Day 266

Thoughts: Getting fit - getting whole!

Jinjee says "Getting healthy, fit, and beautiful - let's just call it "getting healthy" - is about "Getting Whole"… The word "Health" comes from the word "Wholeness". Therefore being healthy means being whole. Bringing all aspects of yourself in to alignment. Creating a balanced harmony in which your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects are all working together.

Today I worked out with personal trainer Ashley Lynn at Big Al's Family Fitness! Each trainer has their own 'style', taste or type of training. If I to describe the training session we had it was smooth, elongating and empowering. We focused on exercising the chest, triceps and biceps. Ashley introduced me to new techniques, and workouts to sculpt nice long muscles.

Exercise and diet are the actions to get your physical self in to alignment. Ashley trains her self 6 days a week, she says "It should only be five, but I love it". So why not do it right? The last 6 days of my life I would like to spend it doing something I love!

Ashley also explained that exercise should be thought of almost like medicine. "It doesn't only work to change and improve your physical state but your emotional and mental state as well."

It is a universal belief that doing exercise, moving the body, have health benefits. However knowing that makes no difference if we look at how many people do actually exercise. Life gets in the way and we don't exercise as much as we want, and need, and should and bla bla yes I have been there before!

Personal Trainer Ashley Lynn

"The lymph must move!" - You have to exercise, even if you just get out and walk the driveway 5 times" says Storm the creator of The Garden Diet. "Find your "driveway"…something easy and close to home that you can walk when you don't have time to drive to a nature hike or the gym. It could be a little hill that you could walk/run up and down, or some stairs you can walk/run up and down for a few minutes to get your lymphatic system moving. The lymphatic system is an important part of detoxifying your cellular waste, and it only moves when you exercise!".

If you are already on The Earth Diet or beginning it, food and exercise are just as important, they go hand in hand with each other. Especially eating raw foods, as Storm explains, "Toning is an important part of weight redistribution with the raw food lifestyle. If you exercise daily you will not experience uncomfortable detox symptoms. Just as importantly, sometimes when people go raw they get a huge amount of excess energy and their lifestyles are not set up for utilizing this energy. Unused energy becomes very uncomfortable in the body, and the person will reach for foods, substances or negative thoughts, to bring their energy back down to a manageable state. By following a workout schedule you will be channeling your new energy in to your new body in an appropriate way that will not only be comfortable, but will have you "ringing" with the bliss and ecstasy of real vital health!

Think of a giant flywheel. It is very heavy to start pushing it, almost impossible to move it. But you keep pushing, and pushing, and after a very long hard time of exertion the wheel is now moving, and because it is so heavy, it gains momentum and starts spinning faster and faster, and carried forth by its own weight, you don't even have to touch it any more, and it is just spinning effortlessly on its own in perpetual motion.

Likewise it is difficult to start a healthy lifestyle. The flywheel is heavy with bad habits, negative emotions, weight, and inertia. But you keep fighting that good fight. You don't give up. You keep trying. You try different things, new things, and then at last you have it! You get that momentum going. Slowly at first. It just gives you enough energy to try a little harder. And then you make that breakthrough, and you know you can do it! And then all these healthy habits that took so much effort suddenly seem fun, your healthy lifestyle is in full swing, and gathering momentum, and a life of its own!

Ah, the chicken and the egg!! Which comes first, healthy eating, healthy exercise, or happiness? Well, as they are a cycle, you can actually punch in at any point in the cycle!

You can start by eating healthy. Suddenly the pain in your knees is gone. You can exercise again. You get happy! So you eat healthier, exercise more, get happier, etc…

Or you can start by exercising. Suddenly the life energy is flowing through you again. You naturally make better food choices to support that life energy. The result is happiness, then better food choices, then more exercise, and the cycle is moving again...

Or you might start by finding yourself happy. You ride this happiness and let it dictate better food choices. This leads to exercise, which leads to happiness, which leads to better food choices, and you are up, up, and away!

And then suddenly you find something has shifted. You suddenly love exercise, because now you really want to live. And so eating well becomes easy. And so, you find you are happy. And it is a beautiful upward spiral that leads to life more abundantly!"

Making Time For Exercise‏
Jinjee says "I was just thinking how silly it is that I don't think I have 20 minutes to exercise. Think of all the ways we waste 20 minutes during our day.... Chatting with someone who isn't even good for us....looking at a magazine....wondering aimlessly what to do next....eating when we shouldn't be....wasting time on negative thinking....watching mind-rot on TV..... --- We say these things are relaxing, but what do they really give us! No, the truth is we're addicted to not taking care of ourselves, and it would be just as easy to develop an addiction to some positive way of relaxing - like exercise! It may be hard at first, but after the habit is in place, it will be as easy to exercise as it was to plonk ourselves down in front of the TV."

This is the very thing that drives Ashley to train people for a career; feeling good and assisting others in feeling good. Beautiful :) "when you look good, you feel good. :) "

Challenges: Man lives in three dimensions: the somatic, the mental, and spiritual. The spiritual dimension cannot be ignored, for it is what makes us human. – Viktor Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul (1983).

Triumphs:"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true." ~ Richard Bach

What I Ate Today:

Food fest 1: A strawberry, grapefruit and orange juice. Mmm talk about a hit of vitamins :)

Food fest 2: Spicy Green Avocado Salad! Created with avocado, lettuce, kale, baby spinach, garlic, ginger, spring onion, green chilli, dates, coriander (cilantro), coriander seeds, cucumber, lime, olive oil!

Food fest 3: Macadamia nuts. mmm my creamy friends.

Food fest 4: Green Thai Curry. Created with fresh green chilis, lemongrass, coriander, shallot, garlic, galangal root (or ginger), coriander seeds, ground caraway seeds, peppercorns, himalayan salt, kaffir lime leaves, meat if your a meat eater, Green beans, Chopped broccoli, One coconut, Lime, Kaffir lime leaves, Agave syrup, Brown rice if you choose!



Food fest 5: Brazil Nut Truffle Balls! :)



Recipe: Recipes available on The Earth Diet website www.theearthdiet.org Juice recipes coming soon.

Exercise: 30 minutes training with Ashley :) And a bike ride, or two or three ;)

99 days to go!!!

Source: www.thegardendiet.com
Photo: www.health.com