Dietary Suggestions

• Eat until you are 70% full, then leave the table
• Eat your last meal BEFORE 7PM
• Chew your food thoroughly. Try the trick of chewing the first bites of any meal 50 times, and then chew the rest of the meal normally.
• DO NOT skip meals. Have 3 sit-down meals a day and 2 sit-down snacks.
• Avoid any turbulent or volatile emotions at meal time. Eat in a calm and relaxed environment.

• Try to maintain a diet of 15% protein, 25% carbohydrates, and 40- 65% vegetables for the next month or so. Try to have between 2 and 5 five vegetable dishes at each meal, and use small amounts of meat and fish for flavor.
• Enjoy the following foods and drinks:
  • Water: 8 glasses a day, every day. A natural diuretic is tea made from dandelion leaf and parsley. You can make it as strong as you want. Pour boiled water over the leaves and let steep for 10 minutes. You can drink up to 3 glasses a day.
  • Warm, cooked foods (80%)
  • Mildly Spicy or Pungent Foods: ƒ
    • Onions ƒ
    • Garlic ƒ
    • Mustard greens ƒ
    • Watercress ƒ
    • Turmeric ƒ
    • Basil ƒ
    • Mint ƒ
    • Peppermint ƒ
    • Horseradish ƒ
    • Cardamon ƒ
    • Cumin ƒ
    • Fennel ƒ
    • Dill ƒ
    • Ginger ƒ
    • 1-2 Shot glasses a day of red wine or sake ƒ
    • 1 cup coffee per day
  • Sour Flavors ƒ
    • Citrus Fruit (2 per day) ƒ
    • Vinegar ƒ
    • Pickles ƒ
    • Sour Cherries ƒ
    • Plums
  • Poached, Stir-fried, steamed, or baked vegetables
  • Sprouted grain breads (Ezekial Bread)
  • Asparagus
  • Cabbage
  • Turnips
  • Cauliflower
  • Broccoli
  • Brussel Sprouts
  • Beetroot
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Jicama
  • Sourdough Rye Bread
  • Whole Grains: ƒ
    • Barley, Rye, Buckwheat, Caraway, Oats, Pumpernickel, Sprouted Wheat in small amounts
  • Aduki Beans
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Molasses
  • Small Amounts of organic meats and fish
• Avoid the following foods:
  • Dairy (milk, cream, cheese, ice cream), except goat’s milk products
  • Sugar and sweets, except fruit
  • Processed foods
  • Greasy foods
  • Fast Foods
  • Foods high in saturated fats
  • Salty foods, and don’t add any salt to your meals
  • Wheat, unless sprouted, and then only 1-2 servings a day
  • Tofu and soy products
  • Butter and margarine
  • Peanuts (try almonds, pecans, or walnuts instead)
  • Avocado (1 per day, every few days max)
  • Tropical Fruits (stick to locally grown)
  • Beer and hard alcohol
  • Limit eggs to 2 a day
  • Excessively hot or pungent foods like black pepper, and very hot chili peppers (mildly spicy is OK)
  • Excessively Cold Foods (anything frozen or iced)
  • Too many raw vegetables (more than 1 medium size salad a day)
  • Anything chemical or artificial

Exercise:

The goal here is simply to get moving. You don’t have to build up a huge sweat or exhaust yourself, but you should be doing 30 minutes a day of gentle movement and breathing. Set aside some time each day to dedicate to exercise. This time must be separate from your work and home life. The following are appropriate and safe forms of exercise to do until your blood pressure comes down a bit:

• Walking 30 for minutes at a pace that allows you to talk without losing your breath.
• Swimming 30 minutes at a pace that allows you to carry on a conversation (you may have to work up to this time slowly)
• Beginning or Restorative Yoga
• Qi Gong: ƒ
  • start with shaking for 10 minutes ƒ
  • monkey breathing for 5-10 minutes (stand in horse stance with feet just a little more than shoulder width apart, knees gently pushing outward from the hips, lower belly held in). Place the hands in front of you with the backs of the hands touching each other, fingers pointing down. Inhale as the hands move up the center of the torso. Flip the hands over without separating them once they get to chin level, and exhale as they move back down the center of the torso. Repeat for 5- 10 minutes. ƒ
  • Walking Qi Gong for 10 minutes. You can walk normally while focusing on feeling the four forces around you (Earth pushing you upwards, the string attached to the top of your head lifting you up towards the sky, the wind behind you pushing you forward, and the string attached to the sternum pulling you forward). Make sure to breathe into the low belly as you walk, placing your focus into the breathing. ƒ
  • Breathing, either seated or standing (in horse stance with the hands over the belly), for 5-10 minutes. Do the “4,7,8” breath with the “Shhhh” on the exhale for 6 breaths. After that just breathe normally into the lower Dan Tian (the area about an inch below the belly button in the center of the body).