We’ve all heard this before: Your body is a temple. It sure is, and it’s yours— and the only one you have that houses all your organs, muscles, bones, blood, and even your energy field. Your body is set up to be an organized machine. It takes in fuel (i.e. the food you eat, the air you breathe) and converts it in various ways to ensure that you operate at your best. So naturally, a healthy diet and meditation are a wonderful pair to have in your self-care arsenal.
When we starve our bodies of the nutrition it actually NEEDS, we can create real physical illness, and this goes far beyond sugar handling and weight control. We need to keep that ticker running smooth, and your heart comes first. Your body feeds it before all else, so please feed your body well; it comes down to a healthy diet and meditation.
Carbs count, so count your carbs.
Track your carbohydrate count, and find a healthy number for you. Even your diet out with protein and vegetables. I will tell you one thing, it is proven that if you stay at 75 max. carbs a day, and drastically cut your sugar intake, you will lose weight.
My advice for the average Joe & Jane: Cool it with the carbs. (Unless you are an athlete in a training program or under medical care and on a special diet, etc.) I know how it is, we get hangry and shut it down with Pop Tarts & Coke with a Snickers on the side. I know because I’ve been there. Back in the day, my favorite lunch was a Giant Sized Snickers and a Coke. I wasn’t overweight, but I sure had a hypoglycemia problem, and it followed me well into adulthood. My eating habits became healthier, but I still racked up the carbohydrates every day. Lo and behold, I still had blood sugar handling issues, and hadn’t been given proper medical advice until I was in my 30s as to why. (Shout out to Dr. Andrew Bourne, DC in Louisville, KY)
Keep the beverages natural. As in, if you are going for a soda, just take the carb hit and drink a soda with sugar, or if you like the taste, go with stevia or other natural sweetener. We don’t need the chemicals in our bodies that come in diet beverages.
Supplements are your friend, gluten maybe not so much.
Supplements are your friend. Whole food supplements are so important when it comes to picking up the rest of the nutritional spectrum we can’t possible feed ourselves, even with a healthy diet, through our own meal preparation. We need precious minerals!
My personal opinion on gluten: you can find many studies out there as far as the changes over time with wheat and how it’s been modified. I personally stay away from it. I have my reasons, but one thing is for certain, it certainly keeps the carb count low once you are conscious of it. However, I never go without, because there are many gluten-free options out there for all sorts of comfort foods. If you are on the fence if wether it is good or bad for you, remove it from your diet (entirely, this won’t work unless it is 100%). Re-introduce after 6 weeks, and eat all the gluten you want for a day or so. Then stop again for a week and see how your body reacts.
The sugar monster
I do believe that the difficult relationship so many of us have with sugar is a result of leaning on it as a source of comfort, likely because of programming ourselves that way. Here is where your healthy diet and meditation practice can join forces. Meditation can bring an inner understanding of yourself, alleviate stress, and re-align your thinking. You can improve your health by evaluating your complete makeup, including your behaviors, habits, lifestyle, past experiences, etc.
Lots and lots of maladies can be linked to sugar, and the body’s addiction to it. When you have a candida infection (candidiasis), often your sugar/carb intake has got the best of you. Depression, or anger turned inward, pacified by sugar, feeds candida. Guilt or shame, pacified by sugar (carbs), feeds into more weight gain, could lead to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and many more ailments. It is a process to get into this situation, your body works it’s way into illness. It will likely be a process to get out of it, and that is OK!
Don’t get me wrong, I still like my sugar, but it’s all about moderation and mindfulness.
Developing a mediation routine is actually easier than you think. I advise to start out small, and then you’ll ease into it. Adding this practice to your life should not feel like a chore or burden, but something that you do because it makes you feel good! After all, that air I mentioned as fuel at the beginning of this post is plentiful during a good meditation.
You can find lots more on meditation packed into my e-book (where I got this post from. It’s coming soon, in November 2020, completely free to you). This is just the beginning!
Be well friends.
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Read more on healthy diet & meditation: article HERE
