To me, acting with integrity when it comes to health means honestly deciding which foods are healthy and weaving those foods into my day. It means eating the amount that is needed by my body: No more, no less.
It means getting it right.
What is right is based on my belief system, which starts out being a pretty unconscious operation but which I can question and retrain over time. But here’s mine at the moment.
My belief is that my health is one of the most important gifts I have, even though for parts of my life I have gone along merrily not thinking about it much. I believe food is an integral part of good health. Should it be paleo, vegan or some other incarnation? My personal jury’s still out on that, so I stick with the other beliefs I have; green vegetables are king, other vegetables and fruit come a close second, protein is necessary, some starch is important, the right fats are essential … and the less processed my food is, the better.
That means everything I eat is as fresh and as close to nature as I can find it. And if I can work within those parameters, my diet will automatically improve.
Using my integrity to guide me makes me an ambassador for my body. It brings out the best. It improves physical condition and it satisfies the soul. In this day and age of digital distractions, it also means making decisions in advance so I don’t find myself in the position where a lack of preparation or planning puts me at risk of making decisions that are not congruent with my sense of integrity. And after a while, that becomes the norm. I eat my three meals a day (and two snacks) according to my weekly menu plan and my choices when eating out are based on decisions I made before I got hungry, stressed or rushed.
My whole attitude to food changes in a gentle but profound way.In time, this way of eating becomes simply part of my nature … it’s just how I do it. No questioning, no wishing it were otherwise, no conflict of any kind. Bliss.