Five Steps to Vibrant Health and a Better Quality of Life

They say that knowledge is power, so here is some knowledge about food, dieting, and health to empower you for life.

Although this information is good for everyone, I’m particularly directing it to all you Baby Boomers, people who are roughly ages 45 – 65. If you are a Baby Boomer, you are well into midlife, you are most likely 20 – 70 lbs overweight, and you are probably experiencing some sort of chronic illness or pain, as well as some physical and mental deterioration. And all of these experiences are probably adversely affecting the quality of your life.

For people of any age – and especially for Baby Boomers – the absolute, number one way to halt physical and mental deterioration and improve the quality of your life is to change your diet. This is true because you really are what you eat, and if you eat crap, your physical and mental health eventually deteriorate. Conversely, if you eat healthy, you experience vibrant health. Just look at Jack LaLanne who is healthier at 94 than most people half his age.

Of course, in addition to your diet, other factors affect your health, but let’s just begin with what you eat.

Following are the five steps to creating vibrant health:

Step 1: Stop poisoning yourself. You poison yourself whenever you consume crap. Crap is anything that is toxic to your body, mind, and spirit. Generally speaking, any food (the stems, leaves, seeds, roots of plants and fruit from trees) that has been drastically altered from it’s naturally recognizable state (for example, heated beyond a certain temperature so that it’s chemical structure is changed) and preserved with chemicals can be considered crap. Crap is poison because the alteration process removes vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes, water, anti-oxidants, and other health promoting properties and constituents. Anything that does not promote health lowers your energetic vibration and deteriorates your physical, emotional, and mental health. The easiest way to determine if something is crap is to use applied kinesiology and do a muscle test. For more info on how to do a muscle test, go to http://www.holistichealthtools.com/muscle.html or visit your local chiropractor.

Step 2: Start consuming healthy foods. Because we are all uniquely individual on a biochemical level, foods that are considered healthy to one person may actually be toxic to another person. In other words, one person’s nutrition may be another person’s poison. The foods that are healthy for you depend on your age, state of health, location, condition, and many other factors. The best way to know what foods provide you with the nutrition you need is to get metabolically typed. A good rule of thumb, however, is to eat mostly raw, organic plants most of the time. Another good rule of thumb is to eliminate, as much as possible, the following non-foods from your diet: stuff made from or including any form of refined white sugar or refined white flour, fried stuff, and stuff with chemicals.

Step 3: Augment your diet with superfoods and superherbs. Superfoods are defined as food with high phytonutrient content. Superherbs are herbs that have higher than average tonic and adaptogenic properties. Although it hasn’t been proven conclusively that superfoods improve health, there is enough anecdotal data out there suggest that eating foods that are highly nutritious is a very good thing to do. Examples of superfoods include goji berries, noni, acai, blue-green algae, bee pollen, and sea vegetables. For more information on what foods are considered to be superfoods and how to include them in your diet, read the article by David Wolfe called The Top 10 Superfoods That Will Change Your Life.

Step 4: Move your body. Lean muscle mass burns more calories. According to Certified Personal Trainer Donna Wilczek, “The more lean muscle mass you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate, the higher your BMR, the more calories you burn even when you’re NOT working out.” Moving your body (also known as exercise) builds lean muscle mass and increases intake of oxygen. Now for all of you folks who regularly profess disdain for exercise, exercise is really just moving your body for an extended period of time. Exercise is doing what your non-sedentary ancestors (as recently as 100 years ago) did as part of their normal every day experience without even thinking about it. Experts say that a simple brisk walk for 20 minutes a day adds years to your life by reducing risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other imbalances.

Step 5: Think happy thoughts. Seriously. Thinking unhappy thoughts, worrying, being negative, hating, being angry, depressed, etc., all activate your sympathetic nervous system which signals your body to go into the stress response. When your body and mind are chronically in the stress response, vital health systems (digestive, immune, and reproductive) are significantly adversely affected. Conversely, thinking happy thoughts triggers parasympathetic nervous system which signals your body and mind to relax and heal.

Well, that’s it. Now you know exactly what to do. Stop poisoning yourself, start eating healthy, enhance your diet with supe
utrition, move your body, and think happy thoughts.

Now that you have the information, the only thing keeping you from living a healthy, vibrant life is… you.

If you are having trouble changing your unhealthy habits or implementing or sticking to a healthier diet and lifestyle, then I can help. To learn more about how to remove yourself as an obstacle to vibrant health and quality of life, read about the Inward Journey process at http://www.donaldgerard.com.

Until then, as always, be well.