Thank you for joining me this week as I discuss each of my 7 Steps to a Great Life. If you have one resolution for 2012, make it one of my 7 Steps. Don’t feel pressured to implement all 7 Steps at the same time (unless you are experiencing serious health problems, at which point you should seek the guidance of an experienced macrobiotic counselor). Just pick one or two to begin, and take it from there. You are bound to experience better health and live a “great life” by adopting one or a few of the 7 Steps! For more in-depth information about each of the 7 Steps, read “The Great Life Diet.”

1. Take time for your meals every day.

This means that you sit down to eat without doing other things. If you eat while driving or watching TV, this takes the value out of your meal. Suppose you are having your teeth cleaned. If the dentist is texting or watching TV during your appointment, would you feel like you were getting the value out of your appointment? Uh, probably not. If anything, you would go find a new dentist! The same goes for eating. You will gain the most nourishment out of your food and you will feel more satisfied with your meal if you are not distracted while you eat.

The next important aspect of Step 1 is to stop eating three hours before bed. This is especially important if you wake up feeling groggy. Why is this? It takes three hours for your food to leave your stomach. When you eat three hours before bed, you still have undigested food in your stomach. This means that your body is working hard to digest your food while you are sleeping, instead of repairing itself and discharging toxins accumulated during the day. You then wake up feeling fatigued because your body has been expending extra energy throughout the night to digest, instead of resting and repairing.

I’ll be revisiting this Step in the future to go into more detail, but join me again tomorrow as I discuss Step 2! Also, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @dennywaxman.