Why Do I Promote a Healthy Diet?

Food is medicine, and since we eat three times a day, we should be aware of what 'medicine' we are giving our body!

Food can heal, harmonize or harm - most North Americans are eating a diet that is very harmful to their bodies and spirits. We can feel good from what we eat, and it is a combination of the misinformation from food manufacturers and advertisers, and the West's idea of more is better. Not just more.. but more faster, bigger, better.. but that's not so.

Food and Eating

These are two very synergistic things! Our food choices are very important, but our eating habits are always crucial, and some times more profound on our health than the actual food. I work with food as well as eating. Perhaps I should be called an "eatist" and a "foodist" and less of a nutritionist - as nutrients are the very isolated tiny components of food, but not food themselves!

Try sitting down when you eat and become intimate with your food. What are you eating? Is it food? Do you like it? Are you chewing, which is a crucial step in digestion... how does it feel? Is this something you felt like, or just slammed in your mouth unconsciously?

Food vs. Supplements

Again, two very different things. Isolated nutrients purchased in supplement form are missing some key ingredients that food does not have. They are usually not natural, and are always missing important cofactors that are essential for the proper usage and functioning of the nutrient. Consider 3 mg of vitamin C consumed in food is as effective as 1500 mg supplemental vitamin C! There are so many other aspects of food that science hasn't even touched, but why take expensive supplements when you can just eat the source of the nutrients in their complete, unadultered, natural, God given form - complete with the essentail cofactors, AND energy to sustain life!

Time

Fast. That's the current priority. Why? Because time is money. Well what if time is health? There is a price to pay for our very convenient lifestyle. We live in a time of abundance and poor health - doesn't anyone notice the connection? A plant can't be forced to grow in one minute, but our meal can be ready in less that that. A tree takes years to grow, yet we want to heal in under a week, or a day - seeking that magic pill. We have the magic pill, it's just not given the attention to manifest.

Energy

All food has energy, otherwise food couldn't grow! But what can't be grown can't sustain us, or energize us. Many people come to me with energy issues, but don't realize they're eating an energy-less diet of refined, energy devoid foods that just cannot sustain us, no matter how much of them we eat. Microwaving most absolutely removes the vital energy from foods, as does refining them away from their natural states, and especially when the food is incomplete, such as white flour - which is missing almost all of it's nutrients, and then bleached and absolutely destroyed, energetically and anatomically. I'm not speaking of the western sense of energy from ATP or calories, I mean the life giving energy that is selflessly given by the universe, God or other explanation you have for this energy, that propels life and gives our world its spirit. Here's an easy example, how does Grandma's oatmeal differ from your oatmeal to go bar that's stashed away in your bag or sitting for years on end in every convenience store in North America. We are energetically connected to our food, and I'm excited to share this, it is simply not explored or talked about. Consider that our food grows magically from the earth - from a seed and soil with the help of the sun and some unknowing God force that magically raises up the plant out of the earth so that we can turn it into us. Incredible!

Extremes

If something is good, more must be better - right? But one thing is for sure about extremes, they are not balanced, and so balance is actually the better of the two. If you find yourself looking for more and wanting more - first ask to not want, and then take a look at what you do have. We eat enough, know enough, do enough and have enough to make anyone happy, but we're often not, and that is the problem. So if less is the antidote to our problem of "moreness" (obesity, cancer, arthritis, and so on), let's not forget to not be extreme about that either! Dieting and fasting can be terribly extreme and harmful, what is best - is that place right in the centre - the place that already is. Right now, with what you have, know and do!

If your diet is extreme, balance it out. If your fridge and cupboards are stuffed full, empty it a bit. If your schedule is full, empty that a bit too - and chances are your stomach is always stuffed full too, and so this is a good place to practice the art of no extremes, and eat just enough - not more, not less - just enough. It's hard to do. If you want to eat 100% healthy, isn't that too a little extreme too? Tip the scales just a bit, and with time, you'll be on a new course with no force, extremes, and you'll only experience harmony from here on in.

Turning around a cruise liner requires time and subtle shifts. Make a wee turn at the wheel, wait, and soon enough you'll be in a whole new direction. Turn the wheel 180 degrees, and you'll flip the boat!

What do I Suggest?

Firstly, I can't suggest anything specific for you, because I am not you. Your body knows what to eat, but when working as your coach, I can crawl inside your mind to help you realize what it is your body is after, and show you how to listen. As I said, I always start off where YOU are.. if you eat noodles everyday, I won't suggest sprouted kamut, but whole grain noodles instead. Some thrive off of a more animal based diet, some with more fats, or raw, cooked, reduced fat, reduced calorie, and so on - but what diet I find most supportive for a lifestyle of harmony and useful for most healing situations, that I have found to be supportive of my health and happiness and for clients:

• 40% vegetables, cooked/raw based your constitution (you can usually tell what's best)
• 30% whole grains - with no flours if healing, but otherwise whole, ideally soaked and fresh
• 10% legumes, beans and pulses, nuts and/or seeds
• 10% fruit (when appropriate), seasonings, unrefined oils and other whole food products
• 10% animal products; goat's milk products and eggs, and meat

I realize this is a far cry from the nation's food guide, but our nation is one of the most unhealthy especially compared to other non-health advanced regions! My training has spanned from Western to Eastern thinking, and has taken consideration of traditional and modern diets and have found this diet to be the most effective for myself, and variations of the diet for clients in seeking enduring health and balance.