While recovering from successive operations, and awaiting the major one on a date to be arranged, I have read about Tao diets and wellbeing, and agree with many basic principals on good and stable eating habits, which actually cover every corner of the earth if we only realise it a little more, instead of being hauled into the norm.

Have a look at these;

Eat whole, natural foods.

Eat only foods that will spoil, but eat them before they do.

Eat naturally raised meat including fish, seafood, poultry, beef, lamb, game, organ meats and eggs. The best beef is grass fed.

Eat whole, naturally produced milk products from pasture-fed cows, raw and/or fermented, such as whole yogurt, cultured butter, whole cheeses and fresh and sour cream.

Use only traditional fats and oils including butter and other animal fats, extra virgin olive oil, expeller expressed sesame and flax oil and the tropical oils—coconut and palm. For best results use only coconut oil in cooking and small amounts of olive oil and flax seed oil for salad dressings.

Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, in salads and soups, or lightly steamed.

Use whole grains and nuts that have been prepared by soaking, sprouting or sour leavening to neutralize phytic acid and other anti-nutrients.

Include enzyme-enhanced lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages and condiments in your diet on a regular basis.

Prepare homemade meat stocks from the bones of chicken, beef, lamb or fish and use liberally in soups and sauces.

Use filtered high PH alkaline water for cooking and drinking.

Use unrefined sea salt and a variety of herbs and spices for food interest and appetite stimulation.

Make your own salad dressing using raw apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and/or cold pressed flax seed oil.

Use natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw honey, maple syrup, Barly Malt

Use only un-pasteurized wine or beer in moderation with meals.

Cook only in stainless steel, cast iron, glass or good quality enamel.

Eat your last large meal before sundown

Use only natural supplements made from whole foods.

Get plenty of sleep, exercise and natural light.

Always sit down to eat.

Always chew your food at least 30 times each mouthful

Think positive thoughts and minimize stress, always look for the positive in any experience that comes your way, even if that experience causes you pain. The key is not to waste life force in worry.

with so much to read
and plenty to tell
much to see
whether heaven or hell
these words shall be written
these hands will clutch
as feet will guide
the legs that walk

The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint-hearted.”
Peter McWilliams

There would be nothing to frighten you if you refused to be afraid.
Gandhi

Take chances. When rowing forward, the boat may rock. -Chinese Proverb

At the center of your being you have the answer;
You know who you are and you know what you want.
Lao-tzu

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where two worlds touch. The round door is open.
Don't go back to sleep.
Djalal ad Din Rumi

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
Robert H. Schuller

As plentiful as the grass that grows,
Or the sand on the shore,
Or the dew on the leaf,
So the blessings of the King of Grace
On every soul that was, that is, or will be.
Traditional Irish blessing

Because today I'm being given chicken korma with rice, (in hospital), I thought this posting seemed fun...

The Legend of the Rice
In the days when the earth was young and all things were better than they now are, when men and women were stronger and of greater beauty, and the fruit of the trees was larger and sweeter than that which we now eat, rice, the food of the people, was of larger grain.

One grain was all a man could eat; and in those early days, such, too, was the merit of the people, they never had to toil gathering the rice, for, when ripe, it fell from the stalks and rolled into the villages, even unto the granaries. And upon a year when the rice was larger and more plentiful than ever before, a widow said to her daughter "Our granaries are too small. We will pull them down and build larger."

When the old granaries were pulled down and the new one not yet ready for use, the rice was ripe in the fields. Great haste was made, but the rice came rolling in where the work was going on, and the widow, angered, struck a grain and cried, "Could you not wait in the fields until we were ready? You should not bother us now when you are not wanted."

The rice broke into thousands of pieces and said "From this time forth, we will wait in the fields until we are wanted," and from that time the rice has been of small grain, and the people of the earth must gather it into the granary from the fields.

These past two weeks have been a testing time, indeed, this year ahead will be even more so.

I'm undergoing treatments, (at long last), for my damaged spine, which involved injections, awaiting a very major operation on my spine itself. An operation in which my consultant requested my permission three times.

Finally, after two months, my MRI results were shown to me, revealing that my spine is far, far worse than they had previously diagnosed, namely the 'slipped disc' is an absurd term for a vertebrae that is way off line, and cracked, with the added discomfort of having two areas of protrusion, both pressing the nerve, one of which is close to causing some paralysis.

There are several other battles going on within, such as a stomach ulcer too.
But, I've every intention of fighting, and eventually winning...