Ayurvedic Guide to Wellness

Back to the Basics:
Four Recommendations for Staying Well in 2004

Taking control of your own well-being can be daunting at first. It takes time, commitment and energy to stay well, especially when the definition of 'well' is not just 'the state of being disease-free' but 'the state of being totally healthy in mind and body.' Too often, we reserve the bulk of our time, commitment and energy for making money, or having fun, or even just surviving, and the result is that well-being is relegated to going for the annual physical or popping a
daily multivitamin. Ayurveda encourages you to make time everyday for your well-being, and
reap the rewards of total health for life. Many ayurvedic recommendations appear basic, simple, just 'common sense,' but after reading this article, sit back and analyze how frequently these basic wellness needs are bypassed on a daily basis in the crush of day-to-day living, and you'll realize that it's truly time to go back to the basics to stay well.

Eat fresh whole foods, and cook your own meals

Ayurvedic healers down the centuries would have nodded in approval if they had heard Hippocrates' advice to "let food be thy medicine."

According to the ayurvedic texts, if your diet and eating habits are unwholesome, all the medicines in the world won't be able to keep you well; and if your diet and eating habits are wholesome, it's quite likely you'll never need any medicine to keep you well. These texts
were written in another age, but there are choices that we can make even in today's fast-paced world to eat well. Choosing fresh over canned, whole over processed or refined, and organic or natural over foods containing additives or chemical preservatives whenever you can
are good ways to get back to the basics of eating well.

Here are some suggestions to make it easier to eat well:

• Time-saving kitchenware such as a pressure cooker to cook lentils or a slow-cooker to cook wholesome one-dish meals from scratch can make the process of cooking your own meals easier.
• Involve the whole family in the task of preparing fresh meals: when everyone contributes to the meal, your time and effort are reduced, and mealtimes become the more companionable because of the joint effort.
• Browse magazines for healthy recipes utilizing fresh whole ingredients that can be made in 30 minutes or less.
• Keep a diary of the number of times you routinely eat out or eat bought meals, and then slowly start whittling down that number until you're mainly eating meals you've made with fresh ingredients that
  are best for you.

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