Take an Internal Inventory

Have you ever really checked what you put into your body? I am sure most businesses and even households do an inventory of merchandise or items that are needed for the home or business. So let’s discuss doing a similar task for ourselves. In my last post we discussed the importance of an alkaline and acidic environment within our bodies. Do you remember? Well… In any event every food or drink we have is either going to be an investment into our body (internal bank account) or a withdrawal as it relates to maintaining a proper ph level in the body.

One of the first assignments I have my coaching clients complete is an Internal Inventory Intake. Sounds pretty cool right? Of course I always like naming most of my processes and assignments. But in any event… I ask that for one week just journal everything you eat, drink and chew. That’s right…anything that goes into your body you must right down and journal it. I want to know what specifically you are putting into your body. I also recommend you don’t start being a health conscious nut as you do this exercise either. Just eat, drink and do whatever you would normally do in a given week. Don’t think about being “super health conscious” for this one week… believe me… once you complete the next step… then you can adjust your eating habits.

So now what? Okay… you wrote in a journal a whole week of what you ate and drank. Now… go ahead and highlight in yellow all the items that are acidic and highlight in green all the items that are alkaline. If you don’t know what foods or beverages are acidic and what are alkaline… below is a list to give you an idea:

7 Top Acidic foods and beverages 

1. Soda
2. Ice cream
3. Sugar
4. Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Fats/ Trans Fats
5. MSG (very powerful flavor enhancer so it’s used in products such as crackers, chips, microwave meals, canned foods etc in order to make them taste fresher and more flavorsome)
6. Yeasts from bread, pasta, alcohol, baked goods and anything that is made from yeast can cause huge microform overgrowth
7. Sweeteners (not the stevia types)

Had enough? Well… Go ahead through your list and highlight every item in yellow. Okay… Now for your Alkaline list:

Although it might seem that citrus fruits would have an acidifying effect on the body, the citric acid they contain actually has an alkalinizing effect in the system. Note that a food’s acid or alkaline forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic, however the end products they produce after digestion are very alkaline so…lemons are alkaline forming in the body. Meat will test alkaline before digestion, but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so… like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid forming.

7 Top Alkaline foods

1. Spinach
2. Kale
3. Cucumber
4. Broccoli
5. Avocado
6. Celery
7. Red bell pepper

So go back to your list and highlight every item in green that was alkaline. After you have highlighted all your items… Take a look and see what kind of ratio you have. One of my rules is to keep a 70-80% alkaline or water based diet. For most of us… It will be super challenging to eliminate most of the foods you may be currently eating. I would recommend to highly reduce any acidic foods and begin to increase the alkaline foods as soon as possible. This is exactly what my partner Rick Wollman did when we began our company Empowered Mastery. He would come into our weekly meetings drinking soda and eating pizza and chips. Chris Berlow and I would have heart attacks watching him eat that crap. He talks about his story in his new ebook The Tale of Two Ricks… and believe me… if he could make these improvements into his lifestyle… you can too.

Tips from this article

1. Journal for one week and create your Internal Inventory Intake
2. Drastically reduce or eliminate the 7 top acidic foods
3. Begin eating the more alkaline foods and add all or some of the top 7 alkaline foods everyday
4. Maintain a 70-80% alkaline or water based diet