Cultivating Body

Nutrition

This Week’s Intentions:

Video Supplement: 

“Hey everybody, AJ here with one of my favorite steps in Cultivating Purposes. This week is all about "Feeding Your Purpose" because this week is all about the food we put in our bodies. For me personally, this is a monumental step towards Cultivating Purpose in my life everyday, and feeding my purpose at many times in my life has been a great struggle and battle. Since I was a young kid, I have had a troubling relationship with the food I eat. Many call it a food addiction, but it was much more, because the kinds of foods I was addicted to were causing massive amounts of bodily harm.

I never really understood that until later in my adult life, but it is a part of me and has defined me, and now that I have evolved beyond that part of my life, I recognize that my journey with food has been incredibly meaningful and insightful. After years of professional therapy, education, introspection, and spiritual growth, I was able to fully understand what I was doing to my body-- the thing that provides my conscious experience on this Earth-- and I was able to change my habits towards optimal nutrition. Now, I can feel with my body and think with my mind about what my optimal foods are, and I feel a stronger mind-body connection with my nutrition than I ever thought possible. 

After I had some spiritual and intellectual breakthroughs, the first few weeks of my nutritional transition were terrible. I gave up gluten, sugar, and essentially all "acellular carbohydrates." It was essentially a paleo/ketogenic diet, with some slight alterations....and it felt like torture. It seemed like every day, I was able to eat healthy food for the first half of the day. But then 2 or 3pm would come around... and it felt like my mind was literally being controlled by someone or something else. I felt possessed. And that's because I was... The truth is, we have tons of nervous system activity in our gi tracts. Our millions of nerve endings in our stomach and intestinal lining receive sensory information from our food and gut flora and send it up to the brain for processing. When our gi tract is not healthy, our nervous system isn't healthy. It's the equivalent affect of our ears being exposed to 24 hours of a high decibel fire alarm-- a noisy gi tract may not be as as distracting, but it's just as damaging. Our gut flora secretions influence us in subtle but profound ways. They can literally change our thoughts. There are billions of them living inside of us, sending information to our brains. And now there is new, good science that shows that sub-optimal eating habits leads to unhealthy gut flora, which release (among other things) inflammatory cytokines that get into our blood stream, break the blood-brain barrier, and infect our thoughts and impulses in other visceral ways beyond the nervous system within the gi tract.

Getting my brain and gi tract to properly communicate and live in harmony is essential for me to cultivate purpose. My gut flora needs to be vital and vibrant, and it needs to send the right signals to my brain to create a harmonious feedback loop. My brain needs to intellectually understand how sub-optimal food affects this harmonious feedback loop, which is reinforced by my healthy gut flora urging me towards the right foods.

When this brain-gut communication is broken inside of me, it leads to a negative feedback loop. I eat too much sugar, acellular carbs, and other processed foods, which leads to my gut flora changing, which leads to a change in the signals they send to my brain, which leads to me having more impulses for more sugar. It's a vicious cycle, and when it's out of control it's called an addiction. The results are terrible: I end up incredibly moody and cranky; I'm lethargic and groggy in the mornings, exercising feels like torture, I don't like how I look or feel, and my circadian rhythms get interrupted. What's worse, my taste buds also seem to change when I eat bad food. Suddenly broccoli tastes awful, dry, and bitter. Carrots are inedible, and things like celery and spinach are reduced to bland filler.

It's a bizarre, upside-down world when I eat sub-optimal foods.

Now, things are pretty much the opposite when I eat the right foods for me-- which are pretty much leafy greens (raw & cooked), raw berries, plant fats, animal protein and raw tree nuts. When I'm eating these foods consistently my energy levels are through the roof, I feel more calm and aware, exercising feels great, good food tastes great again, I'm more productive in all facets of life, and I look and feel much better. Most importantly, I'm no longer a grumpy anxious mess when I'm eating optimal foods. I have learned that I am a very sensitive person in many areas of life, and my food intake is a prime example of that. I am a completely different social person when I am eating right. It lines up the rest of my life in ways that nothing else ever has. I've never been sick, but when practicing optimal eating habits I am more vital than my peers. I'm able to work harder, sleep better, think clearer, love greater, and live fuller. For me, Cultivating Purpose starts with structured and optimal eating habits

For me, it's also imperative to be involved with the food selection and cooking process. Being mindful and contemplative while shopping and cooking can have monumentally healthy results for me. I am able to take what I have intellectually learned, and what my gut flora is driving me to do, and make holistically informed shopping decisions that will help me cultivate purpose. As my friend Lee said in a recent podcast we did, "I just look at it as not-food and I'm fine." Once my body and mind are aligned in optimal nutrition, I can easily pass the other foods in the market because to me, they aren't really food at all-- they are drugs. And I am an addict. So no thank you.

I am also a believer in the conscious and mindful energy you put into selecting food and cooking meals. Establishing a connection to your food is incredibly important to me. It makes me feel better to know where my produce comes from-- I always buy organic and I try to always buy local (I am lucky that Colorado has some of the best local produce in the country). When buying animal protein, I like selecting organic, grass-fed or wild-caught, but I am increasingly becoming interested in eating sustainable animal protein. If you can, try eating as sustainably as possible. We'll go into this in later weeks, but something I like to do is buy sardines instead of other seafood, as it is much more sustainable and great for the planet.

If I'm at a farmer's market or food event, I can talk with the vendor or producer to better understand and appreciate the work they put into my vitality and satisfaction. These things add to my eating experience, and give me more meaning than having an un-mindful shopping trip. Being contemplative and conscientious while shopping helps me cultivate purpose by feeling like I am helping honest, local small businesses that are doing the right thing for the planet, for their agriculture, and for me.

When at home, I love to cook, and it helps me cultivate purpose in my life. Cooking for myself is a peaceful time for me to meditate on the food I am preparing. I like to think about the life-sustaining nutrients I am about to receive, and the beautiful bounty the Earth has grown alongside me. I like to give thanks to my food, to give love to the Earth, and give gratitude to the people who grew it and helped bring it to my table. I also think about the people in this world who don't have the opportunity to feed themselves like I do, and it gives me time to think about how important it is that I work to end their struggle. Cooking for myself gives me time to think about all of these important but often overlooked things. I feel great after doing these things while cooking, and it is a great way for me to cultivate purpose.

As I mentioned in previous weeks, I love to cook for other people. The act of providing sustenance and nutrition to others is a loving, intimate act that is a transcendent form of love and gratitude. One of my favorite things is to cook for others, and to see their appreciation and satisfaction as their bodies are nourished and revitalized. I enjoy showing others how to cook healthy and optimal foods that are also delicious, in the hopes that I can inspire others to follow this path. I try to cook for others often, as a way of cultivating purpose in my life, and giving my life meaning beyond myself.

So, there are so many angles I like to pursue when it comes to feeding my purpose. I hope this inspires you to think more about how you feed your purpose, and how you can continue to find optimal nutrition in your life. Below, as always, there are a number of resources for you to feast on. I strongly encourage you to read, watch, and listen to all of the external links I provided below. Dr. Rhonda Patrick is down there- she is a huge inspiration to me and one of the smartest, most revolutionary people I've ever heard talk about nutrition and our bodies. I highly recommend going down the rabbit hole with her. Additionally, the Joe Rogan podcast episode I posted is an incredible look at how the Standard American Diet has been shaped-- it's an incredibly shocking eye opener, and hopefully it will be a good motivator for you to explore the role of sugar in our lives.  Additionally, check out the article links, including the Onnit.com article about Immunoreactivity- it's the resource I use for explaining to people why I need to be gluten free-- it's an awesomely long an thoroughly clear article about how foods interact with our brains and the rest of our bodies.

So, have a great week feeding your purpose, and check out the action items for the week down below. Also, I want you guys to be on the lookout for the Cultivating Purpose Community to start ramping up. We are developing a place for us to interact with each other, post and share content, and inspire each other to Cultivate Purpose. So look for that coming soon- we will have an announcement coming out in the middle of November 2017, but if you are reading this after that, you already know it's up and running! So, once again, have a great week cultivating purpose. Namaste!

Original Content:

Community Blog Post: Feeding Your purpose, by lee fishman

Additional Reading, Viewing & Listening Links:

Action Items for Nutrition:

• Find your optimal nutritional sources

• Establish motivating factors for continuing your optimal nutritional path

• Create or find your own optimal indulgent foods, like my cousin Danielle's D's Dietary Delights!

• Always be cognizant of food science and how food affects every aspect of our being

• Check out the Reading, Viewing & Listening Links above!