How to Heal Thyself podcast on PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe

Once you get to a certain age, and for most that seems to be the early 50’s or so, if you have lived a Standard American Diet and lifestyle as most do- you will start to fall apart!  You will have aches and pains; often in the form of migraine headaches, acid reflux, IBD, and increasingly pain in the joints and spine.

To solve this, it is definitely NOT a matter of which heavy duty drugs to take, or even of going to a good chiropractor to get your back cracked or adjusted.  And surgeries and NSAID drugs like ibuprofen, Tylenol, aspirin and the like are also NOT the answer.  All of these commonplace strategies are short term stopgaps at best, and all arrive at the place of steadily worsening health and well-being rather than healing and wellness.

First off- any drug- any drug will wreak havoc on your gut lining, and intensify your future pain and suffering.  Guaranteed!  You need a long term strategy, something you do each and every day that will definitely fine you vastly improved in every way, and with a truly healthy and happy body and mind.

Now, some chiropractors are great- they guide you into a paleo, ancestral lifestyle just as I attempt to do with good advice and counsel.  Clean up your diet, cut out the bread and sugar, exercise regularly, meditate and walk barefoot, eat real, God-made foods rather than processed hyper-palatable crap.  Then, they usually will adjust your back as well, and you will think all is well.  And it may be, for a little while…

The thing is, chiropractic care is a transitory, stop-gap type of treatment that is very temporary, and helps you feel better after having abused your body with the wrong kind of exercise (heavy weights), or no exercise (poor posture, deteriorating muscle tone), bad stress, and a lack of walking outdoors in nature.   Poor sleep is also contributory to all of this.  

Just as surgery and drugs are not a long term answer, neither are chiropractic adjustments on a regular basis.  For one, they are quite expensive, not to mention unnatural!  How many ancient humans had their backs adjusted on a regular basis?  They didn’t need them to be adjusted, because they adjusted them themselves on a daily basis, just as now you will!  You just need to adopt a few simple habits of health, and you will self-adjust yourself on a daily basis, and your gut will gradually heal, rendering your body to be as healthy as it can be.

There are two things I’d like you to add into your daily regimen.  Simple stretching, primarily on a mat on the floor, some simple exercises mixed in with the stretching, and a warm cup of salted bone broth to sip while you work.  Really- this little pleasurable addition to your morning routine can completely revamp your health, your joints, and eliminate your aches and pains permanently.

When you awaken, (making sure that you get a good 8 hours of sleep at least, in a completely dark room), after visiting the bathroom, go into your kitchen and pour a mug of bone broth.  Sprinkle in some good Redmond’s sea salt, and go into your living room, where you keep your television.  Unroll your yoga mat, and start in on some gently stretches.  Do the Asian squat to start, holding a deep squat for as long as it seems comfortable as you watch whatever you have chosen.  Breathe deeply and relax- this time is yours, and over time it will become more and more enjoyable, something to look forward to each morning!

Now, I’m not going to tell you what stretches or exercises to do here, this is not the place.  If you are in pain, anything you do that addresses your own various pains and tightness is the right thing to do, for you.  I will say that I always make sure to lie flat on my back, and stretch out as far as I can, first right leg and right arm, and then right leg and left arm.  I also cross my right knee over my body to the left and hold, and my left knee to the right and hold.  I intersperse other exercises in a way that seems to flow naturally for me, slowly stretching my whole body gently, to and fro, until I have methodically adjusted my spine and other joints to where they feel alive, the synovial fluid flowing like warm oil in a car engine.  

It’s definitely not rocket science, you just stretch intuitively, like an animal stretches when it wakes up, particularly like a cat!  In fact, sometimes one of my cats joins me in my morning stretches, and what we do is quite similar, really, accounting for our different body structures.  

And just sip away as you do, pausing to drink that bone broth as you go- there is definitely no rush!  I like to allow a good hour for my morning exercise/stretches/adjustments, but that is because I also include pushups, and rebounding, along with various resistant exercises like isometrics with a strap, virtual and self resisted exercise, as well as sit-ups and others.  Check out my ebook Perfectly Paleo Exercise for a detailed look at these; also, I plan to put together a course on exercise this new year on Udemy.com where I can demonstrate just what I’m talking about in great detail.  

But for now, if you are in pain, and only want to get better- just set aside a good 1/2 hour each morning.  Get up early enough to make it happen, by going to bed early enough the night before.  Just the wonderful sleep you will be getting is very healing in and of itself!  And get in a good supply of bone broth.  Nowadays, a good quality, organic bone broth made from pastured animals is available in boxes and jars at most groceries for a reasonable price- not to mention, you can always make your own as I do, with good quality bones and a crock pot.  

But the point, just as with the gently stretching regimen, is to do it every day.  Make health a habit!  After a while, if you miss a day, it’s not big deal at all- but at first, while you are making it a lifelong habit- try not to miss!  These two small additions to your life, bone broth and stretching daily, can change your health dramatically overall!  Your joints and gut lining can definitely rebuild, and thrive again.  The time can even be quite short to do so- if you do it daily.

And then, after 30 days or so- why, you’ll feel so good, you’ll be like me- you will go out after 30 minutes to the kitchen, and get yourself a cup of coffee laced with coconut oil.  Back in the living room, you’ll push ‘play’ again on the show that your were watching as you stretched, and you’ll start in on your pushups and other exercises.  This is phase two exercise, where you not only have your health back, you want to vastly improve it via strength training. And, trust me- it is intoxicating!