Diet

Diet is a crucial step in self-care. If you are investigating ways to feel better, it needs to be one of your first steps. If you suffer from a chronic illness, working with diet is a foundation of your efforts.

Environmental stressors make constant demands on us. The strength used to respond to these stresses comes from our nutrition.  If nutritional resources are not adequate, we draw on our constitutional resources.  This constitutional vitality is limited, and should be husbanded if we wish to grow older gracefully.

So, you must support your vitality every day to get better. Every day you eat and you breathe. Start with these in your quest to get better.  Be clear that every step you take is valuable. Your sincere effort is the first reward.

The effects are subtle at first. Your efforts are always for the good and the more you do the more noticeable the benefits are. Look for changes in sleep patterns, your state of mind, digestion and elimination. Persistence makes a difference.

A good place to start is rice soup – in Chinese: congee, or xi fan, or jook. Recipe: one part rice, 5 parts water, cook long and slow with food-grade herbs and/or vegetables, especially root vegetables. It  is easy nourishment, a comfort.

Another good starting approach is to avoid white foods other than vegetables. White sugar, white flour, dairy.