Some years ago I played in a tennis tournament in Golden Gate Park. I lost match match and was talking with my opponent afterward. He had won the great majority of the points, so I asked him what he did to make his Game so good. He said, “I am a student of my own game. “

The first thing I learned when I studied the integrative wellness framework was that I needed to be my own client. I needed to practice the framework on myself on a daily basis.

Lately, I have been considering my diet and where I may be out of balance and at risk of dying young from heart disease, like my father. He dropped dead at the age of 63.

So I looked online to research what foods are good for combating inflammation and calcification in the arteries. I have been telling myself that I eat too much dairy and that I need to reduce that. What I had not examined is the roster of foods that I should be eating. Much to my surprise and delight, all of the foods listed on one of the websites I reviewed are already in my diet!

This list comes from healthline.com:

Berries, beans, fish, tomatoes, onions, citrus, ginger/cinnamon/other spices, flaxseeds, broccoli, beets, oats, nuts/seeds, leafy greens/kale/Romain lettuce, dark chocolate, olive oil.

Another article cited avocados, another of my favorites. It’s so nice to discover that I don’t let have to make huge changes in this particular area of balance.

Everyone is a bit different. Some people can tolerate dairy and gluten, for example, while others have terrible reactions. Being a student of your own healthy balance is the starting point to living with wellness.