Healing and Optimizing
the Body
As a former pro athlete, a plant-based author and thought leader, and a devoted spiritualist, I have a few key guidelines for optimizing the health and performance of our bodies. Quite conveniently, these steps overlap significantly with those that will most effectively save our natural environment. What this means is that healing the body and healing the planet are intimately interconnected.
Stimulate the Right Hormones
"Eat right and exercise" is the most common advice for staying healthy and fit. And of course it's true. But HOW you workout makes a massive difference in the results that you get. Why? Because even subtle changes in your workouts release different HORMONES into your system. You need the right combination of testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH) to build muscle, add a dash of adrenaline and lactic acid to maximize fat burning. And the hormone that KILLS fitness results is chronic cortisol, our stress hormone, so managing that is also key.
Eat Whole Food & More Plants
An appropriate diet for human beings is much simpler than we are made to think. Eating unprocessed, whole natural foods would alone solve most of our health problems. And plants should make up the bulk of our diets, as they cleanse the body while nourishing it. The fiber and anti-oxidants in plants fight disease, while animal products and sugar tend to fuel disease. Beyond that, through trial and error, each of us must discover how well we tolerate gluten, stimulants, dairy, etc. and limit or include those accordingly.
Detoxify
In modern industrial society, toxins are constantly entering our bodies through our lungs, our skin, and especially through our mouth/digestive tract. The symptoms of toxification are so common that they are considered "normal." Pesticides, for example, kill the good bacteria in our gut which then slows energy production, suppresses our immune system, and decreases serotonin levels. Endocrine disruptors (in plastic, food additives, pharmaceuticals) destabilize hormone levels, causing myriad problems. Ridding your body of toxins is critical for optimal health. Therefore, periodic CLEANSES are essential. Fasts, herbal cleanses, and gravity colonics are excellent, and can be the best way to quickly reboot your body system.
Don't Eat Sugar
It sounds simplistic, but its critical. Processed sugar is the poison of our time. It has only existed for a few hundred years, so our bodies don't know how to deal with it. It accelerates the aging process, cognitive decline, obesity, and it is the ideal fuel for virtually all diseases, including our leading killers: heart disease and cancer. For optimal health, the goal is to keep our bodies in an alkaline state, while sugar and animal products (and persistent negative emotions, by the way) are highly acidic.
Exercise & Be in Nature
You incarnated into a physical body -- so activate it, move it, challenge it, and express yourself through it. Physical optimization must include -- but also far surpasses -- physical exercise. Exposing your body to cold, heat, fresh air, and sunshine triggers primal hormonal and biochemical levers. Your body is a part of nature not apart from it. Spend time in wilderness, away from EMFs, where your sensory experience can stimulate healing and reset your main operating system (epigenetic gene signaling, engagement of your subconscious, etc.).