CHANGE BRINGS FORTH IMPROVEMENT

Every person is on a specific spiritual and physical situation at any time, and that situation usually is not static, either it improves or recedes. Most people want to be healthier both spiritually and physically, but the necessary changes to achieve this seem like a burden, or just not worth the effort. Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty of this all the time. I know I could make a few changes in my life and I would see the improvement, but maybe I wasn't ready for it yet.

Now, here is the secret. If you really desire the improvement, be willing to make the change. Things won't get better unless we make the sacrifice, unless we go forward and make the painful change.

If you want to be more alive, you need to eat foods that are alive. You can't be healthier by taking this and this other drug, and stay on your same diet plan, or no plan at all. Get rid of things that will make you toxic, and introduce things that are full of life, full of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, etc.

If you put toxins in your body, it doesn't matter if it is by way of eating toxins, or putting them in your skin, or breathing them, you will get sick. If you don't get the necessary nutrients in your body, in a way that your body can assimilate those nutrients, you will get sick, plus your body won't have the raw materials it needs to heal itself.

It's simple, make the change you need to make, and you'll see the improvement. Get away from the comfortable zone, get away from the mainstream way of thinking and acting, and you'll see the results. Awake to the awful situation in which you are at, and then you will be able to see why it is necessary to change. God bless!

TEMPTATIONS vs. PURE LIFE!

Temptations, temptations, temptations... Visiting Spain, my home country, has made me realize or remember how difficult it is to overcome temptations. Food culture in Spain is huge, and the 500 years old recipes that are still standing are hard to avoid. Perfectly baked breads, treats, and dishes make you salivate the moment you look at them or even just smell them. The question is, how can we overcome temptation?

The answer: commitment, and also, remember, remember, and remember. Remember why you eat what you eat, or why you should eat what you are not eating right now. We have to remember that health is the reason to eat, and health is the reason to avoid those temptations. This, although, is easy to remember when your belly is full, but when you let yourself fast for a few hours, those important reasons you had to avoid bad foods are not as important anymore. We have to commit! If you want to improve your health, your diet, and your life, there is no other way but to increase the amount of fruits you eat, and decrease any other thing. But we have to truly satisfy our bellies with fruit, it doesn't work if we eat a couple pieces at a time.

I usually recommend three full meals a day, and two snacks in between, all of them fruit, except the second snack (nuts or dried fruits), and dinner (salads and other raw greens).

For breakfast, eat in abundance! Abundance means for example, the juice of 15 oranges, or 8 apples, or 10 peaches, or a big bowl of strawberries and blueberries.

Then a snack, a carrot, or a couple pears or kiwis...

Then lunch, a watermelon, a couple cantaloupe melons, 10 bananas...

Then another snack, handful of almonds, or chestnuts, or hazelnuts, or dried figs, or dates...

Then dinner, a great big salad with all kind of greens, and tomatoes, chorella and/or spirulina tablets, peppers, cauliflower, etc.

Do this for a couple of weeks, and you won't need me to explain anything to you anymore, because you will experience health, life, and your body will be your witness of what health really means...

Increase juices and smoothies...

Be positive about life...

Help others in the process...

Experience, as they say in Costa Rica, PURE LIFE, PURA VIDA!!

THE PERFECT DIET

Many people ask me what the perfect diet is. I mean, really? Is there a "perfect" diet? First of all, you have to tell me what you want the diet to do to you, because, you see, many people come up to me just because they want to lose weight. There are many different amazingly effective diets out there to lose weight. However, are they healthy at all? Is your body in a better situation if you lost some weight, but you became really acidic, or I should say, in the process of preventing to get acidic, your body used resources that made you sick, and now you have to suffer from it? (aka, osteoporosis from a high processed protein diet)

So, after studying many, many different types of diet, I have to conclude, there are several approaches a person can take towards food, and be absolutely healthy and vibrant. It doesn't matter what you are eating right now, you can always improve! Diet is about improving your life, is about evolving and applying what you learn from food into your life. See, getting to know something and applying what you have learned are two different things. If you want to improve your health, just go ahead, learn something, and apply it into your life!

I direct people towards a better goal, towards a better diet than the one they have now. Sometimes I even make very little changes into people's diet and they tell me it is too hard. Health is about commitment. Health is about really wanting to sacrifice your immediate cravings for a better life. Health is about knowledge and wisdom.

Anyways, enough with the talk. The perfect diet? Well, I haven't figure it out yet, however, I can give you a few recommendations.

-My very first recommendation is Dr. Robert Cassar's way of eating/living. He is an outstanding, wise nutritionist (he is really a toxicologist, but knows more about nutrition than anybody I know of). His diet consists of a high intake of liquids that are full of nutrients, and about one meal per day, with a few snacks. This is his website, with superfoods that he sells, and videos that he shares:

EARTHSHIFT PRODUCTS

-My second is the 80/10/10 diet. This consists of high amounts of fruits, with some greens, nuts, and seeds. Low fat, low protein, high good quality carbohydrates. This diet is full of enzyme rich foods, gives you tons of energy, helps you lose a lot of weight, and keeps your immune system at its highest. I recommend reading the book on sale now:

THE 80/10/10 DIET

-To be continued...

2012 RESOLUTIONS

As we start 2012, I have come to the conclusion that I can do better. I know it's a cliche to try new resolutions for a new year, but I'm not doing this for anybody but myself.

I've realized I've learned many things during 2011, many of which are of vital importance in my life. Others might have not been vital, but still important. I've learned many spiritual things, I've learned about hair in your body, about bugs inside you, about even more benefits of being grounded (connected to the Earth), about being barefoot, about fruits, and many other things...

Therefore, this new year 2012, I'm going to try to do these things related to health:

-Transition to a fruitarian diet (with a few veggies, nuts, and other raw foods)
-Get grounded as often as possible, as well as barefoot
-See how much my hair can grow...I'll report about this in the future!
-Make my trainings more intense for the Pan-Ams and World Jiu Jitsu Championships
-Help even more people I have in 2011 (Remember, I do this for FREE)
-Finish at least two of my degrees

I think this will be good enough...
Love you all, truly, wake up, and stay aware!

EAT YOUR VEGGIES

Last post was about fruit. This one is about veggies. After fruit, veggies (especially raw), are the most important food we can eat. In order to eat them raw, I suggest three options:

1. Juice: When you juice fruits and veggies, you can concentrate a high amount of nutrients that will be digested quickly, and will help your body's reserves get charged! Juices of fruits and veggies are delicious, and you can juice enough to drink two or three times a day for two days (more than that, the juice looses too many nutrients and ferments).

2. Smoothies: This is the quickest form of delicious flavors with veggies incorporated. Mix some veggies with banana, orange juice, berries, ice, and ready!! This takes a little bit longer to digest, and you can't concentrate much nutrients since you are eating the fiber, but it will at the same time clean your colon, and your digestive tract.

3. Salads: This is the most conventional way of eating raw veggies. However, experiment with it! Get new veggies you've never tried before, combine flavors, make your own dressing. This will improve your motivation, and you will discover great salads that came out of your thinking box!

Just a little reminder: when drinking juice, your stomach should be totally empty (either first thing in the morning, or after about three hours of any meal). Then, after 45 minutes to 1 hour you can eat something else...

TIP OF THE DAY

Well, it's been a while since I haven't posted anything, so I decided today, that even if it's just a small post, that I would share something.

Nutrition is full of interesting principles that work together to give us health. These principles are mainly based on accommodating to the natural cycles of our body. When we interrupt one of these cycles, our bodies don't work properly, and they need to make an extra effort to solve problems. Therefore, the more we follow these principles, the better our health will be.

So here it is, one of these principles. It's about fruit. Fruit is the most important food we can eat. The principle is that we should at least eat fruit three times a day, but always on empty stomach. That would be first, when we wake up in the morning, second, about two or two and a half hours after breakfast, when we have digested the food, and third, about two and half to three hours after lunch, after we have digested the food. When eating fruit, wait at least 45 minutes before eating anything else.

There you go. If you apply this principle in your life, you will become a lot healthier. Don't forget to choose first your own yard organic fruits, then organic fruits from the farmers market, then organic fruits from the health food store, then regular fruits from the farmers market, and finally, if nothing else is available, regular fruits from the grocery store (however these last ones won't help you much).

THE GORILA DIET

Have you ever been asked, or wandered where vegans get their protein? Why don't we ask a gorila?

There is a protein myth going around that you need protein in order to build muscle and that best protein is animal protein. Nothing furthest from the truth!

First of all, animal protein, in most cases, has to be cooked. Scientifically, cooking destroys at least one half of the food's available protein. Not to mention the sicknesses going around on the commercial animal industry, where the poor animals are fed all kinds of crap, just to get sick, and transmit all diseases with anybody who eats their flesh. Second, you don't need protein to build muscle. Protein is the middle man. Your body takes protein, breaks it down into amino acids, and then builds muscle and other things with those amino acids. So why not get the amino acids directly? And where can I find amino acids? ENZYMES! Anything that has enzimes has amino acids, because enzymes are amino acids! Cut out the middle man! When studying food, laboratories cook the food, so it's hard for them to find the real nutrients in foods because they get destroyed. However, if you eat a mostly raw-vegan diet, you will get so many enzymes (amino acids) that your body will start building muscle and burning fat in no time, plus you will get all the nutrients from plants, minerals, vitamins, phytonutrients, etc.

It's a win-win deal, go vegan, go raw! Let's follow the gorila diet!! (minus the ants).

BAREFOOT LIVING

Having a barefoot lifestyle might be complicated. However, and sadly, the complications don't come from the ground, they come from the people. Some people don't understand this concept of barefoot living, and we as humans tend to criticize what we don't understand. I used to be a big time criticizer of people being barefoot in public places other than the pool and the beach. I'm guilty of it, and that's why I wanted to put together this post about it, so that maybe, if people understand why, they will respect and even maybe embrace this concept.

There are basically two reasons why being barefoot is better than wearing shoes:

1.- The way we plant our feet: When we walk and specially when we run, the way we step down, the way we plant our feet in the ground varies depending on if we are barefoot or if we wear shoes. The way we step down  when barefoot is the best, healthiest way to do it, and research has proven this in many occasions. When barefoot, because of the feeling we receive through bearskin, we tend to plant the toes first and release the pressure slowly as we plant the rest of the foot. When wearing shoes, we don't have that connection with our brains, and we step with our heels first, provoking great pressure on the joints of our knees and ankles. This produces long term damage to both our tendons and joints. And this is the first reason why being barefoot is healthier.

THE HEALTH OF YOUR CELLS

We have over 200 different types of cells in our bodies (nerve cells, blood cells, bone cells, muscle cells, tissue cells, etc.) for a total of 75 to 100 trillion cells. That's 100 million million cells that need to live, do their duties, and then die.

Why do cells do stuff?
Well, if cells didn't do what they were meant to do, we would die, and actually that is what is happening today, at alarming rates. What things do cells do that keep us alive and healthy? Well, they do everything, from regenerating tissues, to transporting nutrients, along with detoxifying our bodies, giving, storing and utilizing energy, killing bad microbes, viruses, and bacteria, and many, many other things. What do cells need to fill their duties? Certainly, they don't need man created chemicals, preservatives, colorings, artificial sweeteners, drugs, antibiotics, and many other harmful things. What they need is vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytonutrients, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, water, oxygen, and a few other things...

GOVERNMENTS HELPING TO GROW FOOD GARDENS FOR PUBLIC USE ON PUBLIC LAND

This is one of the greatest ideas I've heard in the last years:

There are a few local governments across the US who thought of giving public land a better use. Check it out HERE. They thought, if we own some public land, why don't we give it a public benefit use? Why don't we create public gardens maintained by volunteers in which we can grow fruits and vegetables and let anybody partake of those foods? Homeless people can come anytime and get a fresh, healthy piece of fruit or vegetable while looking for a job, instead of having to ask for money to eat all day long. Working people can take a break from their jobs and just enjoy some fresh air while eating a just about picked apple, instead of the unhealthy and heavily processed fast food meal most Americans choose for those breaks...

I see a country changing with initiatives like this one. I see a healthier country, a more productive country. I see people spending money on important things instead of degrading ones. I see a government that cares about people instead of monetary interest, and serves people and not corporations. I see communities getting closer to each other, growing together.

GROWING YOUR OWN GARDEN AND STORING FOOD

There is something I didn't include on my WORD OF WISDOM post, and it is about growing your own garden and storing food. This is part of the Word of Wisdom as well, as been counseled by the prophets, but now it is under danger of being banned by the government. I want to start with a quote from President Spencer W. Kimball:

"The Lord has urged that his people save for the rainy days, prepare for the difficult times, and put away for emergencies, a year’s supply or more of bare necessities so that when comes the flood, the earthquake, the famine, the hurricane, the storms of life, our families can be sustained through the dark days. We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard. Even those residing in apartments or condominiums can generally grow a little food inpots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods. Make your garden as neat and attractive as well as productive. If there are children in your home, involve them in the process with assigned responsibilities.

CAFE JANAE

Thank you all for visiting my blog, and specially for making my post about the WORD OF WISDOM so popular, it's truly a pleasure for me to be able to spread the word about this amazingly Godly law.

Well, today I want to talk about the importance of learning how to use wholesome, raw, and nutritious ingredients to make amazingly tasty meals. A great source of inspiration is Janae A. Devika, a raw food and whole food chef in the Utah area and owner of CAFE JANAE. She is so concerned about health in our society that she offers these free introductory classes on how to prepare great, tasty, meals and desserts made with only raw and full of life ingredients like different kinds of nuts, raw honey, fruits, etc. Go to her website and sign up for updates on those classes and many other things she offers.

THE FORGOTTEN WORD OF WISDOM

"A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels" Proverbs 1:5 and also: "...seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith" D&C 88:118

So in order to follow this counsel, I've been thinking for a while now, that I wanted to share my personal thoughts on the word of wisdom with all my friends that believe in it, that believe it was God given. I repeat, they are my personal views from all I have been able to study! So let's move on...

"The Word of Wisdom", for those of you that have never heard of it, was a revelation given by God to the LDS prophet Joseph Smith, the person known to have been the instrument in the hands of the Lord to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this latter dispensation, or in other words, in recent times, after it was lost. This revelation was given on February 27, 1833 in Kirtland, Ohio, and I'm going to share a few parts from it (for the complete revelation go HERE).

CACAO

Cacao, cocoa, or raw chocolate, is the second SUPERFOOD in the list. What? Chocolate is healthy? Really? Yes, and no. Cacao is healthy in its raw form, and I will list all the properties it has in just a minute, but the commercial chocolate we can buy at the normal grocery store is not healthy, in fact is very unhealthy, for many reasons.

First of all, commercial chocolate is just a reflection of chocolate, since most of those products at the store only have a very low percentage of cacao on them...so the higher the percentage, the less unhealthy the product is. Second, the way they prepare commercial chocolate kills the majority of the properties of cacao. They follow a roasted, boiled, heated, process that eliminates almost all the good properties of cacao. Third, all those products, come with their share of unhealthy additives, preservatives, and empty calorie ingredients, such as high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, and many other "bad stuff". So if you ever had any hopes that I was gonna tell you that your usual chocolate candy bar you have everytime you visit your favorite insurance agent (inside joke), or everytime you wait for your car to get washed, or anytime you open your pantry and think nobody is watching...then you're gonna have to wake up from your dreams, cause they are NOT healthy!

THINK ABOUT IT!

Today, my beautiful wife Janeen and our daughter Annabelle, left me alone for their monthly girl Munoa lunch, and I decided I should go to the movies, since it's an almost impossible task having Annabelle with us.

However, after the movie, I took my electric VECTRIX scooter to pay a visit to the antique stores in downtown Provo to browse for a new book shelve for my disorganized office full of books. On my way there, I thought I had to find a place to have lunch, since Janeen was already enjoying her own one. I decided to look for a healthy place to stop by and grab something, but I wanted to find a new place, since we always visit the same 3 of 4 restaurants that are relatively healthy in the Provo/Orem area. So there I was, enjoying my scooter drive on a beautiful sunny fall day, trying to find a place to nutritiously feed myself. Now, I come from a scientific background, and I'm used to pretty difficult problem solving, but I gotta tell you, finding a healthy restaurant nowadays is an impossible task! I kept on looking and looking, but all I saw was the same kinds of chain restaurants, with a slightly different name tag, but with the same menu.

GOJI BERRIES

Well, a few of you have begged me not to take so much time in between posts, and I'm trying to leave my writing laziness behind and move my butt in order to enlighten you with the most precious knowledge there is about food.

We are talking about Goji Berries today, which makes number one SUPERFOOD in many health nut books. These are consider fruit, and there is an estimated eighty-five species of them or more just in North and Central America. They were supposed to be brought by people who migrated from Asia, but you never know. These berries, because of the strength and nutrients they possess, they easily adapt to different kinds of environments, desserts, tropical, and freezing winters areas. It has been grown by Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan people for an estimated five thousand years.

SUPERFOODS

There are different kinds of foods:

1. BAD FOODS: These are the foods that not only they don't help you get nourished but actually corrupt your body with poisons, toxins, excitotoxins, empty calories, and substances that interrupt the normal functioning of your digestive and physiological system, cell metabolism and wellbeing. They shouldn't even be considered foods and they should be vanished from the market. Unfortunately, they have control over the food industry and are present in people's everyday's lives, and hence the reason for all important autoimmune diseases that affect us nowadays (Cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, etc.). These foods can be found at pretty much any chain restaurant (with a few exceptions), some other restaurants that are not part of a chain, all processed foods we find at the supermarket, especially those that include high fructose corn syrup, refined sugars and flours, other products that have been sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and other products to increase production and durability in an unnatural way, and of course all GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms), like many of the corn and soy products that are not organic.

OBESITY

35% of Americans are obese, and 65% are overweight. These astounding statistics are terrifying since obesity should be a rare thing; and actually, up until about 100 years ago, it was. So what has changed in the last century that has made us be so unhealthy, with autoimmune disease percentages increasing every year, cardiovascular disorders killing millions of people, and all kinds of symptoms attacking the population as if it was the normal thing to have headaches, sinus infections, allergies, insomnia, etc.?

People have to start wondering what has changed in the las decades that has provoked such a horrible state of health, especially in this nation. Really, what do you think? I wanna know your opinion! If you are still wondering, I'm going to suggest a couple of things or more:

FASTING

Fasting is the oldest remedy to cure yourself from diseases, and even better, to prevent yourself from getting sick.
Our bodies retain a fair amount of toxins since we are born, and because we eat all the time, and do other things our bodies need to work on, it cannot focus solely in the process of eliminating those toxins. We can detoxify our bodies through our diet, but even that is not as effective as fasting.
Water fasting, is the process in which a person eats nothing accompanied by drinking a good amount of water throughout the day, at least half your size in ounces, as I mentioned in my last post: "WATER".
For people not used to fasting, I recommend starting to fast twice a month for 24 hours. Then you can start fasting once a week from 24 to 36 hours, and when your body gets used to it, and has cleansed part of your toxins, you can continue fasting once a week and then every two or three months do a 3 to 4 days fasting.
The preparation and closing of the fasting is as important as the fasting itself, because if you don't prepare your body with good foods before starting the fast it won't be as effective, and if you don't break your fast with the right foods your body can get loaded of new toxins and big discomfort can take place instead of peace, relaxation, and the feeling of being clean.

WATER

Water is the essential constituent of life, and the primary stuff we are made of. We need water! But how much? The minimum amount we should be drinking a day would be half our weight in ounces, in other words, if I weight 200lbs, then I should be drinking 100 ounces of water a day as the minimum amount.
Without enough water our body reaches a state of dehydration in which one or more physiological functions are sacrificed, therefore we feel fatigue, discomfort, and eventually we become "sick".
Signs of dehydration are not so obvious if we are not used to drink a lot of water. Whenever our mouths are dry is already too late and we are in a more advanced state of dehydration.