Holistic Health Secrets

Archive for February, 2010

I’ve devised my own 14 day Mediterranean Food Diet.

I’ve chosen Mediterranean food, not only because it’s healthy, but because I don’t want to lose any weight. I’m already verging on the very skinny so losing weight is not my goal.

I just want to improve the nutritional content and the quality of food the food that I eat on a daily basis.

My 14 day diet will include lamb (once over the fortnight), fish (three times a week), eggs (three times a week), spaghetti,  tomatoes, grapes, bananas, smoothies, potatoes, rice and couscous (varied daily).

I don’t think I’ll have the willpower to cut out crisps but I’ll definitely be eating more fruit.

This method has also saved me a lot of time because I’ve already planned in advance what I’m going to eat and cook for each meal for the next fortnight (although it’s not set in stone).

I’m interested to see if this change of diet will have an impact on my energy levels and my moods as well as my overall health.

Read more about the Mediterranean Diet.

Once when I was younger, I asked a hypnotherapist if it was possible to erase traumatic memories from a person’s mind.

She said that it wasn’t advisable to block out or erase unwanted memories.

She said that even if it were possible to blot out bad memories from your mind, your body would remember them just as the body remembers an amputated limb and reacts as though it were still there.

Even when things aren’t consciously remembered, they live on and resonate in the cells and muscles of your body.

The painful memory becomes a part of you and is integrated into the whole experience of being you.

The challenge is to find a positive constructive way of dealing with the memory of painful events instead of constantly reliving them or attempting to bury them.

Most of us have heard the saying, “As a man thinketh, so is he”.

We read books about the Law of Attraction.  We may have watched the movie, The Secret.  We may have read about the “Secret behind the Secret”.  Maybe we’ve even learnt from someone who “should have been in the Secret.”

We’re told that thoughts are things, that thoughts have wings and that thoughts are the cause that create the incidents in our life, the seeds of our successes and our failures.

So if our thoughts create our reality, then all we need to do is think positive thoughts and everything should be okay.  We’d all be healthy and happy.  It should therefore be really easy to create the conditions that manifest good health, happiness and success, if it’s all starts off in the mind.

But for a lot of us, in spite of creating positive thoughts and affirmations and reading self-help books and attending seminars, things keep cropping up to damage our health or potential success.

Most of us can’t control our thoughts. This is because they are created by our core beliefs.

These core beliefs are created by parents, teachers, authority figures, our religion, our friends, peers and colleagues.

We’re programmed, almost without being aware of it, by TV, movies, the media, newspapers, magazines, music and politics.  Education is mostly based on inheriting the ideas from the past.

Being your own authority and thinking for yourself is generally frowned upon.  It’s necessary to conform and fit in because this is the way that things have always been done – be it in your family or within your society.  So we look to these sources of authority to shape our opinions and ideals.

Even if you rebel, say during adolescence, there is a coded uniform way of rebelling.

Our prejudices and perceptions of reality are mostly based on social and environmental conditioning. Negative (or positive) events that occur also shape and mould our beliefs about reality.

The biblical quotation from Proverbs 23 says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

“Heart” thinking is different from logical analytical thinking.  “Heart” thinking can be likened to the buried feelings that we really believe to be true.

It’s our deeply rooted underlying beliefs that may sabotage our health in spite of all our attempts to build positive thoughts, images and affirmations to improve and manifest good health.

The main underground belief a lot of us have is that the way things are and this is the way life has to be.  To change our lives and control our thoughts, we have to examine our belief systems without blaming or beating ourselves up about it.

Buddha said: “Believe not because some old manuscripts are produced, believe not because it is your national belief, believe not because you have been made to believe from your childhood, but reason truth out, and after you have analysed it, then if you find it will do good to one and all, believe it, live up to it and help others live up to it.”

And God apparently said (in Conversations with God), “Listen to your feelings.  Listen to your Highest Thoughts.  Listen to your experience.  Whenever any one of these differ from what you’ve been told by your teachers, or read in your books, forget the words.  Words are the least reliable purveyor of truth.”

Our beliefs and opinions shape our attitude and mindset.  But are our opinions really our own? Or are they hand-me-downs from childhood or from another early source?

For positive thinking techniques to work effectively and be long lasting, we need to explore the connection between our hidden beliefs and our physical, mental and emotional symptoms.

I’ve chosen to explore Mediterranean food because although it is promoted as one of the healthiest diets in the world, culturally it’s based on the principle of  enjoyment and the pleasure of sharing food with others.

The Mediterranean diet is mostly seen as having its origins in Greek, Southern Italian or French cuisine.  However the recipes of other Mediterranean countries are represented including African countries like Morocco and Tunisia.

The Food Pyramid concept was developed in the USA but has now been adapted by many countries.  (Here in the UK, the equivalent of a Food Pyramid is the Eatwell Plate.)

Food Pyramids place food in the hierarchy of how large a portion of a particular food you can eat and how often you can it.

Foods at the bottom of the pyramid can be eaten daily and in large portions.

Foods in the middle and the top of the pyramid are recommended to be eaten in smaller portions and less often.

Food Pyramids are often used to create a healthy eating plan.

I’ve been looking at different versions of the Mediterranean Food Pyramid.

Foods that can be eaten every day include:

* Rice, couscous, pasta and bread (assuming you don’t have a wheat intolerance)

* Fresh fruit (especially for dessert) and vegetables

* Beans and nuts (assuming you don’t have a nut allergy like me)

* the equivalent of six glasses of water

* Cheese and yogurt in small portions

* Poultry in small portions

* a glass of red wine

Olive oil is used as the base of most dishes as well as for dressing salads and baking.  Olive oil is also full of antioxidants.

Olives are also used for flavouring dishes.

The next section of the pyramid deals with foods that can be consumed on a weekly basis:

* fish (three times a week)

* eggs (up to four eggs a week)

* sweets (once a week)

At the top of the pyramid for foods which are recommended to be eaten a few times a month or less:

* Red meat

Because there is no restriction on the amount of calories you can eat under this system, simple daily exercise is regarded as essential for getting the most benefit out of following a Mediterranean food plan.

For many people, healthy food = boring bland and tasteless food.

So if the idea of cutting down on alcohol, fizzy drinks, cigarettes, meat or dairy, cakes  – in other words, all the things you may consider to be fun – fills you with dread, then think in terms of increasing your intake of what is good for you.

Consider following a Mediterranean diet and lifestyle.

Increase the amount of vegetables and fruit that you eat.  Eat more fish.  Use more olive oil. Consume more sources of Omega 3.

The Mediterranean diet, especially that followed in the Greek and Southern Italian areas, is said to reduce the risk of:

* heart disease
* depression
* diseases related to thinking and memory
* insomnia

Over the next few days, I will be exploring the main components of the Mediterranean diet.

GABA is a neurochemical which helps to decrease activity in many areas of the brain.

GABA, a.k.a. gamma-aminobutyric acid, can be described as one of the brain’s natural tranquilizers.

If you suffer from chronic insomnia, you may usually experience a racing mind, particularly at night.

This overactivity may be present, not only in your thoughts, but also in your emotions and even your nervous system.

Studies have indicated that people with primary insomnia tend to have a greatly reduced amount of GABA.

This can heighten their anxiety, impair concentration and reduce their energy levels during the day.

People who fall into this category may benefit from hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy or a combination of both methods.

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Psychophysiological insomnia is a condition where a person with insomnia worries excessively about their inability to sleep.

Their worries may lead to inappropriate or desperate attempts to get some sleep such as taking too many sleeping pills, drinking alcohol for the sole purpose of sleeping or spending too much time in bed in the hope of being able to get more sleep.

The consequences of this are mood swings, a shorter attention span and decreased motivation during the day.

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I’ve now been taking Nutri-Calm tablets for over 30 days.

I do feel a lot calmer and my positivity and well-being has increased. Also my quality of sleep is much better.

In the beginning of this experiment, I felt that the effects were minimal and sometimes barely noticeable.

However they seem to have an accumulative effect and it’s really now that I’m noticing the benefits.  So it’s important to take them consistently in the beginning.

To recap, Nutri Calm contains Vitamin C, Vitamin B complex and chamomile herbs which help to maintain the health of the nervous system and also to reduce stress and nervous tension.

If you are going through a stressful period, why not try your own 30 day experiment with Nutri-Calm?

Remember that health supplements are intended to support, not replace, conventional medical care.  If in doubt, consult your main healthcare provider for advice.