Melissa Paris Fitness

Your body works for you, now it's time you did the same.

You know when you’ve just about reached your breaking point in your day to day life? You haven’t had a day off in six months, your boss is breathing down your neck about seemingly irrelevant tasks, you’re working overtime, and at the end of the day to relieve stress you head out for a cocktail or two; only to return home at 1am, more exhausted than ever, before you wake up and do it all over again?

Sometimes, we need a vacation. We’re putting in exhorbitantly long hours (endless it seems), then there’s the boss we plot ways to kill in our cubicle, (but slowly, not in an obvious way). Between the hours, the boss, the overtime, the post-work cocktails, the stress, toxicity, an never ending burden of daily life, your body actually needs a vacation from you every once in awhile. It works for you the same way you work for the big machine, except unlike you, it does not have weekends off, nighttime reprieves, or the ability to quit and move on to a new, more hospitable host.

Every day we overload our innocent bodies with food, stress, and alcohol. We expect it to keep functioning at it’s highest capacity, and then remain consistently perplexed when it begins to fail, and turn to over the counter remedies and prescriptions to pick it back up. Except, this is not a cure, it is a band aid, and far too few people realize that their prescriptions are simply masking the problem, and had they been proactive, there would be little to no reason to be reactive. So the next time you wish your employer would just “give you a break”, imagine your body pleading with you to do the same.

Each day that we continue with the traditional American lifestyle of excess, we increase our bodies burden. If you have ever wondered why you feel like you’ve just consumed a pile of bricks after a simple meal of steak and potatoes, it is because digestion can consume up to EIGHTY percent of our energy. Picture a tiger on one of the National Geographic specials you watched as a child. After a large meal , they will sleep for up to a day as their body breaks down and digests the muscle tissue and fat. And this is a carnivore that is designed solely around the idea that it’s primary source of food is flesh. Now, we’re not asking you to go full on granola eating, hemp loving, tree hugging vegan, but we do suggest a monthly reprieve for your body to unload some of the toxic digestive burden.

Even if you cannot commit to an extended period of time free from animal products, it would serve your body well to eliminate them for several days, balancing your pH levels, and getting your digestion on the right track. When your body is not working so hard to break down what you put into it, it frees up massive amounts of energy to do things of some actual purpose, instead of wallowing in your post junk food lethargy.

Interestingly enough, foods like dairy that are commonly associated as “cooling” or calming, (think warm milk before bed), are actually extremely acid forming. From the minute a dairy product touches your lips, it begins to produce a mucous, which coats your intestines and creates an acid build up your body then exerts more energy to fight off. Similarly, we do not possess the short intestines and high uric acid concentration carnivores have to effectively process meat in a quick and efficient manner. Our body is a hot 98.6 degrees, and food has about 25 feet of intestine to travel through, slowly. Now imagine meat in a plastic bag, sitting in the sun on a 98 degree day, for hours on end, (it can take meat anywhere from 31 to 96 hours to exit the human body). With that lovely image at the forefront of your mind, we ask that you consider eliminating animal products at least several days a month. You can of course, do this on your own, but if you need a little help, sign up for our 5 Day Program and we will walk you through exactly how to remain nourished, energetic, and satiated, all while removing the toxic burden inflicted upon your body. Below are sample meals from the plan, which you can purchase, HERE.

From left to right: Detox Smoothie, Chocolate Energy Drink, and Beet Berry Smoothie

From left to right: Cucumber Avocado Salad, Spicy Corn Salad, and Avocado Salsa Snack

Your body works for you, every, single day. Reward it with a vacation. Pick up the slack and put the extra effort into saying no to acid forming foods like dairy, meat, and alcohol. Be the boss you never had, because just imagine, what will happen, when your most important worker, decides it no longer wants to work for you. Food for thought.