Building a Resilient Lifestyle

The best way to describe how Hippocrates lifestyle program has impacted my life is to describe my past, present and future life. What I mean by that is, what lead me to Hippocrates and after learning about the program, what am I currently doing with this knowledge, what do I plan to do in the future. As I am sitting and analyzing and wishing why didn’t I get knowledge 20 years ago, I am reminded of the saying “when you are ready, the Guru (teacher) will come.” There is so much to this saying. I needed all the living, enjoying and suffering before I could see, listen and then finally pay attention to the teachings. This is true, even if I were sitting in West Palm Beach in front of the institute, I wouldn’t have seen it! Because my desires were elsewhere, mostly how to satisfy my tastebuds. So, let’s begin with the past.

It would be foolish of me to say, my journey started 20 years ago. It was more like 25 years ago, during my college years, when I would eat and fall asleep and not able to stay awake for studying, so I would chug down some coffee loaded with sugar. Even couple years later, I was still in denial when I had insulin dependent gestational diabetes with my first son. I was thinking this is another normal thing that everyone goes through. And the doctors reassured me that it would go away after the pregnancy. And sure enough, it did! Three time! Three years after my third baby, it came back, but the doctors said the medicine will take care of it and advised me to go on high protein diet. Thus began, my bodily experiment with different diets and incremental additions of medications. All the while, the hunger for food was increasing. It was a vicious cycle of hunger, food, meds then back again to hunger. To break the cycle, I would research a new diet and implement it, it would still trigger the vicious cycle. I tried Adkins (1 ½ weeks), then Weight Watchers (about a year). They both got my weight down as long as I attended the meeting but didn’t help with my diabetes. I started researching in Ayurveda but was hard to get single answer to anything. The answer was always “sometimes”. For example, Is it ok to eat meat? Sometimes. Is it ok to drink milk? Sometimes. There is some truth to that, but I was not able to find anyone that would guide me. So, I had to go with the science and was fortunate to find WFPB group. They introduced eating wholesome into my life. I stayed with this diet for 5 years and was happy to have my sugars not fluctuate too much. But, even after 5 years I was not able to get rid of my medications. Then I found Naturopathy in India by “Satvic Movement”, they introduced detox into my life. It was good that I was able to come off medications but started to see all of deficiencies in the body, weakness, tiresome and losing immense amount of collagen. Finally, I happened to find Hippocrates. It has truly been a life changing experience.

Hippocrates has introduced me to unimaginable wholesome, seeing food(nutrition) in a different light or I should say energy. Experiencing emotions and walking thru them. Introducing exercise. Seeing water in a whole new spectrum. Embracing spirituality. Introducing HOPE (hormone, oxygen, phytonutrients and energy) to everything that goes in the mouth. Incorporating body, mind and spirit. Introducing me to a lifestyle rather than a diet.

To describe the role of Hippocrates program in my life currently, it is best to explain how the acronym RESILIENT plays a role in my life. RESILIENT stands for responsibility, emotional health, sustainability, living food nutrition, love, integrity, exercise immunology, nutrition, and transformation.

Responsibility is probably the most important and the hardest to work towards. It stands for taking full responsibility for our choices and values in our lives. The fact that I’m a diabetic is given. I could choose to sit and worry about why it has happened to me, or I could choose to do something to fix it. Shifting from why to what and how questions. So, the shift in mental thinking to live at the effect of the situation or to live at the cause of the betterment, is the key. So, it comes down to our choices that we take on a day-to-day basis and even hour to hour basis and also our values. Do we value our health or our outwardly senses. Once we make the choices and set our values, we need one more thing to take full responsibility. And that is getting mental strength and having perseverance to achieve our goals. This seems to be very hard for some people, but luckily having strong social support and being persistent truly helps. One great person used to say, if you keep lifting weights on one hand whether you like it or not, over a few months, you will see a big difference between the two arms. So persistent practice is very crucial in achieving your goals.

Hippocrates lifestyle advises to address emotional health on a day-to-day basis. Emotional health can be our daily stresses or even stresses with relationships. Carrying unresolved issues is like someone is like carrying a bag of toxic waste with you everywhere you go. It is best to let it go and find peace and move on. Talking it out or writing the issue down makes it easier to see the problem at face and is easier to find peace in your mind.

Living on the Hippocrates diet, we are automatically living the most sustainable way. We grow the healthiest and the most nutritious food at home. A few things that I have been doing, seem to be very helpful in this aspect. Composting, trying to live a minimalist life and being vegan. Being a healthy vegan would mean no processed foods. Being sustainable starts when you consume anything from the store. Asking “what purpose is this item going to serve in my life?” “Is it going to

give me energy?” Composting is so gratifying because, we feel like we have contributed to the enrichment of the soil for the next crop. If it comes from a plant, give it back to soil and not the landfill.

Living Food Nutrition is what distinguishes Hippocrates from all the other diets. It teaches us to get nutrition from the living plants. These are living at the time of consumption, not picked 5 weeks before and sold at the supermarkets. They also teach how to grow your own sprouts. We also get gratification from growing your sprouts that is like a meditative process to see them grow significantly from morning to night. Hippocrates hones in on HOPE, which stands for hormone, oxygen, phytonutrients and enzymes. We get HOPE in the purest form in the living food, which we notice this diminishes with time after the vegetable has been picked. We can see some HOPE is lost in raw food and HOPE is lost even more significantly in the cooked foods. Eating foods high in HOPE ensures that you get most of your required micronutrients, like vitamins, minerals and many unknown nutrients that have not been discovered yet.

Hippocrates encourages us to find love. Not only outside, but more importantly within ourselves. This seems to be hard for some of us. I noticed that if there is something I was not able to do, I would just say, “I’m not good at it” or “I can’t do it”. This plays negatively on our subconscious mind, and the way to overcome is to do self-affirmations. This seems to help a lot, and it also helps with finding love within and then in-turn it helps in finding love with other people.

Hippocrates teaches us to have integrity. Aligning our thought, words and deeds is integrity. Following through with your thoughts. For example, if we say we will fast today, and your friend brings in your favorite dessert, should we act on it? How strong is our integrity? I notice that if I have my meals planned properly, this seems to be easier. So, preplan seems to play a crucial role in integrity.

Hippocrates lifestyle encourages daily exercise. I have incorporated several different kinds of exercises. And starting it first thing in the morning is the key for the whole day to go smoothly. It is interesting how different exercises work on different systems of your body. The rebounder for lymphatics and cardio for heart, weights for bone strength, etc.

Nutrition is so nicely explained in Hippocrates. What we put into our body also has connection to our mind. It includes what we put in our body thru all the 5 senses. For example, what we eat (cooked/raw, processed, organic, frozen, etc.), what we see (electronics, poor lighting, etc.), what we hear (load noise, construction, etc.), what we touch (clothes we wear, chemicals, soaps, etc.) and what we smell (perfumes, pollution, essential oils, etc.,). The nutrition that we

put in thru our senses are of two types, physical and emotional. The essential physical nutritional needs are air, water, food, sunlight, physical movement, rest and sleep. The essential emotional nutritional needs are security, acknowledgment, honest, communication, structure, intimacy, joy and spiritual development. Hippocrates lifestyle makes people realized what we should already innately know by going in depth thru all these above nutritional needs. It explains in detail the importance of each of these. I will state a few to make the reader realize the depth of research that has gone into each category.

Air, is it polluted? Indoor or outdoor is better? How to increase the oxygen into our body? To each of our cells. Should we increase oxygen when exercising, swimming? Water, is the tap water okay to drink? How to purify the water? How to charge the water? Why to charge the water? Food, what proportion of cooked vs raw is good? And why? Why not eat any animal proteins? How should the food pyramid look like? Why eat living foods? Why eat organic? When to eat? What is food combination? Why is this important? Should we eat fruits? Why or why not? Should we fast? And why? And how often? Sunlight, why should we get sunlight and what time is best? Physical movement, how much to get? What kind of exercises to do? Why? Rest and sleep, how much to get? What happens to your body at this time? The research goes on and on even with the emotional needs as well. I believe this is where Hippocrates shines beyond other diets, because the lifestyle makes you think and analyze things we should know as human beings but have never been mindful of it.

Transformation is the last letter of the resilient acronym. Hippocrates lifestyle transform us into a new, energic and fully vibrant being. Where the possibilities become endless. I used to think, “okay, I have turn into my middle age, health is getting worse, muscles are sore, breathing is getting heavier.” Once I was determined to follow thru the program, I saw big differences in 3 weeks, and a whole new energic self, immerged. I am currently not on any medication and feel more energic than when I was in my teens. Seeing the transformation within, ignites a fire within to share the secret of the transformation with others. This is where my future life comes into play.

Hippocrates not only provided me with the much-needed knowledge, but it has given me a solid foundation to be able to help others in transforming their lives as well. With the experience of 20 years battling with diabetics and being on a constant quest for the betterment, I believe that each part of my journey has helped me learn something. Being on weight watchers made me realize that consistently meeting other people who are in the same journey matters. Even if I

was not able to follow thru for a week with the diet. The weekly meeting is crucial in journey to success. Each step of journey in my life was a step closer to the knowledge base that I have gained. I have the confidence to help people, back to health.

In the future, I would like to use the 20 years of I have gained knowledge to transition people, wherever they may be in the spectrum of wellness back to health. Holding their hand in each step of the way. It took me 20 years to make this journey. My hope is to provide a faster transition to health for others. Health meaning not just being ease from disease but health with the wealth of vitality!