From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Thu May 08 2003 - 15:53:08 MDT
Before your diet
I have a suggestion for those embarking on diets. You might want to
condition your mind and household at the same time as conditioning
your body with a body fruit-and-vegetable throughput for one week.
During the seven days you give your body a break from refined flour,
sugar and caffeine, and you drink an unlimited amount of herbal
teas, juices, and you eat an unlimited amount of fruits and
vegetables. Variations of this detox diet allow some whole grains
such as amaranth, buckwheat, brown rice, millet and quinoa and at
the same time avoid barley, corn, oats, rye and wheat (the reason
given is that many people experience congestion or poor digestion
when they eat these latter grains.) You can season your vegetables
with a small amount of oil (olive oil or flaxseed oil), which aids
digestion, as well as other seasonings (raw garlic, fresh herbs) so
you won't miss your favorite strong flavors.
In addition to the food, you might consider exercising at least an
hour per day (moderate exercise: walking, cycling, yoga...) to boost
your circulation and sweat out waste, and it is important to keep
hydrated- so then drink at least six glasses of water per day.
During this week you are purging your body of items not necessarily
good for you, at the same time you will lose water bloat and will
see your weight drop 3 or more pounds, which will give you a
psychological boost. Some authors suggest embarking on this kind of
purging a few times a year to improve your digestion and help you
keep off bloat.
After the seven days are finished, don't go back to your typical
eating habits because you will likely just gain the weight back.
Each day afterwards, introduce a new food, and pay attention to how
your body feels. By purging your body of toxins this way with fruits
and vegetables, it will be easier to spot foods that are bad for
you, such as those will give you symptoms like bloating, congestion,
or fuzzy thinking.
The goal of such a 'preconditioning' (as I call it) is to break your
usual routine in order to try healthier habits, to tighten the links
between mind and body, and to enhance your body's ability to shed
waste. You become accustomed with seeing your refrigerator full of
fruits and vegetables, so then after the seven days, you can strive
to keep your refrigerator stocked with such items. Probably you
exercised more during this week, so then you can strive to keep it
up, thinking of new ways to include it during your day. You will
likely find yourself more mentally alert and will probably sleep
better during the nights, too.
Authors usually give detailed 'plan' of what vitamin/mineral
supplements, oil, etc to include, but I've never been fond of that
kind of rigor when I am dieting (an activity which I usually
hate anyway; I prefer, rather to increase exercise if I want to lose
weight). However, if you are fond of that kind of rigor, you can
read a description in the April issue of Natural Health magazine
in an article titled: "Detox in 7 Days". That article, in turn,
offers more information on 'detoxing' from a book by Dr. Elson
Haas called _the Detox Diet_ and from his web site: www.elsonhaas.com
Amara
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves." -- Shakespeare
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