One of the most important things I took away from the last 2 years as a member of the Transformation community is the importance of finding a community of peers. The obvious reason is moral support, other than moral support, I think it is important to find people who have succeeded at what you want to do that you can model. The shortest path to success is studying someone who has done it. At Transformation I learned from Debby. Debby was a very experienced vegan and eats some raw. She figured out the code to translate Bill's 30, 20, 50 formula into a vegan lifestyle. For the most part she ate whole foods.
I thought that finding vegan/raw peers was going to be difficult. I found pockets of vegan/raw people all over the place...one group led to another. I started with Brendan Brazier and Thrive. He is an ideal person to start with because he is a very pure thinker and eater. He is very active and a good role model. He points out what you should eat before, during and after physical activity according to the intensity and duration. He also compliments what I learned from Bill Phillips by saying to get good fat, protein, vegetables and fruits. He tends toward raw and whole foods. I learned a lot about alkalinity from Thrive.
When I went looking (googling really) for Brendan, I found Thrive and I also was lucky to find "The 21 Day Kickstart" that is going now for a 2nd time. It is sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine", PCRM. It is made up of a respected community of physicians and celebrities. By printing out their recipes and menu plan I found a whole list of people who are eating vegan. They are not all as pure as Brendan and do not eat as much protein as I would like, but there was a great community of experienced vegans who are eating this way for moral and ethical reasons as well as feeling a higher level of health. I have not worked my way through all the people in this organization.
One of my favorite people who I found is Kris Carr. Kris has stage 4 cancer and chose to take control of the part of her health that she could. She went from drinking martinis to green drinks. I have learned a lot from her, it seems like everything I read about before became understandable and concrete by reading her book. Her explanations and instructions are so clear and simple.
Once you start putting the information and knowledge together from all these sources...you realize (or should) how many of the things we are eating and using are not good for us. My mom served healthy meals that followed the government food pyramids. Meat, vegetable and fruit for every dinner and we ate together as a family. Almost all of the fruits and veggies were canned. Meat was sometimes fried. We didn't always have desert. We didn't have fast food. I can remember in high school, my friend and I would stop at (one of two in our city) McDonalds for a hamburger and french fries on the way to volunteer at a school for a few hours. I think that I started deserts on my own. We didn't eat out because there were so many kids in our family that it would incur the national debt. It was later on that we started eating at night while we watched television. If you look at the things that are being fed to our children, there is little surprise that there are so many beautiful children with weight problems. They get Happy Meals, Taco Bells, Twinkies and Hohos...I remember one day at school the kids were making cookies and just eating the frosting out of the can. The kids are handed our bags of candy and cupcakes and all kinds of crud at school for rewards and celebrations. Then they go home and select from over 25 channels of continuous children's programming. We should be protesting by declining hot lunch and sending healthy sack lunches to set an example.
I would have previously poo pooed me...saying that I am a reactionary. It is true though. We never had that many overweight kids at our schools. There are apple shaped children, teenagers and young adults. Many of the foods we eat have poisons on them. It keeps the bugs off...who cares what it does to us. Everything has sugar. Sugar is addictive...look it up...google or bing it. It is true. The meat we eat is clogging our arteries. In my case...I was eating all kinds of foods I was allergic to. It is hard to pinpoint. Inflammation can be a cause of....sinus problems, headaches, joint aches and pains.
Dr. Mark Hyman is a crossover. I studied his "Ultra Metabolism" at the same time I was reading Body for Life. I then found him through the 21 day kick start and he is also involved with the Daniel Plan. He has a lot of good information and has the scoop on all of this.
I am going to do my part and fix myself. When I am in the right thought pattern I can see that I should not be eating for entertainment. There are better forms of entertainment and it is a really sad state to be in. I should be eating to feed my body. My eating should be providing energy and health. When we release food from the obligation to entertain...we free ourselves to enjoy what life has to offer. I hope to pass this on (by example) to my grandchildren. ~Cathy
Fantastic post this is! I am much impressed with your thoughts. Thanks for sharing.
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