I am often asked about my daily habits, or what I eat in a day.  As if it were that simple to just recite a menu for someone else to follow for their own health. Similar to Nature, which is ever-changing, and never remains the same, so would be our eating habits because everything changes according to the seasons, your individual situation and other factors. This is why we must always enjoy the moments that we have, because everything will inevitably change. So depending on where you live, or what is going on in your life, combined with the season, food availability and many other factors, your diet and habits will change as you become more in tune with the flow of life and your body’s requirements .  I was asked what do I eat in a day- yesterday, In fact, I am asked this question so very often and I think to myself how difficult it is going to be to explain that what ,and how I eat (even a month ago, or a year ago) is different to how I am eating today!  Let me explain.

If stressful times arise in my life, such as they did last week, it is optimal to not eat heavier meals until the stress or hardship passes.  That is precisely what I did.  If I am not feeling joyous, content, happy, or if a stressful situation arises, I do not eat because eating during those times can really mess with the digestive, absorption, utilization and elimination processes of those foods.  Instead, I fasted for a day, and because the next day was more of the same, I only ate watermelon for that day so that I could effectively deal with what was going on.  Eating less, or not eating can really help to clear your mind during stressful times.  My body only wanted watermelon anyways, it wasn’t difficult.  In times of stress, appetite is often diminished.  I decided that I would eat watermelon until the situation, and the stresses resolved.  I ended up eating only watermelon for a week.  I didn’t plan this short fruit-only cleanse, however, it took place naturally because I listened to my body.  My appetite naturally returned once everything fell back into place.  If I had described to someone during this time that I only ate watermelon for a week, this would likely deter someone from this lifestyle because if you are not ready, or prepared, its not easy to only eat one type of fruit for an entire week.  Over the years, I worked over to being able to do short fruit cleanses whenever they suit me, with ease.

For years I’ve been fasting for one day a week – each week.  Generally I eat 6 days a week.  Previous to that, I was intermittent fasting until noon daily, and then eating 2 meals a day.  As time passes, and as we become cleaner within, we become more satisfied with simpler foods, and through this process, our habits and routines will change to reflect that.  As the years pass on this lifestyle, one will feel the urge to try new routines, or to tailor, and tweak current routines in order to adapt to our individual situations.  Today I decided that it is time to step things up a notch, usually (for the past couple of years) I will begin eating fruit around noon daily, I will snack on fruit when I feel like it throughout the day, and then I eat a relatively large salad based -mucusless/mucuslean meal around 6:30pm of vegetables and greens and lately Ill use a tahini based dressing (for years I wouldn’t touch nuts or seeds)!  I am using all of my ramblings as an example to show how our diets, and our routines, change over the years- provided we do not loose sight of the information.  You see, the ultimate goal with this lifestyle, is to make small improvements (at our own pace) as we progress over the years, and to explain to someone along your journey what you are currently eating in a day -does not do them service because where you began, is not where you are at now, and where you are going, is going to look different to where you are at right now, if that made sense!

I can’t tell you how many times my routines have changed, and they all have to do with me, my situation in life, my motivation and willingness during certain time periods – and that is how it should be.  What foods do you have available? What foods can you grow?  If I can get a box of a certain type of fruit, Ill likely do a fruit cleanse for a week or a month!  We all know that local foods, grown in the climate where we live in are optimal.  There are people out there who are set on remaining on fruits only – and that is okay, however, if you live in a cold climate, and there is a choice between local apples and carrots for example – versus mangos and banana’s imported from the tropics – that are likely irradiated, shipped, sprayed, old, not grown in your climate, etc. – I think the optimal choice would be to go with the apples and carrots for health purposes.  And so many factors come into play on this lifestyle.  The individual who eats alone has it a lot easier in a sense- than the person who eats with a family, and may have to prepare food for them as well.  There is always a lot of navigating to do which is why a full understanding is paramount.  You need to gain the necessary information that is required for health and to apply it to your individual situation.

When someone asks me what I eat in a day, I know right there that they haven’t read Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System (you can follow this link to purchase)

For if they had read the book, they would understand that like Nature, our diets and habits are ever-changing.

Over the years I’ve tried all sorts of different routines, and self created recipes to test what works for me.  Once we’ve  learned the information, and have learned certain truths such as the diet/disease connection, it really boils down to you, and how you choose to incorporate it.  Trying to follow a specific dietary plan will only lead to frustration and failure, and we need to listen to our body, somedays we are very hungry, and others we are not, its best to listen to what the body tells us. What is truly required is a deep understanding with what type of foods do not create waste/mucus buildup within and which ones do.  We need to gain a deep understanding, and learn to listen to the body because it will tell you when it is time to take a day or two of digestive rest, it will tell you when you need hydrating foods, and it will tell you when you need a good sized salad meal and vegetables for scrubbing and elimination purposes instead of fruits.

This path warrants many routines that change along the way as we become accustomed to them, and as the body becomes cleaner, and the urge to switch things around will come naturally as the months and years pass.  Long ago, when I first eliminated the most harmful foods from my diet -such as the meat, eggs, fish, dairy, processed foods, etc., I began with eliminating one meal a day, and only eating 2 meals a day.  For myself, at that time, that was a huge step.  I eliminated my early morning breakfast meal, and I was beginning my first meal around 11am, or 12.  Waiting to eat my first meal until then was a major challenge.  It took a lot of willpower, and food would occupy my mind until It was time to eat.  It was almost tortuous.  The reason for this?  Breaking old habits for one.  The other was that I had so much waste in my body that it was uncomfortable to not eat.  Eating food suppresses our eliminative symptoms.  When our body receives digestive rest, the body will often begin to eliminate some of that waste from within, and when we do eat, this can then halt that process and throw the body back into the digestive process- which to most is a familiar and comfortable feeling – that feeling of being full.  Anyways, it was a challenge back then to skip breakfast.  Overtime, this became much easier and eventually, It came to the point where I no longer thought about food until at least noon.

Obtaining, building, and maintaining health requires us to go through many stages to get there, and when we understand these stages, we can sit back, relax and enjoy the process as we are going through them – with this understanding, we will not feel anything but okay when its time to move past them in order to step things up.  In the first year, when I first eliminated the most harmful foods mentioned above from my diet, I knew that nut butters and coconut bread were going to be my go-to in order to curve the insatiable cravings that would arise for my past dietary food choices.  I went through this process of diving into that nut butter whenever it was absolutely necessary, and I knew that this was okay because it wouldn’t be forever, and that the nut butters were an improvement  from the past foods I was eating such as dairy. I needed a complex food (such as nut butter) to help curve the cravings of the harmful complex foods that I grew up eating but eventually, things calmed down, I became accustomed to my new dietary habits and at that point I knew that it was time to let the nut butters go. So I did.

This lifestyle, and these changes that we must incorporate in order to heal, and to maintain health cannot possibly come with an instruction manual.  The important thing is to learn the mucusless diet healing principals, which reveal which foods cause mucus buildup within, and which foods do not.  Once we learn these truths, it is up to us to get creative, and to incorporate these principles to the best of our ability.  There will be plenty of victories, slip up’s, and everything in-between -and that is okay, as long as we do not loose sight of the truth, the principals, and your individual goals.

Now you can understand why I am reluctant to share what “I eat in a day”, because what I eat in a day is ever-changing – based on the flow of life.  Nobody is perfect, however, if you can eventually get to a point where most of your daily meals are mucusless, you may just find the most perfect you in time!  Health is true wealth.  Without our health, life does not reach it’s full potential.  As Arnold Ehret said, “Life is a tragedy of nutrition”!!

Mariah