The Two-Meal Revelation; Rediscovering Ancient Wisdom For Health And Vitality
One other important element to consider is the number of meals you should have daily. It is not known how many meals Thomas Parr had, but if we revisit the British and European eating patterns of the 15th century, the majority of people had two meals a day.
The first meal known as dinner was the heaviest, had in the morning between 9 to 11am, and the evening meal called supper, a little lighter than dinner, between 4 to 6pm. The farming community in North India known as Jat Sikhs have followed a similar meal plan from hundreds of years, and have the strongest genetics and life-span compared to all other tribes in the second most populated nation of the world. During the British rule, they formed over thirty percent of the Indian army, although their population was barely two percent. They accomplished great feats of bravery and made a name for themselves for their courage, strength, and endurance on the battlefield to achieve numerous victories. In direct comparison to the diet of Thomas Parr, they also lived on the produce of the land, ate a lot of raw vegetables and had milk in every form.
I began experimenting with this ancient way of having two meals few years ago to verify if this was better than the five meals recommended by most health professionals. My first meal is around 9am, and is loaded with a vast number of nutrients the body would need to stay active the entire day. The meal typically consists of a large serving of raw vegetable salad with hummus, salsa, yogurt, assorted nuts, and a large bowl of smoothie prepared with milk and fresh fruits. This meal gives me tremendous energy and keeps the body in high gear for rest of the day. The best part is, I am able to focus on work without having to bother about lunch. It’s quite normal that a person becomes lazy after the midday meal and the work output or efficiency is greatly reduced. This being the reason why people are more active in the morning hours, when compared to afternoon. Besides the health benefits of skipping lunch, my productivity and creativity has vastly increased, which obviously means greater overall success in all that I do. The second meal is between 6 to 7pm, and it would normally consist of a raw vegetable salad, hummus, greek yogurt, salsa, vegetable soup, and a gravy made with assorted raw vegetables.
Having experimented with the five and two meals regimen, I find the latter so much more beneficial in several ways. Firstly, it’s not easy to follow the five meal plan for people who are actively working. Preparation and taking meals to work is quite a hassle, and then finding time to have them is a great distraction when involved in work.
Also, when you’re unable to take meals from home, the only choice is eating unhealthy food from outside. Whereas in the two meal program, it’s simple to have the morning meal at home before leaving for work, and the evening meal after you return. I am amazed at how fruitful my days have become, as I can accomplish so much more in the same time frame. The kind of high energy people usually have only in the morning hours, I have that for the entire day. While other people look forward to lunch break, I have nothing but the work I do to look forward to our eyes are truly the windows of our soul, through which we see, communicate, and enjoy the wonders of life.
When we don’t provide the right nourishment and nutrients to our body, along with other organs, the eyes too begin to weaken. The internal state of the organs one cannot see, but the state of eyes becomes easily visible when you begin having problems in reading books or using a computer etc. I too was no exception as my vision began diminishing around the age of 45. This was the time when my life was taking a complete 180 degree turn, as I had realized the importance of taking care of the physical body I lived in. As I moved ahead in my journey of keeping the body fit and healthy, the vision kept improving.
Besides vision, there are four other important elements that determine the quality of human life on Earth. These are — the sense of taste, touch, smell, and hearing. Normally after mid-age the powers of all the five senses begin to lose their strength. Eyeglasses or contact lenses may help you to have a clear vision, while hearing-aids will help you hear better, but what about the sense of touch, taste, and smell? There’s no gadget that can improve or maintain the powers of these important senses that facilitate our experience of the true joys of life. In 1760, Immanuel Kant, a famous philosopher, brought forward a very relevant point concerning the importance of our senses.
He said that in order to understand the outer extrasensory world, we need to understand our inner sensory world. Each of the five senses are composed of organs having cellular structures that have receptors for specific stimuli, which are linked to the nervous system and the brain. Sight is the most evolved sense modality followed by hearing, touch, taste and smell. People often look for extrasensory experiences externally without realizing these are all internal. If we are doing all the right things to keep our bodies in perfect order, the five senses would work at an optimum level, and every little thing we see, hear, touch, taste, or smell will give us an extrasensory experience.
Today at age 60 not only do I have perfect vision, but the other four senses are also functioning in the most extraordinary manner. Each moment of my life that 1 am awake is an extrasensory experience, as I can hear distant sounds, and distinct musical notes in songs, which most people cannot. I am able to smell the fragrance of flowers or aroma of foods from far away, while my sense of touch and taste are sensitive in a beautiful way which helps me experience life in its subtleties. You can well imagine what might be the state of all my other internal organs. Am I doing anything supernatural for my body to be in such a heavenly state of health? Did Thomas Parr do anything supernatural to have a perfect body and enjoy the wonders of youth till the ripe age of 152 years? Do you have to do anything supernatural to achieve the same results?
The truth is, no supernatural act is required to have perfect health. The sole requirement of course, is discipline and commitment, with a strong intent to do what is required for the body to be in a continuous state of regeneration. If you’ve had an unhealthy lifestyle till now, it doesn’t matter; if you’ve abused your body with wrong foods, drugs and medications, it doesn’t matter. The moment you change all that and set yourself on the path of improvement, the inception of a new body dawns. It’s all up to you as you truly are the ‘Master of your Destiny’, and the foods you provide your body will become the raw materials for creation of new cells and regeneration of the existing organs.
While constructing a physical home to live in, it’s not enough to have the raw materials in hand, as there are many other important aspects that need to be followed to make it fit for living with respect to various other dimensions.
Likewise, in the process of regeneration of your existing body you would also need to follow a certain lifestyle for the cells and organs to develop as per your expectations. Going Back to Nature also means going back to a tried and tested way of life. For a seed to grow and blossom to the ultimate capacity the gardener has to provide a fertile soil, sufficient water, the right nutrients, regular clearing of weeds etcetera.
As you are the gardener of your body, you would have to do all that. How will you do it? This is what we will explore in the next chapter.
