Food = Medicine

I call myself a meat-eating vegetarian because once upon a time, I used to eat the world and truth be told, that was a fun way to live. Nowadays, I realize that my stomach has quite literally turned on me. If I want to stay lean and strong and have a lot of physical energy, and if I want to sing like a bird, I simply can't eat whatever I want, whenever I want.  I came to a fork in the road: either I could eat healthfully and mindfully or I could let myself go and eat with abandon. I've chosen the former but I'm certainly not immune to the latter, especially if I'm traipsing through the Southland.

I had to rethink my relationship with food -- and because of this country's propensity towards genetically engineered foods and the industry's refusal to label them, I've had to relearn the basics. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way. I've definitely had plenty of teachable moments that had me slowing down and listening to my body and readjusting when things didn't work. Learning to eat clean is a process. It took a few times to grow good habits and make them stick, and thankfully, they are sticking. The easiest things to let go of are corn, soy, breads, white rice and junk food. The hardest things to give up are salt and sugar -- because basically, they're in everything.

I'm starting to do bits of research here and there on the free radical theory of aging -- that is, we age because free radicals damage cells over time.  Free radicals are everywhere and they damage everything. Your body produces free radicals when it breaks down food, for example.  As the theory goes, antioxidants can combat and defeat free radicals. Where do you get those? In the food you eat! There are some foods that have more antioxidants than others. They are called superfoods. Eating clean forces me to eat nothing but superfoods -- which contain everything you need for optimum health and weight loss.

Like I said, this is an ongoing process for me. I never went whole hog with fast food so it hasn't been that much of a struggle -- it's not like I had to lose 100 lbs -- but still, it's taken a great deal of effort for me to stop eating anything that's processed.  There are moments when I fall off but for the most part, I've created good habits for myself and radically changed my relationship to food and how I eat.

Onward and upward, folks.

30 Days of Birthday: Day 11 - Toxins and Carcinogens, Part 2

I'm not paranoid.  I'm not some loud mouthed upstart that's raging against the machine or the federal government (or "the man" if you prefer) and all the nefarious things they can't stop doing. I'm not politically astute. I'm not a protester. I don't believe that the government should give me anything. (And yes, Europe is winning on this one.) My I pay my taxes -- and no, none of the things I pay for with my taxes are entitlements.

I figure I'm batting a thousand because I know who my representatives are and I vote in every election but it's moments like these -- moments when I read about what's in my food, what's in the products I use on my skin, what's in the air that I breathe and the water that I drink -- that make me feel like I'm turning into a gigantic hippie. At this point, with all the damage that's been done, there's probably a little hippie in all of us. 

Who doesn't want to eat clean food and breathe clean air? Who wouldn't complain if there were something wrong with those things? Who wouldn't want to do something about it?

I believe that if we habitually put our money where our beliefs are, we can collectively change the world, one purchase at a time.  I'm already making readjustments with the products I use on my skin and in my hair and that has me rethinking my food choices all over again, even though I eat clean most of the time.  Getting around this GMO issue is going to be sticky because it's so pervasive.

I intend to take especially good care of myself from now on and that starts with what I eat and how much I exercise.  The truth is, if I want my body to look a certain way and if I want to feel a certain way, there are some things that I just can't eat anymore.  Fast food is simply not an option. It's a herculean struggle to keep sugar, salt, fat, corn and dairy off my plate. And I love dairy products but none of them are particularly fond of me. Clean food -- nuts, fruits and vegetables, certain kinds of fish -- is my medicine. 

Here's my plan, so far:

1. Every 3 months as the seasons change, I'm going to do a thorough cleanse and I'm going to a Korean day spa for a proper soak and scrub down at least once a month. 
2. It's not that hard to find farmer's markets with locally grown organic food.
3. There's a lot of organic food markets in the city. (Who knew?)
4. When it's time to eat out, Clean Plates really helps.
5. I have to drink more water. Thankfully, my Britta water bottle fits in my purse.

This isn't like that tv show Bewitched, where I snap my fingers and get the body and the good health and the physical energy I want. It's a process. This takes discipline and sacrifice and work, work, work -- and more importantly, it takes time. I had to change the way I thought about food. I had to be patient when I didn't see results. My palate had to readjust. And no, I don't like a lot of the vegetables I'm eating. But I LOVE the results. 

The funny thing is, I wasn't that far off the mark in the first place, but I'm fairly certain that the readjustments I'm making now will matter a great deal in my future.