This thanksgiving I am very thankful for my innate intelligence.
What in the world am I talking about? Well, If you watch animals in the wild foraging for food, (not so much our pets because they aren’t given the opportunity to seek their own food), they will sniff or sample different vegetation and either will continue to eat it or leave it alone and move on. Their “innate intelligence” is telling them whether it’s good or bad for them.
Each one of us was born with this sense of what we should and shouldn’t put in our bodies for optimal health; however, we rarely use it and most of us continually override it by eating processed foods that taste good but aren’t healthy. If you give a baby a chance as they start to eat food, he or she will go for the foods that are good for them, i.e. raw butter, eggs, avocados which are full of good fats which they need to build cells. If parents provide them with the healthy foods their bodies are seeking, we can start to see healthier generations of babies and youngsters who don’t have asthma, allergies, ADHD, etc.
So, how do we regain the use of this very useful tool with which our creator endowed us? And why would we want to do this? Let’s answer the second question first – our bodies innately know what they need. Many of us are suffering the effects of eating a diet of processed, toxic foods and have some nagging, chronic issues that we’d like to fix – if we listen to our bodies and give them what they tell us they need, we can often heal ourselves. So now for the first question – how??
Here’s a few steps to try that don’t cost a penny:
Commit to eliminating sweet and processed foods from your diet – eat whole, nutritious foods which are properly prepared. That’s a big job and doesn’t happen overnight but you can start by not buying anything canned or packaged and just shop the perimeter of the grocery store.
Stop snacking unless its necessary for your blood sugar. If you keep cramming food into your body when you see something that looks tasty, it doesn’t have a chance to hone those skills you were born with to tell you what it needs.
Start listening to your body and try to figure out what it’s telling you. If you have a craving, stop and ask yourself if it’s something your body needs or do you just want it because it tastes good. Then act on it accordingly. Here’s a good example – many women who are in need of magnesium will crave chocolate before their monthly period. When this happens, you can just keep eating chocolate or try feeding it some magnesium to see if the cravings diminish. There are so many examples of this and you can find lots of information on the internet or from a holistic nutrition practitioner.
So, on this Thanksgiving Day, I hope you will join me in giving thanks for this wonderful tool and begin to use it to regain or optimize your health.
I wish you all a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.
p.s. The four lovelies in the pic are the newest babies I’m lucky enough to have in my life – two great- granddaughters, one great-niece and one great-nephew. The 96 year old arms holding the newest baby belong to my mom.