Natural Health and Wellness in Retirement Our guest today is Marian Carroll who is an expert in bio-individuality. It is a concept which means that a single diet does not fit all and the needs of an individual have to be considered. Marian had a career in finance and IT and reached her retirement age as a baby boomer. She wanted a reason to get up in the morning and have something to do. This zeal led her to train and become a holistic health counselor who deals with natural health and wellness. Her job involves advising people on natural health and wellness in all aspects of life. This is for them to achieve optimal health. She focuses on five key aspects which are crucial for an improved healthy diet, physical care and exercise, a purpose in life, emotional wellness and spiritual practice. Marian tells us that all the five aspects are connected and should be our focus if we want to stay healthy especially in our retirement age having natural health and wellness. Marian gives us helpful insights on how to connect with nature to improve our health. She is not only talking about the nature that surrounds us, but she is also referring to out intrinsic nature or the intuitions. It is important to listen to our intuitions to achieve optimal health. Health and Nature Marian also states that we should improve our health by making well thought, slow and permanent changes in our lifestyle. The most important thing we need to be wary of is the food that we eat. We should start thinking about natural health and wellness for ourselves. We have developed a habit of thinking intellectually about what we eat rather than having our intuitions do the job. Marian's father used to say that she would eat what she needs as she is more connected to nature as a child. Marian thinks we should follow the same philosophy and let our guts decide what is good for us. It would also tell us what food to stay away from as they as they are not good for our body. Our body is more alive in a natural health and wellness. We should be super careful about what we eat and look to include more green in our diet because we really need to consider natural health and wellness. Marian says that the 80% food products that we get in the supermarket are made in factories which is not natural. Out of those around 65% to 80% come with added sugar. Natural Sweeteners Marian tells us that we should look to cut out processed sugar as much as possible from our diets. Too much sugar can lead to inflammation and even feed dangerous diseases like cancer. I also agree with Marian as Les, and I have stopped consuming sugar after he was diagnosed with cancer. It takes a bit of awareness and a lot of reading of labels of food products to know what to buy. Many products come with sugar such as peanut butter, bread, soups and we need to be aware of them. We will know about the ingredients and can choose sugar-less options easily if we read contents. Marian also suggests to us that we should aim to eat more plant-based whole food. You can even go for a plant-based version of popular food items such as noodles- there is a version which is made from the root of a plant found in Asia. You can also use natural sweeteners and natural honey instead of sugar to make your food sweet. This is what natural health and wellness are about. Natural Health and Wellness You should start with small changes and include veggies in your diet slowly and gradually. Your body may not be used to vegetables and you may be gassy or have other stomach issues in the beginning. But slowly your body will detoxify and adapt to the new diet making you feel more natural, healthy and energetic. The topic comes up that many people don't like to eat vegetables which affect our natural health and wellness. I asked Marian what should such people do to include natural greens in their diet.