Ask Your Body
The amount of information and misinformation in the food industry today is mind-boggling. People who are guilty of the ‘crime’ of carrying excess weight are also expected to carry the excess guilt of a fat-obsessed society.
Obesity and diabetes rates are skyrocketing, heart disease is on the rise and on the back of these dilemmas we are constantly bombarded with quick fix pills, shakes and diets that are the most popular in the media at any given moment. Currently the most potent craze is from the health food industry in the form of superfoods.
Most naturally derived, non-GMO, organically grown food could be considered a superfood. But marketing gurus would have you believe that the latest discovery in the food world is designed to deliver astronomical benefits in terms of achieving ideal weight, boosting energy, ‘killing’ fat and enhancing libido. And they sell these superfoods by the bucketload and at a premium.
And that is just the new wave of food marketing madness.
On the one hand we are told to cut down on fat, eat less sugar and exercise more. Some well-meaning ‘experts’ advise us that it’s a simple calculation of calories-in vs calories-out.
On the other hand we are told that fat is not the enemy, that good fats are essential for brain function and many other processes naturally handled by our bodies’ magnificent sympathetic and parasympathetic mechanisms, and that some fats actually help us lose weight.
No wonder we as a society are in a health crisis!
Most scientists, experts, nutritionists and government agencies, who all have their two cents worth of opinion to offer as irrefutable truths on the matter of healthy weight, have overlooked one thing. In the rush to find a ‘one-size-fits-all’ recommendation that treats every body on the planet as equal and that has resulted in the inane ‘food pyramid’, the fact is that every body is different. Each has different stressors, different preferences, different emotions, different ideas and beliefs, different access to nutritional resources and so on.
These ‘experts’ are forgetting the one source of absolute authority on any matter related to the individual, food-related or otherwise.
I am talking about your own body – yes, yours!
There are accurate methods to measure the responses of your own body to any substance, thought, emotion, or idea. To understand how this can be true, we must begin with the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is a powerful tool that is yours and yours alone and often overrides any conscious decision you make with your conscious mind, which is linked to your willpower.
What if there was a way to go to the source and ask it directly? Well there is – it’s called muscle testing. Muscle testing was developed by chiropractor George Goodheart in the ‘60’s and has gone on to be used by many practitioners to assist with diagnosis by asking the body what it needs and also for testing organ function. It works by testing a strong or weak response in the muscles to a certain stimulus. A strong or ‘Yes’ response indicates no resistance and a weak or ‘No’ response indicates resistance to the item being tested.
While it is a good idea to seek out a practitioner who is skilled in the art of muscle testing, it is also something that you can train yourself to do at home. One way to test your muscles is to use the ‘Sway Test’. Stand up with your ankles together and knees unlocked. Close your eyes and say “My name is _____________” (fill in the blank with your name). Notice the movement of your body, don’t control it and let it do what it wants to do. Now close your eyes and say “My name is _____________” (fill in the blank with something other than your name) Notice what movement your body makes.
This takes practice, especially if you are trying too hard or thinking too hard. Just relax and trust what comes up. What we are doing here is calibrating your body’s response to a Yes/No answer. You can then use this to test nutritional requirements of your body. For example, for me, a Yes response is my body swaying forward, while a No response is my body swaying back. I sometimes sway to the side, and this tells me why question is ambivalent and I should try to rephrase it so that a solid Yes or No is possible.
To use this with your nutrition choices, hold the item you want more information about in your hands while you perform the test and notice what happens. Also note that your bodies nutritional requirements can change from one day to another so always be ready to test and measure your own responses.
Try this yourself and don’t be too impatient with it. Some people will be able to do this more easily than others, but that is so with most things in life. Give yourself permission to try, have some fun with it, and above all, notice the results you get if you follow through. Always check in with yourself as to how you feel and you may have a method that allows you to throw away the diet books for good.
In other words, give your body some credit for knowing what it prefers.
About the author
Estelle is the Editor & Founder of Smart Healthy Women Mag. She is an expert Coach, Author and Speaker. She is passionate about providing her readers with successful strategies for realising a life of purpose, meaning and fulfilment using the best in change tools and believes that by reaching their potential, everyone can make the world a better place.
