Focus:
Releasing.
Repetition:
I am enough just as I am.
I do not need to be useful, I am a being that is worthy of all love and all good things in this moment.
I am human, I have limitations for my own good and I am not in control.
I release all things.
Releasing
We will begin to notice what we hold on to tightly and practice “release.” We can hold on very tightly to good things, things that were not meant for us and harmful things. We want to release all things because it is not our tight grip that keeps things close to us, things were either meant for us or they were not. Be willing to release everything so that the good things in your life become treasures and not hoardes.
Release urgency in every aspect of your life and especially if you have a timeline for your healing. Let us release perfection, expectations, fear, worry, control, the surety of the future and the regrets of the past. Our life becomes a meditation this way. You can release everything to God, a million times per day if need be, until you have learned to be present with your life as opposed to being a collector of things you think are your life. God will instruct you how to do this. You can release things to nature or the universe if you are not ready to talk to God.
Just imagine you are standing on the edge of a precipice, you can see the horizon miles away, hear a roaring waterfall beneath you and notice you are at the same height as the birds of prey. Visualise all the things you hold onto in a large basket and begin to toss one thing at a time over the edge, you can imagine a bird takes them away, they disappear into the wide, open sky, they burst into flames, etc.
Welcome to Month Three
What a beautiful journey you are on! You have made it to Month Three! You have released a lot of things by now, have probably experienced some rough waters along the way, die-off and an uptick in symptoms, etc. I am so proud of you and so grateful to be on this path together!
Cholesterol
This week, we will learn about cholesterol. Cholesterol is your best friend right now! It is the great healer of inflammation, makes our hormones, re-sheathes our myelin, crucial for digestion and our brains are made up of 70% cholesterol. There is no such thing as “good” or “bad” cholesterol, there is only one kind of cholesterol. It is a waxy substance found in the cells and blood and is essential to every part of life.
LDL and HDL are actually lipoproteins, or “vehicles” that “drive” the cholesterol to and from places in the blood, neither is actually cholesterol nor are they “bad” or “good” either. Cholesterol, LDL or HDL do not contribute to plaque in the arteries or cardiovascular issues. Plaques in the arteries are caused by oxalates or high Omega 6. The cholesterol has been called in by the body, driven to the place where the inflammation/plaque is because that is its job. It is the inflammation that is the issue, never the cholesterol.
HDL (high-density lipoprotein) carries cholesterol from other parts of the body to the liver to be processed and removed. LDL (low-density lipoprotein) carries cholesterol to arteries and other tissues from the liver.
A Brief History
Cholesterol levels that used to be considered safe were 300 and above before the introduction of statins. When animal fats were removed from our diets in the mid-century, we experienced an influx of sugar, grains and industrial seed oils coming onto the scene. Sugar, grains (improperly prepared and over-consumed) and industrial seed oils (not a food at all) are at the heart of the cardiovascular disease prominence we know today.
In the early 1900s, heart disease was uncommon, this despite the fact we were already beginning to over-consume sugar, industrial seed oils and grains. By the mid-century, saturated fats were thought to be the cause of cardiovascular issues and were removed quite quickly from the American kitchen. Intake of sugar, grains and seed oils increased but now our protection, the saturated fats, were removed. The inevitable exacerbated very quickly. Low cholesterol and inflammatory foods are a recipe for illness. Things are turning around now and even a few fast food restaurants are returning to tallow in the fryers!
Triglycerides and Statins
Never worry about high cholesterol in a diet where the inflammatory foods have been removed. If a diet includes sugar and grains and seed oils, you will likely have high triglycerides and high cholesterol. You do not want high triglycerides as that is the body telling you the food or the amount of that food you are giving it is inflammatory. We build this type of fat from consuming excess carbohydrates and the wrong fats. Triglycerides should be at 80 or lower.
Statins lower your cholesterol, which does not allow the body to heal properly or have optimal hormonal health. I have heard it said that “hormones are your personality.” If you are hormonally imbalanced you will not sleep well, you will not have brightness in your personality, joy will be very difficult to attain. We need good cholesterol levels to reverse inflammation from poor sleep, environmental toxins, stress, ultra-processed “food”… the modern life can be inflammatory!
Looking to the Past
There is a lot of conflicting information out there but my favourite metric is to look to the past or to the modern, ancestral peoples. The healthiest people in history and now eat high animal foods, high animal fats and very little carbs. The food that was here for us to eat 500 years ago and before is the best on the menu!
Keep going — you are doing a beautiful job!