Living the Simple Life

By Eve Prang Plews
License Nutrition Counselor
(Originally published in Sarasota's Natural Awakenings magazine November, 2010) 

            The foundational basics of what it takes to be healthy haven’t really changed despite the plethora of “facts” from science and observation.  We need the simple life.  We need quality sleep nightly.  The body really wants and needs 7-9 hours nightly to recharge body and brain.  We need more veggies then we are likely eating, both raw and cooked.  We need less meat, more beans.  Stop already with the sweetened beverages.  Water is one key to the simple in medicine.  Dehydration is the fountainhead for pain.  We gotta move and move in every direction and plane.  Walk, bike, yoga or rock out dancing, you gotta move to keep balance, stay strong and be limber enough to bend but not break.  And hardly last (but it ended up that way) there’s a must for something fun to do.  It’s whatever is your fun.  That’s the list, now how do we do it? Living the “Simple Life” may not be so simple.

          Quality sleep can be aided by taking 100mg of 5-HTP (5 hydroxy tryptophan) to support the production of the anti-depressive neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain.  This magical brain juice is the source of the hormone melatonin, the key to the gate of sleep.  We also need a little dab of Vitamin B-6 at the same time to convert 5-HTP to serotonin and then convert serotonin to melatonin.  Some people may need 200 or 300mg of 5-HTP to support sleep, but 100 mg helps nearly everyone who tries it.  Of course the caution is if you’re on anti-depressive meds, you tell your doctor.

    More veggies is the rule in every meal, even breakfast.  More veggies, less meat.  More veggies start at breakfast with easy additions of the millions of egg dishes possible from omelets to frittatas.  Yea, egg or scrambled tofu, which surprisingly looks and acts like eggs.  Get in at least 7 little powerhouses of good, egg protein and egg fat per week or an 8 oz package of firm or semi-firm tofu. Drop that nonsense myth about eggs being bad for cholesterol.  You need those great fats in the yolk for your brain and nerve sheaths.  Phosphatidyl choline may not be a part of your vocabulary – but it should be.  It’s the very groovy fat your nerves use for insulation and message transmission wires in the brain and everywhere else.           

            Less meat is just smart all the way around.  Better for the body, better for the planet, reduces greenhouse gas emission, and gives us a chance to learn a hundred bean recipes.  Yippee!  It’s an easy A+ …just eat less meat.

                                                        More beans – even at breakfast; the famous Mexican day-starter, “Huevos Rancheros”is a soft tortilla mounded with refried beans (I like the low fat, low sodium, refried, black beans personally). Top those nourishing legumes with the over easy egg or two, a bite of grated sharp, low fat cheese (sautéed onion if you’re in this household), and a dollop of salsa. YUM! As a breakfast variety, try a black bean cake with a great piece of whole grain toast.  Beans at breakfast taste quite good! Make a small pot of bean soup EVERY week. You’ll thank yourself that it is in the frig waiting for that night you need dinner in 15 minutes and have no oomph to make it. Pair a salad or sandwich, a great piece of cornbread or a scoop of rice under the soup, and you’ve got fast food of merit.

            Water is the key to life.  You’ll never know if your complaint is at least in part due to dehydration until you’re finally, fully hydrated.  Divide your body weight in half (like: 150 pounds/ 2 =75), express that number as ounces.  For a 150 pound person, a need of 75 ounces daily of water may seem like a stretch since that’s 2 quarts plus – but try it for a week and see how your body changes.

You’ll never know it till you do it!  Don’t count soda, soup, beer, wine, juice, tea, coffee or sports drinks. Just count water. Beautiful, healthy water.

            Movement is the pump for the Fountain of Youth.  Nothing reveals itself more clearly in slowing the aging process than exercise.  We are made to “move it or lose it.”  Our energy is made in our muscle, that’s where we metabolize – not our bones or our blood and certainly not our fat – we metabolize in our muscles.  So less muscle = less energy; simple.  You want to keep your energy, then keep your muscle.  Exercise in whatever way you’ll keep doing it.  Dancing?  Walking?  Yoga?  All of the above plus more?  Great.  Just find one or two you’ll keep doing, forever.

            And don’t forget fun is a nutrient you can’t find in a pill; nor is joy, delight or affection.  Simple living can offer complex delights.  The gorgeous sun just above our horizon, a perfect shining orange –just as you open the drapes. Enjoy those moments; find joy in places you never stopped to see before.  Joy in the beauty of those veggies you’ll cut for your next meal only to discover a beautiful pattern of color in the red cabbage or the scent of fresh crushed rosemary to add to the dinner.  Little delights in the day can be called, “Bliss Breaks.”  They feed us too.  The Simple Life: great sleep and lots of veggies. More water, less meat, and more fun. When was a prescription easier to follow than these easy tips? Who knew simple could be the best of the best?