Healthy Lifestyle While Avoiding Dieting
This month we focus on how a healthy lifestyle while avoiding dieting can help prevent eating disorders and osteoporosis while reducing cancer risks and delaying the decline into the disability zone.
The mixed messages which bombard us daily attempt to sell diet books and products, lead to unrealistic expectations regarding weight and appearance while also advertising super-sized portions and encouraging sedentary lifestyle. In addition, rather than valuing the gifts of age, our culture promotes youth obsession while trying to sell products that speed up cellular aging like cigarettes and fast food. Small wonder that the diet and fast food industries are both multi-billion dollar industries, as are the fashion and cosmetic industries.
This is why the focus of this issue is on making healthy lifestyle choices without focusing on weight loss or age. Instead of going on deprivation diets which can lead to nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, eating disorders and rebound weight gain, focus on adding delicious health-enhancing foods to your menu like the asparagus recipe. Instead of following the extremes of “couch potato” or “exercise obsession”, find a variety of physical activities which you enjoy. It is physical fitness, not weight, that impacts longevity. Remember, size diversity is normal. People, like fruits, come in all shapes and sizes. Health and fitness are for people of all sizes, shapes, and ages.
Rather than focusing on weight loss or the preservation of unrealistically youthful appearance, turn your attention to creating a lifestyle that promotes your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
In the words of Jan Phillips, author of Divining the Body:
“And these bodies of ours, these are our souls’ sacred vessels, the instruments through which the Great Beloved sings, laughs, labors and loves. We are the eyes through which God sees, the mind through which God ponders, the hands through which God touches. As we dwell as cells in the body of God, God dwells in us as our vital force, pushing outward, awaiting release, prompting communion, awareness, and joy.
To love ourselves is an act of faith, sacrament of acknowledgment, a gesture of solidarity with the holy one within. It is the first and most important step, for we can only love others as we love ourselves. No matter what you were ever told about loving yourself, remember now that your body is the materialization of divine energy. Love it extravagantly, cherish it, adore its mystical workings and miraculous potential. Look beyond the surface as you peer into your mirror, and thank the one within for this chance to be alive, to be of use, and to be a co-creator of this magnificent experience called life.”