#iinsight – 2

What makes IIN so unique is that it’s the only nutrition school in the world integrating ALL of the dietary theories. It’s not telling me that paleo, keto, or vegan is the answer; instead, IIN teaches bio-individuality. This is the notion that one person’s food might be another person’s poison. One size does not fit all. This is because all of us are made differently and have different needs. It also suggests that just like everything else in the world that changes, so too, should the food that we eat. Our bodies and what we ought to ingest is ever changing: every day, every month, every season, every year. So really what it comes down to is listening to your body. Through personal experience I can tell you that this definitely works. What may work for my husband or sister doesn’t necessarily work for me. Once I started to listen to my body and what it was asking for, I saw a shift in how I felt. It’s fun to explore my own bio-individuality. I’ve kept a food log from time to time and find that doing so always helps me locate my triggers to eliminate things that aren’t resonating with my make up. I know that my body functions better when I eat more veggies and eliminate caffeine. I know that I don’t feel as sluggish and bloated when I minimize carbs and sweets. I also know that I feel my absolute BEST when I find balance between primary and secondary food. Last weekend my husband and I joined a group of our friends in San Francisco. We then attended a wedding in Half Moon Bay at Long Branch Farms. This was basically Frontierland of Disneyland. We enjoyed delicious BBQ and played mini golf and fired sling shot. It was a blast!

And no this poncho was NOT part of my outfit! 🙂 The venue was generous enough to supply them.. thank goodness! It got chilly!

Module 2 also provided the The Circle of Life Tool. This was a great resource in examining the balance of primary foods. I encourage you to try it! The idea is to place a dot indicating your level of satisfaction in each section. A dot toward the center indicates dissatisfaction, whereas a dot toward the outer edge of the circle indicates satisfaction. Once complete you connect the dots to see your Circle of Life. You are then able to identify imbalances and determine where to spend more time and energy. What did I learn from this? That I need to put more time aside for loved ones. I constantly struggle with being present and in the moment. In order to balance out my Circle of Life, I vow to put my phone away and focus my time and energy on my relationships. Spending time with the ones I love is my ultimate primary food!

Joshua Rosenthal (of IIN) also suggests that instead of trying to fit in, we should get comfortable with the idea of fitting out. This means that it’s okay to drink Kombucha while everyone else is sipping on beer. It also means that it’s about time we stop giving a you-know-what about what anyone else thinks. We should embrace and celebrate who we are and honor the traits that make us different. Wouldn’t that make life a whole lot easier??

Food for thought: What will you do this week to FIT OUT?!