Health and healing are the natural outcome and an essential function of all living organisms; the manifestations of a ceaseless biological process that is as constant as the earth turning on its axis. The body is a masterpiece of wisdom and order. It is constantly using energy (whole plant food) to maintain order, stability, and renewal of all cells and systems to resist the relentless conditions of wear, tare, and entropy that eventually lead to overwhelming damage and death. 

Yet all living things require a constellation of biological and environmental factors for health and survival, including healthy food, fresh air, fresh water, activity, restorative sleep , and emotional balance. To the extent that these requirements are appropriated and maintained, health and ease will follow like water flows downhill. However, when the needs of life are neglected and compromised by poor choices, energy is dissipated, toxic conditions accrue, the body is threatened, and a lack of ease, “dis-ease,” ensues. 

Never underestimate the widespread impact of your  personal choices and lifestyle factors. You are free to choose your way of life but you are not free to choose the consequences. Extensive research clearly shows that the most devastating chronic diseases, demanding the most health care dollars, and accounting for more than 70% of all deaths, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and obesity can be effectively prevented and even reversed by what you choose to do on a daily basis. 

All too often genetics is used to explain, and even justify, dysfunction and disease. So many people buy into the concept that since their parents were overweight or had high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease, they will have no choice but to develop and express these same problems. This could not be further from the truth. Health problems, and genes that may be associated with them, can be remarkably affected by a plethora of lifestyle choices outside your genetic environment that are referred to as epigenetic factors. These factors result in chemical tags and modifications that alter the structure of your DNA/genes to affect gene availability and expression. If you have a family history of high blood pressure, there may be an underlying genetic environment that makes it easier for you to develop this problem. However, even with a genetic predisposition, you still have to create and maintain the poor nutrition, inactivity, and stress choices that promote any genetic tendency to express itself. 

It is true that some health issues may be unavoidable like Type 1 diabetics born with the inability to produce insulin. However, the majority of genetically affected health conditions are associated with  tendencies and predispositions that an be minimized or eliminated by adopting routine healthy lifestyle choices grounded in whole-plant-exclusive nutrition. 

Very often, the genetic argument is used to shirk responsibility for the poor lifestyle choices that are truly causing disability and disease. Consistent with the epigenetic argument, there is extensive evidence from diverse populations and cultures across the globe that clearly shows that when people eat similar poor diets, become less active, and maintain relentless stress in their lives, they develop the same chronic conditions of obesity, premature aging, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, regardless of their genetic differences. 

Never forget that you are so much more than the words, labels, and dysfunctions that have been used to describe you. No matter what your appearance or physical condition is, you are a masterpiece of creation and evolution, full of mystery and wonder that defies  any attempts to portray you with the shortcomings of words and definitions. You are not heart disease, or cancer or any other label used to fit you into a limited diagnostic box for treatment and intervention. You are the epitome of love, compassion, and empathy in connection with all that is. 

We all spend so much time and energy in love a airs with people outside of ourselves— girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, and children. Yet everything we know about love actually springs from what is going on inside each of us at the deepest cellular level. If you damage any part of the body or even lose an organ, everything that is left behind attempts to compensate for that damage and loss. Nurturing, love, integration, and connection are biological and cellular imperatives. Yet in the face of this loving organismic directive, it’s amazing to me how, when we go off track—however we interpret that—we are so willing to become our own whipping post, beat ourselves up, and then go to hell in a hand-basket, making choices that only continue to foster breakdown, damage, and disease. We do this to ourselves even though we would never do that to someone we loved. 

Over the years, I have counseled numerous people who have diseases that can take many years to develop, but by making positive lifestyle choices over the course of weeks, months, or a year or two, they experience significant recovery. It is as if mercy and forgiveness are built into the genetic machinery of the body, an inborn program of compassionate recovery intimately woven and expressed in the magnificent healing power of the body. So, when you find yourself going off track, instead of beating yourself up, ask yourself the question, “What can I do to help?” just like you would for anyone you truly cared about and loved. 

Ask yourself what you can do to get back on track; forgive and love yourself. True forgiveness will dissolve your greatest burdens, including guilt, shame, and trauma, and open up a world of your greatest possibility, compassion, love, and success. Your personal choices replete with forgiveness and self-love are your greatest sources of strength that facilitate peace of mind and the ability to promote the habits essential for health and recovery

We have all been conditioned to look at choices from a very limited perspective that is often shaped by the misleading agendas of economic, political and religious agendas of our culture. A mentality of sin and religious retribution can skew the process and benefits of healthy choice and change, diverting your attention from the true task at hand. As a result, you become more preoccupied by, or even lost in, whether a choice is good or bad rather than considering its impact on the bigger picture of your life and the true consequences of health. 

What’s more important is what it means to you. The search for meaning in all life pressures and situations provides a bigger context to the stress, pain, and uncertainty of life and supports freedom and well- being. Every choice you make has a consequence. It is futile to get lost in the last choice you made because there is always another one immediately lurking around the corner. It is critical to take advantage of the unique opportunity always available to you and use the consequences of your actions to transform your future choices into health and weight-loss success. 

Socrates was absolutely correct when he said a life that is not examined is not worth living. That may sound harsh, but it addresses an incredibly important point. Any time you so choose, you have the remarkable ability to examine your life, to consciously and mindfully evaluate the consequences of your actions, and to decide whether your choices are consistent with the goals you have established for yourself. This moves your choices from the simplistic discussion of good, bad, or evil into a larger consideration of where your choices are on the path of your own evolution, growth, and change. 

In your quiet introspective moments, make a list of your health goals. What are you trying to achieve. if you decide that  you want to be healthier, more fit, have less body fat and weight, lower your blood pressure, improve blood sugar etc. , and your choices are not congruent with these outcomes, then you need  to take a closer look at your life and actions and make the appropriate adjustments. Only you can make the decisions to fully participate in responsible actions that delineate and shape the positive, successful outcomes and consequences of your own life. 

Every choice you make then affords you a unique opportunity to develop a deep-rooted consciousness of health grounded in self-care and self- love. As Rumi, the famous Sufi poet, wrote: “When you truly become a lover, duties become inspirations.” With all due respect to Rumi, I have modified this in the following way: “When you truly love your-self,  your brothers and sisters of all species and the planet itself, the duties of responsible action become inspirations.” 

As you truly embrace your evolution towards goals of health and weight loss, you will learn to love yourself enough to naturally gravitate toward and implement the choices that are in your best interest. You will continue to recognize that these healthy choices are your greatest power and clearly associated with your greatest vitality, function, and performance. And, as a result, you will implement them with less pressure and drudgery, ensuring that they become a consistent part of your life and a fundamental source of inspiration. This fosters not only a healthy life, but an inspired life—and that is your legacy. It is your requisite natural inclination born of a deep connection to the rhythms and cycles of the natural world around and within you. It is the direct extension of body wisdom and the creative value of conscious life. 

But it is not common. The pressures and pursuits of our mindless, frantic culture continue to disturb and distort our connection to what is natural and beneficial. I urge you—I implore you—to listen to the deep, primal, proactive beat of your personal drummer pounding a divine cadence for an inspired dance on a road less traveled. Only you can utilize your personal dynamic dance of action, reaction, evaluation, and transformation to foster physical, emotional, and spiritual balance to promote optimal health and  quality of life.