How to Slow Down Time, Part 5: Take Care of Your Body

The last piece of my formula for slow living and environmental wellness is to take care of your body.

Along with our planet, your body is the only home you’ve got. And something amazing happens when you start taking care of it: you become precious.

By connecting with our physical selves, we see the beauty and complexity of our bodies. It doesn’t take long to see this reflected in other beings and in the world at large. When we take care of ourselves and see that other creatures have the same needs that we do, we become more compassionate.

There’s actually research showing that yoga and meditation can increase empathy (1). By tuning into our own bodies and understanding them better, we more readily understand our body language and the body language of others.

Taking care of your body is a kind and altruistic act. As with your mind, the healthier your body is, the more available you are to take care of others and the less care you require. If you struggle to move around your house and perform everyday tasks, your capacity for, say, volunteering at the community garden is likely lower than someone who is in great health. A healthy body also demands fewer resources from our medical system and from the planet itself.

I’m not going to give you a prescribed plan for how to live a healthy life, because each of us does it differently, but here’s my overarching philosophy.

What’s Good For Our Bodies Is Good For The Earth

We’re in a unique time where scientific research is rediscovering the old-fashioned way. We’re realizing that the way our great great great grandparents did things was healthier for us and the earth than some of our current practices. It’s like when you think of a really great invention only to realize it already exists.

Technology is a wonderful tool and has brought us countless life-changing improvements. In some cases, though, we’ve plowed forward without thought to the intrinsic benefits of doing things the old way. Usually, the old way is dictated by Mother Nature.

Take a field as an example. In nature, wild fields are inherently diversified with different species of grasses, flowers, herbs, shrubs, etc. Each plant saps the soil of specific minerals and nutrients, and enriches the soil with others. By maintaining a variety of plants, the field replenishes its own soil and continues to flourish year after year.

Most commercial farmers in the US alternate between the two biggest money-making crops: corn and soy. Both of these pull nitrogen from the soil, requiring farmers to supplement with nitrogen fertilizer. This can be costly and/or harmful in excess (2). At some point, someone realized that if farmers add wheat into their rotation, it will replenish the nitrogen in the soil, eliminating the need for fertilizer. Plus, planting wheat can reduce the presence of weeds and control pests. By diversifying their crops, farmers can save money and produce more (3).

Another argument for simplification involves cattle. Production of beef is one of our greatest contributors to greenhouse gasses. Most cows raised for beef are given feed largely consisting of corn. The production of corn requires resources like any other crop. Plus, cows weren’t meant to eat corn; they naturally eat grass. On a diet not optimized for their bodies, many experience digestive issues, increasing the need for medication.

Some farmers are returning to simplicity, allowing cows to graze freely in pastures. By walking on and eating the naturally-occurring grasses, the cows stimulate growth. And because cows eat the tops of the plants but don’t uproot them, carbon locked in the soil remains in the soil rather than being released into the air and contributing to greenhouse gasses. Some say that raising cattle in this way could possibly neutralize the production of beef (4).

Long story short: the healthiest way to produce beef is by letting cows do what they’ve been doing naturally for thousands of years! How ironic that it’s taken us decades of damage and scientific studies to learn that letting nature be (aka doing nothing) is best for everyone.

A more accessible example is exercise: the traditional Natives American lifestyle didn’t involve body pump. People moved their bodies in order to live, hunting, gathering, walking, building, cooking, playing, dancing. They followed herds of buffalo so they’d have a consistent source of food. They stayed healthy by moving as part of life.

Today, we drive to the gym, use machines to exercise, then drive to the grocery store to buy pre-prepared and packaged food. It’s an interesting phenomenon to observe.

I’m obviously not suggesting we all throw up our hands and return to the 1600’s, but what if we simplified things a bit? What if we walked to and from the grocery store? We’d get a workout from the walk and by carrying our groceries home. We’d experience the meditative benefits of walking outdoors. We’d move in a way that our bodies have evolved to move (and save ourselves the cost of a gym membership).

To take care of our bodies and the earth, all we have to do is listen to Mother Nature. She’s been waiting patiently for us to figure out she’s been right all along.

To keep both my body and the earth healthy, I move a little every day, eat with the environment in mind, practice holistic medicine, and get enough sleep.

Move Your Body a Little Every Day

Right now I’m doing two kinds of physical activity regularly: yoga and walking. I try to do yoga five times a week in the morning, and I take my dog on a long walk every day.

It took me a long time to ditch the mindset that exercise has to be prescriptive. Our culture feeds us the notion that “working out” has to equal 60 minutes at the gym or going for a run x miles long. We ask others how much exercise we need a day before asking ourselves what feels good.

I don’t think it has to be so cut and dry. Some days 5 minutes of stretching may be all you need. Other days you might crave a 3 hour bike ride.

Either way, moving your joints and muscles is the only way to keep them healthy in the long run. And for me, moving always, always makes me feel better—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Adopting a dog has shown me the beauty of walking outside. I honestly get as much out of our daily walks as he does. It’s meditative and provides a block of guaranteed me time—or rather, ‘us’ time.

I mean, who wouldn't want to walk around with this guy?!

Having a dog makes me get outside and move every single day, even if it’s for 10 minutes. Spending time outdoors connects us with the earth—some research points to crazy benefits of walking barefoot (5)—and reminds us of our place in it. It activates our senses and physically requires that we slow down. It brings us into contact with other people, with the seasons, with nature. It reminds us of the value of nature.

I have yet to meet someone who’s spent SIGNIFICANT time nature and doesn’t support environmental preservation.

Our bodies are built to walk. We’re efficient at it, and as long as we keep up the practice, we’ll be able to do it (almost) our entire lives.

My philosophy of a little movement every day might not sound like enough exercise, and maybe it isn’t for some people. I do think, however, that if you’re conscious of what you put in your body and listen to it carefully, a little is really all you need.

Eat to Save the World

Scientists have found that one of the heaviest contributors to climate change is the production of animal food products.

The demand animal products put on our earth is pretty shocking. As I mentioned, beef in particular is a massive contributor to carbon emissions. For each pound of beef consumed, about 30 pounds of carbon emissions are released. Compare that to about 15 pounds of carbon per pound of chicken, and less than 2 pounds of carbon per pound of lentils. There’s a great chart demonstrating this on the Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health.

I’m not vegan or vegetarian, so I can’t in good conscience advocate for adopting one of those diets. However, if you want to know how to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, reducing your reliance on animal products is one of the most accessible and impactful ways to start.

I personally eat meat about 4 times a week, and it’s typically poultry as opposed to beef. I don’t eat a ton of dairy, and I’ve been experimenting with vegan baking. Overall, the vast majority of what I consume has been planted rather than herded or processed.

While I don’t think veganism or vegetarianism is sustainable for everyone, I absolutely think a primarily plant-based diet is.

Maybe you need to eat meat more frequently than a couple times a week, or maybe you need the protein boost that eggs provide first thing in the morning. That’s totally fine—but I encourage you to consider other ways you can eat more environmentally-friendly.

Could you put coconut creamer into your coffee instead of half-and-half? Could you cut down on the portion sizes of meat and supplement with hearty vegetables, grains, and beans? Instead of eating 1 hamburger a week, could you eat 1 a month?

Eating a plant-based diet will do wonders for your health. As Hippocrates advised,

“Let food by thy medicine and medicine by thy food.”

Try Preventative & Holistic Medicine

All of us have a direct line to Mother Nature: our bodies. When we tune in and listen to what our bodies need, we inherently know how to care for them. The best way to do this is to take care of your body—before you get sick. Remember the trope “prevention is the best cure”?

We value Western medicine highly in our culture—and we absolutely should. It’s an incredible resource we have at our fingertips. Never will you hear me say that you don’t need to go to the doctor, have recommended screenings or tests run, or get procedures when you need them.

However, I do think that we’ve become too reliant on medicine to “fix” us rather than taking care of ourselves in the first place. I highly recommend using holistic medicine as a supplement to Western care.

Eating healthy is obviously a huge part of this, but holistic or traditional medicine is another area often overlooked. Holistic medicine teaches us the how our body’s systems are deeply intertwined, how the parts make up the whole.

A friend of mine, an incredible herbalist, acupuncturist, holistic practitioner, and witch goddess, shepherded me into my first experiences with holistic medicine. If you’re in Denver, you must check out Natalie Franciose, Point of Balance. She’s not only amazing at what she does, but she’s incredibly kind and a wonderful listener. In my initial consultation with Natalie, we talked about everything from digestion to exercise preferences to sleep patterns and more. Just by asking questions, she helped me make the connection between the “