1. Avoid all GMOs
Genetically Modified foods have been modified to resist insects, fungus’s and mold. They have insecticides, fungicides and herbicides built right into them. If they kill the outside bugs, including beloved bees, which we need to pollinate our crops, they also kill the good bugs in our guts.
Why would you want to eat insecticides or herbicides? Avoid them at all costs. Studies are just starting to come in with horrifying results. Buy Organic whenever possible.
2. Cook your own real food
You can control what you put into your body by cooking your own food. Food should not only be delicious, but it should also feed your body all of the micro-nutrients that it needs.
Avoid processed foods, or anything on a label that you can’t pronounce. Avoid fast food, most of the ingredients are chemicals. There is little or no nutrient value to chemicals. They do harm to the body. Stay away!
3. If it is on the “Dirty Dozen” list, absolutely buy organic
These foods have dozens of toxins on them. You can’t wash them off. Avoid them. If the item is on the Clean 15, not to worry, buy conventional. Buy organic whenever possible. Thank you EWG for all of the research.
4. Detox off the sugar
This is a biggy, and will cause a bit of a withdrawl. But the good news is it only takes 2-4 weeks. Sugar lights up the same part of the brain as cocaine. It’s an addiction. Since it has no food value, your body can’t tell when you have eaten it. You are still hungry and you want more. It is destroying your body. Get off all of the fructose, cane sugar, corn syrup, agave, in your diet.
That includes the “fake sugars” too. (The blue, pink or yellow packets) They are chemicals doing harm to your body. Replace them with Stevia, small amounts of raw honey, maple syrup, and coconut sugar. Still gives you a sugar high, but also gives your body some needed nutrients.
5. Eat the rainbow
Each color of a veggie contains important nutrients(1) for life. Buy local if possible. The faster from the farm to the table, the more nutrients in the food to fuel your body.
6. Drink lots of water, with a little lemon juice in it
The rule is 1/2 your body weight in ounces. At least drink 60-70 ounces a day to hydrate your body. The lemon is to make it alkaline in your body. Avoid water sold in plastic bottles, filter your drinking water with a filter under your sink to take out pollutants. Carry it with you in stainless steel water bottles.
7. Read all labels
If you can’t pronounce it, or don’t know what it is, don’t buy it, don’t eat it.
8. Avoid Gluten
whether you are sensitive to it or not. It causes leaky gut; it causes inflammation; it has few nutrients; it slows absorption of the nutrients you eat; it makes you fat; it makes some people very sick.
9. If you do eat meat
make it clean meat: Pastured, 100% grass fed, no antibiotics or hormones. If Vegan or vegetarian, avoid veggie junk food; make sure to include plant based protein. Soy must be organic. Eat pastured eggs.
10. Never use conventional salt
Use sea salt, Celtic salt, Kosher salt, Himalayan salt. They provide well needed minerals.
11. Cook with organic
Garlic, onion, seasonings and fresh herbs as much as possible.
12. Stop using toxic tools in your kitchen
No cooking on coated cookware(except enamel), No using cheap black spatulas or spoons, eliminate plastic wraps and aluminum foil. Cook on enamel or stainless steel, use stainless steel metal utensils or silicone, use parchment paper, preferably unbleached. I use clay pans in the oven.
13. Store food in glass containers
To avoid toxins trickling into your food. I use silicone lids.
14. Stay active.
Move, you don’t need to run a marathon, but walk or move 30 minutes every day.
15. Spend at least 30 minutes outside
Enjoying nature several times a week. Grounding has become an important concept for health. Get your hands in the dirt. Grow herbs and flowers in your yard or in pots. Walk in your neighborhood and appreciate all the beauty around you outside. Get some natural sunlight whenever possible.
16. Get at least 7 hours of continuous sleep
There is a new study out from a team at Stanford that 7 hours is imperative to health. That last hour is when your brain sweeps the plaque out that causes dementia(2).
17. Stress Control.
Stress is the cause of so many problems with your health. Look up and do the Dr. Andrew Weil 4-7-8 breathing exercise 3 rounds, 2 times a day. You can find him doing it on a video. It will reset your parasympathetic nervous system and reduce your stress.
18. Control your ANTs (Anxious Negative Thoughts)
Replace them with thoughts of gratitude. Nourish your inner champion to drown out your inner critic.
19. Work to make all of your relationships healthy and supportive
Toxic relationships negatively impact your health.
20. Practice self-care
Listen to music, take a Epsom salt bath with argan oil, read a book. Play with your pets or your children. Laugh often. Seek and enjoy JOY.
21. Build community
It’s critical to your health. Work to ensure you are surrounded by healthy relationships. #1 way to stay healthy is to have a vibrant community. Toxic relationships create stress which significantly impair your health..
“No one said it would be easy, but they did say it would be worth it.” Cheryl Meyer is the author of “It Feels Good to Feel Good, learn to eliminate toxins, reverse inflammation and feel great again”, available on Amazon.
About the Author:
Cheryl Meyer, MD
Cheryl wrote the manual she wishes she’d had when she got sick. In her award winning book It Feels Good to Feel Good: Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reverse Inflammation and Feel Great Again, Meyer explains how she discovered she was suffering from inflammation and autoimmune disease, how she actively searched out, purged, and replaced toxins in her life, how she found the right doctor (a Functional MD), and how she finally returned to wellness and a life without pain.
