Archive for Healthy eating
Is Natural a Food Definition?
Posted by: | CommentsSometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. The food industry has adopted the word because it has a favorable connotation with consumers. 
It could generally mean food that has not been processed in a factory. Organic may be a more specific definition when speaking of produce. Organic and natural are the same but organic would mean food was not sprayed with harmful insecticides. Local farmers tell me they use fertilizers and sprays approved as non harmful and still call foods organic.
Meat is a much different story. It would be immoral to call animals raised in factory type conditions in closed spaces and mostly on grain, natural. They are also given hormones to speed up the growth process and then anti-biotics because of the problem incurred from close quarters and eating only grains.
Some meat producers start adding the term natural if they, for instance, give otherwise closed up chickens a door to the outside to feed on a square patch of grass. The term then gets very general when applied to those who raise animals by feeding mostly on grass in outdoor and pasture environments.
They want to include the word natural because of the good connotation and acceptance. Their animals may be fed on grass when there is no snow and then often fattened up and tenderized with grain at the end of the harvest. Even animal producers will say that beef or other meats raised entirely on grass does not taste as good to the average consumer.
So fully grass fed animals are called natural and growers who give their animals access to grass sometimes will call their meat natural. If you are particular, you have to investigate the details. Websites for natural meats will be very explicit.
Animal types that are frequently grown by small producers and raised natural, grass fed, and organically are beef, buffalo, goat, venison, lamb, and chickens. These producers will talk about land sustainability by not using pesticides or fertilizers that will get into the water system. They also point out that animals are humanely handled and harvested as opposed to some brutal factory processes.
A typical advertisement for natural grass fed meat is found on this buffalo site which claims its beef is (http://wildideabuffalo.com/?gclid=CJfasMbHhK4CFaYaQgodCznX2Q)
• 100% grass-fed only
• 100% antibiotic & hormone free
• 100% free roaming
• 100% non-confined
• 100% humanely field harvested
These natural meats are availabe to anyone, but the costs are greatly increased by the specialized dry ice shipping and containers required. It becomes more economical when you can order half an animal. In some communities these grass fed animals are ordered by local markets and restaurants.
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Our Obligation to Natural Food
Posted by: | CommentsIf you eat naturally meaning a lot of food that comes out of the ground, you are getting the best Nature, God, or the Universe can provide. This food and Mother Nature gave its all while growing to create the hundreds of ingredients that can benefit and help make any animal or living being perform at their peak performance.
It would be good karma to acknowledge that in picking these foods you are thankful for the opportunity to build your own body at the sacrifice of another living thing. Killing plants is not considered inhumane, but you realize that they were picked so that you could eat them.
Acknowledging that this food has been provided for your sustenance helps you identify your connection to nature and the earth. We all must flourish and grow stronger. It is part of the design of nature as stated by Darwin that we are in a struggle for survival of the fittest.
It would be great if we used the energy derived from these natural ingredients to give back. The ancients said that God can only give and man can only receive. But we know that after we have recognized that we have received, we sometimes want to give back. We want to make a contribution to the community. We want to help our fellow man.
Just having the bounty of nourishing food that can make us strong should help us appreciate the circle of life. We’re born, we’re nourished, we have the right to pursue happiness, and we die. Gratitude is one of the fine ingredients of living a happy life.
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Read Jonny Bowden’s 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth
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Healthy Eating is the Ultimate Discipline
Posted by: | CommentsEating serves so many purposes. Most people don’t restrict it to the main purpose.
The main purpose would be to get the fuel and recovery we need for burning muscle from strenuous exercise. When man was created, he had the need to survive like all animals by foraging and hunting. He needed lots of pure energy.
He got this energy by eating foods that were available in the ground and that ran around on four feet. Everything was clean and pure. Your body’s needs have not changed. We have only changed our activities.
We have also changed the reasons we eat. We no longer eat just to survive. We eat to handle our emotions. We eat food our body doesn’t recognize. We eat what is cheap and not just what is pure. Our body gets confused and our body gets sick and breaks down.
Few things are more difficult than eating what we need and what is good for us. The result of disciplined eating is more energy all day, better health, longer lives, better performance, more active brains, and happier dispositions.
The discipline of healthy eating can lead to better discipline in other phases of our lives.
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Eating Just Half Has Surprise Results
Posted by: | CommentsWe are used to cleaning our plate. I always marveled how my daughter as an adolescent would push away her plate with food on it and say I am full. Not many adults can do that. I have learned to do it and there are a few nice surprises.
I cook most of my meals and it is easy to just take half of what I cook. If needed, I can always access the rest. But what I find is that after ten minutes, what I ate fills me fine. I can eat the rest later. I also feel better eating less. Eating less maintains more blood circulating in the body to bring blood and oxygen to the brain instead of to the digestive process.
Since I write a lot during the day, I want to feel mentally energized without having to resort to coffee. If you have mentally taxing work, stressful work, or even work involving exercise, less food makes you more productive. The key is to eat less but eat more often.
Many people will say that is not possible. There are all kinds of small snacks that can be appealing, satisfying, and energizing. Fruit, nuts and raisins, cheese, peanuts, and lots of water are good appeasers and energizers.
When hungry or tired reach for a few glasses of water first. Our early man body was used to getting water from food and thinks it still can. Therefore, hunger is often a false signal. Tiredness can often be abated by increasing our blood and oxygen supply, which water does immediately. It increases our blood volume.
Athletic coaches want athletes to hydrate before events to increase blood volume and oxygen.
Eating less than you want is great discipline. The most powerful asset you possess is controlling your mind. Living disciplined, focusing on tasks, pushing the envelope by taking risks, living in gratitude, being kind to others are all exercises in mind control.
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Do You Understand Your Diet?
Posted by: | CommentsOur first thought about food is “I’m hungry”. Then depending on where you are, you look for the best appetite appeaser. If you are at home you try to think of what you have in the refrigerator and what sounds good. If you are at work or on the road you wonder what is the most convenient and maybe least expensive option.
The third thought that gets you in trouble is what would make me really happy since everything else today is causing me so much stress. This is where we go for the happy foods. The happy foods is why medicare is too big a part of our budget and why people really are not healthy when they hit the golden years at 60.
The person who understands how to stay healthy plans in advance. What do I need to put in my body each day and how will I get it? It’s a much different perspective and planning process. I know I will need breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow. Where will I be at each of those times? What foods will be available?
I know that tomorrow I need grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and protein. I want to avoid sugars, flour, bad fats, and maybe dairy. I have to plan ahead. I will go to the market and buy all the foods I should have this week. I will either plan to make them at home, carry some with me, or eat the same foods when I am out and about.
I must plan to avoid the bad foods with the same vigor I need to guarantee I have the good foods. Tonight should I watch TV after a rough day or go shopping for the good food I need over the next couple of days?
It’s really that simple.
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Why Should Health Be Our First Priority?
Posted by: | CommentsIt is one of the nation’s most debated topics. It is responsible for too large a portion of the federal budget which means the budget of every citizen. We ask why is health so expensive and what can be done about it.
It has become as large an economic issue for families as a life style issue. Most families can’t afford to need a doctor or hospital. The consequences of serious illness can be bankruptcy. Injuries usually can’t be avoided, but mild sickness, disease, organ, and structural deterioration can often be avoided.
What we need is more focus on prevention. One of the major causes of deterioration other than inherited congenital defects is inflammation. Inflammation thrives in acidic based blood supplies. Inflammation is prevented by eating natural foods and meats and exercising to burn muscle.
Anti oxidants help destroy the free radicals in our bodies that cause the break down of important organs like our brains and our eyes and make us vulnerable to cancer. Anti oxidants are found in natural food that grows out of the ground.
We have become dependent on food from boxes, cans, and restaurants. These foods are made to taste good to our corrupted palettes. They are not created to build immunity and prevent disease. We need to get used to foods that are not heavily invested in salt, sugar, flour, and fats.
Obesity could be greatly contained if we just dropped sugar and bleached flour from out diets. Inflammation could be reduced if we burned muscle every day with exercise. Free radicals could be reduced by eating lot of green vegetables including garlic, onion, brocolli, kale, parsely, and dandelion.
Jonny Bowden’s book “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth” would be a great place to start for creating a healthy diet. See it in Resources. Each week we should eliminate the most harmful food in our diet and add a healthy food until we are eating 85% healthy.
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How to Include 5 Healthy Foods in Your Diet
Posted by: | CommentsNatural News in an article touts 5 super foods that are anti inflammatory and strong anti-oxidant. These are two characteristics you want to stress in your daily diet.
Your body produces inflammation naturally on a daily basis. It also gathers free radicals from the environment. If you don’t eliminate them, they lead to debilitating functionality. They lead to dementia, poor eye sight, heart disease, and cancer. Do you need more?
Eating natural foods and getting exercise eliminate both. Animals rarely suffer from dementia or heart disease. There are many cultures in existence that also don’t suffer these maladies and members live to be active to 100 years old.
If you want to create a diet with anti-oxidants and inflammation fighting super foods, you should read Johnny Bowden’s book “150 Healthiest Foods on Earth”. I started my health drive with this book by picking eight foods to include in my diet. I also started eliminating bad foods.
In the Natural News article they list 5 foods that are helpful:
Mustard, Raisins, Nuts, Seasonings, Cole slaw (Cabbage)
Mustard helps fight migraines for which a surprising number of people suffer. Raisins and nuts have anti oxidants as do cabbage and many spices.
In the mornings I have a fruit bowl of apples, bananas, peanuts, raisins, with flax seeds and a half bowl of oat meal. I eat my oat meal dry because I don’t eat dairy. If you put fruit on it or a little syrup (pardon the sugar) it becomes delicious. I add cinnamon and raisins to my oat meal.
I mix mustard in my tuna mix for my wraps. I include tuna, lemon pepper, brown mustard, zucchini, onions, and tomatoes. (notice no mayonnaise). Then I wrap it in wheat tortilla for a great wrap. This is also portable if you want to take it to work.
I put cabbage in my soups. Cabbage and kale are on top of Johnny Bowden’s list of 150 powerful foods as cancer fighters. My soups are meals in themselves. I use three types of beans, brown rice, yams, potatoes, celery, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, kale (when I have it), red peppers, turmeric, and chicken bouillon cubes.
These three meals are great for energy, weight loss, and immune system development. Because of my exercise and recovery needs, I include meat. I eat it in small 3 to 4 ounce portions and have a small steak in the morning with and egg and put a broiled hamburger at night on top of spaghetti with vegetables or on top of brown rice with vegetables.
This is also a very inexpensive diet. Notice there are no canned and few processed foods, no dairy, no sodas, no french fries, no sweet rolls, no bread, and little sugar. Being a dessert freak, I have to admit I make brownies or banana walnut muffins to keep me alive.
An Ideal Meal
Posted by: | CommentsGet your protein, vegetables, grains, and anti-oxidants in low calorie, low fat combination.
It is a bowl of meat, vegetables, rice and beans.
I use packaged brown rice and black beans that have to be boiled for about twenty minutes. I boil the brown rice and black beans in separate pots because the black bean water turns the rice black. When I make soup, I might cook them together.
Then I broil a 3 to 4 ounce piece of chuck roast. You can use anything you like. The roast is low fat and I buy meat without anti-biotics or hormones.
I brown garlic and onions in olive oil in a frying pan. Then I add zucchini, broccoli, peppers, and tomatoes. Feel free to add as many vegetables as you like. I season with red pepper, seasoning salt, and pepper.
I mix the black beans and rice and put at the bottom of my bowl. I add my vegetable mixture and then top with my small steak.
Not only is it pretty and delicious with all sorts of tastes mixed in, but it is nutritious and sustaining; makes a great dinner or lunch.
If you are physically active, you will find this is great for fuel and recovery. I now try to surf twice a day and need lots of nutrition and can do it without lots of calories. I have a small portion of meat twice a day and have beans and rice often three times a day.
I have stopped using my protein powders and amino acid supplements to see if I can provide my recovery with better nutrition. If you are a non meat eater, you might not like this routine. If you are a meat eater, a total of 8 ounces a day in two meals is not very extreme. The broiling seems to take the fat out.
I find that I feel better than ever. I usually try to get some grains in my diet with 10 grain cereal and whole grain bread. I also have two or three portions of fruit bowls a day where I combine apples, bananas, peanuts, raisins, flax seed, and maybe a small spoon of peanut butter.
I make a vegetable soup that has a few more ingredients than the above dinner and can have that as a lunch, afternoon snack, or even after dinner snack. Even if you are not physically active, you could probably lose weight on this diet. There is no sugar, no fat, no bleached flour, no processed foods, and no restaurant foods.
Are Peak Success and Fitness Tied Together?
Posted by: | CommentsYou don’t see many successful politicians or high tech gurus that are fat.
Is it the public image they want to avoid, the discipline that pervades all their habits, their own concept of leanness and self worth, the acceptance of the value and necessity of health and fitness to enjoy a fruitful life?
When you see people that are fat or overweight you subconsciously figure they drink or they are emotional eaters. Any one who has a lot of sugar in their diet by consuming soda, alcohol, or processed foods will be over weight.
Hamburgers and pizza by themselves will not make you over weight. A hamburger without the bun can be a healthy meal. A pizza with vegetables is also a healthy choice and can be a good support for strenuous exercise.
However, if you add fries, cokes, or beer, you are adding the foods that make you body absorb the calories from the food and turn them into fat.
The reason goes back to the times of early man. In geologic time and evolution, we are still early man. The forager/hunter did not have any sugar in his diet. He ate 30 or 40 plant items and as much meat as he could kill.
The body uses sugar to determine how much you have eaten. Because meat and plants do not have much sugar, the body would regulate a little insulin and digestive juices and enzymes to take care of the meals. It would not store the calories as fat.
A coke or beer tells the bodies sugar measuring device that you have just eaten a moose. It pumps out enough toxic digestive juices and insulin to digest a very big meal, Then it ravenously stores all the calories. It doesn’t recognize the non natural foods, so it encapsulates them in fat.
It doesn’t take long for the fat to build around your middle and thighs. That is why after a year at college, freshman are usually twenty pounds heavier. The only thing that changed in their diet was the beer and late night pizzas. The sedentary part adds to the problem but is not the cause.
Once you are an adult, the fat shows you have emotional problems you can’t release or you are a real unhealthy food junkie. This type of tell sign makes it difficult to get the respect from business prospects you would like to impress or from constituents you would like to vote for you. We don’t need to discuss attraction to the opposite sex.
When you look in the mirror are you proud or do you repeat for the millionth time that you need to take off a few pounds? Are you the only one that notices? How much of your self esteem is tied to the fact you can’t control what you eat or drink?
A healthy natural diet could set off an avalanche of great new outcomes. Start by eliminating the worst offenders. Then find good substitutes. If you give yourself a few years to take out the bad and put in the good, you will have a whole new image in the mirror.
Habits That Make You Fat
Posted by: | CommentsWe tend to see things in generalities rather than detail.
We might generalize that we are over weight, have trouble keeping weight off, or can’t for the life of us take off that ten pounds. We accept that the extra weight is just the result of what we do during the day to stay alive.
In a great slide show, an article from Men’s Health printed in MSN.com by Dave Zinczenko lays out 20 different little habits that accumulate to add extra pounds. What to avoid is important for losing those pounds, but when confronted with a long list we are likely to pick and choose.
The list includes the usual habits such as drinking soda, eating too late at night, and ordering combo meals. It also has some tips about choosing smaller plates, don’t face the buffet table, don’t eat the freebies on the table at restaurants, and don’t hang out with fat friends.
It results in slapping your hand for all your violations but doesn’t set out a plan for being proactive and avoiding the bad habits. Results come from eating natural foods and avoiding most combinations of ingredients that come in packages or are prepared in a restaurant. You don’t choose bad ingredients, they are included in the foods you do choose.
You don’t choose fructose or fried fats but they are included in soda, fries, chips, and other foods we crave. Breaking cravings is not easy. It has to be done a step at a time. I lost 45 pounds over four years by selecting the most harmful foods and finding a substitute. I still do that.
The first substitution doesn’t always have to be healthy. If you are addicted to something harmful like ice cream after dinner, find something that you would like just as much and start eating it. After a week move to something more healthy and the habit is then probably broken.
I have found over the years that my healthiest meals are prepared at home. Then I have 100% choice of ingredients. If I have to eat out, then I would have my breakfast and dinner at home and just have to find the best alternative for lunch.
Evolving to a diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, protein, and good fats becomes the food we crave. This means fruit and hot grain cereal or eggs for breakfast; salads soups, chicken, tuna or even spaghetti for lunch; soups, salads, spaghetti, meat, and vegetables for dinner. If your diet is 85% on target, your body will start to release the harmful foods you have eaten that it has encapsulated in fat.
When you start dropping those pounds and inches you become more enthusiastic. You don’t ever have to starve. You can eat all day if you are eating natural non calorie foods. You can drink water and green tea in between and feel satiated and they keep your mouth busy.
If you want to accelerate the process and build your health, add some exercise. Even though walking is great, some aerobics really please the muscles and organs. The amount of time you exercise is almost as important as the intensity. An hour walk can be as good as twenty minutes on the tread mill.
The devil is in the details. Look at what you should be eating in the long run like the list I included above and start substituting now. Consider how fit you would like to be in the long run and start adding exercises now.
The biggest impediment to success is thinking you can reach your goal in 30 days. It’s a much longer life process that will last you the rest of your life.
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http://fitbie.msn.com/slideshow/20-habits-make-you-fat
By Dave Zinczenko
Cutting Carbs vs Eating Natural; the Weight Dilemma
Posted by: | CommentsCarbohydrates certainly get a bad rap. What’s wrong with them?
Most fruits and vegetables including grasses and leaves are all carbohydrates. See any sick animals falling out of trees?
A good friend about 50 who exercises well with upper body and running on the beach says he wants to thin out a little by eating less carbs. Some diets stress low carbs. If you have an active life, carbohydrates are needed for fuel and recovery.
As a surfer, I would not want to eliminate carbohydrates. Because I eat a mostly natural diet, my struggle is getting enough protein. The carbohydrates I eat are fruit, vegetables, and grain cereals.
I have a fruit bowl in the mornings, a salad during the day, and often a vegetable soup in the early evening before dinner. I like spaghetti and often make my sauce with garlic, onions, zucchini, and broccoli sautéed in olive oil before I drop in the tomato sauce. I have chicken, tuna, and take a high grade amino acid supplement.
What I don’t eat is refined sugar, fructose, bread, dairy, and many processed foods from cans or packages. My body will quickly digest everything I eat and not encapsulate my ingredients in fat to protect my organs.
I have energy, exercise, and don’t think about cutting back on my consumption. I am constantly eating. My foods don’t have many calories and so snacking doesn’t add weight. I don’t drink and follow up with pizza or a hamburger. I frequently have my beer or two in the evenings as I gather with friends.
Losing or maintaining weight doesn’t have to be a struggle if you are eating natural.
Is There a Congress, Drug, Food, & FDA Conspiracy?
Posted by: | CommentsNatural News reports on the FDA’s newest intention to make vitamin and supplements difficult to market.
Going retro to a 1994 law passed by Congress, the FDA is announced its intentions to regulate ingredients which would make supplements difficult to market and sell.- Natural News
http://www.naturalnews.com/032912_FDA_dietary_supplements.html
Who would benefit if people cannot use nutrition to stay healthy?
By the same token, the government (Congress) is cracking down on people growing organic products. So if you would like locally grown food not exposed to pesticides and perhaps grown by farmers into sustainability, it is getting more difficult as government agencies raid these farms.
Who would benefit by organic products disappearing? The large food cartels that control most of the food distribution in the U.S.? Do they need more control?
How about the Congressman that can run great campaigns from the money received for knocking out something as meaningless as organic food and supplements?
Are we continuing down the road of extreme supervision and regulation for our better good? The government decides we need health care, shouldn’t eat organic food nor take vitamins, super foods, or supplements?
While we are concerned about wars, taxes, global warming, energy, and jobs, the distractions are also allowing other monopolies to chip away at our quality of life and maybe the longevity of life. What happens to our cost of living when the only beneficial supplements are controlled by big pharma?
The real issue is that lobbyists need to be eliminated so that it is a government by the people and for the people.
Too bad food and nutrition are so far down the list of priorities that they can’t become political issues that count.
Losing 10 Pounds a Month Without Dieting
Posted by: | CommentsReal weight loss comes from food selection not deprivation
The problem with calorie counting and starving is most people can’t sustain it for very long. They usually lead to quitting or binging. Any 10 pounds lost on a diet is soon regained because you haven’t really changed your permanent eating habits.
What choice do you have when you have finished your diet but to go back to your regular routine? Maybe you start cutting down on a few desserts, but you don’t really know anything else but what you were doing.
Losing weight is not about exercising it off. Very few mostly sedentary people can exercise enough to burn off a pound of fat. Most people who start exercising hard feel they need some food to reward them selves and put the pound back on.
The way to lose the pound is to have the body release the fat and not just burn it off. To burn off a pound you have to burn approximately 3300 calories. A jog is worth about 600 calories an hour, giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you jogged everyday your body would increase its metabolism which would help burn more calories.
The best way to lose weight is to eat foods that the body recognizes causing it to release the food encapsulated in fat that it did not recognize. Most of your fat is holding onto foods that are acidic that would poison the organs if they were released. Those are the bad foods that lead to obesity, heart problems, disease, and early death.
The answer to weight loss, health and looking good is very simple. Eat the right foods and eliminate the bad foods. The only real trick is if you can get your mind to accept the regimen. Your mind has its own ideas about what you should be eating. It thinks you should be eating food to reward yourself for all the trouble and pain you experience.
The mind does not care if you eat healthy until you start eating healthy and it realizes this is a good thing. Then it will be your ally in eating the right foods and avoiding the bad ones. The mind enjoys the body having more energy, feeling healthy, and having better mental capacity.
So what do you eat? Fruits, vegetables, lean meats, grains, seeds, nuts, eggs and good fats 85% of the time. What do you eliminate? Sugar, white flour, processed foods, and bad fats. It’s that easy. If you can start with 70% to 85% compliance it is a good first step. I don’t eat dairy because it usually has fats and I am mostly lactose intolerant.
If you jump into 100% compliance the fat will leave your body like rats fleeing a sinking ship. If you add an hour of exercise a day, you will certainly accelerate the process.
What can you eat? For breakfast you can have eggs, oat meal, fruit, and meat. For lunch you can have salads, tuna, chicken, soups, and fruit. For dinner you can have meat, rice, beans, salads, soups, avocados, and wheat pasta without cream sauces.
What are you eliminating? Mexican food, Italian food (pizzas), hamburgers, desserts, sandwiches, sweet rolls, sodas, and as much alcohol as you can live without.
But once you change, you are likely to change for life. Then the pounds you lose don’t come back. Over a period of years I have lost 45 pounds and am at my high school weight of 175. When I moved to the beach, I lost the last 25 pounds on a raw diet regimen in a few months.
You never have to starve. I eat as much as I want whenever I want, but I am basically eating foods without calories or fat. I have my desserts each day which are banana nut muffins or cacao squares which have nuts and seeds. Like most people on raw diets or sustainable healthy diets, I try to keep it at 85% but am closer to 90% plus alcohol.
Is Fitness Worth the Sacrifice, part 2?
Posted by: | CommentsDo we have an “on” “off” switch where we feel fitness is important and worth the sacrifice or that fitness is important, but not worth the sacrifice?
Living sedentary lives in the city make the alternatives more important. Hardly any living thing on earth was meant to “not exercise”. Secrets of the longest living disease free civilizations on earth include several key nutrients and very strenuous labor. These people, however are able to work hard and have sex into their 80’s and live disease free to over 100.
Not that this is your ideal life style, but what is it that tells each of us to get fit or live without being fit? For me, it seems I have never had the choice. Like breathing, I have always felt that exercise, not necessarily good nutrition is important. For me it has been the flexibility to do any sport or any activity whenever I so choose.
I have always loved the outdoor life style so not only do I love all sports, I love to get into the mountains and hike. Being active seems to put me in connection with my body first and then what ever I do outdoors puts me in connection with nature second.
The feeling of exercising my body to its potential makes me realize what a gift the human body is and how great it can feel when treated properly. If I have the choice of feeling great and inspired or feeling sluggish and moribund, I will take the former. I have learned that the harder I can exercise or the longer the activity, the more inspired and gratified I feel at the end. (After I have had time to catch my breath.)
Putting the right food into the system and keeping the body stretched allows me to accomplish more in a day if I choose, places few restraints on my activities, frees me from worry about sickness and disease, and makes my high quality life style a guarantee for more years.
Maybe the reasons people don’t treat their life with more respect is that they don’t have high level goals. Satisfying their body’s cravings is higher on the list than ignoring the cravings and giving the body what it should have. After a while, the body craves what it should have.
Once you reach the plateau that the body wants what it should have, you have arrived at the plain of synchronicity with nature.
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Is Fitness Worth the Sacrifice, part 1?
Could Poor Diet Arise from Negative Views about the Future?
Posted by: | CommentsDo we kid ourselves about what we expect from our lives?
Could we have two voices ringing in our heads? One is the upbeat go get’m rah rah that says let’s work hard and reach all our goals. The other is the quiet little murmur that says it is unlikely we are going to get the break we need to really achieve happiness and financial prosperity.
If everyone had great expectations of having all the achievement and money they ever wanted, wouldn’t they be getting prepared to look and perform their very best so that they could take advantage of the opportunity when it broke?
An athlete that knows he has talent and expects to compete with the best in his field is eating and training to someday be number one. The surfers in tournaments all seem to be incredible and capable of winning any tournament given they are on top of their game and get the good rides.
Then I see the average person living their everyday lives by going to work, coming home, having a few drinks and getting obliterated on the weekends. Their nutrition is rarely special and they seem to be resigned to a less than desired fate. Even if they are athletic they are not training extra to be extra special.
It seems that the general mentality is that we have been whipped by over powering forces of resistance to prevent us from really getting on top of the world. True, everyone cannot be Bill Gates. But everyone could have equal gratitude and appreciation for being here and being blessed with a mind and body that can deliver ecstatic results.
I am personally dedicated to build on a long term perspective that creates true gradual gains. I feel I am always in training. I eat the best I can and add as much physical activity to my schedule that I can manage without over training or exhausting myself.
I have enjoyed my progress and can see myself distancing my capabilities from some of the people around me who are doing the same old same old. I have patience and don’t try to accomplish everything in a week. I don’t set goals that will cause me to be disappointed and give up the ghost.
I listen to the voice that says we can be everything we want to be if we make the investment. We have to be realistic and have faith that the Japanese motto of “kaizen”, a little improvement at a time, makes us much happier with our personal state each year.
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Read “The Healthiest 150 Foods on Earth” by Jonny Bowden