Anendra Singh: Guide confirms I'm on right track

The sad reality is the price of eating such rubbish is never reflected in a grocery bill or menu.

It's kind of hard to swallow but it's time to become a Neanderthal.

That is relying on hunting, gathering and fishing rituals to enhance one's nutrient-rich diet.

Without doubt it's easier to let someone else do the above and simply buy the products, provided it's affordable.

My wife calls it midlife crisis. I prefer "lifestyle choice" when it comes to eating, drinking and exercising.

Just on the other side of 50, it's taken me a fairly long time to overcome my inner demons to embrace the new "religion".

Please take note, especially the young and restless who aspire to become somebody in the sporting world.

Every day, ritualistically, I pull a machine out from my kitchen cupboard, plug it to the power point and flick on the switch for 20 seconds.

Resembling the shape of a minute lava lamp of the 1970s, the high-powered food processor whips up a nutritious smoothie from "superfood".

A football fan, screwing up his face at what looks like baby food, said the other day: "Throw in a piece of steak and it'll be great."

I smiled like someone who is sold on scriptures that ensure a seat is already booked in Heaven when the journey on Earth is over.

You see, my philosophy is a back-to-basics one.

It doesn't have to have any fancy marketing labels on it. Just do it yourself.

That is, if (God) nature created food then it's safe to put into your mouth.

Beware the devil's advocates, selling 1.5-litre bottled fizzy drinks for 9c. The sad reality is the price of eating such rubbish is never reflected in a grocery bill or menu.

The sad reality is the price of eating such rubbish is never reflected in a grocery bill or menu.

But like any religion, the multitudes need guidance because it's easy to lose one's way in the seductive fast-food lanes that promise to tantalise taste buds at every bite.

Enter the trilogy of books on "49 ways to ..." eat, think and write yourself well that Exile Publishing sent to me for reviewing.

I instinctively picked up the 49 Ways To Eat Yourself Well from the "well-being series", by Martina Watts, and couldn't put it down, not because it was riveting in a novel sense but enlightening.

In fact, I skipped the foreword and introduction to go straight to breakfast ideas, salads, main meals and snacks.

I have had countless moments on my lips and the lifetime-on-the-hips part remains a long-term highway project.

I was relieved to find I am eating numerous superfoods, such as avocado, broccoli, beetroot, spinach, fish, bananas as well as almonds, pumpkin, flaxseed and sunflower seeds.

Thanks to my heritage, cinnamon, garlic, onion, turmeric, chillies and the likes are a mainstay of the family menu.

I have incorporated the Bircher muesli cereal recipe from the book as part of my breakfast menu.

The $19.99 book serves as a good appraisal guide.

I have shed 9kg since changing my dietary habits (before reading this trilogy) but the downside is football defenders push me off the ball much more easily nowadays. I can live with that.

Nutritional therapist Watts, who has three pages after recipes for variations and substitutions, says: "If God had wanted women to be perfect, he would not have invented chocolate."

The Brighton (UK) author swims in the sea almost every day and I can safely deduce only sensible people tend to do that.

In that vein, I'm not militant and occasionally succumb to a piece of chocolate or some potato crispy in weak moments.

Conversely, I have switched to gluten-free bread to find it doesn't weigh you down, just as brown rice doesn't.

In fact, I am running the routine 8km circuit from home almost 10 minutes faster. Overall, my niggly muscle strains and pains have almost disappeared.

The Think Yourself Well book, by Jan Alcoe and Emily Gajewski, may go some way to helping find physical, mental and emotional release.

Dealing with stress, anger and catching more shut eye find traction with me although the book did take me back a little to my child psychology lecture and tutorial days at varsity.

The Write Yourself Well book, by Jackee Holder, delving in the wisdom of journal entries, takes you deeper into contemporary psychology and psychotherapy.

Heavy stuff and it advises people to preferably pull away from modern technology to appreciate the therapeutic value of pencils and notebooks. Good luck with that when it comes to the Y-Generation.

Mistake-free writing is a given in journal therapy to cleanse one's inner self in striving for wisdom.

I have a horrible feeling Holder, an interfaith minister, didn't have journalists in mind in the quest to help people "put more than a toe into the waters of your subconscious".

Hey, it's a world I could blissfully visit but obtaining a visa from the world of journalism may prove to be difficult.