Manage This “S” for Health Success
* Feature Article: Manage This “S” for Health Success
* Your Questions Answered: Should We Consume Sprouted Grains?
Manage This “S” for Health Success
In my recent message to mainstream raw gurus, I provided four essential yet simple ways to improve your health. If you are deficient in any of these four areas, your health will surely suffer.
Of course, there are many additional factors that can affect overall health. Clean air and fresh water are just a couple, as well as healthy relationships and mental creativity.
But would you like to know which health factor absolutely TRUMPS all of these?
Oh, you know I’m gonna tell ya. 
Stress Management
Once my stress gets out of hand, all hell breaks lose. Simple things like eating and sleeping become utter chores.
When I’m stressed out, I can’t stay raw. I can’t maintain an exercise routine. My sleep is disturbed.
And you just better pray you’re not anywhere near me if I’ve had more than a couple nights of less than restful sleep.
In other words, the whole system fails. I simply can’t stay healthy when I’m stressed and I KNOW I’m not the only one.
How to Manage Your Stress
It’s not meditating.
It’s not taking a nap or drinking chamomile tea.
Just like ingesting an Ibuprofen to alleviate your headache, these tactics only help to alleviate the symptoms. They don’t come anywhere close to the cause.
To do that, you have to get to the root of your problem and figure out what’s contributing to your stress in the first place.
For me, this means tackling the workaholic and perfectionist in me who says, “If I’m not constantly working, then I’m not working hard enough, and if my work isn’t “perfect,” then I’m not working hard enough!” and has me setting ridiculous daily goals for myself that I can’t possibly meet while at the same time reducing my leisure activities to almost nil.
Before I know it, I’m overworking, undereating, and having mad cravings for all kinds of cooked food comforts.
So what do I do to combat this? I set reasonable goals, plan out my work periods for the day, make sure to leave ample relaxation time and VOILA! I’m more productive, more relaxed, and stress-free!
In other words, I DO SOMETHING about it! I don’t just read lots of stress management articles (like this one). I don’t just sit down to a self-help book. I apply that information to my own life and put it to work as soon as possible.
It’s just like with going raw.
You can read all the raw food literature you want or watch as many raw recipe videos on YouTube as humanly possible. It won’t mean diddly squat if the only raw food you eat is an ounce of lettuce under a mountain of Ranch dressing or a sprig of parsley with your Chicken Carbonara.
You have to actually EAT RAW FOODS to experience the benefits!
Putting It All Together
So if you want to stay raw, maintain an effective exercise program, and obtain overall health, you’ve got to get your stress under control. To do that, you have to figure out what causes your stress, develop techniques for managing it, and then get to work!
As Nike says, JUST DO IT! 
Go raw and be fit,
Swayze
P.S. I know what you’re thinking…”But Swayze, I can’t ‘Just Do It!’ because I don’t know what it is I just gotta do! What’s the first step?”
I think I can help. If you’re at all struggling with maintaining a healthy raw food diet, you should really check out my program How to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings Once and for All.
This is a complete program that will show you exactly how to eliminate any and all cravings and end the diet-binge-diet cycle forever.
To find out more, just follow the link below:
Should We Consume Sprouted Grains?
Angelbe asks:
I also noticed sprouted grains being used in some of the gourmet recipes. What’s your opinion regarding those?
There is no reason to consume wheat, rye, barley, etc; these foods offer nothing in the way of nutrition that cannot be found in fruits, greens, nuts and seeds. “Raw” grains – I use this term loosely because the kernel must be processed before human consumption – are low in vitamin C, high in insoluble fiber and low in necessary water-soluble fiber.
If you want optimal health, get your calories from simple sweet fruits and leave the grains for the birds.
For more information on grains, check out my article here.
Swayze
8 comments
I understand that grains are not a staple content of a raw food lifestyle but I have found for me after a time I have a craving for a heavy food that some how makes me feel more grounded.
It is hard to explain but if I have a sprouted spelt, or oat grain bread it seems to balance out a disconnect i feel.
I wonder at times, if there is some kind of energy connected to foods that is not able to be measured by nutrient content, but is necessary to an individual at certain times.
Russell
I understand that grains are not a staple content of a raw food lifestyle but I have found for me after a time I have a craving for a heavy food that some how makes me feel more grounded.
It is hard to explain but if I have a sprouted spelt, or oat grain bread it seems to balance out a disconnect i feel.
I wonder at times, if there is some kind of energy connected to foods that is not able to be measured by nutrient content, but is necessary to an individual at certain times.
Russell
What are your thoughts on Rejuvalac? I have typically not done as well on grains as on fruits, veggies, nuts & seeds, but rejuvalac was part of a detox I did last summer.
Are you getting enough calories from sweet fruit? The only times I have ever craved complex carbs like grains have been when I have cut calories. If you are eating enough, you should feel perfectly grounded even on fruit alone and should not be craving heavier foods.
For those who don't know, rejuvelac is a drink made from soaking grains until they ferment. It is often used by raw foodists to improve digestion.
Again, there is no reason to consume sprouted grains. Food is not medicine; food does not heal. If you want optimal digestion, you need to allow your body to do the work by filling up on healthy sweet fruit and eliminating all the foods and substances (e.g. meat, cheese, antibiotics, alcohol, etc.) that negatively affect your digestion, absorption, assimilation, and elimination.
I would think I was getting enough sweet fruit, as I say I wonder if it is an emotional connect in some way to the thought of having heavier substance in my mouth to chew.
I do not eat grains a lot but I found that a mixture I make of sprouted bio dynamic spelt and chia seed blended with banana or date makes a breakfast porridge that fuels me for hours before a bike ride or an event where I know not much opportunity is available to me to take on food
So I guess you disagree with Hippocrates when he said “Let food be your medicine”
Without proper food, our bodies would have no energy to heal so in an indirect way it does?
In any case – I want to know what you think of soaking nuts and seeds – I find if i do that I can combine a handful with my fruits like dates and bananas…
Hi Swayze, What about raw foodist who have a disease and become raw and the disease goes away.