Integrative Nutrition

“Let Food be Thy Medicine, and Medicine Thy Food.” — Hippocrates

In our crazy busy lives, we can choose to “fit-out,” slow down, make mindful lifestyle choices, and take time to prepare and enjoy wholesome home-cooked meals. — Ann West

I discovered Integrative Nutrition standing in my friend’s kitchen in Manhattan. Her copy of IIN founder Joshua Rosenthal’s book was whispering to me from the bookshelf. Intrigued, I borrowed her book, and after completing it, thought I’d like to take a weekend workshop at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. I found IIN online, and discovered the only course offered required a 40-week commitment of study!

I love cooking and food sharing, so decided it was time to raise the bar for myself and those I love. IIN did not disappoint me. I like and respect Joshua (also the director and main teacher at IIN with a Masters of Science degree in Education, specializing in counseling), because he is rational, kind, and observant.

Food and Mood Disorders

As an educator and counselor, Joshua noticed a correlation between what people eat and how they feel, physically and emotionally. When his clients ate healthier food, their mood improved. The boss, child, or partner they couldn’t abide ceased being the problem!

Vote from the Gut

At IIN Joshua recommends a middle of the road gradual approach to making change. When sampling different diets, he encourages students to experiment, be open to discovery one step at a time, and ultimately vote from the gut after it’s had time to catch up with the head.

Learn from the Best

For each week’s learning module, Joshua invites cutting edge doctors, nutritionists, physical trainers, and personal development experts to lecture in their specialty and share their perspectives on the gamut of traditional and modern diets and life style options.

Bio-Individuality

Best of all Joshua doesn’t vote for what he thinks best! Instead he emphasizes bio-individuality, believing when it comes to nutrition, one size doesn’t fit all. Each person has different dietary needs, based on several factors: ancestry, genetic background, country of origin, gender, age, metabolism, blood type, personal tastes and preferences.

IIN “90-10” Diet

Joshua is a realist who understands human nature. No one will stay on a dogmatic diet that is too rigid. He recommends the IIN “90-10 diet” — 90% of the time, eat whole nutritious foods; 10% of the time, eat whatever you like!

Crowding Out

IIN suggests having healthy snack foods on hand, (such as cut up raw vegetables and hummus or fresh fruits) so that when we’re tempted to eat chips or sweets, we can start with healthy snacks which may better satisfy our hunger, so that we don’t need junk food, or will have one cookie or piece of dark chocolate rather than the whole bag!

Deconstructing Bing Eating

We’re most prone to bing eat when we’re stressed or tired late at night. Rather than feeling guilty and keeping it a secret, Joshua suggests paying attention to what foods we’re binging on, because this is the body’s attempt to find balance and provide something that’s missing. When he was teaching classes and maintaining a diary free macrobiotic diet, he would bing eat on ice cream afterwards. He came to realize he was craving dairy, sugar and fat. Eventually he was able to replace ice cream with healthier dairy in probiotic yogurt, nuts with healthy fats, and sweet root vegetables with natural sugars such as carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes.

Primary Foods

Integrative Nutrition emphasizes that Positive Life Style choices are essential factors for optimal health. Joshua’s Primary Foods at IIN are fulfilling Relationships, Career, Daily Exercise, and Spiritual Practice. He suggests these four spheres in everyone’s life, may be more important than the foods we put in our bodies.

Secondary Foods are what we eat.

IIN, with a mission “to play a crucial role in improving health and happiness, and through that process create a ripple effect that transforms the world,” is a major source for growing consciousness toward integration and Optimal Well Being.

From my study and personal experience practicing Integrative Nutrition, I’ve come to believe that Mind-Body is one integral system that thrives in a holistic marriage of Primary and Secondary Foods. — Ann West

Integrative Nutrition: 12 Steps

Drink more water

Practice cooking

Increase whole grains

Increase sweet vegetables

Increase leafy green vegetables

Experiment with protein

Eat less meat, dairy, sugar and chemicalized, artificial junk foods; consume less coffee, alcohol and tobacco

Develop easy and reliable habits to nurture your body

Have healthy relationships that support you

Find physical activity you enjoy and do it regularly

Find work you love or a way to love the work you have

Develop a spiritual practice

Deepak Chopra: Harnessing the Power of Intention

Intention is the starting point of every dream. It is the creative power that fulfills all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love. Everything that happens in the universe begins with intention. When I decide to buy a birthday present, wiggle my toes, or call a friend, it all starts with intention.   

The sages of India observed thousands of years ago that our destiny is ultimately shaped by our deepest intentions and desires. The classic Vedic text known as the Upanishads declares, “You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

An intention is a directed impulse of consciousness that contains the seed form of that which you aim to create. Like real seeds, intentions can’t grow if you hold on to them. Only when you release your intentions into the fertile depths of your consciousness can they grow and flourish. In my book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, the Law of Intention and Desire lays out the five steps for harnessing the power of intention to create anything you desire.

1. Slip into the gap.

Most of the time our mind is caught up in thoughts, emotions, and memories. Beyond this noisy internal dialogue is a state of pure awareness that is sometimes referred to as “the gap.” One of the most effective tools we have for entering the gap is meditation. Meditation takes you beyond the ego-mind into the silence and stillness of pure consciousness. This is the ideal state in which to plant your seeds of intention.

2. Release your intentions and desires.

Once you’re established in a state of restful awareness, release your intentions and desires. The best time to plant your intentions is during the period after meditation, while your awareness remains centered in the quiet field of all possibilities. After you set an intention, let it go — simply stop thinking about it. Continue this process for a few minutes after your meditation period each day.

3. Remain centered in a state of restful awareness.

Intention is much more powerful when it comes from a place of contentment than if it arises from a sense of lack or need. Stay centered and refuse to be influenced by other people’s doubts or criticisms. Your higher self knows that everything is all right and will be all right, even without knowing the timing or the details of what will happen.

4. Detach from the outcome.

Relinquish your rigid attachment to a specific result and live in the wisdom of uncertainty. Attachment is based on fear and insecurity, while detachment is based on the unquestioning belief in the power of your true Self. Intend for everything to work out as it should, then let go and allow opportunities and openings to come your way. 

5. Let the universe handle the details.

Your focused intentions set the infinite organizing power of the universe in motion. Trust that infinite organizing power to orchestrate the complete fulfillment of your desires. Don’t listen to the voice that says that you have to be in charge, that obsessive vigilance is the only way to get anything done. The outcome that you try so hard to force may not be as good for you as the one that comes naturally. You have released your intentions into the fertile ground of pure potentiality, and they will bloom when the season is right.