This morning I found myself standing in my kitchen eating kimchi out of the jar and sipping Ecuadorian Heirloom Raw Cacao blended with water and full fat coconut milk – instead of a morning coffee. Breakfast of champions!
As I stood there enjoying my morning meal, I started thinking about how unusual it would be to most people. Even a couple of years ago, I would have thought, “that sounds weird.” Yet this is what my version of eating By Design has come to look like.
In the past year, as I have learned more about different foods, nutrients and food quality, there has been a shift in the foods that I prioritize. My diet has migrated further away from the consumption of conventional meats, conventional dairy items and even away from some fruits and vegetables.
I have fully eliminated coffee from my diet (as of six weeks ago) and replaced it with herbal teas and that raw cacao concoction I was talking about at the beginning.
Staples in my kitchen now include a variety of fermented foods including homemade sauerkraut, kimchi, kvass (fermented beet juice) and kombucha. Instead of the fish oil and vitamin D combination I took for years, I am now supplementing with fermented cod liver oil (with high vitamin butter oil).
If you took a peak at the top shelf of my fridge you would find a stock pile of grass-fed butter that one of my friends has been bootlegging, a few sticks at a time, across the border every time he goes to visit in the Detroit area. He also brings me back high quality gelatin that I use to make “candies” for my gut health.
Other things you would find in my fridge are: a couple of varieties of liver pates, unpasteurized yogurt and cream, blue-green algae, home made mayo, anchovies and seaweed. Surprising to some, my fridge is currently bacon free and has been for several weeks.
In my freezer is my collection of animal bones for broth, frozen wild berries, mussels and frozen grass-fed beef liver.
So, why am I telling you all of this?
For a few reasons:
First, to highlight that all of these foods are very nutritious and are not found in the Standard American Diet.
Second, and most importantly, because one year ago, my fridge and freezer looked very different then it does now. One year before that, my fridge and freezer, again, looked different.
I want to highlight the evolution of change that happens over time in our lives and habits as we commit to learning and growing.
To be clear, this is by no means meant to be a claim to set a ‘gold standard.’ For those of you eating By Design who are eating bacon and coffee daily, I am not criticizing that in any way, shape or form. I am just showing where my By Design journey has taken me, as an example of how things change.
For those of you who were at London’s Eat By Design 2.0 workshop last week, you will remember that I talked about defining your By Design lifestyle based on your preferences, habits and what optimizes the feel, look and function of your body. We really cannot encourage this enough.
Within the Eat By Design guidelines there is so much flexibility and room for personalization. One of the most exciting things about the 30 Day Challenge is seeing how every single person is playing this game with their own strategy and that we are all winning.
Typically, what we see when people start out is that they step into a grain-free zone where they are still eating most of the same foods as they did before, but taking out the not By Design ingredients. This is a great strategy.
Once that is mastered, people tend to get a bit more adventurous with their meal choices, abandoning traditional notions of “breakfast foods” or “snack foods.”
Eventually, the palate changes and different cuts of meat (including organ meats), fermented foods and more obscure vegetables become appealing.
Wherever you are in your By Design journey, I want to congratulate you for taking this challenge on. Your body thanks you and you are truly on a path towards a happier, healthier life.
I would also like to encourage you to stay with it! Even if it does not “feel like it,” this is working and you are moving closer to the goals and results you have set for yourself. The more you embrace the changes, pick yourself up and get back at it when you slip back into old habits, and keep moving forward, the greater the rewards. New favorite foods, higher self-esteem and a really great life are a pretty sweet prize for your efforts!
Where are you at in your By Design journey? What steps can you take to get to the next level?
If you are looking for a little guidance or more information, please count on us and use as your resources.
For more simple By Design recipes why not pick up your copy of the Eat By Design Cookbook. I’ve created it in the form of a 28-day meal plan (plus grocery lists!) so you don’t need to think about what’s for breakfast, lunch or dinner for the next month. Or you can grab the first 7 days FREE by clicking here.