This will help keep your holidays easy, breezy and healthy!

I hope this email finds you enjoying this festive month! My acupuncturist doesn’t call this time of year flu season instead he calls it stress season. To help you stay connected to the most important person YOU know, I want to share my quick and simple “What to eat in 3-Steps”.

If I got paid a penny for every time someone I know or do not know asks me “What should I eat”, I would have a lot of pennies:). As a clinical nutritionist, health practitioner and a conscious guide, I can NOT tell people what to eat or not eat. There are too many variables that can affect this answer such as, mood, season, climate, organ function, digestive juices, emotional balance, cravings, a need for more grounding foods, a need for a lighter meal, your beliefs and what your body truly needs in that moment.

I have had clients and friends who have experienced cancer, and you think I would go into ultra protective and righteous nutrition mode and project everything I ever read or researched onto them. That is NOT what you do, instead it is all about enhancing self awareness. Everyone’s body is different EVERY day, learning how to know your body’s needs is the ultimate way to heal. You need to take into account all of the things I listed above to see if you need to choose a raw meal, a cooked soup, an intermittent fast day or a grass-fed burger. Your body is so capable of supporting you and we get to practice aligning with its desire.

We accumulate toxins everyday whether it is from the environment, lack of nutrients in our food, guilt, self-doubt or toxic relationships, the goal is to support our digestive organs and processes to consistently release these toxins everyday. Do you have a friend who can eat anything and never get sick? Or another friend who is so great at self-care and has amazing boundaries which keeps them healthy and looking 10 years younger than they are? If so, they have a really great constitution, emotional well-being and their body is on top of balancing the removal of toxins from the environment, body and they are able to process their emotions immediately. If you are like me or the rest of us, you may have to be WAY more on top of your game to give your body and heart a fighting chance.

Besides repressed emotions, undigested food is the other giant toxin. I had digestive issues (and repressed emotional issues) for many years of my life and it showed up in my skin, brain fog, constant digestive problems, infections, allergies and grouchiness:) For my emotional repression, I was blessed to work with a community with people experiencing paralysis, I helped them physically while they supported me to learn to feel my emotions. This lead me to find a guide, many health care practitioners, hundred of books and continuing eduction to heal my digestion once and for all! Now, I get to help others feel better by helping them absorb their nutrients, release toxins and process those emotions. Because I don’t know about you, I am not very good at rejecting comfort food. I still emotionally eat, and have learned how to do so with conscious nutrition awareness, heaps of compassion and nutritional science.

So, before you try to overthink your nutrition program, I want to share this information with you.

These health foods can be detrimental for certain constitutions on the wrong day or time.

1. Raw foods: When I went to Hawaii for the first time, I was trying to be a perfect nutritionist and went on a raw food diet. I was unusually hot, constipated, bloated and super cranky! After a couple of weeks, I was over it and ate lentils and anchovies and ALL systems were a go a few minutes later. So before you approach ANY healthy eating plan, remember your body’s needs change EVERY day. Learning how to dial into your body versus the old mindset to push through and do it perfectly. Eat raw foods in combination with the cooked foods you enjoy. Some cooked foods have more nutritional value than raw for example, pumpkins, asparagus, carrots, mushrooms and tomatoes.

2. Fermented veggies: Fermented veggies are amazing for us and many cultures use fermented foods in their diet. However, having fermented veggies if you are experiencing absorption issues can challenge your gut balance. It isn’t about the amount of fermented veggies you eat, it is all about how much you are absorbing. Remember, undigested food is toxic. Try adding in fermented veggies slowly and tune into Step 1: FEEL (below) if you are feeling hot or cold foods. Don’t force adding foods into your diet by just using your brain, connect with your body FIRST.

3. Quality meat: Most of us grew up on meat and potatoes. It was a bit different then, we had less processed foods, a bit more quality and way less medications and environmental pollutants. It takes sufficient stomach acid to digest meat properly and as you are noticing, undigested food is NOT good. Besides your body not being capable of digesting big portions of meat, the production of meat is not sustainable for us to eat meat everyday let alone three times a day. For a few reasons, I am consuming 70% less meat that I did a couple of years ago. I am in my mid-forties now and your hormones change every 7 years, and my body is craving less meat as I head into peri-menopause. Other reasons are, the environment and respect for how we consciously treat our animals. How you do one thing is how you do everything. For me this means, to be extra cautious with how I consume meat to support a sustainable culture. While you practice Step 2: MEAL, you may notice you only need a few ounces of meat a day, every other day or even throughout the week. The old food guide pyramid or other nutrition models of eating 3-6 oz every meal IS not true for every BODY and every day.

This information was not meant to cause any more confusion or controversy. Instead, I wanted to share this content with you to increase awareness of your body and also enhance CONSCIOUSNESS, the name of my biz.

So how do you know what to eat when? I want you to be so certain and sure of yourself on what your body needs, no matter what any expert tells you, even me. Instead of choosing meals from your mind, a place of fear, strict discipline or your past knowledge, let’s try something new!

These 3-Steps will help you stay connected to your body as you experiment with what foods and timing works best for you!

We suggest you download, print and hang the 3-Steps on your fridge or save the image and have it ready for you on your mobile device.

CLICK on the image or HERE to download your What to eat in 3-Steps.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be sharing more tips, scientific research and guidance to help you break down the 3-steps and apply them to your life.

Have a wonderful holiday and stay compassionate and tuned into yourself no matter what happens,

Heather Fleming, C.C .N.