“Life moves pretty fast! If you don’t stop and look around once in a while it just might pass you by.” Ferris Bueller
While many of us may fail to keep our New Year’s resolutions, it seems like no time at all before another New Year arrives and we can start over.
But what if the reason to change came to us? Would it make a difference to our resolve?
On 7 July 2015, best-selling author Tim Baker (Bustin’ Down the Door, Occy, Surf for Your Life) was given the shattering news that he had inoperable advanced prostate cancer.
“It’s difficult to describe the sheer, surreal terror of receiving a diagnosis like this,” he tells us. “Everything changed in an instant. It was a full ‘wake up’ call.”
In the reassessment time that followed chemotherapy, Tim made decisions about his life, proactively educating himself in lifestyle practices that would promote healing, boost immunity and reduce stress.
“I became superconscious of everything I put into my mouth,” he says, “realising that I was eating for healing. It became a top priority.”
It was a major mind shift from the way that many of us view food and lifestyle.
Loading up on an organic wholefood plant-based diet, Tim includes superfoods such as broccoli and pomegranate, brown rice, good soy products, fermented foods and wild-caught fish in his daily regime, along with meditation, yoga and pilates.
“Any one of us could have had this diagnosis,” he tells us. “Why wait until you’re sick to take preventative action? Why poison yourself when you can live a better, more effective life being fit and healthy?”
So, where should we start making changes? Tim’s advice is to “…hug your loved ones, heal an old rift, do what makes your heart sing, marvel at the play of light on the ocean or the meandering of clouds across a twilight sky. Eat your vegies, get some regular exercise, drink plenty of water and try and reduce stress and conflict in your life.”
We’re fortunate on the Gold Coast to have so many great food options, he says, such as Miami’s Organic Markets, Currumbin Valley Harvest, Ground Grocer, Freeman’s Farm and organic producers who sell at local farmers’ markets across the coast.
It’s easier than ever to choose healthy food as a sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle. After all, none of us want the need for change to come to us!
Read more about Tim Baker at http://www.bytimbaker.com/
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NOTE: This article was published in The Sun on 10 January 2018.