WHY BE HEALTHY?

Health is a vehicle, not a destination. Optimal health is about more than just feeling good.

Normally, when you are feeling low, dealing with a health condition or trying to lose weigh, you think of health as something to achieve. Yes, good physical health is an important goal but if you simply stop there, you will miss out on so much more. Vibrant health allows us to be active in the world and achieve more than we can when we are tired and sick.

Ask yourself “Why be healthy?”, “What would you do with your life if you become healthy”? How would you use this gift to enhance your life and the lives of those around you? What would happen if you experience high-level wellness most of the time? Imagine what your life would be like if strength, flexibility and clear thinking were part of your everyday life. Sadly most people are missing it. A lot still eat chemicalized food, artificial junk food, don’t move their bodies and don’t think about their health until they are diagnosed with an illness. They deal with health concerns such as allergies, headaches, constipation, low energy as recurring parts of their lives.

We all eat, all day every day, and we all know the saying “we are what we eat”. but for some reason, no one knows what to eat, how to eat and the reason why we should eat healthy.

Over the last few years healthy eating has really grown in popularity, which has been amazing to watch. It’s given me so much joy to see people realise how good they feel when they eat foods that nourishes their body…how much it affects their life. I love how everyone started to see how incredibly delicious healthy eating can be. I’m thrilled to witness that the stereotype that it’s all about lettuce and cucumber is vanishing and is being replaced with decadent chia puddings, bowls of creamy noodles with satay sauce and amazing orange and chocolate tarts.

When you switch to a natural-food diets and lifestyle and as your diet and lifestyle improves you begin dancing to the beat of a different drummer. You start to think and feel quite different than others. You naturally see the world from a different perspective than those who are eating fast foods and junk food. You become calmer, clearer and more aware. You will feel a greater sense of balance and through this process you become more fully present. You will notice breathing more fully, fell the breeze on your face and really listen to other people are saying. You will be more fresh and alert to new situations with access to a wider choice of behaviours at any given moment and this…this will consciously makes you more likely to move away from foods and people e that are detrimental to your health.

Healthy eating is about finding a way of eating that makes you happy. It’s about meals that make you feel your best – that might be a superfoods energy bar for breakfast, a raw pad thai for lunch and then, pizza and wine for dinner with your spouse or friends – and that is totally OK. It’s your body and your life. It’s about balance and about moderation. I don’t want anyone feeling guilty because they are not eating “perfectly” all the time…plus, there’s no such thing as perfect. Perfect for me is simply finding a balance that is right for you, whatever that is., Putting yourself in a certain box with a specific label can be quite restrictive. You shouldn’t feel that you’re not healthy if you’re not specifically raw, plant based, paleo, grain free, gluten free or any of the rest of it. You can be and i encourage you to be a bit of everything. You just need to be honest with yourself and workout what makes you feel best…and that might be an exciting mix of everything.

Don’t forget that healthy eating should never be prescriptive or restricting!

The other thing to remember is that we also want to commit to healthy eating to different extends. I eat the way i do because i simply LOVE IT. But just because i eat this way every day, though, doesn’t mean you should feel bad if you don’t. Similarly, you shouldn’t inflict guilt on anyone else if they’re not ready to eat healthy all day long either. Just focus on encouraging them to add more natural foods to their diet and celebrate the small steps and changes that they are making rather than focusing on the other things you feel they could be doing. We all respond so much better to positivity than negativity.

So please remember that when you’re introducing friends and family to this food it’s important to let them know that it’s totally ok to be a flexible healthy eater and that just because you live with someone or spend a lot of time together it doesn’t mean you have to eat in exactly the same way. Everyone has to start somewhere, at some point and it’s much better to introduce healthy living to your own or someone else’s life in a sustainable way over time than it is to do it all at once and they give up a few days later because you/they can’t stand living of kale salad and green juice.

Find a balance that works for you and the people around you, incorporate whole ingredients and nourishing foods whenever you can and – most importantly – don’t beat yourself up or make anyone else feel bad for eating something that isn’t super-healthy.

As a health conscious person, you have added potential to step out and create change in the world.

In love and light,

Mariana