QuestionHI Evelyn, I stumbled upon your post to Barry after searching the net. Like Barry's post I also feel I have a problem digesting red meat. I am 29 and for the last 2 years have noticed digestion is becoming more and more difficult for me. However after reading your post it seems it could be more of my general diet. I eat fairly healthy or so at least I thought. Very rarely eat fast food, maybe once/ month. At least 60% of my wife's shopping is organic, I do over eat as in my younger days I was a serious athlete(runner) and we use to gourge ourselves on a regular basis. I drink lite beer, roughly 10-20 beers per week. I'm making considerable effort to cut back on my drinking. I really want to get healthy again and make another go at running. It's been 7 years since I stopped running. My race weight was 145-150lb and I now weigh about 185-190 I'm 5'9". I would really like some help, I was overwhelmed with reading your post and I think I need someone to tell me what to do day by day until I can get a grasp on it. I feel like I have a brick in my stomach and 4 days out of 7 I am uncomfortable. I am often constipated. One thing that has helped is if I eat oatmeal and a cup of black coffee in the morning. But I can't bear to eat oatmeal after doing it a week straight. I was also think of an enema to get a fresh start. Thanks for your time.
AnswerHi Ryan,
It is difficult to tell you what to do day by day, this would take a personal consultation with a (naturopathic) dietician. Also, I can't refer back to Barry's answer, right now (technically quite difficult to access old answers for me!) but I do know I tailor each answer to the questioner's specific energy, so here follows another lengthy read for you! I want to show you what healthy eating actually comprises and how self-knowledge is the real issue here.
You are already indicating exactly where your problems lie: age, weight, beer, natural aversions. Towards the big three-oh, the body goes through a transition as your soul steps into a new phase - whether you are ready or not! (Life comes in 7 year cycles.) Now, the time has come where you have become "set" (in your ways, in your niche) and the physical takes a back seat to the mental/emotional. It is often a time for radical change (people stop thinkingless about themselves and start families around this time); others really start to roll on their fixed course(careers take off). Your body will start to reflect back your attitude (soul condition) so far - without mincing any details. To sum up your case: you have problems finding a balance, which is illustrated by there being more matter than spirit in your organisation - as the symptoms reveal. Grey oats, alas, are not going to help you. Light and colour might.
Aside much lighter fare, the beers are a big problem in your case. More grains (barley) and sugars aside, it is the excessive intake of alcohol (even if reduced by the "light"quality) which contributes to a densification of matter. Alcohol numbs the Higher Self and after prolongued regular use it becomes lethargic and removes itself from the (metabolic) work, leaving you full and heavy and all clogged up. The brick in your stomach is related to the constipation, unless you also have peptic-acid problems - then you may have complications you might need to look into (a quick check up with your GP). It is a sign that your inner system has become a dark cavern which gets food "dumped" into it. There is a lack of joy and you are unable to extract the very LIFE out of your food. The system has shut down half of its spritual processing plant and it is making you sluggish and apathic.
The beers are probably rubbish on your system already for the additives that goes into them. Ignoring the fact that twenty beers a week is excessive by government standards, the subtle story with alcohol is hard to put into units or measures. I am going to give you the probably rather unwelcome advice to cut out all acohol for at least 3 months straight. Then (if you so feel inclined) try introducing a maximum of 4-6 units in any one week ever, but preferably just once or twice a week (weekend?). All liquor should be avoided, unless for "medicinal" purposes (a shot of whisky when you come home from a freezing walk through the Scottish highlands) and one glass of red wine with a meal can be good for the circulation (but not necessary!). Always have two rest days, just to show to yourself you can go without alcohol. So this is not about how alcohol and healthy living cannot marry at all. But there is something detrimental about alcohol (in an esoteric sense) and some people will note this (in physical manifestations)more overtly than others. (It would take a separate essay to underpin this statement.) This is not advice based on a fear that you are an alcoholic, but a very effective method for introducing a profound type of meaningful discipline. It works very well especially because alcohol precisely is a more abusive substance to your soul than for example tabacco (which is nonetheless harmful, if not fata, to your health).
By training up your soul first and foremost you will find more energy to work on physical improvements. I fear otherwise the running will come to nothing or eventually depress you further when results may not be as simply achieved as envisioned. A part of your new regime will be all about facing reality in a new and sometimes unpleasant light. The only plan I can give you is one that will help you stand up tall and strong, again, literally stretching and strengthening your backbone. You are asking yourself, in effect, to walk a path that will better teach you how to carry your new adult self, in full responsibility and awareness of yourself as a spiritual being.
What we have forgotten, collectively, is that we eat to nourish our souls. There is food that is more of this earth and food that is more of the cosmos. Honey, flowers, fruit and seeds are most full of light, warmth, and star/solar energy. They invigorate the spirit. Where you have become bogged down by life, cold, dense and dark (energy blocks, lumps in the stomach) they can help bring light. Grains are great mediators between heaven and earth, swaying free, deeply rooted, toasted by the summer sun. But each of the four main Western grains (oats, barley, rye, wheat) have different properties, and all are grounding, hence invaluable. It is important to vary their use, though, observing the climate you live in, seasonal change and personal temperament. The choleric type must not overdo it on oats. But YOU must not OVERDO anything - full stop. You tend to have a somewhat exaggerated pendulum dynamic: while you were running you were somewhat underweight and now you are overweight. You do not state whether you eat oats all day, or just a bowl of porridge for breakfast, but if you get sick of them after a week then you can already tell you have overdone it. Fortunately for you, it seems like you are sensitive to the voice of your own body and monitor its needs and moods well, before a chronic ailment sets in to hammer the imbalance home.
If meat does not become you: cut it out. Replace with fish or become a vegetarian. I am not sure why you are not already doing this. If it is out of a fear of missing nutrients, or a habit you don't feel like dropping (or it is inconvenient), you need to listen a little closer to what your body is saying. Sometimes different methods of preparation can make meat more digestible (stews, soups, mince) and adding herbs (sage, thyme, oregano,rosemary, and spices (esp. mustard/horseradish or curry) definitely aids, while fats and sugars hinder. Some meats must be harder for you than others (perhaps fowl and game are less problematic?). But if you are not exercising and feeling otherwise lethargic, you will not be needing meat and it can already be adversely affecting your metabolic organs.
A protein over-load is not something you want right now. Try introducing less animal protein into your diet and more nuts and seeds (sesame, pumpkin, sunflower) especially in salads or muesli. Mueseli will make an excellent breakfast with yoghurt - and nothing but yoghurt. Sour milk products make good protein sources. Curd can be an alternative, but only in small portions. This muesli is best soaked overnight in some water or in the yoghurt. Use a muesli which is not only oats! Use a variety of grains, also amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, rice. NO added sugar of any kind. Some honey is alright. Use raisins, a couple of chopped dates or grated apple to sweeten. Figs are also excellent.
Constipation has as much to do with a stubborn mentality or tensions as with a lack of fibre. Find moments in which you consciously "let go" of what you cannot solve or achieve in the very moment. Deep breathing techniques are very valuable here.
A long-term simple rememdy are eating, for elevenses, say (not with the yoghurt): three dried (organic!) apricots (the brown kind, not the sulferised orange ones) and two dried prunes (pasturised packaging: they are kepts moist and ready to eat, delicious!). Not only are they famous for the treatment of constipation but they are good sources of iron and package a determined kind of self0-focussing but warm energy that helps build up a new kind of Will from the inside out. You need to become "firmer" on a spiritual inner level, by becoming "softer" on a physical level. The blood is the carrier of this red will-force. Soft ripe fruit packages its fuel very neatly. Don't only reach for stone fruit, however. Also, eat an apple a day as a tea time snack, adding 2-3 times a week if you can, another piece/handful of fruit, especially berries if you can find them fresh in season. One banana a week is more than enough. Have half a plate (brimming) with colour in steamed/stir fried vegetables. Roast winter veg (roots) in the oven, grill Mediterranean vegetable platters (very flavoursome). Potatoes do not belong as staples on the menu!
A balanced diet is a form of yoga, and yoga helps balance your diet naturally: the asanas (exercises) let you listen to your body, which will tell you very accurately what it needs if you let it. Tai chi can achieve the same. Aerobics and fitness cannot. If you would only already do a bit of stretching, to align your spine, every day, as an axis planted firmly in the earth reaching up to the heavens to channel energy larger than life, you would notice a new influx of zest and inspiration. Do this in the bathroom before shaving, or brushing your teeth. Use sanitory breaks to emphasise the inflow and outflow of life... Breathe in life as you take your first steps out of the house, breathe OUT all that you are not (dead thoughts). Breathe in the weather, whatever the weather and feel a larger cosmos in the rain, the sun or the hail! Exhale your own fog.
When you first sit down again, on a bike, in the car, on a bus, behind a desk, on a forklift truck: locate the orange sun in your belly (navel chakra) and make sure it is spherical, breathe into it, as if to blow up a balloon. Imagine it will stay buoyant and translucent throughout your day. If you have more time, use this starting point for deeper meditation. Take from this source of energy and dispense throughout your energetic network replenish with humble gratitude from an expanse that is REALLY there but seldom felt. When you come home, or before dinner (or before shopping for, preparing it) lie down to figure out what your body really wants. Hopefully it will be able to connect to your Higher Self, but at first, you probably will be needing beer most of all. That is because the Higher Self has left a shadow-minister in charge to take all calls while you have put your life on hold. Just be prepared for that set-back. Rinse off any sense of failure or frustration with a hot and soothing shower (lavender soap - opportunity to massage the belly clockwise to help digestion through the night too.). Fall asleep with hands on your belly, giving yourself warmth and light. Dream faries will do the rest....
Be patient and firm and tell yourself you need light, warmth and colour. Discover where this can be found. Stick to wholesome food (a bit more than just healthy eating) for a while, like lentil soup and lots of vegetable stir-fry with rice, millet or buckwheat noodles. Taste rye bread with butter: how the salt of the earth permeates the grain. Taste a sourdough croissant: how sour challenges the sweetness of the grain. Taste a lychee and a kiwi and marvel at the worlds apart. Taste! This kind of sobriety and joy combined will help you retune you to your needs.
An enema is only really recommendable in acute situations (use chamomile tea at body temperature). A fresh start, like you put it, would take extensive fasting as well. But results are much debated. It can help set up a start, true, but you will only feel a benefit really after you have been on a sober regime already for about three months. You could try it then.
In the meantime, better to use linseed (soaked 12 hrs) as a bulking and lubricant agent. Taken regularly with the muesli, or just as a "medicine"in a glass of water or with an addition tablespoon of bran also works. Don't go for senna pod, specifically. Not drinking sufficient fluids also makes constipation worse, but you need to be able to absorb this fluid (where the bran comes in). Coffee notoriously constipates, too (it enhances head-forces not bowel-forces) . It should actually never be drunk with breakfast, only AFTER lunch as a pick-me up. Herbal teas, alternately nettle and lime or chamomile, or pepperming, do much good for digestive processes. Try getting used to them if you can.
Sometimes running on an athletic scale can be a sign of over-drive too. It is important for you to focus on rhythm. By using food that is seasonal and by bringing down your diet to wholewheat basics you are making a clean slate of awareness. This is the starting point for success further down the road. But also try walking whilst practising some observational exercises. In bed, at night try to run a film of your walk through your mind: you will never remember what was in front of the window at house number 31. Use your mind to make ever more connections between your body and the world. We generally THINK we are relating, or playing the game of life (barbeques and baseball), but not really caring hands-on.
Finally, now I've ended up giving you lots of personal tips, not forgetting lunch: it depends a bit on what you like to eat, since a diet remains very personal no matter the general guidelines. But if it is not your main hot meal of the day, it is best kept very light and simple: a couple of wholewheat sandwiches/rolls with salad OR fruit to follow - go easy on cheese, peanutbutter and all kinds of sausage; use jam/jelly only sweetened with applejuice or honey; drink butter milk, water or a glass of carrot, beet or vegetable cocktail juice; green tea makes a good anti-oxidant. Smoothies do you fewer favours than you might hope, limit to the occasional treat).
Variety is the spice of life and your adventure will predominantly be one of daring to spice it up with TEMPERANCE. Take it slow, because you will need to take some hurdles along the way where what you want and need will clash and some "stuff" will stop making sense leaving you feeling hollow at times. Then stop digging too deep and just let what you are be on display: it will show you many things because you have already started to want to see who you really are.
When in any more doubts feel free to run a day's menu by me to let me check how healthy it is.
Take care and ENJOY!
Love, Evelyn
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