John Pierre, a well-known health coach and trainer, shares the secrets he’s learned over the years to get you healthy
Do Good Deeds When You Are Done
John Pierre, the nutrition and fitness consultant who works with celebrities, the military, corporations, seniors, and children, challenges one-dimensional views of health in his book The Pillars of Health. He describes four categories of daily choices to cultivate to achieve lifelong well-being, fun, and a deep sense of satisfaction and purpose. Even more, this book is suffused with compassion and caring for readers. You will feel like John Pierre is your personal coach, cheering you on to make better choices without demanding perfection.
The essential pillars of health are nutrition, mind, motion, and compassion. Take away any one of these foundations, and support for your health is wobbly. Take away two or more, and you may end up coping with pain, illness, and disability.
The author’s solutions are infused with playfulness, delight, and delicious taste. John Pierre gives you hundreds of specific, practical steps, complete with photos, stories, and recipe ideas, to strengthen each of the pillars of health, rebuilding them from the ground up if you need to. You will find out about nourishing foods, creative stimulation for you mind, fun ways to move, and a compassionate way of relating to your fellow beings.
I was fortunate to hear John Pierre present at Healthy Taste of LA and talk with him after to get more insight into how he came to write The Pillars of Health and what he wants you to learn from his book. I was fascinated to discover that, while still in high school, John Pierre adopted a vegan diet, and has found it effortless to stick to for 30 years. “I have never been tempted to eat my friends since I found out how farmed animals are treated,” he told me. Even in high school, he intuitively grasped the connection between animal and human suffering, writing papers on both animal rights and women’s rights.
Since then, John Pierre has championed the vulnerable, especially senior citizens, women, and children
The Pillars of Health will give you the foundation of lifelong well-being
warped by nutrient-deficient food and societal-approved violent lyrics and games. In The Pillars of Health, he shares the creative methods he has developed to get you on the fast track to vibrant health.
NUTRITION
John Pierre calls out processed, imposter foods as destructive and addicting. “These foods are legal drugs that fool you, not fuel you,” he summarizes. Health comes from whole plant foods, which should make up at least 90% of your diet. Animal foods are also harmful and unnecessary; he specifically points out the link between dairy foods and obesity and premature puberty.
A blender is an excellent investment. Smoothies are an easy way to get hurried adults, kids who may be reluctant to eat veggies, and seniors who have problems with chewing to benefit from the nutritional power of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. John Pierre shares smoothie and meal ideas. He recognizes that dietary change is a transition, and encourages you to graduate your tastes to foods that support cellular health, brain function, and energy to move all day
John Pierre advocates smoothies as an excellent way to deliver lots of fruits and veggies to people who would otherwise probably pass up these great foods
long.
MIND
In his extensive experience with clients, John Pierre has observed both the loss of cognitive ability in seniors and an epidemic of Attention Deficit Disorder, depression, hyperactivity, and poor memory in children and teens. His book gives numerous practical ideas to build and preserve brain health. “Mental workouts best involve getting you to do things in a new way, such as using your non-dominant hand for writing or drawing. You need to keep engaging in novel activities to build new brain connections,” John Pierre shares.
The Pillars of Health describes brain-supporting foods and antioxidants, hydration, and stimulating activities. The authors shows how certain scents from essential oils, music, restful sleep, and avoidance of violent media “entertainment” support strong cognitive functioning and overcome the aggression that threatens social functioning.
MOTION
Our modern sedentary lifestyle is a health disaster. A once-a-day intense workout is not the answer. If you sit 23 hours a day and exercise one hour, your body is still greatly damaged. “The cure for sitting is not sitting,” John Pierre simply explains. The motion section of The Pillars of Health gives you both the tools and the inspiration to make this happen. He invites you to graduate from sitting to standing to moving to playing.
“Sneaking” in movement in your daily activities adds up to a huge benefit. You can use simple stretches,
Motion should be playful and fun if you are going to make it part of your life
posture changes, and inexpensive equipment in your home or while traveling to make this happen. John Pierre shows you how to have fun doing this, so you remain motivated and energize your brain as well as your body when you move. “Adults can be as playful as children and puppies to creatively stay in motion and mentally stimulated,” John Pierre observes.
COMPASSION
If you follow the author’s suggestions for optimal nutrition, mental stimulation, and joyful movement throughout the day, you may be thinking you’ve done enough. But you make a mistake if you ignore the pillar of compassion. In fact, compassion, love and kindness, starting with yourself and rippling to all other beings, is the fundamental force that will transform your life and keep you on track with the other three pillars.
You need to extend compassion to all animals as well as people for this pillar of health to be firmly in place. Here my daughter Angela shows her love for a rescued goat at sanctuary for farmed animals.
Muscle and brain health are not enough, and will ultimately flounder without support from a compassionate worldview and choices. “You are assaulted by thousands of thoughts, mental images, and words every day,” John Pierre summarizes.
The author gives you ideas for strengthening your compassion and, just as important, putting it into action to help yourself and others. This is where his mantra – “Think Good Thoughts, Do Good Deeds” – creates the powerful positive synergy that transforms your world in a way that will never let you slide back into the health crisis that plagues the world today. You will join John Pierre in modeling the pillars of health for everyone who needs that understanding.
WHAT’S NEXT
I asked John Pierre about his next project. What is top of mind for him now is bringing to life the sanctuary he has planned for farmed and lab animals. These rescued animals will be the core of a very special place that will also be a refuge for women who are victims of domestic violence, where they can spend time healing, and will be a retreat for others who can stay a few days in the peaceful atmosphere. Classes for the community, on topics such as growing food, will be a resource for neighbors who will absorb information on the four pillars “by osmosis.”
Keep your eye on John Pierre’s projects, books, and achievements by visiting his website and watching for him to speak in your area. Reading The Pillars of Health will get you started on learning his vitalizing and healing lessons.
If you enjoyed this post, you may want to read about my peaceful day with rescued farmed animals at Animal Acres (now called Farm Sanctuary’s Animal Acres).
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Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. The book describes a whole foods, plant-based diet that is in harmony with John Pierre’s nutrition pillar.
Tags: ADHD, compassion, getting healthy, Healthy Taste of LA, John Pierre, making a difference now, Plant-based nutrition, process of change, reverse chronic disease, The Pillars of Health, whole foods
