Take off the blinders!

Once upon a time, I believed that as long as you were thin, you were healthy. I remember vividly saying to friends and family… Just workout and you can eat what ever you want! It’s funny how when I would share good news about our bad habits with family and friends (Yes…continue eating the crap, but just add some cardio) they all pretty much got on board and tried what ever the latest trend or idea that I had picked up and shared with them. This less than stellar info came from the younger version of myself who got her nutrition and wellness information from Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping magazines and the nightly news back in the 80’s,90’s and early 2000’s.  Also very interesting that when I finally did go back to school and get really educated that the new and truly healthier way of eating and living fell on deaf ears for more than a few years… Yes, my family finally started to implement what I had been preaching, but I guess it’s much harder to give up the addictive ways of the standard american diet… It’s much easier to just eat a crappier ‘lower calorie’ version of the junk that you have been used to than to eat whole foods that aren’t overly oiled, salted, and processed. … I bought into the theory that all you had to do to be healthy…A.K.A. thin…was to adopt a low-fat and no-fat chemically filled overly processed food type diet as well as create a daily commitment to get off you a** and get moving! Boy was that ever misguided information! A. Thin is definitely not the only barometer to measure your health.  B. Eating ‘food-like’ substances as a way of gaining health is just wrong on every level…if you actually stop and think for a moment that what you put into your body is what you renew and fuel your body from, you would realize that chemicals can’t be the answer to long lasting vibrant living. And C. Sadly, until I went back to school to study nutrition and wellness from a science perspective, I believed that articles that were written and published must be based on fact and research…NOT True…I also had bought into the fact that labels don’t lie, the USDA is there to protect us and that doctors knew what was best for my personal health and well being…..ALL NOT TRUE!

All of these thoughts and twisted views on how to have and maintain health didn’t shift until I made the decision to look deeper, ask questions and actually use the logical side of my brain….or as I like to call it… TAKING OFF THE BLINDERS. When I made that radical mind shift… my perspective on everything took a 360 degree turn. I no longer looked for everyone else to have my best interests at heart. Don’t get me wrong… I didn’t become a non-trusting negative nilly… I was still a half glass full kind of girl… But I had learned that just like when you buy a car, you kick the tires and check under the hood (Ok…that’s what husbands are for:) before making your final decision to purchase it. A little due diligence goes along way.  I share this with you because I know that there is a sea of information floating around about what constitues good nutrition… One day this is good for you and the next this is bad…. It’s so overwelming that you might even just say… This nutrition stuff is way too confusing and just continue on your same unhealthy and unhappy path because untangling the fiction from the truth is too much work… And… in ten years you’ll be in the same situation…except more unhealthy and more unhappy!  I can promise you that when you get back to basics and start eating whole foods, primarily plant based…That those wishy-washy views won’t exist anymore… green beans, kale, brown rice and potatoes have been and always will be great health promoting foods (it’s the company that they often keep that is real culprit…Butter, sour creams and oils). So in a tasty nutshell… take off your own blinders and make the decision to treat your body as the temple that it is…Yes, this requires some due diligence effort, but I promise the reward of health and vitality is worth every ounce of effort!

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Dr. Dean Ornish recently published this great article in the New York Times entitled The Optimal Diet that set this blog topic into motion for me…

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/the-optimal-diet.html?_r=0

I would love to hear your own thoughts on what constitutes a healthy person and healthy diet and lifestyle. Where do you get your health and wellness information from? Who do you trust?

Beautiful healthy hugs,

Vanessa