8 Weeks to Optimum Health: WEEK FIVE

"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 FIVE (of Andrew Weil's Eight-Week program)
Congratulations! You have reached a milestone in the Eight-Week Program: the halfway point.  By now you have made significant changes in your diet, your physical activity, and your breathing.

Projects:
-Locate a steam bath or sauna that you can use. Use it for up to twenty minutes one day. It should be hot enough to make you sweat freely; be sure to drink plenty of pure water to replace lose fluid.  The value of sweating: It allows the body to rid itself of unwanted materials and also highly salutory for our minds and spirits. 

Diet:Buy a piece of fresh ginger root and make yourself some ginger tea.
From ancient times, doctor's in both China and India regarded ginger as superior medicine.

Supplements:
-Continue the supplement/vitamin regiment offered in week one, two, and three.

Exercise:
-Aerobic walk: thirty minutes, five days of the week.

Mental/Spiritual: *Recommendations that fall under this heading are most important.
-Extend your news fast to three days this week
-Practice daily the breathing exercises you have learned.
-Listen to a piece of music that you find inspirational and uplifting.
Music has a special power to influence consciousness. One of the highest purposes of music is to raise spiritual energy and put us more in touch with the higher self.
-Bring more flowers into your home this week.

Optional (but highly recommended)
If you are inclined to experiment, I would like you to consider a "fruit fast" this week. Eating nothing but fruit for a day is really a restricted diet rather than a fast. Eat nothing but fresh fruit one day of the week, and drink as much water and herbal tea as you want. When you get into bed that evening, note how you feel. 
_________________________________


Good luck, have fun, see ya next week!


Love,

Maryam