Have you ever felt so sick you could hardly sigh?  Take care, because sickness may be your fate if you eat the Western diet.

Health author Kerry Knutson’s mom would say “On a good day I can get up, shower, and maybe lick a stamp” (location 158, 95%).  Not long ago, I got similarly sick.  I couldn’t read and I couldn’t work.  But, wow, could only coil alongside a toilet, or crash 30-hours straight.

My doctor knew me so well, she could map my family tree back to the stone age.  The radiologist knew me even better.  But neither had answers.  So, I pored over nutrition books, revamped my diet, and turned gym junkie.  A year and four months later, the sickness subsided.

So, here are tips on how to curb sick spells:

Eat chocolate containing five or less ingredients, said to me a Bernard Callebaut marketing guru.  But that applies to every food, says author Kerry Knutson.  So, eat nothing packaged with more than five ingredients.  And if you can’t pronounce it, don’t swallow it.

But do chew your food 30 times per bite, says author Kerry Knutson.  Another author, Dr.  Mercola, says  chewing longer helps us absorb more nutrients.  So, savor your snack until it dissolves on your tongue.

Eat all your foods within a 12-hour window—fasting overnight.   Eating within an 8- to 12-hour window helps you lose weight and curb disease, says the researchers of the My Circadian Clock study.  But aim to eat within a 10-hour window for peak results.

Discover the Rocky Mountain Soap store.  The store stocks nontoxic shampoos, conditioners, and soaps.  Drug-store shampoos typically contain toxins that leach into your skull and then sink into your innards.  So, go nontoxic when it comes to suds that seep into your brain.

Most of all, instead of watching TV, play in the gym.  Gyms grow fun once you turn gym rat.  But make gym-time a lifetime.

If you want even wilder health tips, then listen to Kerry Knutson, author of Create Your Healthy Life: A Complete Plan for More Energy, Less Stress, Your Ideal Weight and Disease Prevention:

• Your tongue says a lot about your health. Does your tongue carry a white film and pink tip?  If so, watch out for the worries and blues.  If not, search online for Chinese Medicine Tongue Map to discover clues about your health.
• Stress wrecks health. So, tap away your worries “using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), sometimes called Tapping ….  EFT uses acupressure points to help relieve stress” (location 1410, 82%).
• Your heart rate can help you make wise food choices. Download a heart rate monitor app and “use Cocoa’s Pulse Test to determine if you have food sensitivities” (location 1428, 83%).
• To clean up your health, keep an eye on your poop: “We get great daily feedback through—yep, you guessed it—our poop! It’s like reading tea leaves ….  A great starting place is with the Bristol Stool Chart/Scale.  There are seven different pictures on this scale and they reveal what ideal bowel movements should look like” (location 435, 25%).
• Go cancer-free by cutting out sugar: “Sugar feeds cancer cells. When you eliminate sugar, you are eliminating the fuel that cancer (and fungus like candida) need to survive” (location 661, 38%).
• Eat food packaged with no cartoon characters: “Redefine what you think of as food. What is a whole food?  Does it come from or live in the soil?  If yes, then it’s likely a whole food.  Does it have a label and a brand and company advertising it?  Then it’s likely not a whole food” (location 578, 33%).

A friend said her diabetic brother-in-law could still enjoy foods he loves.  I said no way.  Reverse the diabetes instead.  Eat low-glycemic foods.  Find whole foods he loves or half-way likes.  Eat probiotic-rich foods.  And cut out Red Bull.  Condition the taste buds to savor health.