An Attitude of Gratitude for Green in the New Year
This year begins for me with a new excitement! At the age of 58, I feel younger and more energetic, also healthier and optimistic than last year. I have a tray on my bedroom wall that has the word Gratitude on it and when I look at it, I realize just how grateful I am that my life has taken me on this particular path.
The path I’ve traveled began with the quest for a healthier diet. I was not terribly ill, just tired and feeling older than I thought I should. I have always believed that we are what we eat and we know that a healthy diet is comprised of veggies, fruit and lean protein, right?
Well, there was another thing bothering me regarding a healthy diet. Shouldn’t one who follows the prescribed healthy diet be healthier? If the answer is yes, then why are so many wonderful people I know, who eat ‘right,’ getting cancer or other life-threatening diseases?
Here is where the gratitude comes in. I am very grateful to have an open mind regarding alternative healing choices. Let me say, I fully respect the paths of others that take a different turn. However, for me, I feel strongly that I must learn as much as I can before I am put in the position of having to make one of the hardest decisions of my life; namely how to treat a terminal or life-threatening illness. The statistics are saying one in two will get some form of cancer. These are not odds I want to wait around to see. Why are so many people so unhealthy? One factor has to be their diet!
On my quest, I have been fortunate to discover the Hippocrates Health Institutes work with wheatgrass and healing, based on the enzymes in sprouts and their increased phenomenal nutritional value. In an era where we eat so few uncooked foods (and sometimes none) in a day, how else could our bodies respond other than illness? We are the only species that cooks the life right out of our food and then we expect health.
The next amazing discovery for me was a book called, Green for Life, by Victoria Boutenko. Her work regarding the diets of chimpanzees (the creatures so similar to us that we test medicine on them) is captivating. This is where I discovered the amazing health and energy giving easy and delicious green smoothie. Wow!
Recently, I have received an article by John Hopkins stating that a healthy diet to keep cancer at bay should be at least 80% raw veggies and fruit! Okay, so now that is definitely easier if you drink a shot of wheatgrass juice in the morning and drink a green smoothie each day. Another discovery I made is how easy it is to throw some sprouts in a bowl with avocado and a yummy dressing and call it salad! Now have a healthy dinner with fruit for dessert and you’re at 80%. By the way, you will probably lose weight and even get off some meds, like indigestion pills.
The path I have been following has had another happy little benefit, the desire for less; a simplified life and peace in my personal life. I have used my newfound energy to pare down my belongings and enjoy the company of my family, friends and three very spoiled Labradors, instead of shopping for more stuff.
Less cooking, or none in my case, and more time for yoga or the DHS spa on Ladies’ Day! If you need motivation to eliminate some of the clutter in your life or to battle the compulsion to work, shop, sleep - and more work, shop, sleep, check out www.thestoryofstuff.com by Annie Leonard. This website will definitely change the way you look at ‘stuff.’
Finally, my gratitude extends deeper to my connected feeling with the universe and God. I believe I am getting that from eating a diet with more life and compassion for our fellow animal beings. I am now Vegan and I am happy to be on that path too! No judgment here; it’s just a natural progression for me. This was a winding road and so interesting. From eating a meat-based diet to vegetarian, then vegan, and eventually raw, I feel like I found a special secret that I wish everyone knew, so that health could become easier for everyone. It may seem hard, but it was just small changes as I went along, now I can’t imagine eating any other way. Especially because it all tastes so darn delicious!
Marjorie Burnett is a Healthy Lifestyle Coach and Alissa Cohen is a certified raw food chef. She is available for speaking to groups and teaches raw food classes. You can find more info at www.rawandrenewed.com or call (760) 219-3753