1. Listen To Your Body. Eat when you are hungry and stop when it says it has had enough. Eat until you feel satisfied but not until you feel full. When you are done eating you should feel light and full of energy. Gaze rather then gorge, eating little things often, or eat larger meals with small snacks in between, it depends on what your body needs and it will probably change frequently. Listening to your body takes time and practice only because we have become so far removed from our bodies and their natural innate wisdom. The body is highly intelligent and it knows when to eat, what to eat, when to sleep, when to be active and what activities it prefers if you know how to listen. A good place to start is to monitor your energy levels. A healthy and whole body has clear and clean energy that is consistent all day. Becoming tired after meals, mid afternoon or upon rising are all good signs that something is out of balance and not functioning optimally. It is important to be able to hear your body especially in times of need. If something goes wrong in your body you want to be the first to know and to know before it turns into something very big. The more connected you are to your body the better able you are to hear and feel when things start to veer off even ever so slightly. Spending time checking in with your body through meditative practice, yoga or other forms of self awareness can help you re-connect to your internal wisdom and teach you how to hear your body's needs.
2. Eat a Mainly Uncooked Animal Product Free Diet. Eat foods as raw and unprocessed as possible. Foods eaten in their natural state or closest to their natural state are the most healthful. Cooked foods do not do as well in the body energetically nor do they provide the mineral, vitamin, enzyme or photochemical content that living foods are able to provide. Cooking foods degrades their natural state, healthful fibers and plant materials that our bodies need for healthy maintenance and cleaning. In addition cooking changes the molecular structure of many foods and turns them into substances our bodies cannot utilize or in some cases are toxic to the body. If it isn't broken don't fix it is a good motto to keep in mind when choosing foods. Nature already knows what it is doing with the foods it naturally provides for us. When we start messing with a foods natural state we start to get into health trouble. Animal products are highly acidic which can throw off our natural body pH and are also difficult for the body to process and utilize. Animal products are especially taxing on the digestive body systems and can lead to their deterioration. Animal products also have very poor vitamin and mineral ratios for the human body which leads to deficiencies and excesses within the body both of which contribute to lower levels of health and well being.
3. Don't Ingest Chemicals or man-made concoctions of any kind. This includes "food" items. If the food you are about to put into your body has any ingredients you can't pronounce or you don't readily know, don't eat it. Buy only organic foods. There is much controversy, mostly started by big farming business, as to whether or not organic is really better. Organic is far superior for several reasons. One, organic farming is conscious farming. Organic farmers care about the foods they produce, so much love and time goes into how their plants are grown. Second, organic farmers do not use toxic chemicals. Mass farming uses a plethora of chemical concoctions on the foods they grow and in the soil. Not only do these chemicals get put on the outside of the foods but they also go into the soil and into the plant's cell structure (not to mention our and our animals drinking sources). The cell structure is altered in the chemically treated plant and also in its seeds, so future generations of the plant are also effected. Using chemicals on plants and soils also disturbs the natural environmental balance (weather, bugs, everything!). Lastly non-organic farming soil is severally depleted of much needed trace minerals. The human body is in need of these trace minerals and when they aren't provided through the ground our food is grown in our bodies become deficient over time. Buying local is best as you not only support your local community but you know how your food was grown and cared for.
4. Eat With The Seasons. This may take some time and practice but is the most healthy and natural way to eat. Our bodies are deeply intertwined with the rhythms of nature. Foods grow and are ready to eat at the times are bodies are ready to eat them. There is wisdom deeply rooted within nature's cycles. Our bodies function best when in alignment with Nature's rhythms. Because we have grown so accustomed to just popping into our local mass supermarket and buying produce that is grown in unnatural conditions year round, we may not even know what types of foods are in season and when. The best place to start is to find a local working farm where you can begin buying your produce. They will sell what has just been picked and you will begin to grow accustomed to what foods grow when and can tailor your eating accordingly.
5. Eat a Variety of Foods and Plants. The human body completes and carries out a large number of diverse and various processes within each and every moment. To efficiently and effectively carry out these processes a wide range of different types of substances are needed by the body. Some substances the body needs for these processes are made by the body from the substances we ingest and others the body cannot make at all and is entirely dependent on our intake of these substances. Here in the US we use a tremendous amount of corn and wheat in our food products. Almost every food product sold contains these 2 ingredients because they are cheap to grow and can be "morphed" into a variety of different types of products. That is entirely too much corn and wheat for the body to process and utilize which is why we see the rise of individuals who are gluten intolerant or have food allergies. Our bodies are sick and tired of corn and wheat and crave a much wider range of foods! Your body needs variety for the variety of processes it must carry out. It needs the greens, the reds, the oranges, the blues, the yellows. All of these different types of foods hold different types of minerals, vitamins and energetic components. You body needs them all! If you are sticking to just a couple of different food types it is very easy to become deficient in all the other things your body needs. Change up your foods daily to keep a good supply of all the nutrients your body needs coming in.
6. Find Natural Ways to Heal Your Body. Don't rely on aspirin, Tylenol, or ibuprofen to treat reoccurring headaches, aches or pains for example. Don't run to the doctor or take prescriptions pills to treat health problems. Drugs or surgery are needed in a very small number of cases and only when it is the only viable treatment option usually in emergency or acute type situations. If you are experiencing health symptoms there is a reason. Your body is sending out the symptom as a call to you for attention. "Something is wrong and you need to take notice!" Your body is alerting you to where the problem is, giving you clues as to what the problem may be and asking you to fix it. When you take a drug to "relieve" the symptom or cut out the organ or system that is having issues you have done nothing to resolve the problem, in fact you have just made it worse. You have covered up the signal your body sent you and then further degraded the body by ingesting man made chemicals that are hard for your body to process and throw other areas out of balance or cut out a vital piece of your being. Side effects from drugs are none other then new symptoms appearing from your body being thrown out of balance in a different direction. Instead of entering this vicious and non-healing cycle find the root of the problem and resolve the issue. Your body naturally heals itself. If healing is not happening on its own there is something hindering that healing, a block. It is important to discover what the block is and remove it. Then your body will heal itself naturally and completely. Find a holistic or natural practitioner that really knows and understands the deeper level workings of the body and can assist you in finding these blocks and naturally removing them.
7. Be Active. Life is an active enterprise and keeping both your body and mind active is essential to superior health. Activity helps to clear the body and mind of stress and move through any blocks whether physical, mental or emotional that may be present. It also keeps you connected and engaged to life while increasing strength, flexibility, resilience and resistance to disease, injury and pain. Being active can take on a variety of forms. Most importantly is to find activities that stimulate both your body and mind that are enjoyable, pleasurable and bring a sense of calm and happiness when complete. After an activity you should have a sense of having more energy rather then less. Even if you are tired, on an energetic level you should feel renewed.
These simple 7 strategies can help keep your health in tip-top shape and help to prevent many of the health pitfalls us Americans tend to fall into. Most importantly is to find lifestyle practices that work best for you. Your health and well being are unique to only you as is the journey to finding that place of perfect health and balance.
Enjoy the journey!
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