Wholistic Fitness

SUNRIDER HERB

JULY, 2003 UPDATE

ilg downline

Namaste Noble Herb Eaters!

“Stay physically hungry but emotionally satiated. Eat to live, not live to eat. Besides, the leaner you get, the better your muscles appear and perform. Most guys I know who are concerned about the appearance of their bodies, would benefit not from trying to get bigger muscles, but from getting more lean. Less is more.”

– Coach Ilg

“This is my Uncle Steve…he is from LA…he has a six-pack.”

Celsa Faulstich, age 5, enthusiastically introducing me to one of her friends

VOLUME OF EATING

It’s an important step along the Way of personal fitness, to examine who taught you about volume of eating. Most of us learned to consume the volume and type of foods we do from our parents. If allowed to remain unquestioned, this is error. My mom loaded up my school lunch box with ‘Twinkies’ and ‘Ding Dongs.’ I was popular at lunch break. On Sunday’s our family would drive to McDonalds (in the Sixties, this meant a thirty minute – not a thirty-second drive!). If we had behaved at McDonalds, we stopped by the Good Humor ice cream truck afterward as a reward. Having grown up in the Depression, my mom never had these type of ‘foods.’ Although she fed me this junk out of love for me, little did she know it would require years of inner work and (thankfully) SUNRIDER herbs to slowly erase my addiction to junk and processed foods.

If your childhood family sounds like mine, then you know also that each day revolved around food. What’s for breakfast? When is lunch? Is dinner ready yet? Eating in front of the TV without appreciation of food was normal. My dad inhaled his food, gone in sixty seconds. Vacations or holidays only intensified the near religious fervor of eating. Elder men at family reunions were no help either. They seemed emotionally distant from us kids and preferred guzzling beer to being a source of healthy inspiration for me.

By the time we reach adolescence, it’s precisely this type of unchained emotional eating that effectively (and sometimes indelibly) mars our natural nutritional wisdom. I doubt if many mainstream American’s have ever – even once – truly eaten from pure physiologic need. That, to me, is incredible but explains clearly why our nation is so obese. We eat from an addiction to ego comfort instead of true need.

I am so glad I was warrior enough to do what it took to stay devoted to SUNRIDER and healthy eating. The difference between me and kids I grew up with who did not is like night and day. Several have already died of heart attacks or have been in and out of hospitals with all sorts of diseases all because of their addiction to processed foods and lack of exercise! The quality of their physical and spiritual energy seems to have been effectively severed by way of their lazy food choices. You are what you eat, baby!

OF WOLVES AND SPIRITUAL CALORIES

It is more often than not our spiritual – not biologic – family that rescues us from a life of inappropriate eating. Your spiritual family are beings that appear throughout your life to provide a most magic and loving type of guidance. You can recognize a spiritual family member by the fact that you simply feel go(o)d whenever you are near them or read their Teachings. They elevate your awareness of peacefulness, calmness, and centeredness. They are cheerful, positive, and enthused. Their words and image come back to you, over and over again. Sometimes this takes years, when you have matured enough to ‘get’ their Teaching.

My childhood wolf, Apache, is the spiritual family member who taught me about eating appropriately. Through His guidance, I learned to eat very little, drink very little, and yet run all day in the high San Juan Mountains of Colorado. During long summer days with Him, I would eat wild berries or herbs luscious with morning dew. At evening, I’d catch Rainbow trout from Junction Creek. As Apache looked on eagerly, I lovingly cooked our fish as campfire smoke mingled with fading daylight trapped in narrow canyon folds. In between these calorically sparse meals, I was not famished but rather fueled by a most natural life force. We chased chipmunks and deer, climbed peaks, and watched ravens ply a searing blue sky.

Someone should invent a spiritual, not a physical, calorie-counter: How many smiles did you create today? How many poems did you read? How many steps did you take that were conscious ones?

Apache made me aware of such spiritual calories. Through Him, I learned that Breath and Playful Movement were vital forms of nutrition. Even though qualities like gratitude, laughter, and politeness are invisible, they are potent ingredients of your Soul-food. I feel compassion for the Big City People with whom I choose to live these days. Many of my Big City brothers and sisters know a lot about many things but next to nothing about splashing around in mountain creeks or sliding down fields of slanted snow. I use the compassion I feel as a form of spiritual nutrition to help me become a better coach and maybe even a better human being.

It’s been 25 years since Apache was shot and killed by a hunter. Yet, I continue to follow his lessons of eating sparingly and exercising a lot. Yesterday, I woke up and drank my “Ilg Supreme” SUNRIDER herbs, took 6 Action Caps, and ate half a bagel. Then, I rode my bicycle 66 miles behind a fast moving car covering 3,000 vertical feet in 80-90 degree heat for 3 hours and 45 minutes and wearing out two training partners. During this appreciably hard workout, I drank 3 water bottles of Fortune Delight, ate one Powerbar, and 2 black mission figs. Back at home, I drank another Ilg Supreme had a small meal of herbed tofu and rice. At night, after solo yoga and pranayama Practice, I had a little more tofu and rice with a small salad and more SR herbs. Total calories in: maybe 900? Total calories expended: about 10,000. Total life force (chi) consumed: a ton!

People need to eat less physical calories and prioritize more spiritual ones. Yogis can do “superhuman” feats quite easily because they’ve learned how to create calories from pran or the life force of the Universe. What little food they do eat is easy to digest, has very few calories, and creates no toxic residue. Ever wonder why the “detox” diets are so big these days? Because people eat so much toxic crap in the first place! You don’t need to detox if you eat herbs and train hard.

A sage nutritional step is to simply breathe more consciously more frequently*. Doing so, I promise, is far more valuable for long-term health than some new crazy diet or ‘detox program.’ If you want a truly effective detox, do what I did yesterday! Breathe and Move! Another wise step is to drink Fortune Delight or Calli throughout the day. This cleanses the cells and imparts steady energy from impacted fat already on your body. This is much wiser than drinking Diet Coke!

Eating SUNRIDER herbs and doing yoga are two key things that keep our child energy close while empowering the evolution of our Higher Self. Your diet should be low volume, natural, and full of nutrient dense whole-foods. Your exercise should include a wide spectrum of lifestyle activities that challenge your cardio, strength, suppleness, and mental fitness.

For those of you on my SUNRIDER email list, the rest of the month will include little email notes and threads regarding the use and enjoyment of SUNRIDER herbs along with your input, questions, and comments!

I bow to you and don’t forget….

Eat an herb, baby!

coach ilg, R.Y.T.

author/TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION

* This is why I created the Breath & Posture Beeper Guru in the study of Wholistic Fitness. If you want a customized Wholistic Fitness training program that you can follow online or if you just want to explore the wonderful world of SUNRIDER herbs and skin care, just visit, www.wholisticfitness.com or email me at ilgtrain@aol.com