Create Own Diet:
Creating Your Own Diet and Lifestyle Program
by Chet Day
I've studied and pondered the fascinating subject of human health since 1993, and I still have as many questions as I do answers.
But after publishing a monthly natural health newsletter for four years and a weekly natural health newsletter for another year, as well as having corresponded with literally thousands of health seekers around the world, I know one thing for certain:
You can't attain superior health until you learn to listen to your body and then adapt your diet and lifestyle accordingly.
Does this mean there are no perfect health programs?
Yep, that's my current thinking, though I do believe that if you have a serious illness you must follow a strict vegan regime without cheating.
You see, in my experience, many excellent health programs offer opportunities for improved energy, weight loss, cessation of disease, and so on.
Most people will see dramatic improvements during their initial months on the Hallelujah Diet or the Natural Hygiene diet or the Dean Ornish program or the Weigh Down Workshop or, of course, the routine I prefer, the Health & Beyond program.
Each of these health programs and literally hundreds of others offer excellent starting places for those sick and tired of being sick and tired as well as for those who've had more than enough with medications and medical procedures that make them feel worse instead of better.
Many people do well on these various programs for a time, but then something happens, and they begin to revert to old ways, to less healthy choices and habits. Or they follow to the letter the details of the program they're on and yet they start losing energy and vitality or perhaps their previous disease returns or a new illness develops.
Indeed, I've learned since 1993 that all too many people start to flounder if they stick 100% to any given program for more than a few years.
Why?
I don't have a definitive answer, but I suspect it has something to do with the body requiring more variety in nutrients and lifestyle than most programs provide long term.
Because the needs of the body change in response to time, circumstance, stress, and no doubt hundreds of other factors, doesn't it stand to reason that each of us must learn to perceive and then respond correctly to our own body signals?
In other words, to truly experience superior health for a life time, we must listen more to our bodies and less to doctors and other so-called health experts, who, in reality seldom have more than a piece of the truth.
What do I mean by listening to your body?
Like everything else in the Health & Beyond program, you don't need Einstein's brain between your ears to understand the answer.
For example, if you feel tired, your body's telling you to rest.
Do you rest when you get the tired message from your body? Do you clock out or tell the boss "I've had it for today" and then go home and plop down on the couch and cover your head with your favorite pillow and spend a relaxing hour or two in ZzzzzLand?
I bet you don't. I know I don't, even when I know I should.
If your third mouthful of dinner suddenly starts tasting yucky, do you immediately stop eating?
I wager you don't because, like me, your parents taught you to clean your plate.
If your nose feels like someone stuffed a Volkswagen Beetle up each nostril, do you skip the next meal, knowing that by doing so there's a good chance your body will use the energy saved from digesting the meal to clear the sinuses?
No, of course not -- not when the habits of a lifetime seem to confirm that you can't keep your strength up if you don't have at least three meals a day, as well as constant sipping on either coffee or soft drinks.
Well, the key to the Health & Beyond program involves learning how to listen to your body.
It involves discovering through trial and error what foods and lifestyle choices make you feel good and what foods and lifestyle choices make you feel bad.
It involves constant experimentation and adaptation.
It involves using your common sense, your intellect, your emotions, and a multitude of other tools available within the wonderful living organism in which you temporarily reside.
For example, listening to your body means carrot juice three times a day may not be the best thing for you, especially if you don't care for the taste, the texture, the smell, or the way the juice looks.
On the other hand, if carrot juice tastes better than hearing the Publisher's Clearninghouse people knocking on your door and yelling stuff about having a ten million dollar check in your name, it means your body needs carrot juice and that you should drink it until the cows come home. Well, not that long, maybe, but at least until your body says, "Enough."
When you're out in the sun and your skin gets hot and itchy and kind of tingly, your body has just sent you a message: "You've had enough sun. Move to the shade."
If cooked food smells or looks unappetizing, your body's telling you it needs more raw food.
If the thought of eating another salad makes you want to cringe, but the smell of cooking bread makes you salivate like a dog around a sirloin steak that just fell on the floor, your body may be telling you it needs more cooked food.
See, the body talks to you.
But beware because some body talk can also be deceptive.
For example, when I drive past the ice cream shoppe and suddenly think, "Whoa, Chet, there's the Dairy Queen. Dash in right now and wolf down a large soft serve vanilla cone," I know it's not my body speaking but one of my old food addictions. Oh yeah, I can recognize Ms. Sugar n Fat Fixation's sweet voice pretty clearly these days, believe me, and, with practice, so will you.
The trick is in learning to distinguish false signals from legitimate ones. How do you learn? Trial and error, common sense, practice.
Hey, nobody said superior health was easy to attain.
It may be a lot cheaper and less painful than having a quadruple bypass, but in many respects, some still consider the price of health to be too high. Especially when it means giving up barbecued ribs, Mrs. Edwards key lime pies, coffee, and ice cream sundaes.
To make the point one last time -- listen to your body and learn to interpret its signals.
A simple idea, yes, but an idea that took me years to understand and acknowledge because I had to cut through a lot of cherished assumptions, long-held beliefs, intellectual desires, and peer pressure among friends in the alternative health movement who generally want to believe that the program they like best holds all the answers for everyone.
In closing, I offer for your consideration the idea that your body holds the real answer to your well-being and that you won't attain superior health if you don't learn to decipher the signals being sent to you by your body.
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Disclaimer: Throughout this website, statements are made pertaining to the properties and/or functions of food and/or nutritional products. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and these materials and products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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