21 Pounds in 21 Days by Roni DeLuz Page B

they cause us to retain toxins in our bodies for longer than nature intended.
    Supressing a sneeze. While there’s no need to spray your neighbor with germs, it’s not a good idea to stop your body from throwing off a toxin the body is violently trying to eject. Sneeze into the crease of your elbow or a tissue instead.
    Ignoring a headache. When our temples are throbbing, instead of lying down and figuring out what is making our brain ache, our culture teaches us to take aspirin or Tylenol and keep on stepping. But headaches occur for many reasons, and several of them are severe. Exposure to toxins is one major cause. Many people eat, breathe, or otherwise come into contact with things they are intolerant or allergic to and, consequently, experience headaches. Some people have tension headaches, caused by sluggish blood flow to the brain. These often signal an underlying problem. Some signs can lead to a stroke. Other folks have headaches caused by hormonal imbalances. Still others have brain tumors.
    Feeding a fever. Should you starve a cold and feed a fever or feed a cold and starve a fever? Americans are all confused about this time-tested advice. The answer? Listen to your body. A hot fever is created to burn up a virus or bacteria. If you let the fever burn, you’ll get rid of the bug by sweating. When you have a fever, you generally do not feel very hungry. When you pop a pill to reduce your temperature, you may feel more like eating, but the “bug” will still be inside you.
    Taking an antidiarrheal. When we have the “runs,” it’s a sign that our body is trying to cleanse a “bug” our out of our bowels. But instead of letting the body purge, many of us take medicines to stop the process. That one leaves me scratching my head. If your body is literally exploding toxins out of you, why in the world would you want to trap the “crap” inside? Theanswer: Because people don’t understand that their body is always working in their best interest.
    Overeating. One of the most common ways we override our body’s innate intelligence is by misusing food. Clients are constantly telling me that they eat when they’re not really hungry. Many of us learn this bad habit during childhood from our well-meaning parents. “But I’m not hungry,” you often hear children say—to which your parents often reply, “Eat it anyway!” Other people eat because they’re angry, lonely, tired, bored, or sad. Still others tell me, “I just eat when I’m supposed to” or “I just eat everything on my plate.” I remind them that even though their parents taught them to eat at 8 A.M. , noon, and 6 P.M. or to clear their plate because there are “children starving in Africa,” the best thing to do is to eat when you’re hungry. For most people, this means consuming a very small meal or snack every two hours or so.
    Engaging in recreational eating. There is a difference between productive eating, whose goal is to nourish the body, and recreational eating, which I define as eating solely for taste, because it’s dinnertime, for companionship, to celebrate, or because you’re stuffing down your emotions. When we eat recreationally, the question we ask ourselves is: “What tastes good?” When we eat productively, we ask ourselves: “What is this going to do for my body?” When we engage in productive eating, we’re using our food as our medicine.
    The Acid/Fat Connection
    You probably didn’t realize it at the time, but you learned a lot about body harmony in high school science class. You may remember that you can use a piece of litmus paper to measure an item’s pH (short for potential hydrogenation , a term you rarely see used), an indicator of its acid/alkaline balance. pH is measured on a scale of 1 to 14, with 1 being the most acidic reading possible and 14 being the most alkaline or basic . Stick