Day 14: Be Kind To Your Mother

So now that (hopefully) many of you are feeling cleaner and clearer, what did you need to put in your bodies in order to make this change happen?

We are eating the foods that are bodies are created to digest - energy from Mother Earth.  Our body has a difficult time processing ingredients that it doesn't recognize - which are the same items that you can't pronounce (partially hydrogenated? malodextrin?).

I was talking to someone doing the cleanse, and she said, "I think my body isn't very hungry during this because it is finally getting all of the nutrients that it needs during the meals.  Before, I would eat foods that weren't nutritious, and my body was still hungry because it wasn't getting what it needed.  So then I would be craving something... but I didn't know what."

So how did we get so far away from understanding what we need to eat?  Well, our bodies haven't adapted much since caveman times when we would have a big meal, and afterwards maybe wouldn't eat for a few days.  When we taste salt, sugar or fats, our taste buds are programmed to eat as much of them as possible in order to survive, in preparation for going without food for many days.  However, we aren't starving anymore - quite the opposite.  So if our taste buds want sugar, salt and fat and we are surrounded by those things constantly, it can make a person pretty confused and crazy.

But figuring out what to eat is really quite simple: anything that came directly from the Earth.  However, like Dr. Junger said, the Earth is sick, and it is because of humans.  In order to raise pristine foods to consume, you need beautiful land, large farms, clean air and water and a balanced ecosystem.  All of us are in control of this because we create the pollution.  Example: if you were to keep your garbage at your house for six months, what would that look like?  When you throw your garbage away, it does not disappear.  It goes somewhere else on the Earth.  Being more mindful about solid waste, electrical waste, and water waste can make an enormous difference in our planet's health.  Yes, you are one person, but there are others making changes too, and that results in progress.

Some small things you can do around the house to minimize your ecological footprint:

- use cloth napkins at dinners instead of paper (and this is also much more dignified) Ha!
- only use paper towels as an exception - keep rags and old cloth napkins in the kitchen to wipe up spills and wipe of dirty hands
- don't buy plastic bags - instead use the ones from buying produce to wrap up items
- buy washable containers for your child's lunches

- minimize plastic in your house (cups, plates, tupperware) most of these are recyclable.  The jury is still out about how much of it leaches into our foods

- try to minimize excess water usage

- recycle plastic bags at the grocery store (they all have drop off bins)
- Use the free app irecycle to recyclable everything!  You type something in - it tells you where to recycle it locally.  Beyond the regular items like cardboard and glass - take old toys and clothes to Goodwill rather than throwing them away, recycle old electronics and construction materials too.

I figure since some of us have one more week left without cooking, we could use that extra time be kinder to our Mother.  Cheers!