What does it mean to be lean? Lean can mean many different meanings. Most state that it means, to be extremely fit and look extremely muscular. For example; a bodybuilder, but really is that lean or is that just extremely muscular. According to Dr. William Sears, lean means something a lot more specific. L stands for Lifestyle, E stands for Exercise, A stands for Attitude and N, stands for Nutrition. My family and I live by those words, in my opinion, and Dr. Sears medical opinion, you can’t live on just one of those words, you have to live by all of those words. There is a reason behind that. Think of it like, working out daily but not eating the right foods, are you truly healthy. The answer is not at all. You can exercise every day and look like an athlete and still be extremely unhealthy. If you're not treating the inside of your body the same way as the outside, your putting yourself at risk for many health problems. So what does LEAN really mean?
Living a LEAN life is very easy in my opinion but if you have always lived an unhealthy lifestyle, then maybe it's not that easy. Being lean will be harder for you but not impossible. To follow the word LEAN you are going to do exactly how it sounds. First, you will change your lifestyle, then you will start to exercise. When you change your lifestyle, you're changing your eating habits. Once you're changing these habits, your attitude will start to change on its own because you're feeding your brain healthier foods and exercising the muscles in the body daily. Your body is filling with muscles, nerves, arteries, organs and much more but the important part to know is, all those things work together as a team. If you're not living a LEAN life, your body is constantly fighting itself. You may just have some symptoms that you don't consider to be a problem, for example; fatigue or constant upset stomach. Well, those symptoms are signs that your body is suffering from the inside and they come from what you are eating. Exercising by itself can not fight off the bad foods. Exercising is great but it only supports 20 percent of the body as a whole, eating healthy is 80 %.
The letter A for attitude comes along in a positive way when you're feeding the body good foods. This is so important especially for a child because the brain is still developing and is extremely vulnerable in these stages. Most parents out there are uneducated about healthy foods and feel their children will outgrow the bad eating habits because they simply don't want to make time in their schedule. In my opinion, that is simply just laziness. Those foods are severely affecting your child for the long run. I want to let you know that your child may have behavior issues or not doing well in school or socially, well that is 80% food related. There is a ton of evidence-based research out there to proves that 60-80% of children as missed diagnosed with some type of mental issues like ADD or autism. Some of those children are fortunate enough that the parent cares to change their lifestyle to help the behavior issues and end up finding out that the child is completely normal once taken off the bad foods. But many parents believe the doctor should just fix the issues, but they can't if the physician is uneducated about food too. They can't fix something they aren’t trained to fix.
There are a lot of holistic coaches and doctors out there now, that want to help guide you through the process. But if you keep listening to the physicians that have zero education on nutrition, then your child will never get the help they need. Or the help you need as a parent. Don’t avoid being LEAN as an individual or avoid teaching your children to be because you think it's too hard. If you haven't tried it, how do you know its too hard? A lot of times when people go from being very unhealthy and try to change without help, they fail. Especially, if they are doing it for their whole family. You have someone to lean on and someone for advice if you have a mentor through the process. I’ve seen family succeed over and over again after having just a little help and guidance. To be LEAN will change your life and your families life. You can avoid all those health issues down the road and expensive doctor visits if you just become LEAN. Start today and you will never look back.
