design are:




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  Get Mobile. This can be achieved through foam roller exercises. We'll be blogging on that later on.

  
  
  
  

  Lift Heavy Stuff.

  
  
  
  

  Move frequently at a slow pace.

  
  
  
  

  Sprint once in a while.





• #4. Life by Design Essentials. Recognizing the body's innate requirements allows us to recognize the areas where we are deficient (even when eating by design). So supplementation of Vitamin D, fish oil, and probiotics is recommended.




• #5. Rest, play, love.




• #6. Have a purpose.