Finding Balance in Your Life: Eating For Better Skin and Nutritional Health

Finding balance in your life through food choices and lifestyle is the core to better skin and health. Surrounding yourself with the right foods to understand how those food choices can literally change your life and take you to a whole new "happy" state is the key.

So, where do you start if you want to find balance? Start with focusing on a daily diet that promotes the healing of your liver. The liver is responsible for keeping all the engine parts of your body running effectively. If the liver gets backed up from poor eating, its ability to cleanse and detoxify the body will also suffer. Signs of the liver not performing its daily routine is poor skin color, weight gain, especially around the waist, poor sleep and, swelling throughout the body, especially the eyes.

So, how do we prevent and heal the liver at the same time? It's easier than you think. First, let me explain how and what the liver needs to be healthy and how you can take charge now to make that process happen.

1. Diet
Daily repair through what you eat will determine the liver's ability to process daily food toxins and inflammatory responses. Focusing on protein only will not lead to a healthy liver. Focusing on fat and carbs will not give you a healthy liver.  

All calories are not the same.  Too much of any nutrient will cause weight gain. Overindulging in anything is not good for the body.

1. Respect food in its whole state is always best.  Food has medicinal properties if you eat it whole without processing it.
2. Eat as close to nature as possible (foods that grow from the ground, trees, and bushes)
3. Avoid refines oils and grains as they are in their unnatural state.
4. Protein is crucial, and you can get protein from various places: Plant proteins, Seed proteins, Fish, and Animals.  Knowing how much protein your body needs is important.
Not only is protein essential to normal body detoxification via the liver but also the skin.  Your skin is protein, and therefore it needs it to be young and healthy.  The signs of a daily protein deficiency can be seen through our skin.  What starts to appear are unwanted are fine lines, wrinkles, sagging, hollowness, dull skin tone, and texture.

One of my go-to's for helping clients do the mathematics for a healthy liver is www.calculator.net Here you can discover what your body needs to burn excess energy(fat)-toxins in fat and give you the ability to manage your health by science.  It also will help you understand the numbers, and when you can easily plug in your age, weight, and height, the calculator does the rest for you. No guessing, it's all there for you and more. Knowledge is power! You must have the knowledge to understand that you already possess the power to change your health and ultimately, your life!

2. Sleep
The importance of sleep is just as important as what you eat.  I always tell my clients, "eat to sleep". Meaning that you do want to pay attention to what you eat, when you eat, and what time you eat. All three will influence your quality of sleep. Sleep affects your metabolism, but why and how? Because your liver does most of its hard work to detoxify you when you are in a deep sleep. 

Melatonin hormone is released to help the liver turn on glycogen production, which helps in the return to prevent fat build-up in the body. During the day, if your digestion is happening too late at night because you possibly skipped a meal or have cravings for carbs because you didn't proportion your proteins, fats, and carbs correctly during the day. This will lead to a disruption in the release of crucial sleep hormones like serotonin and melatonin. It will increase the chances of releasing the dreaded hormone Cortisol, which stops fat burning and increases sugar burning. Thus you wake up, and you want sugar and carbs. 

3. Movement
 It needs to be a part of your everyday routine. You do not need to kill yourself at a gym or put in more than 30 minutes a day, but you have to move! Moving your body in any way, shape, or form will allow for detoxification.  Gentle movement is more preferred for those who need to find balance in their lives without feeling discouraged if they don't go to a gym or fitness class. Exercise on a stationary bike is perfect. It is gentle on the joints, can be done inside, or take your bike outside if it's light enough.  You can find exercise bikes for as low as $99, and they are nothing fancy, but they get the job done. You are moving when you use it that's all you need!

Dedicated 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted movement, walking 7,000-10,000 steps a day is another must for your body to detoxify. Being an active person when possible just by walking around the house is a tremendous benefit to your body and great stimulation for the brain. Doing laundry, going up and down the stairs, getting the mail, walking around the block. A car needs to be driven, or liquids and gas go bad. The same thing happens to your muscles, joints, and circulatory systems in your body.

Strength training with a band works for everyone, especially seniors or those who need to adjust to a typical workout routine. Bands can be used anywhere and travel easily with you. Strength training with bands will increase muscle strength without bulk and injury, which is usually the case with unsupervised weight lifting.  

(Read the directions that come with your band and remember if you are new to any exercise, check in with your physician and make sure you build up your strength before moving on to more resistance.)

Geri's top balancing foods:

1. Protein:💪

Vegan Choices most alkaline

• Pea Protein Milk-unsweetened
• Sprouted Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds
• Pumpkin Protein Powder
• Sunflower Protein Powder
• Watermelon Protein Powder
• Sprouted Legumes

Organic Poultry-farm raised if possible

• Turkey-Dark meat
• Chicken Thighs
• Eggs- Pasture-raised, no soy-fed 

Grass-Fed Organic pasture-beef-once a week

Fish-2-3 x's a week max

• Sardines- Best fish for Omega's and protein.
• Mackerel

2. Liver Supporting Vegetables: A great source of trace minerals and vitamins.😁
Fun Fact - Broccoli has more calcium than milk.

• Cauliflower
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Garlic
• Parsnips
• Parsley
• Asparagus
• Beets
• Kale
• Leeks
• Fennel
• Escarole
• Celery
• Collard Greens
• Spinach 
• Cilantro 
• Mustard Greens
• Turnip Greens

3. RS Vegetables- resistant starch🤔

• Squash
• Sweet Potato/yam
• Sprouted Legumes
• Lentils, Chickpeas, Split peas

4. Fats in their whole state. 😋

•  Olives
•  Avocado
•  Seeds and Nuts.  (To gain even more nutritional value you should sprout them before eating)

There are many more choices to discover and add as you get comfortable incorporating a balanced 3 group list for each meal.

Do you want to learn more about Finding Balance and seeing a healthier version of you? Visit our Geri G. Method page to sign up for a one-hour consultation and receive personalized coaching from Geri G. Appointments can be done in person or virtually.