Many people think they have to do complicated things to attain good or at least better, health. To tell the truth, if you organize properly, living REALLY well is easy. The problem is society doesn’t support easy, as well as healthy living, so you have to take responsibility (yikes!) for your health and well being.
Here are a few simple steps you can take to enhance your health and well being:
1. Select better foods
2. Move!
3. Drink water
4. Open the channels of elimination
Let’s start with the word “responsibility.” When you see that word, do you feel empowered or fearful? When you think of taking responsibility for your health do you hear/see, “one more burden”?
With the correct understanding, taking responsibility for your health could give you a feeling of empowerment. If you are aware that you are already accountable for your choices and their consequences, either through great health or through sickness, then you already know that you are responsible and accountable. (Incidentally, saying you don’t have a choice, is a choice.)
Now, for many people, any one of the following will make a significant difference in how they feel. What you may realize as you read this, is that all these steps go hand-in-hand for increased health. Good food, conscious movement, enough of the proper fluids and elimination equals a healthier human being. Simple!
1) Select better foods.
a) The best way, of course, is to take your own food whenever possible. That way, you know the quality and, depending on where you buy it, how long it’s been around, whether it was shipped or grown locally, when it was harvested, the amount of processing, etc.
b) Choose more raw foods. The less processed, the better.
Heating and processing destroy the nutritive value of the foods. The more live or living (sprouted) foods you eat, the more enzymes (which help the digestive and all other processes) and the more nutrition. My experience is, that when the body is nourished, there is not so much craving for poorer quality foods, caffeine, nicotine, etc. The Chinese have a saying, which I’ll paraphrase: “Focus on the good to eliminate the bad.” This is the only body you have. Why continue to be responsible for its de-generation when you can be responsible for its re-generation?
For instance, it doesn’t take much more, if any, time to select foods from the produce area of your supermarket than it does from the rest of the store. After you learn how to prepare them, you will find that it takes less time to do that and to sit down and eat, than it does to order take-out or delivery. If you get your family involved in slicing and dicing, your benefits will increase even more as you will possibly open some channels of communication.
I would suggest getting a book on raw food preparation so that you can learn to create more than just a run-of-the-mill salad. My favorite at the present time is “The Raw Gourmet” (rawgourmet. com) by Nomi Shannon.
For example, with sprouted sunflower seeds or almonds, you can make a pate. With many other vegetables and a juicer, blender and/or food processor, you can make raw soups, entrees, desserts, dips and dressings. I can make a raw pie in approximately 30 minutes using almonds, figs, dates and raisins for the crust (you can use many combinations if you don’t like these particular seeds and fruits), then top with peaches, apples, pears, berries, mango or any other fruit in season.
c) The less animal products the better.
In this country, we get way more protein, less fiber and nutrition than many other less “advanced” nations.
With the “high protein” diets again running rampant in this country, expect to see more people having kidney, liver, gall bladder, stomach cancer, heart, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, stroke and digestive disorders. A woman I know recently came into an establishment I was in, and was bragging about having lost 15 pounds in two weeks. Naturally, all the women’s ears turned to find out her “success” story. She said she was on a high protein diet where she could eat all the meat, eggs, dairy, etc., she wanted. Not being able to keep myself out of this, I said something to the effect that, it’s not a program you can live on. She stated it had worked for her mother for 25 years. I asked if her mother was still alive. No. And how old was she when she died? Sixty-five. And from what did she die? (Had to be massive heart attack, stroke or kidney failure.) It was the first, possibly complicated by the latter.
What people don’t realize is, all live foods contain protein. If you eat a variety of live foods and their juices, it is virtually impossible to not get enough protein. The only people who don’t get enough protein in their diets in this country would pretty much have to be on a mono (one food only) diet, anorexic or bulimic, or live on pastries and sodas.
d) Add more raw juices
Sorry to say, but most juices you will find in health food stores have been heated. This kills most nutrients and enzymes. Yes, they are better than sodas, yet, if you are looking for the highest nourishment possible, get a juicer and juice your own. Even with the worst quality juicer and even if you save the juice for a few hours (although you “should” drink it immediately), you’ll be receiving more nutrition and enzymes than from a bottled drink. As far as juice bars go, frozen is better than heated, although you still don’t know the quality (is it organic or unsprayed? how long has it been around?) of the fruit or vegetables being used.
I like to juice first thing in the morning although whenever you can is, of course, best. As I have a high-quality juicer, I can keep my juice for (they say) up to five days. Depending on the juice, I would never keep it longer than three days and usually drink it in two. I make about 4-5 quarts at a time, which saves time as I only juice 2-3 times per week instead of every day. There are faster juicers, yet they heat and oxidize (add more oxygen to) the juices, thus making them bio-energetically unavailable in a short while which means they should be drunk very shortly after making.
2) Move!
The second thing is to move! An aerobic exercise along with conscious movement is ideal.
I understand many people have very physical jobs, yet that is usually not enough. My father was a construction worker. His expertise was in paving and excavating. He moved a lot while doing hard, manual labor, yet died of a heart attack at the age of 50. Part of the problem was he was a “meat and potatoes” man. Even though he received a handful of vitamins from my mother every day, it obviously was not enough. (FYI — vitamins are inorganic substances that the body does not recognize. The body was made to eat organic substances or live and living foods).
By conscious movement, I mean yoga and qigong (chi kung or chi gong). (By the way, t’ai chi ch’uan is a form of qigong, so it is included here). After walking or some other more strenuous exercise, slow, conscious movement is extremely beneficial. It slowly stretches the already warmed muscles, and connects the body/mind/spirit to bring a peaceful awareness. It can also eliminate some otherwise not-so-healthy habits.
One of my t’ai chi ch’uan students once mentioned to me that t’aiji was interfering with her smoking. She had gone from two packs a day to a 1/2 a pack without even thinking about it.
Now, if you knew some short chi kung forms, and instead of lighting up, you did one or two movements, inhaling and exhaling, what do you think might happen? A couple of nice things about qigong are, you can do it anywhere and you don’t need to wear any special clothing.
Physical movement also assists the body in moving the organs, which include the lymph glands. As the other pumps in the body, besides the heart, the joints need to be moved so they can assist in siphoning off the toxic residue that is collected in the lymph.
3) Water, water, water
Most people are now aware that they should drink water, yet I very often work with people who obviously aren’t drinking enough. For instance:
I called a woman a while back and she told me she couldn’t get out of the house because her hip was hurting so badly. I went to her home, had her lay on her stomach preparing to do some bodywork. As I put my hand on her left kidney, I asked what side was hurting. Her left. I asked how much water she drank a day. Her answer: “Oh, the usual.” Which is? “Well, I drink a pot of tea in the morning and that’s it.” She also told me she hadn’t had a bowel movement in three days.
Tea, coffee and anything else that contains caffeine is a diuretic — meaning it draws the fluid from your system. She and many like her are dehydrated. If you have a sensation of thirst, you are already dehydrating.
The best water to drink is distilled. If you aren’t willing to purchase a distiller or drink from the plastic bottles then get a good reverse-osmosis filter. With the worsening quality of our city water and the additions of things such as fluoride, it is imperative that you filter any water you get from your faucet.
4) Open the channels of elimination
Things that shut down the channels of elimination might include; deodorant soaps, antiperspirants, lotions, not enough water, cosmetics, meat (which contains no fiber) and lack of movement.
Many people don’t realize that the skin is a third kidney and also functions as a third lung. It is the largest organ in the body. Why would you voluntarily stop its functioning any more than you would the natural function of any other organ?
Deodorant soaps clog the pores as do antiperspirants and lotions containing lanolin. The skin was given to us as a fragile coating to protect the rest of our organs, bones, muscles, etc., and as a viable elimination organ. We are the only animals in the universe who intentionally stop the natural functioning of our organs.
If, when you perspire, your perspiration is yellow, you aren’t getting enough water. Perspiration is the same chemical structure as urine. If your urine is yellow, your perspiration will probably be the same.
When you use an antiperspirant, you are stopping the function of the skin to eliminate toxins. The underarms (as is the groin) are a major lymph area and this area is made for the elimination of toxins that don’t come out through other eliminatory channels. Stopping this channel puts you in danger. Most antiperspirants contain aluminum, a suspected carcinogen and cause of Alzheimer’s. You are placing this poison right into the lymph, which are supposed to be eliminating there, not absorbing, yet have no choice as you are stopping the elimination process by blocking the outlets (pores).
You needn’t become rigid about these things in order to have better health. As a matter of fact, it would be better to eat a pepperoni pizza than carrot sticks if your mind and emotions are creating tension and anxiety with what you are doing.
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