It's All Connected: Eat More Whole Foods This Year
by Maureen Wheeler,
January 12, 2012, page 14.....

In my Holistic Health Coaching practice, one of the first questions that I ask people is, “What can I do for you?” The answers to this question never fail to touch my heart. People want so sincerely to be healthy and feel good in their bodies. Just one look at everyone’s New Year’s resolutions is proof of that. We live in a society with access to so much information, yet we are more and more disconnected from what our bodies need to thrive and are generally more than a little confused about what path is the “right” one.
It’s easy to see where that confusion comes from if we look at the messages that surround us. There is an expert for every theory: “eat low fat/eat high fat, go vegan/eat more animal protein, eat raw food/ go macrobiotic, count everything you ever learned to count – calories, grams of fat, fiber, sodium and cholesterol” …The advice from experts is endless. Just yesterday I heard a celebrity trainer saying that to lose weight and attain optimal health, people only need four minutes of very specific interval training each day. A few hours later, I overheard some women discussing an expert on NPR who insisted that obese people must exercise for 90 minutes every day for the rest of their lives in order to lose weight and maintain it. Wow, no wonder people are constantly searching for the “right” answer; there is a big difference between 28 minutes versus 630 minutes of exercise in a week, yet both experts had data and studies to back them up. Confusing indeed.
Americans spend close to $60 billion per year in the diet industry, so clearly many different experts stand to benefit enormously from convincing you their plan is the right plan.
I am suggesting a radically different approach to reaching your personal wellness goals this year. I suggest you find the best expert in the world to support you on your journey, YOU. Your body is beautifully designed to respond to what you are eating, thinking and doing. When we slow down and listen, we can learn so much more from our bodies than any fad diet could ever teach us. Experiment with food and lifestyle changes, and ask yourself how you feel. Is your skin getting smooth or dry? Do you have more energy when you eat carbohydrates for breakfast or less? Do you have cravings? How is your mood? Are you less achy when you wake up? Do you feel bloated? Really tune in. The right foods will give you good results. We are all bio-individually unique, and there is no one size fits all plan. The more you learn to listen to and read your body’s own signals, the more you will realize that you were born with a built-in navigational system to guide you toward your own optimal health.
Simply, the best way to understand your body’s messages is to eat a whole-food-based diet. When we eat only real foods, avoiding artificial ingredients, preservatives, flavorings, dyes, hydrogenated oils, fake sugars, et cetera, the signals become so much clearer. Most people are unaware that many additives are actually neurotoxins that not only damage cells, but also alter how we perceive our bodies. Additives make it very difficult to see the connections between what we eat and how we feel while they are in our system.
Look for more ideas and recipes about real food and living a clean, green lifestyle in future issues.