The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine.
Hippocrates…Greek Physician
Wellness of the Body and Earth begins with love and respect which starts with proper nutrition of the body and the Earth. Lifestyle changes can insure the wellness and sustainability of both the body and Earth.
When I originally wrote the following Ten Steps to Personal Wellness in 2005, I called it “How to Feel Lousy in Ten Easy Steps” and got laughs but little compliance from a clientele looking for the instant gratification of “losing” forty pounds in thirty days along with all their wrinkles and improving their sex life. After all we lived in Southern California in the land of “reality show” life where botox is routinely injected to paralyze facial muscles.
Living Well does not include losing anything. Losing is a concept that cannot be accepted by the mind, body or spirit. Weight issues as with all health issues are directly related to environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment. When the body is receiving the required nutrition without chemicals, dyes, trans-fats and other toxins, excess weight will not be an issue.
A few years ago, I compiled a notebook with the “diet of the week” from the most widely read women’s magazine in the United States. Each week promised the “loss” of from 10 to 50 pounds. On the front of the notebook which I placed in the waiting area were the words, “How to lose 500 pounds in a year.” This, too, received some laughs…but clients still asked for a diet because this is what they have been led to believe was a requirement of “losing.”
Each of the following ten steps starts with a common assumption or myth we have been given by a group, corporation or occupation making money from selling “health” in the form of products and services or profiting by widespread illness.
I. Eat Low Fat Foods
The theory that saturated fats and dietary cholesterol clog arteries has been effectively disproved by a number of highly respected scientists. The real culprit is “trans-fatty acids” found in margarine, vegetable oils and foods with partially hydrogenated oils.
II. Use Artificial Sweeteners to Avoid Sugar
Aspartame, which is marketed as NutruSweet or Equal is used in diet and sugar-free foods. There is a clear scientific line between these artificial sweeteners and chronic headaches, cognitive and seizure disorders, and hyperactivity in children.
III. Eat Processed and Junk Food
Animal growth hormones and antibiotics do not go away after an animal is butchered, prepared for market or cooked…35 Million pounds per year adds up. Genetically modified, hybridized and irradiated foods are all passed along to the public as processed food.
IV. Have Surgery to Remove “Spare Body Parts”
The appendix and tonsils are very necessary lymphoid tissue which is part of the body’s immune system. Gallbladders and Reproductive Systems serve a functional purpose which cannot be replaced with drugs.
V. Wolf Down Food Without Chewing
The chewing reflex signals the body to release saliva enzymes. The goal of this process is to deliver food to the stomach in a liquid state which requires that each bite be chewed from 40 to 50 times. Chewing insures proper digestion.
VI. Do Aerobic Exercises
Research indicates that high-intensity aerobic exercise producing an elevated heart rate for long periods of time such as jogging or running on hard surfaces may lower immune response and create chronic ligament and joint problems with long-term tissue degeneration.
VII. Use Antibacterial Soaps & Lots of Skin Care Products
Most antibacterial soaps contain triclosan which can be absorbed through the skin and pose a liver threat. Skin care products can destroy the natural pH and can introduce dangerous toxins into the body through the pores.
VIII. Medicate Every Symptom
Symptoms are the body’s way of healing itself. Common medications such as antibiotics, oral contraceptives, and OTC drugs may cause major damage to the immune system, effect the gastrointestional terrain, and alter enzyme & hormone functions.
IX. Use Plastic Wraps & Containers and Reuse Plastic Bottles
Plastic products release or leach carcinogenic toxins into food. Water is one of the most effective solvents and it draws toxins from plastic. Toxicity is increased when foods contain high amounts of water or if they are highly acidic.
X. Stay Up Late and Live Without Sleep
Sleep disturbances set up vicious cycles of pain, fatigue and emotional distress that make sleep even more unlikely. Researchers believe that every minute of sleep before midnight is the equivalent of 4 minutes of sleep after midnight.
Lets look at our wonderful magnificent bodies and think about this awesome gift which you came to Earth with. Inside this body is everything that is required for a life-time without “improvement” or “taking ownership.”
The body is our most valuable possession or asset in that it must last a lifetime. There is a major difference between being respectful of and grateful for a possession and taking ownership. When we are respectful we treat the possession with loving care and honor; when we take ownership we immediately began trying to improve it or make it better.
The human body comes to Earth equipped to last a lifetime (approximately 122 years) given simple nutrition. The body works as a whole and not as individual components. There are no “extra” or “disposable” body parts and anything that is ingested into the body effects the body as a whole rather than one particular area or organ of the body.
There is “intelligence” in every cell of the body in that it knows what its purpose is and what it is supposed to accomplish before replicating itself, dying off and being eliminated from the body. (Cells reminds us of people on the Earth and how pollution of the body works the same way as pollution of the Earth) What we put into our bodies and the respect we show toward our bodies determine and reflects the quality of our life. If the billions of dollars spent on “fixing & saving” our wonderful bodies was redirected towards simple environmental nutrition it would change the world.
The majority of the people in the United States are now labeled as “Fat” which really means that they are nutritionally starving. The body can become a toxic dump when toxins are ingested and stored rather than ingesting essential nutrients which give life sustaining nourishment. (The effects on the body are similar to the effects on the Earth of sending household garbage to the waste dump rather than recycling and composting).
Living Well with our bodies and the Earth is a personal choice which creates beauty along with environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment. Rather than giving the warning to my loved ones when they go out the door “Be Careful” I send them off with “Be Full of Care” and that is the same closing I give to all of you today.
Love, Light & Lots of Laughter…Joa
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