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Articles
Does Your Nutritional Lifestyle Fuel Optimal Energy?
by Rusty Stewart, Ph.D.
What do you feed yourself? How do you feel after fueling up? What is your energy level like? These are all crucial questions you need to ask yourself to determine if your nutritional lifestyle fuels optimal energy and well being for you. However, I want to stress that your nutritional lifestyle is not mutually exclusive to food. Food, herbs, supplements, etc. is only one piece of the holistic pie. The bigger question begs to ask, how are you feeding yourself in mind, body, and spirit? What does this look like physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? Your nutritional lifestyle must integrate healthy choices in all of these areas in order to feel and experience optimal energy, love, peace, and joy!
The obvious nutritional intake is what we put in our mouth and consume. My experience has been to research this area thoroughly before making any rash or "faddish" decisions. First of all, I have been told by holistic nutritionalist's that eating organic fruits vegetables, dairy, eggs, and free-range poultry, pork, and meats is the most important step. This goes for fish and seafood too whether farm raised or eating fish with low chemical toxicity. The important thing is to cut out the chemical, hormone, and antibiotic component in eating food. Another important aspect is to limit foods that produce acid in the body to 20% and increase alkaline foods to 80%. Acidic bodies welcome illness. It is also a good idea to cut out processed foods (white sugar, white flour, etc.). Read all labels and educate yourself! White sugar is one of the worst things you can put in your body and artificial sweeteners are worse as they are extremely acidic in the body! Being a vegetarian or vegan can carry risks and myths if you are not properly educated. If you are going to be a vegetarian or vegan (no animal products, ex. dairy, honey, etc.) make sure you get enough protein. Here are some of the misconceptions that my holistic nutritionalist has filled me in on. Foods most likely to be allergens: soy (tofu), gluten (seitan, many grains), and dairy. See a holistic nutritionalist to find out what is best for you. Vegans need to consume a lot of legumes for protein. I have not found a good book yet that addresses all these issues mentioned above and these issues are not exhaustive nutritional guidelines by any means.
What thoughts do you focus on and consume? Thoughts create our reality. It's just like a computer, garbage in garbage out. If you are focusing on the negative than that's what you will get. Thoughts encompass all aspects of our lives. Our core belief systems are thoughts based on our history. What we believe is what we create. In many ways this limits our experiences. If you want to conduct a little experiment, jot down what your inner critic says to you during the day. It's that voice that limits you and discourages you from trying on and sticking to new behaviors and experiences. A good book to read on this subject is "Embracing Your Inner Critic" by Hal and Sidra Stone. An excellent DVD to watch that addresses the power of our thoughts is "What The Bleep Do We Know."
What do you order from your menu of emotions? What is your favorite emotional dish? Emotions need to be felt as they are triggered. Ultimately we want to balance our emotions. This is where thoughts are especially important since emotions come from thoughts whether yesterday, last week, childhood, our ancestors, or past lives. Thought precedes everything. So changing our thoughts helps to change emotions. Just like feeling our emotions helps to release emotions. What type of emotional interactions do you engage in regularly? How do you nourish or not nourish yourself through your relationships, your career and work, sexuality, recreation and fun, and time with and for yourself? All these areas are important parts of your healthy cognitive and emotional menu.
How do you feed yourself spiritually? Do you take still time for yourself regularly (ex. meditation/breathing/yoga practice)? Do you connect with a higher power? We all need to nourish our souls by stilling ourselves and going to the Divine within. This spiritual soup will go a long way in manifesting love, peace, and joy in our lives!
The only way I know of to have optimal energy in all aspects of my life is to treat all four areas (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) as potential fuel conductors. Everything is energy. I can either choose to increase my energy by making wise fuel choices (ex. organic food, nurturing relationships, positive thoughts, meditation/breathing) or decrease my energy by indulging in unhealthy food, behaviors, thoughts, and neglecting still time to connect with my Godself. I chose to change my nutritional lifestyle and view everything as fuel and energy. My reward is that I get to experience optimal energy and more love, peace, and joy in my life! What will you choose?
Yoga Living, September/October 2005
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