Today in my networking challenge I am speaking with Lisa Marie Rowell. Lisa Marie is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Consultant and she practices clinical whole food nutrition at Body Basics, a health center in San Diego, and I am so excited to speak with her today and so thanks so much Lisa Marie for being here!

In case you are reading this at work and can’t watch the video, you can read all of the great advice below instead!

1. As career girls, we have very busy lifestyles. What are some tips to make sure that we eat healthy with a busy lifestyle?

The most important thing is planning and preparation, that’s the first thing that we need to to do. Most food plans or diet plans typically fail because people lack planning and preparation. Even though we are busy career girls, we do have to spend some time upfront investing and meal planning, shopping and food prep. By preparing a nutritious meal in advance, we can prepackage everything ahead of time and it makes it so much easier when everything is planned and you can just grab it.  I recommend investing in some containers and pre-pack your lunch and every day is just grab it and it will make eating healthier so much easier.

Whenever you have your down time, that’s where I recommend doing trying out meals. For instance, like what are the top five recipes that not only do you like but are they nutritious and are they easy and convenient? That’s what we are after here, easy and nutritious for people who are in a time crunch. It makes your shopping experience much easier just to have the same key ingredients and use them over and over again. Another thing that I wanted to add is make a fruit shake. Fruit shakes and smoothies with protein added nutrients are nutritionally done and super tasty. A 16oz shake is usually satisfying for most people and can serve as a quick and easy meal replacement.  It is also great for weight management as well.

A lot of people get day time fatigue. Usually after lunch or in a later afternoon, the best way to avoid that is to drink generous amount of water daily, possibly filtered or spring water. And the rule of thumb is you should be drinking half of your body weight in ounces daily throughout the whole day in between meals. For example, if you’re a 140 pounds then you should drink at least 70 ounces of water daily minimum. If you exercise you need to drink more to replace the fluid that you’re losing. For each 8oz cup of coffee you should be adding an additional 16oz of water, its very dehydrating and it has a dehydrating effect.

Another way of avoiding energy low strap today, you have to be conscious of your blood sugar. You feel those energy low because your blood sugar drops too low. What you want to try to do is to stabilize it throughout the day. You can do that by snacking in between meals and also reducing or eliminating coffee and lower your carbohydrates. Believe it or not, coffee actually raises your blood sugar. Coffee is highly addicting so people addicted to it even feel further fatigue. The caffeine raises your blood sugar and your blood sugar drop.s Probably, about 80% of American struggle with sugar handling issue. If this is the case, I would highly recommend starting your day with protein and carbohydrates. If you start your day with protein, you won’t crave carbs after. A lot of people do cereal for breakfast but to be quite honest, cereal is highly processed  and has a lot of carbohydrates.

2. What would you recommend as a healthy start your day?

I’d recommend fruit shake even though it has carbohydrates I would recommend adding whey protein, getting a minimum of 10 grams of whey protein in your shake, and adding in other nutrients. That way you feel satisfied because your body is being nourished. A lot of times people will have a lot of empty calories in it which it doesn’t provide your body enough nourishment and you end up more hungry.

3. What are some ideas for healthy snacks or lunches that we can eat at work?

The best choices for healthy snacks are a lot of raw veggies and raw meats. We typically don’t eat enough raw foods and the great thing about raw foods, since they are not processed, they still have their vitamin content intact. And if you cook at a temperature of 110 degrees you’re gonna deplete all the enzymes that are natural to the foods. By eating raw food, we’re eating more nutritious foods that we’re also getting all valuable enzymes that will actually help digest the food. You could try baby carrots and some mini peppers. There are a lot of things that you could do.

Make a list of what vegetables you like raw? For something convenient and nutritious, I would recommend a green salad with proteins. They’re always sure ticket and they are low calories, they’re nutritionally done and quick and easy to prepare. They can even be repackaged in the fridge for a few days.

When you’re preparing your salad, you should keep in mind other few guidelines:

1.  The darker the green, the better. The darker the greens are the more, the richer they’re gonna be with nutrients and minerals.

2. Add lots of different toppers, so you get a variety of nutrients.

The store packed salad dressing are super processed they have all type of ingredients that are unhealthy. You can actually put together a home-made salad dressing by using vinegar, olive oil, and some seasonings. And it can be even simpler just by adding a little bit of olive oil with some lemon juice. Lemon juice can substitute for vinegar.

4. How can what we eat influence our attitude, energy and overall happiness?

First, we must think of ourselves as whole; body, mind, and spirit. We’re a whole integrated system. There are certain vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that our body needs to function.  For example, if we ate nothing but junk foods, we would be deficient and not in balance. So, this would be a chemical nightmare.

We will go out of energy, and that, of course, reflects on our attitude.  Our brain is connected to every nerve to every organ. Even what we eat does influence not just our attitude but how we think, believe it or not.

 5. How can what we eat help us avoid certain diseases?

If we ate a properly balanced diet, which is a totally natural diet, that will ideally keep us nourished in our biochemistry balance. Our energy vitality would increase and our brain and nervous system will have the nourishment it needed which will provide a clarity and an overall feeling of well-being. If we honor our bodies they will honor us. How can we avoid diseases? Well, I would start up by saying that we all have different generic precondition. I can’t really make any guarantees that if you do this you’ll avoid disease. But, overall the best way to avoid disease is honoring your body. I think of it as good in bad out. 

If you consume a variety of whole organic food and you eliminate processed and offending food then that would put on the right track and more than likely won’t experience the disease. We live in such a toxic environment; toxic overload can lead to multiple unfavorable symptoms such as headaches, menstrual issues, and fatigue. I highly recommend doing a detoxification program every six months to a year.  I personally do that program every six months. And it’s done miraculous things to people. I have seen people, not only acquire really good any habits to exact list long term which is a true lifetime change. They experience more energy.

I’ve seen people get off blood pressure medication, reduce blood pressure medication because detoxing lowers their blood pressure. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the dietary changes as well. When you’re taking medication, you end up with so many side effects that it takes more medication.

6. How did you become a nutrition consultant?

My health crusade started with my own personal health journey. I found myself overweight and mentally exhausted about six months after having my daughter. At that time, my husband was also overweight and on several medications. I was inspired to make some changes for myself and for my family so I spent couple of hours reading healthy nutrition books and doing online research. Meanwhile, I was looking to make a career change with a client and I was so excited about the prospect of going back to school and studying landscape architecture, something that I had been fantasizing about for years. Then, it hit me, why am I going to study a landscape architecture when I spend more time researching, talking and thinking about nutrition. I would study literally anywhere for 3 to 5 hours a day just doing online research. Then I begin to formally study so after several months of nutritional diligence I went down three sizes I felt absolutely amazing and that was the best I ever felt in my life. My husband lost weight and was able to get off all of the medications with an exception of just one and we’re still working on that one. And then I begin reaching out to family and friends and to help them achieve great results.

Then, it hit me, why am I going to study a landscape architecture when I spend more time researching, talking, and thinking about nutrition. I would study literally anywhere for 3 to 5 hours a day just doing online research. Then I begin to formally study so after several months of nutritional diligence I went down three sizes I felt absolutely amazing and that was the best I ever felt in my life. My husband lost weight and was able to get off all of the medications with an exception of just one and we’re still working on that one. And then I begin reaching out to family and friends and to help them achieve great results.

Then, I begin to formally study so after several months of nutritional diligence I went down three sizes I felt absolutely amazing and that was the best I ever felt in my life. My husband lost weight and was able to get off all of the medications with an exception of just one and we’re still working on that one. And then I begin reaching out to family and friends and to help them achieve great results.

That was certainly an epiphany. I’m glad that I did it because its part of my personal mission now and at some point I want to take it to a larger scale and work and reach out to more people. There’s definitely a way for people to get the nutrition that they need for their body to function properly so that they can be healthy and happy and they can live a fruitful life.

There’s definitely a way of doing that without eating McDonalds and commercialized foods with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. I think that was what God provided on this earth we make sure we have access to it personally a lot of it has been destroyed and our ecology has been destroyed by a lot of modern agriculture. Hopefully, in the years of doing research, I’ll be releasing a book about what the true cost of health care.

7. What is one thing you wish you would have known as a young professional woman just starting out in her career?

I wish I would have known more about health and nutrition because I could have done a way with all those dreadful menstrual cycles that I had. I’ve suffered for many years since being a teenager with all kinds of menstrual issues, PMS, cramps, and emotional issues. That wasn’t very prosperous or productive to spend my time in agony. I could have also experienced much more energy and vitality and performed better at my job.

Thanks so much Lisa!