What’s Good in Your life?

Japanese people have always been very conscious about living a healthy lifestyle and eating balanced, nutritious meals. Being born and raised in Japan, I therefore had a very healthy childhood. I grew up in an area called Sapporo, which is famous for having the best and tastiest fish in the country! Every day, my mother cooked a balanced meal that included fish, vegetables, fruits, rice, miso soup, pickles, pork, and lamb – and not a lot of beef.

Lunch at the elementary school I attended was also planned by a licensed nutritionist, and it was mandatory that we ate all the food that was on the menu.

Since moving here to the US, I’ve found that the nutritional value of my diet has unfortunately become quite unbalanced. I do tend to cook for myself because I can cook Japanese food that is almost as good as what my mother used to cook. When I was growing up, I didn’t go out to restaurants a lot to eat, so I’m not really interested in going to restaurants often and prefer to eat what I cook at home. Of course, I do go to restaurants with friends sometimes and have found over the years that I’m not as careful as I used to be about making sure that I have a balanced, nutritious meal.

A few months ago, I looked back at how healthy I used to be with my food intake. I decided to try and go back to eating healthier and organic meals, but was not having much success as I wasn’t really making enough of an effort.

Last week, I finally decided to make a concentrated effort for a few days to return to a healthier diet and lifestyle. What I did was very simple. I went to yoga, ate rice, miso soup, fish, vegetables, and fruits for dinner. Then I walked for almost one hour. And now I feel GREAT!

It was that simple. I also had my first experience with acupuncture and found it to be really good. After the acupuncture session, my body felt relaxed and happy, and yet at the same time I was full of energy. I just loved it.

Whenever you do something good for yourself, it makes your body feel better, doesn’t it? But, as many of you have experienced, it’s hard to maintain such a commitment in this busy society.

My body and mind are totally relaxed now, and I think I have a good chance of maintaining this healthy lifestyle for the next few weeks because I’m going to visit my family in Japan – I’m so looking forward to seeing them all again.

While I’m in Japan, I intend to enjoy the balanced and nutritious meals and also continue with my yoga, and I’ll report my progress to you all from there, so stay tuned!

[tags]nutritious and balanced meals, healthy lifestyle, Japanese childhood, acupuncture, yoga[/tags]