Life is just one big experiment! Don’t ya think? We’re constantly trying things and seeing what happens as a result. Hopefully, we’re doing this consciously.
If we’re wanting things to be different than we need to try new things until we find the result we’re looking for. Take it from me, hoping and praying that things will magically change will never work. You have to DO things differently.
Today I want to share the results of a self-imposed 7-day food experiment.
I talked about rotating foods and eating 50 different whole foods per week right here.
My plan was to incorporate several different food philosophies that make the most amount of sense to me based on what I know about how the body gets sick and how it heals.
My Favorite Food Philosophies:
- “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates (Father of modern medicine)
- “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.” – Michael Pollan (Author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defence of Food)
- “Rotate or React.” – Lyn-Genet Recitas. (Author of The Metabolism Plan)
- Paleo – Popularized by Dr. Loren Cordain (Author of The Paleo Diet)
- “Eat 50 different whole foods per week.” – Dr. Bill Code (Author of Solving the Brain Puzzle)
Watch this video to learn:
- How I incorporated all the ideas listed above into my eating strategy for the week
- My dog’s fail-proof strategy for letting her go outside
- The 4 main PHYSICAL results I noticed after my week-long experiment (SPOILER: I could have called this article how I lost 5 pounds in 7 days, but I already have an article called, “How I lost 7 pounds in 20 days“)
- The truth about saying, “I didn’t have a choice.”
- Why it’s important to vary your food intake
- How I managed social engagements and planned functions
- The 80/20 rule when it comes to eating and how those numbers actually break down
- My commitment to myself moving forward
The video is a bit garbled at the end so I’ll quickly describe the 80/20 rule:
When patients are stabilized with respect to their health goals then I recommend eating in a way that works for them as individuals 80% of the time and enjoying some flexibility with their eating 20% of the time.
Here’s how the math breaks down:
3 meals per day x 7 days per week = 21 meals per week
80% of 21 = 17 clean, good, healthy, low reactive meals per week
20% of 21 = 4 more flexible, slightly higher reactive, indulgences per week
(Of course, everyone will have a different tolerance for this ratio – for example, some people need to stick to a 90/10 or a 95/5 ratio.)
Here is the list of foods I ate (in order of appearance)*:
- coconut milk
- blueberries
- chia seeds
- fig
- raw cacao powder
- turmeric
- ginger
- ceylon cinnamon
- turkey stock
- broccoli
- carrots
- celery
- radish
- parsnips
- almonds in the form of: almond butter, ground, whole
- cannelloni beans
- garlic
- red pepper
- kale
- red cabbage
- curly endive
- chicken
- lemongrass
- hemp seeds
- romaine lettuce
- cherry tomatoes
- oat milk
- nutritional yeast
- beats: dehydrated and fresh
- paprika: normal and smoked
- parsley
- cranberries: frozen and dried
- blackberries
- broccoli sprouts
- avocado
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- lemon zest
- spearmint
- pumpkin seeds
- sunflower seeds
- Brussels sprouts
- apple
- balsamic vinegar
- radicchio
- cucumber
- basil
- salmon
- spaghetti squash
- lamb
- chorizo
- cilantro
- onion
- pineapple
- grapes
- apricot: dried
- raisins
- peanut butter
- dates
- rice: wrap and noodles
- coconut meat: flour, flakes
- white cabbage
- cauliflower
- yam
- zucchini
- cumin
- buckwheat flour
- black pepper
- chipotle powder
- eggs
- pistachio
- mango
- capers
- olives
- sunflower sprouts
- pea sprouts
- fava bean sprouts
- kale sprouts
- radish sprouts
- fenugreek sprouts
- bok choi sprouts
- pac choi sprouts
- achillea ptarmica
- hyssop
- sage
- galangal
- wile thyme
- I know I said 88… but I had beets on there twice… so 87 it is!
*As far as I know this is a complete and inclusive list – if it’s not on here, I didn’t eat it.
Why did I decide to do this experiment?
That’s a good story and I’m going to leave that one for another time.
Let me know what you think!
Have you done any food experiments? What did you discover as a result of your trial? Let me know in the comments below.
To your healthy, happy, delightful life,
