He ain't heavy, he's my dinner

I'm warning you ahead of time, but this post is a little bit about poop. Just a little, I promise. I can't talk about bods without talking about the end game.

The biggest thing that's changed my health and energy level over the past year and a half, other than the green juice, has been the switch to eating light to heavy. It was also the hardest to adjust to, mostly because it goes against everything I've been brought up on and still read about.

You've heard it, too: fill yourself up in the morning. It fuels you during the day. Don't skip breakfast, you idiot, it kills your metabolism!! I win no prizes with the traditional dieticians for juice fasting every day until lunch. But here's why eating your lightest meal in the morning and the heaviest in the evening just makes sense.

Your body works on a natural digestion and elimination schedule, and like animals, we like to sleep when our bods are doing the most work to process the kibble in our gut. Our nighttime sleep cycle gives us the best opportunity to do nothing else but breakdance on our food for a few hours.

Healthy choices aside, how do you feel when you have a giant breakfast - energized or sleepy? If you said sleepy, ding! Your body is working like a beyotch to blast through the eggs and bacon and coffee and toast and it's all you can do not to have a little lay down after, right? Let's move on to the healthier choices, like steel cut oats or muesli or sprouted grain bread and almond butter. All fantastic grains, but again, they take time to digest, which leads to that idea that they're sustainable fuel for the day. Not bad advice, but again, the energy your body is using to break down those grains could be used for other things, like exercise, creative thought or elimination. Yeah, I said it. Poop.

When your body emerges from its heaviest digestion period, it shifts into elimination mode. Which also requires energy. So eat a heavy grain or let my bod follow its natural cycle?

The big question there is, doesn't your body need something to eliminate in the morning other than water, tea and juice? Of course, lovely. That's where that heavy evening meal comes in.

When I say heavy I don't mean a plate of pasta from Anton's every night. I just mean you eat your hardest to digest foods (i.e. grains, meat, cooked food) in the evening so your bod doesn't get bored while you're dreaming of sharing a glass of whiskey with Bill Murray in your bathrobe (just me?). See, there's quick exit and slow exit foods. Fresh-pressed juice, raw fruit and veggies, some grains, like quinoa and millet, some lightly sauteed/steamed veg, soups are all quick/medium exit foods. Meat, rice, pasta, oatmeal, all slow exit.

So here's what I try to do on my ideal day:

• water/tea/green juice in the morning
• some kind of big salad at lunch (yes, Elaine, the bigger the better)
• fish, veggies & brown rice for dinner (varies widely, of course and I almost always have seconds)
• muesli (I make it myself, yo!) as an after dinner snack

The muesli I make has these things in it (I don't measure, just throw it all in a big glass jar and keep it in the fridge):

• Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oats (I use the largest amount of these for the mix)
• unsweetened coconut
• hemp hearts (psychedelically good)
• raw sunflower seeds
• raw pumpkin seeds
• raw whole almonds
• goji berries

To make it, scoop about 1/3 cup into a bowl, just cover it with your favourite non-dairy milk, like almond milk (we'll get to why cow's milk is narsty unless you're a baby cow another time), cover it with something (I use a little plate or a piece of plastic wrap, and stick it in the fridge for at least 30 mins. The longer it sits, the softer it gets. When I take it out, I add a bit more milk and some fresh fruit (berries or half a banana) and eat it up.

I've eaten light to heavy almost every day (except for the occasional pancake or benny extravaganza) since I started juicing and I wouldn't have it any other way. I have gigantic energy during the day, never feel sleepy anymore, even when I've had a shitty sleep and can't remember the last time I've wanted a nap. And I'm a McCart, yo! My weight is stable, and when I go crazy over the holidays or when I'm on vacay, it's super easy to get back on the system without feeling like I'm denying myself anything.

If you need to read more about this kind of eating, I read Fit for Life and Detox 4 Women, both of which changed my bad self for goodz.

- Carissa