THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

Know Your Why

When you are standing in the snack aisle of Whole Foods or your local grocery store, what guides the snack that you decide to purchase? Is it what you are craving at that moment? Is it what flavors you enjoy? Could you imagine living a life where decisions like this are guided by one question: What is most in alignment with my heart?

Before undertaking any major habit change, you have to know your why. And I’m not talking about a list of goals like improving heart health, losing weight, looking more toned, getting rid of cravings, or increasing muscle mass. All of these goals fall within a single underlying more true objective: I deserve robust physical health, to not have cravings, to feel more energetic, to lose weight, or be more muscular because I deserve to feel and be my best possible self. You deserve, quite simply, to live your healthiest life. In fact, you owe it to yourself so that you can give more of your energy to the things and people that you love, and achieve everything you are looking to achieve in this life.

During this program, you are going to be realigning with this question again and again. Chances are, employing it as a decision- making tool in one area of your life will spread into other areas, where you will feel empowered to let go of things not serving you across the board. Asking yourself this question everyday connects you with what’s most important to you, deep down. And then it comes back to: Why would I do anything voluntarily that interferes with being a good father, a supportive neighbor, a passionate leader? The question, ‘What is most in alignment with me?’ in the context of food, is therefore equivalent to, ‘What is most in alignment with my heart, health, or longevity?’

BELOW THE LINE: CALORIES

‘Below the Line’ foods do not add vitality to our bodies, but we may consume them socially, for convenience, or to meet elevated caloric needs when we are physically active. Given the potential for these foods to contribute to GI stress and inflammation, and for their lack of vital nutrients, we should keep these foods to a minimum in the diet.

This is the spectrum of Unhealthy to Not Unhealthy, for anything that’s outside of the foods ‘Above the Line’:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

UNHEALTHY NOT UNHEALTHY

‘Below the Line’ foods can include anything ranging from 7-10 on the scale; from slightly unhealthy to not unhealthy. It is important to note that ‘Not Unhealthy’ is not the same as ‘Healthy’. These foods can still have a place on our plates, but that all depends on the amount we are ingesting and the context in which we are ingesting them.

Anything below a 7 on the scale above is outside of your consumption circle. As a starting point to determining whether a food fits ‘Below the Line’, you can refer to the following list of ingredients. The presence of any of these ingredients in the food renders them outside of your consumption circle:

• Industrial Seed oils of any kind, including sunflower, safflower, canola/rapeseed, grape seed, peanut, corn, soybean, and rice bran. (Additionally, this includes margarine and butter substitute spreads, as well as anything labeled “vegetable oil”.)

• Gluten

• Found in bread, pasta, crackers, and even most soy sauce.

• Refined sugars or artificial sweeteners including corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, sucrose, agave syrup, cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, sucralose (Splenda), aspartame, and dextrose. 

• Non-Organic varieties of the following fruits or vegetables (including “The Dirty Dozen”):

• apples (including apple sauce), blueberries, grapes (including raisins), cherries, nectarines, leafy greens, pears, peaches, spinach, strawberries, bell peppers, tomatoes and celery.

• MSG (check salsas, dips, sauces, stock cubes, spice blends, etc.)

• Potassium bromate (often found in bread)

• Tofu, soy milk, soy protein 

• Artificial flavors (limit natural flavors as best you can)

It’s Healthy Until It’s Stressful

Another benefit of breaking up Nourishment vs. Calories is the space it allows for enjoyment. If foods fit within 7-10 on the Unhealthy to Not Unhealthy scale, the emotional benefit of being able to enjoy certain foods with family, friends, colleagues or by oneself for convenience or as a treat, can override any benefit of cutting them out completely. Diets and meal plans as such can cause strong feelings of restriction, and eventually lead to feelings of failure and disappointment when the rule is inevitably broken. The effect this has on morale significantly affects how sustainable a lifestyle program is.

Not at the Expense of Metabolic Health

In the Heart-Focused program, metabolic health guides every decision surrounding nutrition. We are not only looking to optimize our metabolic health, we are looking to maximize it. 

When metabolic health is maximized, the following become optimized: 

• Fasting insulin and blood sugar stay in a normal to low range

• Healthy cholesterol levels are achieved and maintained

• Sex hormones tend to rise

• Thyroid hormones find their equilibrium

• Our ability to manage or cope with stress

• And most importantly, our risk of metabolic and chronic disease decreases significantly, including heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, and dementia

You Have to Earn “Balance”

How often have you heard someone say, “It’s all about balance!” People love to talk about balance. This is used as a seemingly wholesome justification for eating that ice cream, that cookie, that piece of cake. But my question to them is: How do you know what “balance” is when you haven’t tested the limits and experienced the extremes?

Once people have experienced what it feels like to eat 100% in alignment with their heart, health, and longevity, they acquire a much different definition of balance. In our context, it’s the balance of having those ‘Under the Line’ foods - the occasional date or maple syrup sweetened treat or the occasional bowl of corn chips. But we can’t possibly know what the right “balance” of these foods in our life is, without experiencing being without them.

For many of my coaching clients over the years, this is their experience:

I often prescribe a short period where all sugar is restricted, including ALL fruits). Some of my clients have questions and may even disagree because they don’t want to miss out on any nutrients they perceive they are getting from these foods. Then about 6 weeks later when they can start eating foods with the approved sugars, guess what? They have a smoothie with a banana in it, or a piece of dark chocolate, and they feel it’s effects almost immediately. A headache, an energy crash shortly after eating, poor concentration, and craving more sugar for the rest of the day.

So the goal, whether you opt to fully cut sugar or not, is to get in touch with what it feels like to be the healthiest you, so that when you reintroduce foods or enjoy them on occasion, you have your own definition of “balance.” When you are connected with that feeling, you will be able to identify when something is getting in the way of your success, and you will also have no problem letting it go, saying no with some frequency, or limiting yourself to small portions.

DEFINING YOUR GOALS

Empowerment

A foundational element of this program is shifting your perspective on nourishment for vitality and food for calories, and understanding the difference. You will quickly notice we work from nutritional guidelines and frameworks - not meal plans. The reason for this is simple: You are making these choices today, just as it will be you making them 6 months from now and 6 years from now.

Meal plans, though well-intended, can be a method of over-complicating the decision-making process, adding stress and feelings of restriction to something that, once you understand your guiding principles, individuals can fully sustain throughout and following the program.

You don’t need a meal plan to make choices that are aligned with your heart, health, and longevity.