Vibrant physical and mental health is achieved step by step, day by day. We can achieve our goals only when we stop wasting time depending on magic diet pills and buying into direct selling dreams and instead adopt a healthier lifestyle.
A healthier lifestyle begins with the honest appraisal of our current level of health. If we keep doing the same as we are doing now then we will continue getting the same results. Are you struggling with weight issues, blood sugar and blood pressure imbalances, frequent infections, allergies or chronic digestive issues? Are you on Doctors medications to control any of these? Do you have frequent aches and pains and joint issues that require pain and inflammation medication?
The key to radically changing our lifestyle is UNDERSTANDING HOW OUR BODY HAS EVOLVED OVER THE PAST MILLION YEARS, what it needs to be truly healthy and how our modern habits are impacting our family's health.
1 - Structure and Movement
While we are happy to send our kids to playgrounds so they can exercise and develop physical coordination we don't realize that us adults have the same needs every day. By activating the full range of movement that our muscles and skeleton are capable of is the best way to slow aging, nothing else we can do compares. Think back on the demanding physical requirements that our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors experienced on a daily basis that stretched and exercised every major muscle group in their bodies in the struggle to find sufficient plant and animal food, shelter and protect one's family from dangers.
Take a look at a modern gym and all the machines and group exercises are at best only recreating this range of movement our ancestors were forced to do, including the tribal dance equivalents in modern group zumba classes and so on. Anyone who is a regular at the gym knows the feeling of happiness that comes from these weight training, cardio and group exercises as we align with our evolutionary need to be physically active.
Better still, exercising in nature reconnects us with the earth and what it means to be human. When exercise becomes a lifelong habit we develop greater postural awareness and appreciation of the role that our physical structure plays in our overall health and well-being, allowing us to age confidently and gracefully. Otherwise when we stop moving we activate the genetic codes of disease and decline.
2 - What we put into our bodies
Interest in the Paleo and Ketogenic Lifestyle and related low carb diets is rapidly growing worldwide as people seek to take back responsibility for their own health via what we eat on a daily basis. These related approaches to dietary nutrition all involve eating 100% natural unprocessed foods, nutritionally complex vegetables and fruits, avoiding sugars and low quality carbohydrates and starches, making an extra effort for organic grass-fed meats and incorporating more healthy fats like coconut oil, avocados and eggs. I have detailed these dietary points in my blogs but to fully immerse yourself in this information there is nothing that compares with reading the best books on this subject by the experts in the field, so here's my personal favourites:
- PRIMAL FAT BURNER, by Nora Gedgaudas
- THE KETO RESET DIET, by Mark Sisson
- THE PRIMAL CONNECTION, by Mark Sisson
Our human body has a remarkable ability to rejuvenate and repair when we remove the sources of imbalance in these 2 core areas. But improving our movement through exercise alone without changing our diet will not be enough to rejuvenate our health in the long term.
Before we embark on any journey we need a guide and an understanding of where we want to go and I highly recommend ordering any of these books online to avoid the common pitfalls from only taking a few bits of info from the internet here and there and then saying, "it did not work for me". ;-)
For an absolutely fantastic KETO STARTER GUIDE from our very own Malaysian Keto Guru and Blogger, Julie Mokhtar, please visit her website www.ketojules.com