WHAT THE HECK IS FOOD COMBINING?
A Day In Simply Emily's Life: FOOD COMBINING Edition.
GUEST BLOG POST BY @SIMPLYEMILYBALL
If you follow any health/wellness accounts on Instagram, you are bound to have heard of this new, popular, and trendy lifestyle called "food combining."
Basically, food combining is a style of eating that pairs food groups that work well together and food groups that do not work well together. Confused? I was too, until I followed Kenzie Burke, a health/fitness blogger, on Instagram.
Kenzie popularized this lifestyle by making it easy and attainable for people of all experiences and backgrounds. By creating easy-to-follow tips and tricks, Kenzie made food combining a realistic lifestyle for everybody.
She has 3 big tips.
1.) Breakfast. Kenzie stresses the importance of starting off your morning with a glass of hot water with lemon in it and eating fruits then. Fruits take 30 minutes to digest completely, so after 30 minutes you have your second breakfast. Typically, she has avocado toast or a smoothie she calls the "Tropical Bub" (see down below in my log for reference, I make it!)
2.) The basic groups that work and don't work. Vegetables and proteins work welltogether. Vegetables and starches work well together. Proteins and starches do not work well together. Food combining at its most basic level is following these food pairings.
3.) Don't give up dessert! Kenzie always finishes her night with dessert, mostly chocolate (see down below in my log for reference!)
So after reading up on what food combining was and the tips and tricks I could use to incorporate this lifestyle in my daily routine, I was curious and wanted to try. Follow along below on a day in my life, food combining style!
Breakfast
I woke up at 7 today because I have to leave for work at 8.
When I got to the kitchen, I heated up some water and poured it into my favorite coffee mug, along with the juice of one lemon. This was definitely much different than my typical morning coffee but it really did make me feel good on the inside, as if my body was kicking into gear!
Along with the lemon water, I snacked on some organic blueberries (my FAVE fruit ever) and waited 30 minutes, just as Kenzie says to do, before my second breakfast: a "Tropical Bub" smoothie.
The Tropical Bub smoothie is on Kenzie's insta stories everyday, with her and tons of other people making it on the daily.
Tropical Bub Smoothie Recipe:
-Frozen Mango
-1 Banana
-Chunk of cucumber
-Spinach or lettuce
-Chunk of ginger
-1 date
-Coconut water
-Spirulina powder
Not gonna lie, the ginger scared me, but the smoothie tasted super good! I would recommend using frozen banana to make the smoothie more cold, but other than that, this breakfast kept me full until lunch!
Lunch
I had to eat lunch at work today, so I packed it in order to make sure it worked with the guidelines of food combining,
For lunch I made quinoa (starch) with roasted zucchini, yellow squash and broccoli (vegetables) because starches and vegetables work well together.
This lunch kept me feeling full, but a good full. I didn't feel bloated or yucky, I just felt satisfied.
Dinner
Kenzie always posts about a recipe using chickpea pasta and vegetables, so I decided to try this out for dinner tonight!
The chickpea pasta I used was from the brand "Banza" and cooked just like normal pasta! I got the penne pasta.
I cooked the pasta and combined it with tomato sauce as well as the leftover vegetables from lunch.
Overall, dinner was so delicious!! Typically, pasta makes me fell so bloated but I really did not feel any bloat after this dinner at all.
Dessert
For dessert, I followed Kenzie's recommendation and went to Whole Foods and bought "Hu" chocolate: a healthy brand of chocolates. The chocolates come in so many different flavors, but I just had two squares of the simple dark chocolate!
It's funny, I have such a sweet tooth so typically I would not be able to stop at just two squares of chocolate, but after this day of food combining I was able to control myself because I felt so full and satisfied from my other meals!
So, would I recommend this lifestyle?
It honestly depends on the person.
I get a lot of uncomfortable bloating typically, so this lifestyle really helped me. One of the benefits is that food combining does not cause bloating, and I truly believe that is true. I never ever felt bloated all day, just satisfied!
What I like about food combining is that it is not a diet, it is a lifestyle. So, instead of providing rigid rules, food combining is general guidelines that allow you to choose what you eat and pair your foods how you want to.
After day one of food combining, I can confidently say it won't be my last!
Emily Ball
@simplyemilyball