When I was a kid we ate meat and potatoes mostly. I was 14 years old when I first tasted lasagna. And I loved it! You mean there is different kinds of food out there? Through the years I've been a big meat eater, a vegetarian, and maybe now I am a flexitarian. I became anemic with the vegetarian diet. I think I needed more dark green veggies and a more focused approach. Who knows. The last few years I've been looking at how to eat best. Good grief! The information swings wildly from one side to the other on any issue. Everyone claims to have the right answer on how to eat for optimum health. Baba Hari Dass, the spiritual head of Mount Madonna, California, where I studied first to be a yoga teacher says that in North America we think too much about food. He advocates no meat unless that's all there is. He says to eat what you can digest. Great wisdom in that!
A while back I read Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. He is a journalist and good writer who was as confused as I was, about what to eat. His first paragraph of the book is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That pretty much summarizes what he found on his food journey. He looked at numerous studies and has a huge source index. Anyway, that book helped me to stop reading for a while and figure out what I can digest.
Everybody has to figure out what works for them. This is what seems to work for me right now. I'm sure I will modify all the time since I've been doing that forever. I start the day with fresh squeezed lemon juice in warm water. I eat breakfast about two to three hours after waking because I have my morning practices. I have a big lunch and a smaller supper, though in summer when I don't work evenings that may reverse. I eat in an 8 hour time frame, so there is about 16 hours of fasting. I eat 9 to 5 pm or so. I eat mostly vegetarian but I eat meat very week. I don't eat gluten (except if someone dleivers homemade cookies). And sometimes whole rye bread even though it has gluten, it seems okay to digest. Very little grains. I eat very little sugar. I eat lots of eggs. Lots of vegetables. I love lentils. I drink coffee a few times a week, no more than one cup a day. I drink mostly room temperature water. I have fun with the water, sometimes it has mint leaves, orange slices, lemon or lime, frozen grapes or raspberries in it. I drink water with a pinch of salt (see thewatercure.com). I fry with good quality coconut oil. I eat butter. I drink green tea.
Before day 1 I've tried to do all this for a while in a hit and miss kind of way. But as I said on day 1, I want to live a long healthy life. I feel too heavy for my bones. This last week I have felt much more energetic and healthier than I have for a long time. This helps me to keep going on this superhero mission. We are not a preventative society so I feel like I am going against the grain and becoming one of those crazy health nuts. We usually wait until we have to, because we are sick. Sick and tired. And even then we prefer that someone gives us a pill.
It's all about commitment. Nothing happens without it. And I need both will and grace. That's why I need to be a superhero. Commitment. Willpower. Surrender. Grace.
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