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What scares you the most? The idea of Fasting or of a Hurricane?
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Did you know that you can use fasting during an event such as the hurricane not only to save you from “falling off the wagon” (which always happens btw,), but to speed up your healing?
If you live in Florida (like I do) you’ve been through one. It’s devastating, yet you can look at it as nature’s way of cleaning/detoxing. I know that’s a stretch of imagination…
I personally think hurricanes are a great time for fasting. If you’re afraid of fasting you can use an event such as a hurricane as an opportunity to jump into it.
Why?
- Because it’s hard to eat healthy, during a hurricane.
- Because you end up eating can food, lots of “box” processed food, etc.
- Because the availability of whole foods is limited, you can use that as the perfect excuse to water FAST
- It’s easy to get plenty of water and say “hey this is my chance to water fast. The universe is sending me a message. Nature is cleaning, so perhaps I should clean too”.
I know it’s easier said than done, but it’s a very feasible option.
So next time you are preparing for a hurricane, perhaps you can prepare for a water fast:) Of course you shouldn’t wait for a hurricane to try fasting as a way to heal. You can do it any time.
I’ll come back and talk about fasting what is and how it can help with your health and well-being goals, on future blog post.
Today, my intention is to talk about…
How stressful events can affect our well-being.
I know not every body goes through hurricanes, but it’s not only hurricanes that will throw you “off the wagon”. It’s any stressful event and sometimes even fun events, such as vacation, travel, holidays, etc. that will throw you off.
My personal and clinical observation is that during events such as hurricanes most people go off their baseline diet and lifestyle. No question about it. Sleep gets affected, food intake gets affected, exercise suffers, stress levels go sky-high and much more.
Just about every one of my clients was affected by the last hurricane.
They fell “off the wagon”. I fell “off the wagon”.
When you are under stressful events you are going to “go off” your typical lifestyle. Depending on where you are on your healing journey, your “going off” could be going back to eating fast food and drinking soda, or it could be eating too many nuts and drinking too much coffee (that’s me, btw).
The key points here are to:
- recognize that you are off,
- get up and go back onto that road of health and healing.
The more you are aware of falling off track and the faster you take action to get back on it, the better the outcomes.
Get Up and Go Back NOW!
The food choices you make, the quality and amount of sleep you get and the physical activity you perform, will dictate how you feel, think, and perform. Because you know this to be true you don’t want to get comfortable being “off the wagon”.
Don’t embrace the dieter’s mentality, “I’ll do it tomorrow”, or “I’ll start on Monday”.
NO DO IT NOW! What you do now writes the past and creates the future.
Everything is NOW.
The more you Live On Purpose, the less you will stray from your health path and the less “damaging” the “off the path” experience is.
The secret to life and health transformation is not beating yourself up, but getting up and going back on your healing journey. Living Life On Purpose and Getting Healthy On Purpose, every day, even after a stressful event such as the hurricane, becomes a priority.
That was my post hurricane life(style) reflection.
One final reminder: this applies to situations such as vacations and holidays. Heads up! The 2016 holiday season is about to start. Are you ready for it?
What can you do next?
If you find it difficult to get up and back on the healing path, ask for help. It’s always easier when you have support.
Join the FREE Video Series Your Health On Purpose for more insight into how to take full charge of “Your Health on Purpose”. Click the image below for more details and to join.
I know now that soda, boxed, and quick foods are detrimental to my health and even feel the negative effects after consuming them, but I still feel compelled to eat them in times of stress. I liken it to an addiction. Any ideas for when you get to feeling im craving junk food?
Hi Mickey, thank you for sharing and bring in up this issue. Indeed emotional eating and food addiction are as real as the sun is on the sky. It’s a complex and not easy to deal with situation. It requires a multi step approach. I’ll go over 4 of them. One is to stop purchasing the “addictive” foods, only because it’s easier if they are out of site. Second, the longer you are “clean”, the longer you stay away from sugar, and other foods that are highly processed and have the “deadly” combination of “sugar-fat-salt” the lesser the cravings for those foods. The third step is to work on the emotional “fix”. You want to find ways to deal with stress, anxiety, happiness, sadness, in a healthy way that doesn’t involve food, alcohol, smocking, etc. Another one it is to redefine food. Start seeing food as whole foods, healing foods, nourishing foods. I hope this helps.