8 Weeks to Optimum Health: WEEK 2

"The eight-week program consists of small steps that build on each other until, by the time you complete it, you have laid the foundation for healthy living. You can then decide how much of the program you want to maintain on a permanent basis. It's all about changing behavior. You are probably not addicted to drugs, but you may have other habits that are keeping you from experiencing optimum health." -Andrew Weil, author of 8 Weeks To Optimum Health

I found this book on my mothers bookshelf... or it found me. - M-Z

WEEK TWO. (of Andrew Weil's Eight-Week program)
Congratulations! You are about to embark on an exciting and healthy adventure of restyling your life in order to attain optimum health.

Projects: 

-Find out where your drinking water comes from. In the meantime, buy bottled water. (drinking water is one of the major sources of environmental toxins that can harm your healing system; fortunately, it is the one that you can do something about.) Dr. Weil go in depth about this topic. I recommend reading up on the chemicals found in our water and how drinking water in U.S. is increasingly become a health risk. He also offers suggestions how to purify your water.

Diet:


-Again eat fish at least once this week and broccoli twice.
-Increase consumption of whole grains (excellent source of fiber, which is generally deficient in our diets) The best way to get more fiber is to eat more veggies & fruits & food containing whole grain.
-Try a soy bean product from a natural food store (For centuries the Chinese and Japanese have cultivated soy as a dietary staple, an excellent source of protein that can be turned into multi udinous edibles.) Soy beans are better than animal foods in several way (look up the benefits of soy)
-Try Japanese or Chinese Green tea instead of usual black tea or coffee

Supplements:
-Start taking one capsule a day of mixed carotene's with breakfast. (Should contain 25,000 IU of betacarontene along with lycopene. (Great cancer-protective value)

Exercise:
-Increase your daily walk to fifteen minutes. (Try to make your walks brisk enough to increase you breathing and heart rate) Remember, this is the best all around conditioning treatment you can give your body.


Mental/Spiritual:
-Visit your favorite place in nature. Spend as much time as there, doing nothing in particular, just feeling the energy. (Walking or sitting quietly in a natural setting is a simple form of meditation, an antidote for being too much in our heads, too focused on our thoughts and emotions)
-Try a one-day "news fast". Do not read, watch, or listen to any news for a day. (I do not want you to become uninformed about the state of the world, but I note paying attention to news commonly results in anxiety, rage, and other emotional states that probably impede the healing system.)
-Continue with breath observation for five minutes a day and add a second breathing exercise.
("If you could only tell people to do one thing that would give them greater access to spontaneous healing, what would it be?" I never hesitate in answering. "Work with your breathe!" -Dr.Weil)

*Recommendations that fall under this heading are most important.



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Good luck, have fun, see ya on Sunday !

Love,

Maryam