This post is going to be a double decker, simply because I have to get them off my chest before I forget. Besides, I've programmed my brain to put up at least one post a week so I need to do this in this manner. ;)
UNDERSTANDING MY PLAN
As the response for my blog has been fantastic, I've been questioned by many as to why I take the route I'm taking in this blog. Of course I want to talk to you about herbs and the foods you should eat/drink as well as the proper ways to exercise but everyone talks about that. There are certain things you can individualize and few things that you cannot. Before I give you a slew of herbs to take (and not to take) as well as various foods to eat and foods to avoid, I need to make sure that you have a good foundation so that you don't quit or take a break from getting healthy. That's not to say that you can't eat what you want (for some, you can eat junk food and it doesn't affect you...but that's Most High's doing and not your own). However, if you have a good foundation and you eat something that may not agree with you, you can understand it and change it. (This is why I speak about "dis-ease" rather than disease.)
Everything that I am telling you about now is going to help you immensely when you go to the next level of health. I will reiterate throughout my blog that health is not just food and exercise. For most, the concept of the Most High (God) is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient, which in layman's terms means "all being, all seeing, all knowing". As children of God, we too can have these abilities within ourselves. Once you understand that, it's easier to understand health. When you can know what's going on inside of your body before it manifests itself, when you can see who you are inside - your soul, when you can control what goes on inside your body -mentally, physically, spiritually and everything in between...this is optimal health. Your subconscious and your conscious work as one to enable you to be the best you can be, then you are truly healthy. This is the true purpose of doing right for yourself. :)
When it comes to the actions of being, seeing, knowing and doing, we are still babies, children, and teens. When the average person speaks of adulthood, it's like a graduation of sorts. There is a feeling that you cannot grow anymore. Old age seems like a downgrade to being a baby, with thoughts of the elderly not being able to feed themselves, much less walk or talk anymore. We have to get out of that train of thought or these things will happen to us. We do not know everything, we can't see everything (and I wear glasses so....LOL) and we can't be everywhere at the same time (I'll leave that to God) but we can still learn and acquire knowledge. We can still look to new ways to make us better (even at an old age). We don't have to be everywhere, we just have to be (live). We are beings for a reason and the only way we will no longer "be" is when we die. Why think about dying or put yourself in a dying state when living and being is so fantastic? Of course, some people know more than others, can see things most of us can't (or don't want to) see and there are too many people that enjoy being more than others. That is why I put us in the category of babies, children, and teens. Me, personally, I'm a "Toy-R-Us Kid". I don't want to "grow up" because I haven't stopped growing yet. I don't want to stop growing. Even as I age in number, my minds still grows with knowledge (wisdom) and even though I'm still 5'4", it doesn't mean that I can't stretch my muscles and joints and bones (growth/maintenance) so that they don't shrink and wither.
It's never too late to grow. Time, aging, and growth are all a state of mind. Once you realize that and understand your state of mind and how it relates to your world around you, then being healthy seems pretty simple because being healthy is a form of control. I can acquiesce my life and soul to God but I can control my health - my state of mind, my state of being so that God can guide me in that path of righteousness.
So the morals of this story are:
you gotta crawl before you walk
it's never too late to grow
even though you can't turn back time, you can reverse the aging process by maintaining health.
most things (feelings, emotions, thoughts, processes, etc.) are states of mind. Once you realize that, it's easier to control those things within yourself, which in turn will change your environment for the better.
THE CONTEXT OF WORDS AND HOW THEY CAN HELP YOU BECOME HEALTHY
I was going to name this part of the thread "words I don't like" but I realized that once these words are used in the proper context, they aren't bad and can even help you to become healthy. Let's go over some of these words, shall we?
DIET
In the wrong context, I strongly dislike this word. Before I go into why I dislike this word, let's look at what Webster's Dictionary says about this word:
Main Entry: 1di·et 
Pronunciation: 'dI-&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English diete, from Anglo-French, from Latin diaeta, from Greek diaita, literally, manner of living, from diaitasthai to lead one's life
1 a : food and drink regularly provided or consumed b : habitual nourishment c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight diet>
2 : something provided or experienced repeatedly diet of Broadway shows and nightclubs -- Frederick Wyatt>
Main Entry: 2diet
Function: verb
transitive verb
1 : to cause to take food : FEED
2 : to cause to eat and drink sparingly or according to prescribed rules
intransitive verb : to eat sparingly or according to prescribed rules
- di·et·er noun
Main Entry: 3diet
Function: adjective
1 : reduced in calories diet soft drink>
2 : promoting weight loss (as by depressing appetite) <diet pills>
Main Entry: 4diet
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English diete day's journey, day set for a meeting, from Medieval Latin dieta, literally, daily regimen, diet (taken as a derivative of Latin dies day), from Latin diaeta
1 : a formal deliberative assembly of princes or estates
2 : any of various national or provincial legislatures
I bolded the part in the first, second and fourth meanings of diet for a reason. In these contexts, this word is fine. This is the way the word is used in medicine. Everything else to me does not scream health at all. I'm going to give you an example:
A co-worker at my job told me that she wanted to go on a diet. As I frowned at her, I asked her why. She said, "well, I want to go on a cruise so I want to lose 10 pounds before the cruise so I can put on a swimsuit without looking too bad." I couldn't help but roll my eyes. She asked why I did that and I replied, "so you're going to starve yourself and/or take some pills so that you can lose 10 pounds before the cruise (which was a month away)." "Yes" "Well, what's going to happen when you come back from the cruise? Are you going to be happy gaining back those 10 pounds plus more because you stopped your diet? Does that even sound right to you? I know we're going into fall but I, personally, would like to have that swimsuit body all year round...you never know when you're going to go on a cruise again."
My co-worker looked at me for about 3 seconds and smiled. Once she realized who she was talking to ;), she said, "you know? I never thought of it like that. Of course, I don't want to gain the 10 pounds back plus more. I have high blood pressure and I don't need the added weight." I told her that she needs to make dietary lifestyle changes instead and she told me that I'm speaking a different language. I told her, "no. you need to speak this language so that you can reprogram your mind to properly reach your goals."
She thought about what I said for about a minute and then said, "how does this sound? I'm going to drink more water, start taking half hour walks for lunch, and eat before 9pm so that I can lose weight." I smiled and told her that's much better. As we started to talk more about that sentence, she realized how much she needs to take a walk (calms her down during a stressful day) and how much she needs to drink more water (keeps her hydrated so she doesn't feel so tired). I told her that stress and dehydration are underlying factors in gaining weight and straying from a healthy path. She couldn't believe how much she learned about herself - from herself. I didn't have to say too much. She had to figure it out for herself. Before leaving, she asked me three times, "all this from changing one word?" I chuckled as she left in disbelief.
Before I move on to the next word, I want you to realize that a diet is very very different from a fast. Yes, fasting is temporary but fasting incorporates spiritual growth as well as allowing your body to heal itself from any ailments it may have. Fasting is not starving yourself or taking a pill. Another post (in the future) will explain fasting and all it entails.
FAT
When I weighed 160lbs. (my largest weight ever), I used to tell people, "I'M NOT PREGNANT! I'M JUST FAT!" Right after saying that, my head would hurt, I would feel fatigue and would want to eat a burger. I had a boyfriend, job was going well, I was hanging out with friends (who accepted me more because I was around their size) and people generally started to treat me better but I was depressed out of my mind. I couldn't understand why until one morning, I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time....meditate. As I sat in a cross legged position, my legs couldn't go fully across each other. Any other position I would go in would leave me so uncomfortable. Finally, I just sat down with my legs stretched out and breathed a couple of times (to stop the tears) and closed my eyes. After 15 or 20 minutes, I opened my eyes and the tears started to stream. I realized why I was so depressed. It was because I settled for being "fat".
People didn't treat me better because the finally saw that I was a decent person. I was a decent person at 131lbs or 122lbs. They treated me better because I was "fat" like them. (My face is screwing up right now just going back to that moment). My boyfriend was 171lbs. with a 7% body fat count (athletic build) but as long as he kept feeding me, he had me under control. My friends were more than happy to hang out with me because at this time, I was eating the same crap they were and feeling the same way they were - depressed and dependent on drama to keep my life going.
The first thing I did before going on the Master Cleanser (more on that another time as well) was clear my mind of negative thoughts. I wrote down the word "fat" on a huge piece of paper and threw it in the garbage. I made up my mind never to call myself or anyone else "fat" (in that context). Now that I am 118lbs (as of today...I'm fasting right now), I STILL do not like that word. I have stopped strangers on the subway and told them never to use that word again, especially when they describe themselves. How can you lose weight and achieve health with such a negative word? I would rather see a man or woman that is happy with themselves and all it entails (obese, overfat, or slim). Let's face it. There are plenty of slim and "skinny" (another negative term, in my humble opinion) people in this world that are not happy with themselves. Read any tabloid magazine and you see countless celebs that prove my theory. So if you're not happy with who you are, what difference does it make if you're obese or not? Even if you lose weight, you'll gain it back or worse.
Medically speaking, you need fat. Let's go back to the Webster's Dictionary to see what I mean:
Main Entry: 3fat
Function: noun
1 : animal tissue consisting chiefly of cells distended with greasy or oily matter
2 a : oily or greasy matter making up the bulk of adipose tissue and often abundant in seeds b : any of various compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that are glycerides of fatty acids, are the chief constituents of plant and animal fat, are a major class of energy-rich food, and are soluble in organic solvents but not in water c : a solid or semisolid fat as distinguished from an oil
3 : the best or richest part
4 : OBESITY
5 : something in excess : SUPERFLUITY
- fat·less /-l&s/ adjective
The bolded part is the very important because we need fat to keep our bodies warm internally. Fat also gives us energy.
Fats play a vital role in maintaining healthy skin and hair, insulating body organs against shock, maintaining body temperature, and promoting healthy cell function. They also serve as energy stores for the body.This quote above is from Wikipedia. I will explain more on this and how it relates to diet in another post but I want you to understand where I'm coming from.
OLD
I want you to take time to read this again and again. You have to change your mind frame, your internal language, you way of thinking in order to achieve health. If you feel old, instead of saying you are old, change it! Change it inside first. Change the way you see yourself, resolve in your mind how you are going to make this change. Sometimes, just saying something you're feeling or want to do in a different way can open up your mind to a myriad of pathways that lead to health. And once you change your mind, the body will follow.
Until next time...
stay strong, stay healthy, and fight dis-ease!
