What are the rules of Engagement?
Basically, they are rules in which I choose to live my life by.
This blog entry is a little insight in to what I have decided is right for me, for my body and for my mind.
I have decided to write this because I get a lot of questions about my lifestyle and why and what it is that I do. Hopefully, this will be a way for people who are curious, to get an inside view of what I do each day.
Enjoy reading and remember, own your own health decisions! I can't stress this enough. This is so very important, mostly because we have got ourselves into a lots of trouble by taking the words of people who have financial interest in us buying their products.
I'll put them into categories over the next few days to make it easy to follow first up;
Nutrition: Eat WHOLE natural foods: This is easy enough. If it's natural, and whole. Eat it. Pretty easy huh?! It would seem a lot of people try to do this. Where they seem to fail is the packet sauces and toppings, dressings and what not on top of their whole meats and veg. If you haven't made it from scratch, or it cannot be made fairly easily in your kitchen, then why are you eating it?
Buy food from local farmers and support them for doing good things: With out these farmers we can not get access to clean, healthy food that can help us build vitality and health. If we don't support these farmers, we will be left to eat the crap being dished out at large supermarket chains all over the world. Not cool!
Eat Grass fed and finished beef and all other free range, organic meats: Let me ask you this? If you are trying to become healthy, but you decide to save some money here and there on your food. So, you choose to buy lower grade meat and lower grade fruit and vegetables. You know very well that these foods are cheaper for a reason but yet you decide to buy them anyway. All in the name of saving a few bucks a week (You really do only save $3-$4 per kilo, in most cases) It all evens out.
Do you think that you can ever achieve optimal health? I'm no expert, but it makes perfect sense to me, that if you eat low grade meat and veg, then you expect that your animal/crop was raised/grown on low grade food/soil.
In particular, for cows, foods like grain and hay. Clearly this is not a food designed for COWS. You have a lot of people who are, trying to make their bodies and minds as healthy as they can. Yet, they are consuming an animal that was on a diet it was not raised to eat!
Let me ask you you. Do you think that this animal was as healthy as it could have been before it was killed? Of course not. How do you expect to become healthy, while eating animals that were not healthy them selves. There are a myriad of health benefits, but this is a whole other article.
Eat 1g of Carbohydrate for each gram of lean body mass: As it turns out. There is no essential carbohydrate. Interesting huh? People avoid fats because they are scared, they fear it may make them fat, yet there are essential fatty acids. You do not make these, you need to EAT these essential fats to have a healthy body.
The human body can run more effectively on protein and fat.
Protein can be converted to glucose (gluconeogenisis)and every triglyceride is 3 fatty acids connected by a glycerol molecule (carbohydrate) this is more than adequate for replenishing glycogen & cognitive function.**
Eat every 3 - 4 hours:
Eating regularly will help keep your blood sugar levels even throughout the day. This will prevent a blood sugar crash. Which is normally followed by a binge of quick unhealthy snacks! To avoid this, remember that eating every 3 hours will help you from feeling this way. It gives you more energy and helps you to feel balanced.
Skipping meals and not eating at regular intervals puts your body on HIGH alert, survival mode. It does not know that you just have been busy finishing a deadline for work, getting the kids off to school and rushing home in traffic. It Assumes that you may be entering a time of famine. It will break down muscle tissue to get a blood sugar spike. In turn leaving you with less and less lean body mass each time it does this and making it harder to shift that extra body fat you may be carrying.
Eat raw and fermented foods:Raw and fermented foods are a great way to get much needed enzymes, fatty acids and amino acids in it's more readily available state. Your body can actually use what you're consuming!
Obviously, unless you're getting your food from a clean healthy source free of any herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and chemical fertilisers then it is not advisable to consume them raw. The same goes for meats, unless you have traced the source back to the farmer and know that your animals are free range and fed a natural diet they were supposed to digest then once again, it would not be advisable to consume in any matter. Know where your food comes from, this is the key to health. That being said by law I can not advise anyone to eat raw food especially milk and meat.** You make a decision for you while you're in your kitchen and I'll do the same.
Just think about this also, when we domesticate animals and give them our cooked denatured food they end up with the same diseases as us. Interesting huh!
Seasonal Cleanse: A great chance to give your body a break. Help it rid itself of all the impurities picked up through the season. It gives you a sense of vitality and health that you welcome at the start of a new season. Embrace the cleanse!
So there you have it. Some of the things that I do daily in my life to help me obtain health. I feel these lifestyle modifications are correct for me and that if you see anything in this article you agree with, you should research it for yourself and own that decision. You are in control of everything in your life from the thoughts you have to the food you eat. Start taking that and start cultivating health with every hour that passes, not once in a blue moon!
Post any thoughts to comments! I would love to hear from the people reading! (if that's anyone haha)
Health and Chi
Shane
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