When setting up a good nutrition program, most people are alarmed with the amount of food they are starting off to eat. Of course since the diet is all whole food sources, we are dealing with low calorie/high volume food versus high calorie/low volume junk food.

Eating food creates a “demand” on our metabolism in the same manner as lifting weights puts a demand on our muscles to grow, become stronger, and take shape. By eating high quality whole foods, we are putting a demand on our metabolism to grow more powerful and oxidize our food more efficiently.

With metabolism rising through eating, we also have increased body temperature which also require more oxygen uptake (just like fire needs oxygen). This is also where we get the old adage “starve a fever” when we’re sick.

When we add digestion into the mix, the process of digestion is designed to break down food into microscopic morsels that it can be sent to your cells and combusted with your increased oxygen uptake for energy release (i.e. “oxidized”) which is why it’s important to breath deeply and thoroughly when we eat. The more we breathe, the more we digest, assimilate and burn calories. We also appreciate what we eat and better enjoy the company we keep.

All of the above is the foundation of great health and vastly improves the fat burning process!!! I call this internal harmony with eating. Yay!

Do you see metabolism, digestion, and fat burning go hand in hand?

Let’s compare that with stressful eating, fast eating, emotional eating, BLTs, and ravenous mindless eating of processed food items like sugar – we have extremely high calories and very low volume (so we can eat a lot of it), because it is processed and lacking in nutrients (I call it anti-nutritents) it will only tell our body that we’re still hungry so the eating continues, we eat this under a stressful situation living in the parasympathetic nervous system slowing down our metabolism (“fight or flight”…who wants to eat when a lion is chasing us?) which causes elevated cortisol levels (making our body store and hold on to body fat), and we eat quickly reducing our oxygen uptake. We also don’t digest our food properly from lack of chewing (also reducing enjoyment) and now rely on our stomach acid to break down this food causing digestion issues such as acid reflux and other digestive issues.

When the quantity of oxygen is too low, heart rate and blood pressure increases (elevating stress) and blood sugar levels drop (we feel drowsy, low energy, irritable, and likely needing a boost of sugar or excess caffeine…creating a vicious cycle).

Throw in feelings of guilt because we ate off plan or reverted back to previous behaviours not supportive of our goals and this increases our stress levels – now we are in a hormonal environment that is supportive of storing body fat…in addition to the extra processed food we are eating that is physiologically supportive of storing body fat.

Do you see how a slower metabolism, digestion, and fat storage go hand in hand?

The way we do food is the way we do life – We can either get the best of it by appreciating all we do being in full control of our choices OR we can rush through it, miss out on appreciating it, and put ourselves into situations that are outside of our control.