THe Energy Diet
No carbs? Low fat? High protein? Grapefruit Only? Raw foods? Body type? Jenny Craig? Are we inherently meat eaters, or vegetarians? It’s abundantly clear that the route to health is through a healthy lifestyle, which includes wonderful food, but with so many diets out there, what should we do? Theories abound, but why is the information so confusing and why is it such a difficult process? It doesn’t necessarily have to be so complicated to achieve your optimal health!
I imagine I have experimented with almost every possible way of eating… vegetarian, vegan, carnivorous, blood type, Atkins, raw food, South Beach, macrobiotic, Mediterranean …I could list diets forever, but the point is that, as yet, I have not found any of them to be the perfect diet. I have not found any of them to be the ‘magic bullet’ and have found the dietary returns to be mixed. I have found the short-lived perfection of some diets and the disappointing long-term results of most.
During my years of dietary exploration, I found myself buried in research at Bastyr University in Seattle, the most prominent school of integrative natural medicine, working towards a doctorate degree in Naturopathic Medicine. Quite sure I could find the perfect diet in a research book, a lecture, or my clinical rotations, I was anxious and alert for the answer to dietary success. After 5 years of medical school, clinical research and extensive patient feedback, I believe that I have found the answer I was seeking: there simply is no diet that is right for everyone in every stage of their life.
Each person should have their own dietary prescription that is unique to them. A dietary plan for one person may energize and strengthen them, and the same plan may fatigue and weaken someone else. Each person’s biochemistry is unique. And, if you find a certain way of eating that moves you towards optimal health, it will likely have to change as you change.
I have recommended many types of diets to patients to achieve their therapeutic goals and witnessed incredible healing. However, the therapeutic diets I usually recommend are just that…therapeutic and not necessarily meant to be followed for a lifetime. I have seen people thrive on vegan diets for years, and then reach a point of exhaustion. I have seen people count their carbs, lose incredible amounts of weight, feel amazingly well, but gain the weight back, and maybe more, a year later. These diets ultimately failed them. I believe a diet should be therapeutic and specific for each person and their current state of health. Fortunately, everyone can benefit from an energetically based diet. Every person can utilize a few basic guidelines when choosing foods.
We are energetic beings… vital, vibrant, beautiful, and changing at every moment. There is not one part of our body that is stagnant or fixed. For instance, our bones which seem so rigid and defined are extremely dynamic structures, spending each and every moment wagering a delicate balance of remodeling in order to meet our ever-changing needs. As constantly changing dynamic beings, our dietary choices should reflect and encourage this process.
So, what is the optimal diet for health and vitality over a lifetime? It is a diet based on colorful foods that are energetically alive, seasonal, and local. It is a diet that respects the seasons of the year and the seasons of our lives. My colleague would say “eat a rainbow” because it’s a diet full of a variety fruits, vegetables, meats, and more. It’s a diet rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and the full spectrum of vital nutrients necessary for optimal health. It’s full of colorful foods, and the result is beautiful.
The recommendation to eat a variety of colorful foods is based upon extensive research that demonstrates that these whole, unadulterated foods provide optimal nutrition. For instance, a red pepper is not just a colorful addition to your salad; it’s a food rich in B vitamins, Vitamins A and C, lycopene, carotenoids, bioflavanoids, fiber, and much more. The studies behind these ingredients show their tremendous health benefits, but the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It is vital to consume these as food and not just as supplements.
What we take in should be alive and vibrant if we want to feel alive and vibrant. Food should be colorful and have some resemblance to its growing process. When you pick up a food at the grocery store, ask yourself “Have I ever seen this growing, could I imagine running into this in the wild somewhere?” I have never seen a jelly bean tree, not that it wouldn’t be beautiful, but I have seen a cherry tree. The foods you choose to eat should be energetically alive and fresh from the farm if you want to feel alive after eating them.
In our practice, we see many people who have food sensitivities, especially to wheat. Whole wheat is not inherently bad for us or difficult to digest, but the addition of wheat to practically every food on the market, its processing, and mono-cropping has caused our systems to become burdened and no longer able to tolerate the constant barrage of one food. Our bodies start to mount immune responses when we give it the same foods each day, especially when those foods have been highly processed. By choosing only seasonal, locally grown foods, we are naturally rotating the foods, allowing our bodies to properly digest and absorb the nutrients. Food rotation allows our bodies to take a break form the processing of certain nutrients on a daily basis. We are eating a variety of nutritious, fresh seasonally rotated foods, the way our ancestors have for many years.
There are no good or bad foods, but there are vibrant foods and dead foods, foods that enhance vitality and foods that strip it away. My diet advice is to eat a rainbow. Your plate should have a vast array of multi-colored vibrant foods. Stop thinking about fat grams and carb counting and start thinking about whether what you are going to put in your mouth is vibrant, alive, and available in nature. Ask yourself the following questions before you put a food into your mouth, “Is this food full of life and vitality?” “Can I visualize it growing or living in nature?” “Is it available locally or was it transported from a place far away with a different climate?” If you ask yourself these questions and choose your food based on its energetic qualities, you will find lifelong health and vibrancy.
Dr. Sherri Jacobs
Board Certified Naturopathic Doctor
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Athletes And Pre Event Planning
Whether or not you are a trained amateur or professional athlete or perhaps even a casual runner, you owe your body the proper nutritional balance in order to compete or exercise efficiently. Aside from being physically fit and toned your body is in constant need for proper hydration and a balance of the proper nutritional intake. Todays highly demanding athletic events create both the exciting atmosphere for fun competition and at the same time can be a dangerous environment for those athletes and non-athletes to participate in.
The media today craves the record breaking performance. The athlete’s whether professional or non-professional seek victory. Many train for weeks if not months to compete at levels beyond the expected competition. The separation between winners and losers is often seconds. When a competitor knows the value of even a 1-2 second improvement they will go to great lengths to train their body and mind to achieve this level of gain. This is where nutritional development is often times neglected. The body craves fluids and nutritional in-take to properly hydrate and provide the level of energy to the muscles and water to cool the body to levels of proper efficiency and not over tax the entire system from performing at an optimal level. If the body is not prepared in advance of the event then the entire system can literally shut down on an athlete performing or even worse cause damage internally that could lead to greater challenges in the future.
All athletes and amateurs should hydrate their bodies with the proper fluids well in advance of the event. In addition, a well balanced diet consisting of the RDA for protein and proper carbohydrates is essential when planning for the overall race/event countdown. To skip this step in your planning is like taking the one element of chance and creating a wall so high that your greatest mind over matter capabilities to achieve success fail at the inability of the body to properly supply the right energy and cooling capability to the entire network we call our body. Best advice is to work with a qualified trainer and nutritionist who can provide their assessment of your upcoming event and deliver a pre-defined complete and balanced nutritional diet. Today’s best athletes know the value of this essential planning and treat their bodies carefully with advanced dietary planning and proper hydration.
Consult with your physician at the earliest time frame to allow for the best professional advice you can achieve from the people and professionals that know you best.
Steve Levy and his wife Irene launched a new and exciting Health & Wellness portal delivering information, services and products such as Mona Vie International’s ACAI Berry Juice. They have begun working with local athletes in Northern California to better prepare them for their events. You can find out more of their newly launched service at planetberries.com planetberries.com or email them at mailto:info@planetberries.com info@planetberries.com.
Pregnancy Massage – Managing Stress Of Child Birth
An important aid to a pleasant pregnancy experience is pregnancy massage. As your pregnancy progresses and your stomach enlarges you experience physical aches and pains in different parts of your body. Relief to this pain can be provided only by massage therapists who specialize in prenatal massages. Massage relieves pain because it enhances the function of muscles and joints, improves blood circulation and relieves mental and physical fatigue.
The benefits of pregnancy massage are numerous. Under the stress of pregnancy your body produces stress hormones. These stress hormones are felt not only by you, but also your baby. By reducing your stress, through massage, you can increase the comfort level of your unborn baby. Moreover, the massage can ease your muscular aches and pains that may be very uncomfortable to say the least. But before deciding on massage therapy you should first consult your doctor to make sure that you are suitable for massage. You should be careful while going for pregnancy massage and only utilize the services of trained prenatal massage therapists. For prenatal massage, the massage therapist uses massage techniques which concentrate on woman neck, back and pelvic regions- the areas most often negatively affected by a pregnancy.
Another care to be taken while giving the massage is your position. Since you cannot lie on your stomach, you will most often be laid on your side with pillows for support. While there are special tables designed to allow room for a pregnant belly, most therapists prefer to have you rest on your side. Pregnant mothers are very sensitive and masseurs will need to be careful when giving massages as to not harm the baby in any way. To ensure this result intensity of the massage is also very important.
Since pregnancy massage is special, finding a therapist who specializes in prenatal massage might be slightly difficult. All therapists may not be able to accede to your request for massage. Some might not have the experience and some might not have time to accept you as a patient at all.
Experts in pregnancy massage recommend that pregnant women have a massage at least once a month. This is to keep them revitalized and ready for the actual birth. No matter how far you are from actual delivery of your baby, regular pregnancy massage is the best medicine to keep you and your baby healthy and happy.
Apurva Shree is the online editor of free pregnancy information resource pregnancy-period.com pregnancy-period.com She has developed this site to provide valuable information on pregnancy and useful methods to enjoy your pregnancy period and the ways in which you welcome your new world of motherhood. pregnancy-period.com pregnancy-period.com is your free resource that not only provides information on pregnancy period but the other aspects of pregnancy as well.
The Enemy of Weight Loss
Going out for a meal used to be something which happened only on special occasions but these days it’s often a several-times-a week occurrence simply because we are too tired to cook.
If eating out is a regular event for you, avoid the temptation to treat it like an invitation to over-indulge. This is part of your regular eating pattern so you need to treat it as such. Eat only as much as you need and no more.
Occasional overeating does no harm but any level of regular overeating is bound to result in you piling on the pounds.
Having said that, you CAN eat healthily in restaurants, so if you eat out a lot, don’t despair. Just plan your trip with care and set a firm intention to eat healthily before you go.
Bear in mind that the cheapest restaurant options are normally the most unhealthy. Fast food and lower end restaurants are not noted for their use of low-fat or low-calorie cooking methods or foods. So choose your restaurant with care, somewhere that you know offers a selection of healthier dishes or will prepare foods specially for you on request.
If you have to wait for your meal at the bar, avoid alcoholic drinks which can increase your appetite and lower your resolve, not to mention the empty calories they contain. Avoid fizzy drinks with your meal and ask for water instead. If you drink wine with dinner, a small glass when you go out shouldn’t do too much harm in terms of calories.
Restaurants often serve huge amounts and if you know you have a tendency to clean your plate no matter how much is on it, order a small portion or a starter in place of a main course. You can even share a dish with your dinner companion. If you’re in the US you can request a doggie bag – but don’t try this one in Europe unless you want some very strange looks.
Avoid fried foods and those which are served in creamy or buttery sauces. Wherever possible go for plain grilled (broiled) chicken or fish and ask for any sauce to be served on the side. The same goes for salad where the dressing can turn a healthy dish into a dieter’s nightmare.
Forget dessert too if you are trying to lose weight. You just don’t need 300 or more extra calories on top of everything you’ve already eaten.
If you choose an ethnic restaurant take the time before your visit to understand the various cooking methods and ingredients in typical dishes and if you’re in doubt about a particular item on the menu ask the waiter for information.
Above all, don’t use eating out all the time as an excuse for not losing weight. You are the one ordering the food and no one is forcing you to eat it.
If you really can’t resist when you go out, then take the time to plan, prepare and cook food at home so that you don’t rely so much on restaurants. Arrange to meet friends for coffee, a sandwich or a movie rather than dinner or organise a more active outing such as a walk, shopping trip or bowling party. You are only limited by your imagination. On business trips, you can use local stores to buy healthy foods to eat in your room for at least part of your stay. The size of your expense account does not have to show up in the size of your waistline.
Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small
Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach, slimming club owner and author of “The Diet Exit Plan”, an 8 week coaching program for simplyslimming.com” target=”_blank natural permanent weight loss. Request her FREE 15 page report “How to lose weight without dieting – 7 secrets the diet industry doesn’t want you to know” at simplyslimming.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=91″ target=”_blank SimplySlimming.com TODAY!