A west central Albertan has released a new book about how setting realistic lifestyle goals and sticking to them can lead to healthier bodies and minds.In a Gazette interview, Drew Taddia, an Olds resident, talked about his new book Detoxify Yourself which offers advice on making good long-term health choices.Chapter subjects include genetically modified organisms (GMOs), how to avoid toxins, how to boost your metabolism, and most importantly, how to live a healthy lifestyle one step at a time.“A lot of people ask me for meal plans,” said Taddia, “and I don't think meal plans are exactly sustainable, and what I teach is a healthy lifestyle.”He doesn't like the conventional system of dropping weight fast, because weight may drop quickly in some cases, but without an actual change in lifestyle, it all comes right back again, he said.“Everyone knows how that goes. I've never handed out meal plans before for that reason, but I decided to put into paper what I teach - how to live healthier, eat healthier, and increase your metabolism,” he said.When people are simply living healthier, weight will come off slowly, but permanently, he said.“And you become a healthy, natural weight, as opposed to bouncing up and down with losing weight. It doesn't pan out unless there's a lifestyle change,” he said.Toxins are also a key player in lifestyle changes, because many processed and packaged foods have toxins that we are not aware of, he said.A big portion of the book deals with toxins that people put into and on their bodies every day, he said.“People don't know that. People don't know that we put toxins on our bodies every day with lotions and soaps too,” he said.There is so much to deal with, he added.“It's hard to wrap your head around what you can do, but that's something else I write about. There are small choices that we can make, and as long as we're continually trying to make better choices, then we're doing what we can,” he said.“If we try to change everything all at once, like a flash diet plan, then that's when we run into things that just don't work.”For his part, Taddia says his favourite part of the book is the section where people write out their goals and put in a photograph of themselves when they start out on the plan, so they can look back at that photo and see the changes in themselves weekly.He also instructs people to write out their goals and aspirations, alongside a photo of what they want for themselves, be it hiking, mountain climbing, or anything else that they can work towards.He writes about detoxifying the body, but also included a section where people write down the negative thoughts they think about themselves to detoxify the mind.“Our thoughts are so toxic. We think such horrible thoughts about ourselves that we wouldn't think of anyone else,” he said.“People think ‘I'm overweight, I'm ugly, I can't do this, I can't do that.' So once you write them down, you see them in front of you, and you can see how ridiculous some of our thoughts are. I think that really helps clear our minds of that negativity.”Though a large portion of the book is how to plan and eat healthy meals, Taddia said the key is to start out slowly and build upwards.“The first step is to just add something in the morning, something easy on the stomach, but something that's going to help your metabolism start moving faster. A morning breakfast is a big one.”Many people don't like eating breakfast because it doesn't sit well on their stomachs, but he said this is because their bodies are used to it.“A healthy person can't stomach a doughnut and a coffee in the morning either, but a lot of people do that,” he said.The key is for people to change their mindsets, he said.“We need to change what our bodies are looking for by giving it healthy foods,” he said.Along with detoxifying the mind, the book also has a section on reducing stress.“Staying away from toxins, that's going to reduce our (bodily) stress, along with mental stress. Meditation is a good one that I added because a lot of people think that meditation is just sitting and not thinking, and people stay away from it,” he said.The section explains Taddia's thoughts on meditation, and how it isn't just the conventional Tai Chi or Yoga.“Any kind of repetitive activity can be a form of meditation,” he said. “So cooking is a form of meditation, chopping wood is a kind of meditation. These can clear your mind. You're doing something you enjoy, and you're relaxing. That's a form of meditation.”
