Can You Stomach It?

VIRGO HANDLE
If you look at a chart for today, all of the planets, except for two, are lined up from Capricorn to Gemini, from the 5th House to the 10th, skipping the 7th. Interestingly enough, directly opposite the empty 7th House, you'll find our miscreant planets, the moon and Saturn, chilling in the 1rst House in Virgo. The picture appears to be a basket with Virgo as the handle. With Saturn in retrograde (see Retro-Virus), and the moon's influence, this is a very detail oriented time, where most of us will get bogged down in minutiae. Keep an eye out for the forests, people, and try not to let the trees get in the way. We may see an onset of anal-retentiveness as well as a focus upon health and cleanliness. Spring cleaning, get going!

Information about Virgo can be found here.

Virgo rules the stomach. Makes sense for a sign that's health concerned, no? Since we're getting a handle on Virgo, I got to thinking about the number of things that we ingest on a daily basis and what effect that can have on our bodies. I never really considered the reactions that I would have as a result of food or drink (except for alcohol, of course, but that's an obvious reaction). I'd heard the word caffeine bandied about, especially in connection to coffee and more recently, soda, but I never stopped to think about what caffeine would actually do to my body. Does it really wake you up? Is it really that bad for you? I mean, I jumped on the diet soda kick, but mainly because it seemed like everyone else knew what was going on. I know, jeep + cliff. Guess I answered that question, huh?

Recently, a friend mentioned to me that she takes green tea supplements because it curbs her hunger. Is that natural? Should we be staving off hunger? I mean, there are a million diets out there and hunger even has a face nowadays, according to Weight Watchers. There are also numerous food plans that are supposed to help you not "diet," but eat healthy. Yet, everyone I talk to keeps telling me something different. Carbs are bad. No, carbs are good as long as you're eating good carbs. Fruit is a good source of carbs, but man, they're high in sugar. Sugar is good for you for energy, but you don't want too much of it. Cereals are good sugar, but then you're back to carbs. And where are you getting your protein? You should be eating a fistful of protein at every meal. That's only if you're exercising. If you're exercising, you should be eating more. It depends on how many calories you've eaten that day. The number of calories you eat depends on how big you are and how much weight you want to lose. Weight is just a number; it's all about being healthy.

STOP! Everyone is different, but if everyone is different, how can we eat healthily for ourselves? Isn't there SOME kind of master plan that would teach us the basics of correct eating? I'm sure McDonald's has a great one and it's being instituted with their McCafe. For a country that's dealing with an obesity epidemic, you'd think it might behoove us to learn a little bit more about the foods we're eating. Like what those labels on the back of the foods mean. My yogurt today is 90 calories. Is that enough for a meal? Should I be eating more? Should it just be a snack? And some fat is good fat, I've been told. How much good fat should I have? Without a nutritionist, I haven't a clue what these numbers mean. What about organic? Are organic foods better for us?

Now is the perfect time for developing the right eating habits. After all, summer's coming up. Bathing suit season, folks. I have friends who are worried if they have a piece of pizza. Others claim sushi is the healthiest thing as long as you don't eat the rice. Still others say that you should eat only 2/3 of your meal, never the whole thing. Perhaps, but I want to be able to enjoy pizza without the guilt. I want to have my sushi and eat the rice too! What is eating healthy?

Far from being a nutritionist myself, I decided to do a little bit of research and I see that many sites recommend eating in moderation and eating often. They also suggest eating a wide variety of foods. Rainbow takes on yet another meaning. You want to eat as many colors as possible in a given day. Apparently, around 2000 calories is a healthy intake (guess I'm gonna need more than that yogurt). Carbs, protein, and fats are all needed, but in certain amounts - don't overdo it. Drink lots of water. One of my favorites was to slow down and enjoy the food more. Eating is a pleasure. I think the Taurean sun will help us with that. Obviously, these are basic guidelines, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

These are all great rules, but I think the most important one that I found was listen to your body. Something that I haven't done for 27 years. Most of the time, it seems to know what it wants and I say if my body's craving chocolate, I'll give it chocolate - in moderation. In a lot of ways, our bodies have an intelligence all their own and they speak up often. It's a matter of listening and attuning. In addition to the quotidian blog, I plan to work on listening more to my own body and seeing what it wants. Maybe I'll get a better feel for what I should be eating (within the parameters of the general rules).

Time to get a better handle on food. Virgo, lead the way.