Do you suffer from an autoimmune condition, chronic pain, a leaky gut, or other ongoing health problems? Are you looking to decrease, increase, or maintain your current weight? Maybe like many you could use a little more energy and focus to function better every day.
EverydayHealthHacker™
can help you find your fit—what works for you. Everyone is unique. The various nutritional plans below can help you reach your specific goals.
The resources offered in this hands-on environment will help you find your fit, so you can achieve results and live your optimal lifestyle. Discover the small changes you can make now that will lead to big rewards later.
Bite-sized courses
Health Success Plans
Planning is essential for developing a healthy lifestyle. The Health Success Plans on the EverydayHealthHacker™ website serve as outlines that can be customized to meet your personal needs. The plans offer health benefits ranging from blood sugar regulation and weight loss to disease management and prevention.
The Health Success Plans will help you unlock your personal metabolism. The EverydayHealthHacker™ Learning Lab offers resources to help you compute the number of calories and macros you need. You can use apps like MyFitnessPal {link to myfitnesspal.com} and CarbManager {link to carbmanager.com} to track your calories and manage your intake of macros (i.e., good fats, proteins, and carbohydrates).
Choose the plan that best fits you. This will be a plan that is easy to follow, helps you feel better, and enables you to reach your goals. You can enjoy the journey while working toward greater clarity, energy, focus, and health.
A key to carrying out your plan is making small changes and better choices. For example, you may drink water instead of juice; choose green, leafy vegetables over starchy ones; eat only a few bites of carbohydrates (carbs) or a sweet treat; and replace breads with lettuce for sandwiches and wraps. Little by little, you can reach your goals and achieve health success.
Anti-inflammatory
The Anti-inflammatory Health Success Plan aims to reduce inflammation so your body can function optimally. Inflammation stems from a cascade of enzyme events in the body that cause free radicals to fire off and break down your natural immunity for warding off disease and infection. Inflammation underlies many illnesses including arthritis, heart disease, and neurological disorders.
Removing inflammation foods and drinks from your diet is essential for reducing inflammation. These include alcohol, dairy, refined carbohydrates, sugar, and tobacco. You may also benefit from avoiding or limiting corn, gluten, and nightshades such as peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes.
A 40/40/20 macro diet is a good starting point on the Anti-inflammatory Health Success Plan. This means 40% of your calories will come from good fats, 40% from protein, and 20% from carbs. This macro ratio can be adjusted as needed.
Keto
If losing weight and enhancing performance are your primary goals, the Keto Health Success Plan may be the best fit for you. This is a good plan to start with if you have a poor diet that consists of lots of fast food. This plan will help you reach your goal weight, and then you can adjust the plan to maintain your weight.
The standard keto diet consists of a 70/20/10 macro ratio: 70% healthy fats, 20% protein, and 10% carbs. Consuming high levels of fat, moderate amounts of protein, and very few carbs shifts the body into ketosis. This is a natural and healthy metabolic state in which the body burns fat instead of carbs for energy. The liver uses fatty acids to produce ketones that fuel the brain as well as the body.1
For optimal results, you may supplement the keto diet with essential vitamins, exogenous ketones, medium chain triglycerides, and protein powders. Exogenous ketones typically contain beta hydroxybutyrate (BHB), one of the three ketones made by the body. Some benefits of BHB and the keto diet include improved cognition and brain health, longer life, loss of excess weight, reduced inflammation, and potential treatment and/or prevention of cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, insulin resistance, and neurodegenerative disorders.1,2
Macro
The Macro Health Success Plan helps you achieve your goals with the right balance of nutrients. This includes nutrients from the following categories: good fats, proteins, and carbs. Your doctor can help you determine the best macro ratio for you.
Once you find out the number of calories and percentages of macros you need, you can compute the calories you need to get from each macro. One gram of good fats supplies 9 calories. Each gram of carbs and proteins will give you 4 calories.3
The Macro Health Success Plan may be a good fit for people who need to gain weight. Certain health conditions, lifestyle behaviors, and medicines can cause people to lose too much weight. Elderly people also tend to be underweight.
People on the anti-inflammatory and keto plans may eventually transition to a macro plan. For example, once you reach your goal weight on the keto plan, you can adjust your macros (e.g., decrease good foods, etc.) to a level that sustains your weight.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting involves fasting or refraining from food intake at different intervals of time. Intermittent fasting may help you achieve your goals for losing weight and improving your health. Studies have shown that intermittent fasting has metabolic benefits as well as other health benefits.
The Intermittent Fasting Health Success Plan consists of a daily 12-hour fast and a 15- or 18-hour fast twice a week. Breakfast would follow these timespans and break the fast. You can combine the Intermittent Fasting Health Success Plan with other Health Success Plans.
Leaky Gut
Chronic stress, excess bacteria and toxins, and a poor diet can lead to a leaky gut. The lining of the gut or intestines becomes permeable (with small holes), resulting in the loss of vital nutrients and the seepage of toxins into the bloodstream. Leaky gut is often linked to autoimmune diseases, bowel issues, chronic fatigue, food allergies and sensitivities, gastric ulcers, mood disorders, and other inflammatory conditions.
The Leaky Gut Health Success Plan helps heal a leaky gut. Keys include getting rid of bad foods/eating patterns, managing stress, and nourishing the body with a diet that supports gut health. Nutritional supplements can also be added to balance bacteria levels in the gut and promote absorption of nutrients.
Living with a Chronic Illness
Chronic illnesses and pain effect physical, mental, and emotional health as well as quality of life. Anger, depression, helplessness, hopelessness, isolation, self-pity, and worthlessness are common in people with chronic illnesses—but these mindsets do not have to control your life. You can take charge and effectively manage your health and your whole life.
The Health Success Plan for Living with a Chronic illness helps you choose, learn, plan, and take action to live well. Armed with strategies such as biofeedback, relaxation, and visualization, you can effectively manage chronic pain and other recurring symptoms. You can live well with a chronic illness.
Partner with your doctor and medical team for guidance and support on living with a chronic illness. If your doctor does not want to partner with you, then it is time to find a new doctor.
Over Age 40
Many who are over the age of 40 complain of foggy brain or difficulty with matching their thoughts and words. This often indicates an imbalance in the body’s chemistry due to the slowdown in metabolism that occurs with age. Metabolism is the process whereby the body converts food and drinks into energy for daily tasks as well as cellular activities that enable the body to function.
Women over 40 often need to restrict their calories more. You may benefit from following a low-carb diet (e.g., anti-inflammatory, keto, macro, etc.). The Over Age 40 Health Success Plan may also include carb cycling and high intensity interval training to reboot the body’s metabolism.
In addition to natural options like nutrition, you may need medical treatments to help optimize your body after you turn 40. Your doctor can request blood work and saliva testing to check your hormone levels. If your hormones are low or out of balance, your doctor can prescribe bioidentical hormones.
Talk to your doctor before starting any of these Health Success Plans. Your doctor can help customize your plan based on your individual needs. Your doctor can order labs to check your nutrient and hormone levels and advise on any supplements needed. For more coaching on these plans, follow Dr. Liza Leal on Facebook, Instagram (#everydayhealthhacker), LinkedIn, and the EverydayHealthHacker™ podcast.
To find which nutritional plan best fits you, visit the EverydayHealthHacker™ Learning Lab.