Every Meal is an Opportunity to Heal

You can make your acupuncture visits go further by making small but effective changes to your diet and lifestyle!  Let us know how we can help you at 602-955-5444, www.attainharmony.com

1. Make small changes you can sustain. You may not be able to stick to a strict eating plan, but for example, you can cut out the soda you have every day.  And while you may be too busy to get to the gym, you can take the stairs to your office.  Small changes add up over time.
2. Get moving. Exercise is an important component of overall health.  Exercise is  also an important stress buster. .
3. Eat foods that are locally grown and in season. First of all, they taste better than something that has been on a truck for the past week.  Second, in order to consume foods when they are most nutritious, they should be eaten during the season in which they are grown.  For example, during the spring, your diet should be full of rich green shoots and baby lettuce.  In contrast, during late summer and early fall, you should be eating the yellow and orange veggies like carrots, squash, sweet potatoes and corn.  This way, the foods are way better for you.
4. Eat mostly vegetables and fruits.  Vegetables and fruits along with whole grains, small portions of protein and then small amounts of everything else is the ideal diet.
5. There are not really bad foods unless you eat them all the time.  We tend to label foods as either good for you or bad for you and sometimes cut out entire food groups that we perceive as unhealthy.  However, we need fat in our diet, we need carbohydrates and we need protein.  So, while donuts are not that good for you, in reality, if you really love them, eat one once in a while.
6. Exception to the above.  Grease laden fast foods.  I guess if you adore McDonalds, one a month is not the end of the world, but if you never go there again, you will be healthier for it.
7. Eat breakfast. Plan your breakfast.  Many people cut out breakfast to lose weight or because they are in a hurry.  In reality, cutting out dinner would be much more productive.  Rather than cutting out any meal, plan for breakfast and you will eliminate morning hunger pangs, sugar cravings and low blood sugar.
8. Eat foods that have not been processed to death.  If you look at the label on the package, and it lists more than 5 ingredients, put it back on the shelf.  If you do not recognize the ingredients or if they sound like chemistry class, put the food back and look for alternatives.  A good example is peanut butter, the only ingredients should be peanuts and perhaps salt.  It is amazing what some companies will add to this simple product.
9. Pack your lunch. If you buy your lunch each day, you are eating one meal out of three in which you have no control over the ingredients, caloric content, preparation, portion size or freshness.  Wow.
10. Try something new. Check our some new recipes, try a food you have never eaten, rethink your menus and try a new grocery store or farmer’s market.  It will bring you new motivation to eat more healthfully.
11. There is no magic bullet or miracle food. There are lots of good, healthy foods, but there is no one single food that you can eat every day that will peel off the lbs, give you boundless energy, immortality, and keep you disease free.  For those things (except immortality), you need an assortment of foods, with their variety of nutrients.
12. Eat as many differently colored foods as possible each day.  This is especially true for darkly colored foods.  The colors in natural foods represent their inherent nutrients.  Think red peppers, tomatoes, cherries, grapes, blueberries, dark leafy greens, yellow squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, black beans, sea vegetables, eggplant, white mushrooms, turnips and brown rice.  You can not go wrong with any of these.