The Before, The After, and The Books That Changed My Life

For as long as I can remember, health and nutrition has been a fascination of mine. As a kid I would imagine those cans of spinach were giving me all the strength they gave Popeye, I munched on carrots like Bugs Bunny with a hearty “What’s up Doc?”, and I joyfully chewed my gummy bear multi vitamin with my oatmeal. My upbringing was entirely vegetarian and Mousercise was my exercise video of choice

I was always pretty small but as a teenager I started filling out like most girls my age. I steadily gained weight throughout high school and while I was probably never considered overweight, I carried more than I was comfortable with. I became more than just interested in health but absolutely obsessed with dieting. I constantly read books, trying the latest diet or “cleanse” an worked out intensely. Outside of not being able to lose the weight I wanted I also struggled with migraines and spurts of depression and bulimia.

After high school I gained even more weight and continued searching for something that would make me look and feel the way I wanted to. I discovered a raw food diet through David Wolfe’s Eating for Beauty. I spent the next couple of years attempting to go “all raw” and succeeding for several months at a time. Despite eating nothing but raw foods I was still not getting the glorious benefits I was hearing touted (perfect skin! weight loss! clear mind! great moods!).

In 2007 I picked up Natalia Rose’s The Raw Food Detox Diet and was introduced to a completely new idea that would change everything…Here is what I learned:

Waste = Weight

Essentially, we’ve all spent a lifetime taking in an abundance of foods that were never meant for the human body and are thereby never fully eliminated. Whatever is left behind builds up in our body over the years and eventually becomes our excess weight, foggy headedness, colds and flus, bad skin, you name it. It may sound overly simplistic or even ridiculous and if I hadn’t experienced it for myself I may not believe it either.

It took me a couple of years to actually start implementing this new way of living (that is, removing the waste buildup or detoxifying) and in the meantime I tried in vain to go raw again and again. Even just playing with the dietary part of the program wasn’t getting me anywhere. I was consuming tons of sugary raw food items and fruits as well as heavy nuts and oils, gaining even more weight despite how hard I was trying.

Three years ago I finally got it right. Natalia put out a new book, Detox 4 Women which was written for people needing a more yeast conscious approach (my current diet was very yeast feeding with all the density and sweets I was taking in). I fully embraced juicing, food combining, a vegetable-centric diet…and colon cleansing. All of that waste had to get out somehow and my body wasn’t doing it on it’s own! I know it seems extreme but I have never, with all of my years of experimenting, found anything as powerful as a highly alkaline, highly water containing diet coupled with colonics. I went from continuously hitting walls, feeling puffy, bloated, heavy, tired, depressed, and achy (especially working on an airplane) to losing nearly 30 pounds, and feeling so much more light, happy, and present in my body. The fun part is, it continues to get better. I’m always tweaking things in my diet, listening to my body, and keeping up with removing the waste that juicing and raw fruits and vegetables awaken. It’s not always easy, I often feel like an oddball, my disordered eating tendencies still act up, and my weight fluctuates slightly. At this point though, I’ve set a high enough bar for how I like to feel most of the time and find it easy enough to get back to that even if I “fall off the wagon”.

It’s become my passion to share what detoxifying the body has done for me and finally getting to take Natalia’s Advanced Detox Training has brought me one step close to being able to work with other people to make a shift in their life experience as well.

Below are some “before and afters”, in the “before” shots on the left I often wore glasses, trying to hide my puffy face and dark under eye circles. These days I can comfortably go without makeup and my wardrobe has doubled now that I can wear Britney’s clothes