Imbalances in the body are quickly and commonly aquired, but yet rarely identified, unless we can go have blood test or urine test done. We are quick to brush off mineral definciencies as just having a bad day or a long week or a rash or skin condition that will not go away. Imbalances can be as suttle as feeling tired or as serious as no energy every day, for a month. Sudden mini seizures, moments of paralysis, dizzy spells, confusion, sleeping all day, broken bones, anemia etc. Even certain mood swings or rashes can be caused by our bodies chemical levels. Any amount of time spent deficient is too much. When we start to notice changes in skin, changes in urine and bowels and changes in energy, that should be a hint that something is off. When it goes beyond that, it is possible that something more serious is underlying and you should seek professional medical help.
We must always keep in consideration our natural human cycles that may affect our energy. For instance, in women it is usually our menstruation cycles that drain us. The loss of blood through our periods, and also all the chemicals that our bodies produce that are flooding our bloodstreams. Rising and falling of body temperatures caused by our bodies regulating our normal body processes such as digestion, metabilization and elimination. Fighting off viruses with out us even being aware may be another cause of our fluctuating body temperatures. For men it can be in times of when they are sexually active and not supplementing the mineral zinc lost through ejaculation, or from too much or lack of physical activity and the unbalanced levels of hormones in the body. A chemical imbalance may have us feeling bummed out. These sometimes can be remedied by supplementing our adrenal glands or our pituitary glands.These glands are responsible for producing and supplying chemicals into our bodies when certain activity demands it.
The body uses hormones for even the most simplist of tasks, calming your body down for the evening and starting to shut it off for sleep, cooling off after an argument, or even telling our bodies when to stop eating. Our body uses hormones for more physical demands such as competition desire, sexual desire and survival necessities. Bottom line is hormones are the keys to simple and complex fuctions of the body. If we are unable to supply these hormones, or supply too much, we get out of focus and off track in our personal lives. These chemicals make our body run, sleep, increase heart rate, decrease heart rate, feel hungry, feel satisfied, feel sexually aroused, feel fear, excitement and sadness. Our body would not run with out these chemical messages. Sometimes these chemical messages get confusing, mixed- up or just insuffcient, and this is when we feel tired, unmotivated, over eat, under eat, can't sleep, can't wake, and sad. When this is the case, instead of allowing this to wreck our day or cause us to seek synthetics, we must create a personal rescue plan, that we can follow, to pull us out safely and allow us to go on with our days, weeks and goals!
The human body was deisgned to work effeciently. When it is not working correctly we must start to pin point where we may be lacking. Our bodies are a sustained blend of systems that work together. Our brain gives us the logic to decide what is beneficial and what is harmful, but with out the underlying knowledge we will not know the difference. Let's start simple. Nutrients: do you drink water and eat whole foods? Rest and rejuvination: do you sleep well and exercise? If you answered yes, yes, yes and yes then we may go on. If you have answered no to any, then there is nothing that can be fixed unless you choose to, consistently. For those of you that are saying "Well of course I drink water, who doesn't drink water?" You would be suprised how many people do not. Fruit juices are not sufficeint. Ice cubes in our fruit juices are not sufficeint. In fact, if you are not drinking water, then the fruit juices are possibly hurting you by dehydrating you more from the sugars, especially if they are processed and from concentrate. Sugar= acid. Acid is never a good thing! Soda, not even in the smallest doses is good for you. There is absolutely no nutritional value to these drinks. They hurt your body, why some choose to drink these on a regular basis astounds me. Water water everywhere! Make it easily accessable, put water bottles everywhere in your house. A portable filtered water jug by your bed, reusable water bottles in your car, purse, knapsacks, at work, EVERYWHERE! Water allows nutrients to travel accordingly as well as toxins to move out of the body. Water protects the skin, protects the most delicate tissues of our bodies and makes every function of the body possible. It is impossible to live with out it.
When we sleep, our body is said to be in an anabolic state. This is said to be the time when our body goes through all the necessary rejuvination processes in order to keep our immune, muscular, skeletal and nervous systems strong. With out this anabolic phase, the secretion of our growth hormones would be less, much less. Infact it is said that in the first hour after on set sleep is when the largest amount of GH (growth hormone) is secreted. Inhibiting these natural processes to occur inhibits each human being from reaching its full physical and mental capabilities.
O.k so you drink a good amount of water every day, hopefully close to a gallon, atleast, more if you are active, and you plan your days and nights to allow full cycles of sleep each night. Now we can access your diet. Our species, in the beginning, were quite primitive. At night we sleep and rejuvinate, in the day we obtain nutrients and reproduce our species. This is as basic as it gets. If you understand that concept of human beings, as silly as it may sound, then you will look upon your bad eating habits as a waste of time and money, arrelevant and harmful to the species. This perspective will hopefully give you reason to seek and instill more logical eating habits into your lifestyle. Let's go back to the beginning: think about what humans ate as cave men and women...Silly! I Know! But just entertain the thought for a moment. Water, plants, animals, and grains. Thats basically it! That right there is the essence of life. So why do we go beyond that and expect to stay healthy? If we were meant to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, why do we eat canned and expect to stay healthy? If we evolved eating fresh, wild, chemical free fish, beef and chicken they why do we go for processed, deep fried chicken tenders and fish sticks. What about our whole grains? Whole grains in essence are the "WHOLE part of the GRAIN", so why do we bleach it, enrich it, process it, eat it, and expect to stay healthy? Come on everyone! It's not rocket science! If you are beginning to feel like you are tired and run down, or have skin conditions that will not clear up, or even mood changes; access your eating habits. How much of your diet consists of the 4 essentials? (WATER, PLANTS, ANIMAL, WHOLEGRAINS) And by this I mean fresh, chemical free, and unprocessed. If we put something into our bodies it has to go somewhere. Our bodies were not meant to break down sythetic matter easily. This puts excess stress on our bodies. If you put a peice of plastic in your mouth and swallow it, where will it go? Hopefully your body will reject it and expel it through vomiting, or maybe it will pass through your stomach, into your intestines and out through your bowels. Your body will not break it down. If it's not leaving then it's staying, and I don't want it staying. If it stays, your body has to put it somewhere, your body will store it somewhere. Maybe it will be stored into our fat deposits, maybe it will find its way into our joints or intestines. If this doesn't sound enjoyable to you then why do you cook food that is wrapped in saran wrap in a microwave. Why do you cook with plastic containers, or use Teflon products? Drink non-organic milk? Why do you eat artificial sweetners genetically engineered by humans, or flour thats been bleached and is laden with chlorine? Non- fat butter and cooking spray? In my opinion, it is best to eat natural, fattening foods rather than unnatural, non -fattening foods. If our bodies are healthy and we are moving, our bodies will use the fat and burn it off. On the other hand, it may not eliminate some of the residues and material used to create that "non- fat" or "artificially sweetened" product. I'd rather walk for an hour on the beach with my dog than deal with the consequences of eating plastic and harmful chemical particles when I age.
With all the hype on organics, it is easily sterotyped for the extremist. I would like to simplify the meaning of organics to help you understand the purpose and importance. Organics in essence are pure, unengineered, unmodified, natural form. You can "google" it and deduce your own perspective. Yet here is my personal view. Our bodies are organic matter which require usable nutrients to function. If the body cannot use it, do not put it into your body. When we consume products with sythetic hormones or unorganic chemicals, those particles are now in our bodies. Like I said earlier: either it stays or it goes. Our bodies were not meant to break down certain things, so why even put it into our bodies? Why put the extra stress on our bodies? We already have enough against us. With our polluted waters, air and soils. With all the unidentifiable products and material in our foods when we eat out. The ever mutating viruses that are forever challenging our immune systems. And the almighty cancer that continually takes our loved ones in a sad, slow process.Despite our ever changing society, with the ease of fast and canned foods, it is "easier" to just grab something quick. Shame on you! It is easy to forget what is important; You! The marketing behind fast food producing a capital gain. Capital gain is money driven, not health driven. Do not consider for one moment that fast food chains had your health and best interest in mind. Thankfully, trends are changing. The heat is on! Fast food chains are being forced to offer healthy snacks, yet this does not mean they are going all the way into your corner. Be smart. Decide smart. Live smart. Yes I know we all enjoy eating and cooking and my goodness, there is some amazing food in this world! But, food is meant to nurture, to give life! Not to make us tired, ill, or cancer laden. Simplify your habits, be concious in your actions, and be logical with your decisions. Just because someone manufactures a food product does not mean it is nutritional. Educate yourself on what is dangerous about processed foods. Find out what people do to mass manufacture their product. Compare organics to non- organics. Consider another choice besides the one you have been conditioned to make from either the way you were brought up, or by what your paradigm tells you is correct. Eat what you need first, then you can enjoy what you like second.
Our personal success is dependant on our efforts. If our health is not maintained, our body will eventually fall to illness or obeisity or both, and as a result we will struggle to achieve our personal goals with focus and vigor. We may slowly give up on goals we' ve set because of our loss of motivation, becoming overweight or weak. Feeling grumpy and lazy because of poor nutrition should not be the reason we fail in life. This is not an option! We must strive to keep our eyes on the prize despite the obstacles. In the end, we really only have ourselves. We may have rock solid friends, amazing spouses or partners, and a wonderful supportive family, but they do not decide what we put and what we keep out of our bodies. When basic daily tasks become a struggle, we must have the ability to personally remedy the issue by first identifying that it is not beneficial to our bodies and then, without thought, initializing a "retreat". We do not have to be dependant on doctors and synthetic drugs all the time. We can start independently deducing little things that do not add to our lives and moderate them, and hopefully rid of them completely. This way we will create a cycle of nurishment to our bodies. We must protect the species! Why kill it with cigarettes and excessive alcohol, lack of sleep and a poor diet. Identifying it is the easy part. Bringing yourself above it, and away from it is when it gets challenging.
