caras-garden-kale

kale + kryptonite

In the Integrative Nutrition® health coaching world, we often talk about primary and secondary foods.

The simplest explanation of this concept is:

  • Secondary foods are what we put in our mouths to nourish our bodies…or not.
  • Primary foods are everything else that nourishes us…or doesn’t.

We’ll have a chance to touch on a lot of topics around our food and lifestyle choices, and I thought it might be fun to do a health coaching exercise I created called Kale + Kryptonite.

The idea is that at any given point in our life (even our day!) some foods—primary and secondary—are super-nourishing, they’re our superfood, like kale; others are toxic to us, like kryptonite.

It’s an interesting exercise to get a snapshot of our lives at a given point, and this exercise is one of many that can help us do that.

Are you in? Download the worksheet, and let’s do this!

A few instructions:

  • Rate each primary food on the first page from 1–10 based on how much that part of your life is nourishing/supporting you right now.
  • Do not base your rating on how much you think it “should” (there’s that dirty word again) nourish you, and don’t base it on how much others think it “should.” For example, your trainer says you should work out 3–5 times per week. If you feel that 2–3 times is plenty and you’re getting in 2–3 workouts per week, rate that area fairly high. If you feel that 2–3 times a week is plenty and you’re only working out 1 time a week, you might want to score it a bit lower.
  • Understand that this is a snapshot of your life right now. It might be different as soon as tomorrow, or it might shift in the next decade. It’s all good. This exercise is just a jumping off point for becoming more conscious of our diet and lifestyle choices.
  • When you’re done, flip the sheet over and answer the questions.
  • Want to talk through this exercise? If you’re at the “coaching” level of membership, we can do this during your monthly call; if you’re at the “inspiration” level, you can schedule a VIP ad hoc call here.

The lovely kale painting above comes from my friend Cara at Cara’s Garden.