As you know, many of us eat a lot away from home (unless you work from home). For those who have the discipline to carry lunch to work (meaning they dedicate some time to plan meals, go shopping and prepare them for the week) big kudos to them! But for those who simply don’t seem to have enough time, travel too much and end up eating in restaurants 4 or 5 days a week it’s important to know what options could be healthier than others. My feeling is that it’s easier for women (perhaps because we want to be in shape and traditionally are in charge of running the home) to decide what options could be healthier. But what about men? Do they care to eat something healthy and nutritious or are they only concerned with feeling satisfied? My take is that generally, men don’t really pay much attention to the nutrition side of food. As long as it tastes good and its delivered or cooked in no time, it ticks pretty much all the boxes.

So this blog is actually for you MEN, who eat out a lot, have busy schedules, eat at the office or skip meals. Do you want to be productive? Be the rock star in your meetings? Have mental clarity throughout the day to make decisions at work? Well fellows, let me say it is possible. Don’t wait until your body is collapsing, please. I dare you to prove to women that you are just as strong minded when it comes to making conscious choices around the way you “fuel” your engine.

I know you are dying to hear my tips, so here they go:

1. Add clean protein to your diet: It is scientifically proven that we don’t need to eat animals to add protein to our diet. However, if you are going to have animal protein, choose lean and quality meats (animals that actually eat real food). Think of this: hormone stimulants, antibiotics and animals fed with GMO foods full of herbicides, and pesticides. Do you really want to eat this? Remember you will eat what that cow ate. (Apart from the obvious cruelty to animals) Try to reduce animal protein to half of what you currently do and replace it with legumes, whole grains, and vegetables. Initially, you will feel its too much fiber in your gut but your stomach will adapt to it (so give it a couple of weeks). Reducing animal protein ( and side products) will help to:

• Reduce saturated fat that causes inflammation (leading to chronic diseases)
• Less destructive bacteria in your gut and better absorption of real food
• If you drink milk, ditching dairy will reduce the effect on your hormones, apart from the fact that it’s proven that it doesn’t add calcium as most advertising led us to believe. Check Dr. Hymann for more information. Milk is for calves not for humans.

Don’t be panicked if you feel gassy or poo many times a day, this is absolutely normal as your gut microbiome is getting used to the change. In a few days, it will go away.

2. Drink more water: Do you feel foggy throughout the day? I am not surprised. Did you know that the brain takes a long time to trigger a response to let us know that we are dehydrated? So, keep a bottle of water in your office and don’t just look at it, drink it, in small sips every hour. Our brain is 75% water so guys, pay attention to this if you want to avoid headaches, fatigue and lack of concentration.

3. Limit your sugary foods: If you are like my husband who loves sweets, let me say that I understand. I also have a sweet tooth so this is my weakness too. However, please walk the other way when you see a vending machine with M&M’s or snicker bars and get some fruit: dry fruit, dates, blueberries, apples. They are not only sweet, but they add fiber to your diet and that means you will keep your bowels happily working to get rid of that stuff you don’t need. If it’s too much fiber for you, I recommend to do it gradually. Sugar is not only addictive, it has NO nutritional value and it feeds the bad bacteria so seriously, keep away from it.

4. Eat more nuts: Brazilian nuts are especially recommended because of the selenium content (great to fight certain cancers including prostate), almonds are loaded with vitamin E and healthy fats, peanuts are high in folate which is important for brain development and cognitive functions. Of course, you want to eat nuts in moderation as they can also help you gain unnecessary weight.

These are just a few easy steps to improve your health and nutrition. I know it’s hard to change habits but when we realize that food can be our medicine or our poison, we start changing our relationship with it. It’s fuel for our body, the only body we have in this lifetime, so if you want to remain active, productive, strong and energized, don’t wait another 10 years when you are already diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease and have to spend lots of money in medical treatments, start making small but strong steps to better health now.

I am researching different sources and I found this video online which I think it’s very clear and educational in terms of how the body changes when you decide to go vegan. Even if you are not interested in becoming vegan but want to know how your body starts reacting to the changes you introduce by eating a plant based diet, it’s worth checking it out.

So men, are you ready for it? Show us that you can.

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See you soon!