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.