FILL YOUR PLATE WITH WHOLESOME FOODS

This series of blogs will be about the Primal Health principles that are working for me. This is principle number one. 

Primal Lifestyle Choice Number One for me is to eat plants and animals without pesticides or chemicals.

As with any information you receive from anyone, it is only information. Use your intuition and discernment as to if it works for you. It may not. We are all an experiment of one since we feed ourselves uniquely - the food we eat, the thoughts we think, the lifestyle habits we have, the stress that presents itself - all these thinks influence how we feel. Each of us individually can determine our road to best health.

Most importantly, I have made a commitment to support myself and to eat plants and animals without pesticides or chemicals. This has been no easy choice. Yet, as a Highly Sensitive person, food affects me more deeply, just like other energy can. To take care of myself, I have made big adjustments to my lifestyle and I am living a lifestyle that seems odd to the typical American.

Here are some of the things I do to accomplish this:

1. I shop at our local farmer's market all year long, rain or shine. I have gotten to know the farmers - from the meat vendors, speciality products, to the vegetable and fruit vendors.  Here's what I do:
   1. I buy grass-fed, purely processed meat from farms that I know love and care for their animals through their lives. This includes longhorn beef (low in saturated fat), chicken, lamb, turkey, and pork. 
   2. I know what's been done to the fruits and vegetables I buy. They aren't grown in chemical fertilizers, sprayed with pesticides, or coated in wax. I chose organically certified produce 99% of the time. If I can't find it, I will ask the other non-organic vendors about how they care for their fruits and vegetables. Most often they have not paid the fee to be certified organic so they can't say they are, but they are. Or they are transitioning to organic, which is a 3 year process in California.
   3. Not only have I gotten the freshest local food possible (outside of our struggling garden!), I have made good friends (which is also part of my Primal plan.)
   4. I have learned about what an organic, free-range farmer deals with to provide us with this premium food. They are, in general, hard workers on a mission to bring good food to others. I admire their tenacity and stamina.
2. If I shop at a grocery store, it's Whole Foods. They are the best natural grocer I have found.
   1. They have a welfare rating system for their meat so I have an idea of the lifestyle of the animals.
   2. They list how local the products are.
   3. They work with local farmers and producers to bring products to the store.
   4. They have "farmed" salmon, which actually live inside netting on the edge of the ocean in a small population (compared to conventional farms.) They are with other species of fish and ocean life throughout their lives. 
   5. They do their best to make sure the food they sell is cared for and provided without harmful toxins, pesticides, and chemicals. 
3. I rarely eat grains; I get my carbs from fruits and vegetables.
   1. Grains - such as bread, pasta, oatmeal, rice, etc. - aren't an essential ingredient for our diets, and they contribute to weight gain.
   2. The standard US diet recommends 250 grams of carbs a day. This amount puts weight on people.
   3. To lose weight, stay between 50 -100 grams of carbs from our fruits and vegetables. To maintain weight - 100 - 150 grams. To put on weight, do 150 grams and above.

Next week look for Primal Lifestyle Choice Number Two - Take a Positive Approach.

---