Healthy tissue and a functional movement system require a few things: 1) Healthy movement 2) Rest from that movement 3) Nutritional quality, quantity, and type that maximizes your body’s hormonal responses.

I title this as a Recommendation/Requirement because I cannot change one’s dietary choices.  Only the individual can.  You will make progress on your health, injury rehabilitation, and fitness without dietary change however to maximize your progress under my program, I require you follow the guidelines I lay out below.

There are specific qualities of food, quantities of food, and types of food for your body to:

• Maximize tissue healing
• Rebuild muscle, tendon, ligament, and cartilege
• Burn body fat
• Optimize energy levels
• Recover from workouts

The specifics shift from person to person, and may vary through the rehabilitation process.  For this, I offer individual counseling.  However, I lay out the basics below for anyone to begin to apply.

• Eat real, whole, local food
  • We are not meant to eat food products manufactured in a factory and packaged to be sat on a shelf and picked up weeks to months later for consumption.  Eat foods that exist naturally in the environment and were grown ideally within 100 miles of you.  Find your local farmer’s market and this will ensure freshness and maximize its ability to heal you.
• Balanced proportions of meat, nuts, seeds, oils, veggies
  • There can be too much of a good thing.  Again, proportions may vary by individual but a rule of thumb follows: Have a meat at each meal that is the size of your palm.  Put this on a bed of varied vegetables and top the dish with nuts, seeds, or the cold pressed oils of them.
• Monitor fruits and roots
  • Fruits and root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, etc) can cause an increase in the hormone insulin.  Insulin will cause your body to store fat and sugar, thus not allowing you to remove body fat.  Reserve fruits and roots for certain situations and find counseling for when to add them to your diet.
• Remove grains
  • Grains have an anti-nutrient capacity.  Similar to exposure to poison ivy, your body will have an inflammatory reaction in the gut when exposed to these anti-nutrients.  Levels of inflammation differ by person in severity and frequency, but are inevitably a stress to your system.
• Keep quantity to sustain energy
  • A good diet should provide consistent balanced energy.  Waxing and waning of energy levels through the day and from week to week are evidence of poor diet.  Eating too much or too little can slow down your system.  Monitor amount of intake along with quality, type, and proportion to maximize energy.

The basics are as follows: Eat meat, veggies, nuts and seeds.  Monitor fruits and roots.  Avoid grains.  Below I offer a day of menu choices.  Menu is taken from “The Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf.  He is a fantastic speaker and author and I highly recommend you purchase his book for your collection.

Breakfast: Ginger Eggs

• 1 tsp chili oil
• 1/2 cup green beans
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp chopped chives or green onions
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a small skillet.  Add the green beans, saute’ for 2 minutes.  Add the ginger and garlic, cook 3 minutes more.  Meanwhile, crack the eggs into a bowl, whip well.  Add the beans, ginger, and garlic, plus the chives and coriander.  Mix well, then return to the skillet.  Cook until the eggs set.  Serve topped with fresh ground pepper.

Lunch: Smoked Turkey Salad

• 10 oz smoked turkey
• pile of mixed greens from local market
• 1/4 cup pine nuts

Mix and eat.

Snack: Hickory Nut Gap beef jerky with macadamia nuts

Dinner: Chicken and cauliflower

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 lbs chicken breast or thighs
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 8 oz tomato sauce (check for Earth Fare Organic for no additives, if you make your own, even better)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in either a large skillet or soup pot.  Brown the chicken on all sides.  Meanwhile, chop the cauliflower into small pieces and add to the pot.  Add all of the remaining ingredients to the pot, then reduce to medium-low.  Cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Makes 5 servings.

Feel free to ask any questions in person or through email.

Steak salad w/nuts, seeds, tomato, okra & leeks coated w/egg&almond meal, golden kiwi and salsa