EIGHT WEEKS TO OPTIMUM HEALTH BY ANDREW WEIL, M.D.

PROJECTS

1. Throw out and stop buying oils, except for extra virgin olive oil. Start reading labels. No margarine, no solid vegetable shortenings, no partially hydrogenated oils of any kind. (Organic, expeller-pressed canola oil and dark roasted sesame oil OK). No artificial sweeteners. No artificial coloring or food dyes. No cottonseed oil.

2. Stop drinking chlorinated water. Check out the quality of the water you do drink and take steps to ensure its quality. (Frost would add: drink lots of good water.)

3. Locate good source of organic food and use it as a major resource.

4. Only microwave to defrost, reheat, or rapidly cook food. Don't use plastic containers or plastic wrap---use glass or ceramic and waxed paper or a paper towel to cover.

5. Stay out of the sun from 10 to 2, use sunscreens and sunglasses that block BOTH UV-B & UV-A rays.

6. Make sure your bedroom is good for sound rest---check noise, mattress, pillow, and consider getting an air filter. (Use relaxing breath to help you sleep.)

7. Take steam baths to sweat out the toxins. (Drink ample water before and after.)

DIET

Fresh broccoli (cook 5 or less minutes), salmon for its omega 3 fatty acids (but not farm raised), flaxseeds (also for their omega 3 fatty acids) keep refrigerated, grind up and sprinkle on food, good source of fiber; extra virgin olive oil (keep refrigerated), butter rather than margarine---but in moderation, whole grain breads and cereals, soybeans---use in burgers, as flour, and as other bean dishes; green tea---decaffeinated and in a box not in a bag, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and GREENS, tomatoes, garlic---eat raw, mince into pasta and salads…when cooking add last to recipe so to preserve its benefits; gingerroot---for ginger tea or in crystallized form with almonds and/or dried fruit (comes in many forms), Ginseng---unless you are buying the whole root, make sure product indicates the ginsenoiside content. American ginseng may be best. Take ginseng liquid extracts, capsules, tablets as a tonic. (Tonics not recommended for those under age 20.)

SUPPLEMENTS

Vitamin C with meals, 1 to 2,000 mg per meal.

Mixed carotenes---25,000 IU of beta carotene with alpha-carotene, lutein zeaxanthin. Must contain lycopene.

400 IU of vitamin E with largest meal of the day (800 IU if you are over age 40) along with 200-300 micrograms of selenium. Note: vitamin E must be "natural"---the label should say "d-" not "dl-alpha-tocolpherol with other tocopherols" and always take with your meal.

Don't take your vitamin E with your vitamin C.

Avoid iron in your supplements.

EXERCISE

Walk, climb stairs, swim, exercise regularly. You want a regular exercise that is rhythmic---coordinated motions of the arms and legs---as in swimming and walking. This helps create positive brain response.

Do stretching exercises. Stretch in the opposite way from the position we spend most of our time during the day. Avoid holding your breath while doing the stretching.

a. Interlace your fingers, then straighten your arms out in front of you, palms facing out. Hold the stretch for twenty seconds, then rest for a few seconds and repeat it.

b. Interlace your fingers, then turn palms upward above your head as you straighten your arms. Hold for ten seconds, rest, and repeat.

c. Extend the arms to the side, palms facing forward, and stretch them backward. Hold for ten seconds, rest, and repeat.

d. Hold your right arm just above the elbow with your left hand. Now gently pull your elbow toward your left shoulder while looking over your right shoulder. Hold for ten seconds. Repeat using the opposite arm and hand and looking over your left shoulder.

e. Bend forward from a sitting position to stretch and relieve tension in the lower back. Hold for forty-

five seconds, then put your hands on your thighs to help push your body back to an upright position.

MENTAL & SPIRITUAL

Think about your healing experiences, contact others and talk about how they have had natural healing experiences, get details, appreciate how your body can be a phenomenal self healing system if you will but encourage it in that direction.

1. Pray or have a moment of gratitude before meals.

2. Experience nature fully, start a garden, buy flowers regularly.

3. Do news fasts. (Stop reading and watching the news periodically---but, not permanently.)

4. Read poetry and great literature, visit art museums, et cetera.

5. Resolve to spend more time with "positive" friends.

6. Listen to great (inspirational) music.

7. Do regular service work to help others---volunteer!

8. Reach out to someone from whom you are estranged.

9. Have lots of houseplants---especially spiderplant, Boston fern, English ivy, and striped dracaena (they absorb toxic gases).

10. Do occasional fruit fasts (take vitamin C but not other supplements, water, and herbal tea with the fruit), juice fasts (fruit and vegetable juices with water, herbal tea, and vitamin C), and water fasts (with herbal tea with lemon and vitamin C). When doing these fasts, pay attention to your body's reaction. Frost would add that this can be an excellent way of discovering allergies that you might have---after a fast, add back only certain foods at a time and see if you can detect any allergic reactions.

11. BREATHING EXERCISES---if you can do only one thing, Dr. Weil believes that the breathing exercises should be that one thing.

A. Breath Observation: the very simplest technique of breath work is to observe it, to do nothing other than mentally follow the breath cycle. Don't try to change it, just pay attention to it.

(1) Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight and your eyes lightly closed, having loosened any tight clothing.

(2) Focus your attention on your breathing, and follow the contours of the cycle through inhalation and exhalation, noting, if you can, the points at which one phase changes into the other.

B. Reversal of Inhalation and Exhalation: Breathing is continuous, with no beginning or end, but we tend to think of one breath as beginning with an inhalation and ending with an exhalation. I want you to practice reversing this perception. Try it at the end of the five minutes of Breath Observation. Again, focus attention on the breath without trying to influence it, but now experience exhalation as the beginning of each new cycle. Do this for just one minute. I think you will be surprised to find how different breathing is when you stand it on its head in this way. When I begin with exhalation, I find myself much more involved with my breath, actively working with it rather than passively experiencing it. There is an important physiological reason for asking you to make this reversal: potentially you have greater control over exhalation than inhalation, because you can use the voluntary muscles between your ribs to squeeze air out of your lungs, and this musculature is much more powerful than that used for drawing air in. When you move more air out, you will automatically take more air in. It is desirable to deepen respiration, and the easiest way to do that is to start thinking of exhalation as the first part of the cycle and not worry at all about inhaling.

C. Letting Yourself Be Breathed: This exercise is best done while lying on your back, so you might want to try it while falling asleep or on waking.

(1) Close your eyes, letting your arms rest alongside your body, and focus attention on the breath without trying to influence it.

(2) Now imagine that with each inhalation the universe is blowing breath into you and with each exhalation withdrawing it. Imagine yourself to be the passive recipient of breath. As the universe breathes into you, let yourself feel the breath penetrating to every part of your body, even to your fingers and toes.

(3) Try to hold the perception for ten cycles of exhalation and inhalation. Do this once a day.

D. Relaxing Breath:

Place your tongue in the yogic position: touch the tip of your tongue to the inner surface of the upper front teeth, then slide it just above your teeth until it rests on the alveolar ridge, the soft tissue between the teeth and the roof of the mouth. Keep it there during the whole exercise. Now exhale completely through the mouth, making an audible sound (a whoosh). Then close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a (silent) count of four. Then hold your breath for a count of seven. Finally, exhale audibly through the mouth to a count of eight. This constitutes one breath cycle. Repeat for a total of four cycles, then breathe normally. If you have difficulty exhaling with your tongue in place, try pursing your lips; you will soon get the knack of how to do it. Note that the speed with which you do the exercise in unimportant. What is important is the ratio of four, seven, eight for inhalation, hold, exhalation. You will be limited by how long you can comfortably hold your breath, so adjust your counting accordingly. As you practice this exercise, you will be able to slow it down, which is desirable. Do it at least twice a day.

E. Stimulating Breath: you can use this to help wake yourself up if you are feeling drowsy or mentally sluggish.

(1) Sit comfortably with your back straight, eyes closed, and your tongue in the yogic position, as you learned for the Relaxing Breath. Keep it there during the whole exercise.

(2) Breathe in and out rapidly through the nose, keeping your mouth lightly closed. Inhalation and exhalation should be equal and short, and you should feel muscular effort at the base of the neck just above the collarbones and at the diaphragm. (Try putting your hands on these spots to get a sense of the movement.) The action of the chest should be rapid and mechanical, like a bellows pumping air. Breath should be audible on both inhalation and exhalation, as rapid as three cycles per second if you can do that comfortably.

The first time you try this exercise, do it for just fifteen seconds, then breathe normally. Each time you do it, increase the duration by five seconds, until you get up to a full minute. This is real exercise, and you can expect to feel fatigue of the muscles you are using. (Of course, they will become stronger with practice.)

One possibility for arranging the five breathing exercises:

Morning: Stimulating Breath, followed immediately by Relaxing Breath, followed immediately by Breath Observation (minimum five minutes), followed immediately by Reversal of Inhalation and Exhalation.

Bedtime: Let Yourself Be Breathed (ten breaths), followed immediately by Relaxing Breath.