What and How to Eat For Optimal Digestion

Hey guys. Today on The Skinny Confidential HIM & HER podcast we released an episode all about food combining featuring Kenzie Burke. We thought it would be fun to do a blog swap in conjunction with the episode.

If you haven’t heard of Kenzie, she’s a powerhouse of knowledge when it comes to nutrition, especially food combining. Some might say she’s a food combining enthusiast. It was a pleasure having her on the podcast & she has some great tips when it comes to healthy eating. We thought it would be fun to share her favorite, bread, pasta, chocolate, tea & what she eats in a typical day.

Also, be sure to head over to Kenzie’s blog where I’m sharing my 3 tips for streamlining your life & business.

Hello TSC readers. This is Kenzie Burke & I am so happy to be here! I am probably a new face on the scene to some of you as it wasn’t even a year ago when I launched Kenzie Burke Health. To better understand who I am & my approach to health & wellness, it helps to know some of my life experiences that put me on the path to discovering my true health & the lifestyle choices that best support me – both physically & mentally.

I have always been someone who doesn’t mind going for broke or dancing to the beat of a different drummer. So it was of little surprise to my family & friends that I decided to pack my bags & make the 2,000 mile move to Los Angeles right after graduating high school. But shortly after arriving in the City of Angels I found myself really struggling with the effects of chronic Lyme disease, something I had been dealing with since I was first diagnosed at the age of 14. But it wasn’t until after my move to LA when I found myself working long, taxing hours & completely losing touch with who I was, that my health issues really took a turn for the worst. My health & body were continually letting me down &, as a result, my mindset was very fragile.

My path towards healing began when I decided to get into shape because exercising helped ease the migraines I was routinely experiencing. Through movement & exercise I also realized I was able to control one aspect of my life – how my body looked. &, as exercise transformed my body, my mindset began to strengthen. Soon thereafter, I became intrigued by the healing power of food & nearly all my free time was consumed by researching & educating myself on how food can change lives. I switched to plant-based eating, began practicing food combining & I enrolled in an amazing nutrition program ( the Institute for Integrative Nutrition ), founded & supported by many of today’s leaders in holistic nutrition & health. I’ve been practicing food combining & eating clean, plant-based foods for several years now & I am convinced that the health transformation I have experienced is directly attributed to what I eat.

Today, having worked hard to build a healthy routine & lifestyle centered around movement, self-care activities, & the foods I eat & how I pair them, I have discovered my best body &, more importantly, I FEEL strong on the inside.

Let’s talk food combining.

One practice that I have incorporated into my life & that has made a huge difference for me is food combining. Simply put, food combining is a method of achieving optimal digestion by eating foods that are best eaten together & avoiding certain food combinations. Eating different food combinations that are not “digestively” compatible can negatively impact our body’s ability to break down & properly digest foods. The average person will consume 25 to 50 tons of food in his or her lifetime. This is a lot of food that will pass through our system which ultimately uses A LOT of energy. This is energy your body is using just to aide digestion & if freed up could be used in other areas. Energy is a key factor in our ability to shed weight easily & permanently. Energy regenerates our liver & tissue cells, removes toxic waste from the body, maintains our ideal weight, keeps our skin healthy, hair vibrant, & the list goes on. The more energy we have, the better we look & feel & when you feel good on the inside it radiates on the outside.

Food combining is a way of eating where you are mindful of what foods you are pairing together. One example of this is with fruit. I eat fruit in the morning & do not mix it with other foods nor do I eat fruit after a meal. Another example would be that I do not mix a protein with a starch. If I am having a starch I am pairing it with veggies & vise versa. I have so much more information on food combining, WHAT it is & how to make it a part of your daily routine in my free PDF that can be found on my website here.

In addition to food combining, I also follow a plant-based lifestyle. Plants are POWERFUL! I have never had as much zest, energy & satisfaction in my entire life until I became plant-based. Changing or refining your food & eating routine takes intention but it is definitely doable & certainly worth it! One way that I help people with establishing a new routine around food is by walking through what I eat in a day. Of course, a daily food routine that will ultimately work for you will likely differ from mine, but it is sometimes helpful to see what others are doing by way of example. As I write this, it is 8 pm & I am following my evening routine of sipping my favorite night time tea. But let’s leap ahead to morning!

What I eat in a typical day.

WAKE UP!

I wake up around 6 am every day. Upon waking, I always have a cup of warm water with lemon & I add some grated ginger to my cup. It’s as simple as it sounds. I take ginger root & use a grater to grate some in a cup with a squeeze from half a lemon. The pectin from the lemon aids in digestion, helping to make lemon a phenomenal detoxifying food.

Some added benefits of drinking warm lemon water in the morning:

♡ boosts your immune system

♡ balances PH

♡ flushes out unwanted materials

♡ decreases wrinkles & blemishes

Sounds good, right?! Ginger aides digestion & I have become attached to adding it to my cup of lemon water in the morning.

After my lemon water, I start to prepare a cup of coffee. I have a batch of homemade cold brew in a mason jar that I keep in my fridge. Currently, I am LOVING this biodynamic coffee. I take the cold brew & throw it in my milk frother with some homemade coconut milk. Find my simple coconut milk recipe here. Sometimes I froth it on the cold setting & sometimes warm, just depends on how I am feeling that day. Today I did warm.

Now at this point it is around 7:15 am & I am getting ready to go to the gym for my workout. Some days I eat my fruit now & some days I wait until after I have worked out, really just depends on how I feel & if I am hungry right upon waking. Since I am walking you through exactly what I ate today & I was not feeling very hungry this morning, I decided to simply grab a banana for the car ride to the gym.

9:30 AM

After I got home from my workout I made a big fruit bowl. My fruit bowl had a banana, cut up mango, cacao nibs, coconut flakes & soaked goji berries ( honestly you HAVE to have the goji so we are going to go on a brief goji berry detour!: Fill half a 6 to 8 oz. glass jar with dried goji berries. Add distilled/filtered water until berries are covered & saturated, about 3/4 full. Let sit for 30 to 60 minutes or until goji berries are plump & juicy. The longer the berries sit, the sweeter the liquid/syrup becomes. I like to have it sit overnight & have a jar of plump & juicy goji berries in the fridge at all times. They add such a nice flavor. Goji berries are one of the highest antioxidant foods on the planet. They have been around & used in traditional medicine for over 2,000 years to promote longevity ). ⁣

I eat fruit every morning. Sometimes as a fruit bowl & sometimes in a smoothie & frequently I will have both. I eat fruit & only fruit until noon everyday. Why? Fruit passes through our system rapidly. It does not stay in the stomach for very long & actually digests as it is going through our system, releasing all of its goodness & energy as it flows through. This is one reason why it is best to eat fruit in the morning before consuming other foods. I personally do not eat fruit after a meal or after the noon hour as I know how quickly fruit passes through the system as opposed to other foods that require a longer time to digest & that remain in the stomach for much longer.

Did you know that during the late night hours & into the morning your body is in an elimination state? This makes SO much sense to me. Do you notice most of us go to the bathroom in the morning when we wake? Fruit is the best thing you could eat during this time. Since it does not use much energy to digest nor does it remain long in the stomach to be digested it does not interfere with the elimination state. For more information on eating fruit first, check out my post here.

12:00 PM

I was on my way out the door to a meeting but wanted a quick bite of toast before I left. I love avocado toast! Truly, one of my favorite things ever. I also LOVE trying different breads. I try SO many but always resort back to my favorite of all time: Food For Life Multi Seed Bread. I call it the “blue bread” & it looks like this. It can be found in the frozen section at places like Whole Foods. It is gluten free, yeast free & so damn good. Try toasting it two or three times for optimal results. On the toast I add some mashed avocado, a squeeze of lemon, salt & red pepper flakes.

1:15 PM

I was out & about today & took a meeting over lunch that consisted of a BIG salad: Butter lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mint leaves with lemon & olive oil as the dressing. Also ordered an appetizer of shishito peppers. After finishing lunch I asked for a hot green tea. I love to have a warming drink to nurse in the afternoon.

4:00 PM

As I was wrapping up some work & still on the go, I ordered a green juice. I love to have a green juice in the afternoons if I can. I think it is a great way to get in more veggies & gives you an amazing energy boost. I always like to focus on what I can add into my diet versus focusing on what I “can’t” or “should not” have. Today, I got a juice that had celery, kale, cucumber, parsley & lemon.

6:00 PM

This evening I was in the mood for some comfort food. I made one of my favorite dishes: Brown rice noodles ( the brand tinkyada is my favorite & I am forever loyal as it has such a nice texture ), rao’s marinara sauce ( the best marinara sauce, so clean, tasty & has no added sugar ), a bed of arugula ( I always make sure ½ or more of my plate is a green vegetable. This optimizes digestion & again, the more green the better ), avocado, tomato, & finished with a large squeeze of lemon, salt & pepper. I mix this all together in one bowl & it becomes a “pasta salad.”

Sometimes after dinner I will want a little something something. If I do (  I did tonight) I will have a few pieces of HU’s chocolate. My favorite flavor is the cashew butter. It contains no refined sugar & totally satisfies my after dinner sweet tooth. I pair this with a cup of ginger tea. My favorite is the Lemon Ginger tea by Tulsi. Ginger optimizes digestion & I just love a warming drink after a meal.

8:00 PM

Every evening before bed I have a cup of cleanse tea which is full of cleansing herbs. I am loyal to the Cleanse tea by Tulsi. Let me warn you, this does not taste good at first…but over time you become immune to it. Why do I drink it then? A healthy liver is a vital component to good health for it performs so many vital elimination tasks as it detoxifies waste & toxins from the body. It is one of our hardest working organs in the body & when it isn’t functioning well so many other bodily processes could be affected. I find this late evening tea ritual resets my body & in the morning I start with a clean slate. More on drinking tea before bed here.

So there you have it, what I ate today; a day in which I was out & about & away from my kitchen for a good part of it. Obviously, every day has its own uniqueness & challenges but my overall food routine helps ground me so that I am better able to cope with whatever comes my way.

If you are interested in building & sustaining a daily routine centered around plant-based eating, movement & self-care, you may want to check out my 21 Day Reset. I developed the reset as a way for people to identify & establish a daily rhythm that can be established over just 21 days but can then be sustained for a lifetime. You can find the 21 Day Reset along with a lot of other great health & wellness info at my website here.

I wish you all the very best on your journey to discovering your best self & remember that big changes are simply the result of the many small choices you make everyday. Start by refining your daily routine & you will begin to see & feel the difference!

Xx,

Kenzie

Hope you guys loved this post & be sure to follow Kenzie on Instagram & be sure to check out her blog too.

x, lauryn

+ listen to Kenzie on The Skinny Confidential HIM & HER podcast

++ if you loved this post, you’ll this one how how to get more fiber into your diet.

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