10 Hippocrates Principles to Apply at Home

Incorporating a raw living food lifestyle can seem very daunting when it’s your first time. Throw in the many sources of information and misinformation and the journey can soon get very overwhelming. If you have already been eating a raw living food diet, daily stressed that try to derail you include temptations of convenient foods, work, family, relationships and adding raw living foods into the mix can seem like one more unwanted stressor. But being healthy doesn’t mean you have to overhaul your entire lifestyle and it doesn’t have to be tedious. Below are ten tips that you can incorporate into your daily health regimen to get you started off to the right foot or keep you on track.

1. Drink green juice and wheatgrass daily: Our green juice is made with celery, cucumber, sunflower and pea sprouts. This combination allows you to get concentrated amounts of vitamins, carbohydrates, complex sugars and proteins to give your body the fuel to fight infection and keep your cells vibrant. Wheatgrass, a superfood, is packed with so many benefits. A two ounce cup of wheatgrass is approximately equal to five pounds of vegetables! With a molecular structure similar to hemoglobin, wheatgrass increases oxygen levels in the body. Remember to try and get fresh juices to maximize nutritional value.
2. Proper food combining: Combining foods properly is key for optimal health and aids in digestion. The four basic food groups are proteins which include seed and nuts; starches which include sprouted grains and legumes, vegetables and fruits. Remember to include sea vegetables, sprouts, and blue-green algae. 

   Food Group	Average Digestion Time	Foods Included
   Fruits	2 hours (for melons, 15 to 30 minutes)	acids (grapefruits, lemons, oranges, pomegranates, and strawberries), sub-acids (apples, apricots, most berries, grapes, kiwis, mango, pears and peaches), sweet (bananas, all dried fruit, and persimmons), and the melon family (canary, cantaloupe, Crenshaw, honeydew, Persian, Santa Claus, and watermelon)
   Proteins	4 hours	seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower) and nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, pecans, pine nuts, and walnuts), but not peanuts or cashews
   Starches	3 hours	sprouted grains (amaranth, barley, millet, quinoa, rye, and teff), sprouted legumes (chickpeas, lentils, and peas), winter squashes (acorn, Hubbard, kabocha, and spaghetti), and sweet potatoes and yams
   Vegetables	2.5 hours	sprouted greens (alfalfa, arugula, buckwheat, cabbage, clover, garlic, kale, mustard, and radish), fruits and vegetables (cucumber, fresh corn, red bell pepper, summer squash, and zucchini), leafy greens (arugula, asparagus, broccoli, bok choy, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, collard greens, kale, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, scallions, spinach, and watercress), low-starch root vegetables (beets, burdock, carrots, parsnips, radishes, and turnips)

3. Take your enzymes 15 minutes before eating prepares your stomach to efficiently break down the food you have eaten so that your body can use it effectively. 
4. Do a juice fast one day a week: Juice fasts have healing influence on the body, mind, emotion s and spirit. Fasting allows the body time to rest and the raw green juices give your body the ingredients to help clean your system.
5. Take a sauna: Far infra-red saunas help to pull toxins and helps your body detoxify harmful chemicals while increasing lymphatic flow. The perspiration also helps with detoxing through the skin, which incidentally is our largest organ. 
6. Skin brush daily- no water needed. This will help your lymphatic system work more efficiently.
7. Get up and move! Exercise releases endorphins (feel good chemicals) and also is good for helping move oxygen, lymph and nutrients throughout the body.
8. Catch some Zzz’s: Get adequate uninterrupted sleep and listen to your body. Allow it time to rest, refuel and re-energize!
9. Stay Hydrated, it’s good for your health. Water aids in digestion/absorption of food and regulates body temperature. It’s also good for fat metabolism. The liver uses water to metabolize fat, thus the more water available to the body, the more fat is shed. 
10. Journal: Start each day with one thing that you are grateful for. Journaling allows for emotional release, grounding, and introspection. Life is the ultimate journey that allows each of us the opportunity to open our hearts and connect with our unified spirit and journaling offers us a glimpse into our many possibilities.

Knowledge is power, committing to self-responsibility and a common sense approach will assist with being successful on this lifestyle. Plan the night before. Be as raw and eat as much living foods as you can be each day. Remember slow and steady wins the race!

By Kathryn Lipman

Director of Concierge Services