Every now and then we end up eating something that’s less than excellent for our health. I know I do. I hear people say this a lot but they’ll mention that if you eat healthy 70% of the time you’re doing pretty well compared to the average American.

But have you looked at the average American lately? They’re sick, they’re fat and they’re depressed with how their lives are going so they’re taking 10 pharmaceutical medications by the time they’are 60 years old.

That’s a pretty low standard for me. Even when I was eating the worst diet of my life, I was still doing better than that. Anybody who has a little self respect has to have a higher “lower” standard than that.

I remember David Wolfe saying, “If you want what everybody else has, just keep doing what everybody else is doing, but if you want something different in your life, you must do something different on a daily basis.”

So for me eating healthy 70% of the time isn’t going to cut it. But I will say that every so often, I end up eating food that I normally wouldn’t. So here are some ideas to help improve the unhealthy meal you’re eating.

5 out of the 6 tips in here are free so it’s not going to cost you anything to implement these strategies.

Eat Slow

It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to signal your brain and tell it that you’re actually full. So if you’re ravenously hungry and eat a meal that’s twice what you normally eat, in 10 minutes, you’re going to feel sick. You’re going to feel that knot in your stomach and get indigestion, bloating, gas and all kinds of stomach pain.

Plus when you’re eating fast either because you’re in a hurry or because you’re really hungry that’s a stress response in your body. Your body ends up focusing more energy on stress management than it does with proper digestion.

Eat slow.

Stop Eating When You’re 80% Full

The Chinese adopt this philosophy beautifully. Because they eat slow they’re in tune with their bodies so they actually can feel when they’re full. When they get to the point where they are 80% full they simply stop eating. I know that’s a generalization and not all Chinese people do that but I’ve read in many cases this is what they do.

You’ll have all kinds of digestive problems if you stuff yourself 3 meals a day.

Properly Chew Your Food

All food must be turned into a liquid state when it leaves the stomach and enters your small intestine. Any food that’s not turned into a liquid state must be done so by the acids in your stomach. We aren’t like dogs. We can’t liquefy a piece of steak like they can.

Digestion starts in your mouth where enzymes are produced that signal the liver how much bile to produce and what acids to create. This is why juices and smoothies must still be “chewed”. Swish them around in your mouth to signal your body how to deal with whatever food you’re eating.

Remember, you only get one shot to chew your food. Once you swallow it, you can’t chew it again. Now it’s the job of your stomach to do the job that you’re teeth were designed to do.

Don’t Drink Water During Your Meal

Drinking water with your meals is less than great for your digestion. I recommend people to drink water 20 minutes prior to eating. If you take any enzymes or supplements with your meals like we do, then take them with the least amount of water you can.

Drinking water dilutes the acids in your stomach from having enough strength to digest and liquefy your food. When you drink water or any liquid during your meals, you’re working against your body.

Take Enzymes

I’m a huge believer in taking enzymes with your meals. I’m always expirementing with different herbs and digestive enzymes to take during our meals. If you know you’re going to sit down and have a plate full of pasta or pizza and a beer, I HIGHLY recommend taking digestive enzymes.

In case you want to know I take a product called Digestive Bitters. I take 4 per meal. Tell Michael we sent you to get a free gift with your first order!.

I also take one called DigestMore by Brenda Watson. To top it off I take 1 or 2 capsules of HCL. HCL is hydrochloric acid which is basically stomach acid.

Stomach acid is CRITICAL for being able to digest your food.

Enjoy Yourself

The last step of turning any horrible meal into a good one, is to simply enjoy it. When you talk to as many people as we do, you can sure have lots of preconceived judgments going on in your head.

Imagine sitting down to a plate of organic hormone free chicken with a salad and cooked vegetables. If you’re anything like me you’re going to wonder about what types of pots and pans were the vegetables cooked in? Were they fresh? How about the water, were they cooked in tap water that contains fluoride?

As for the chicken even though it’s organic what does organic even mean anymore? Did the chicken eat soy? Is it too late to eat this kind of heavy food? Is there enough alkaline salad to balance the acids from the meat?

The questions can go on and on and at some point you can come up with so many questions that it’ll ruin your meal. If you tend to become a slave of your questioning process like I do, sometimes it might be better to just say a prayer of gratitude and be thankful for your food while you eat it.

Just eat slowly, chew your food, do your best and your body will love you for it.

No stomach aches guaranteed!

What do you think? Comment below! 🙂