You ARE what you eat

reachingutopia.com photo credit

I'm not sure when I first heard the quote, 'You are what you eat,' but I have heard if often especially as of late. I'm also not sure that I believed it whole heartedly until recently. Last November I did a whole food cleanse that changed my life. I've done many cleanses and fasts over the last 20 years, and they were always a struggle. While I benefited from most of them in some way, they never changed my habits or me completely.

What made this last time different? Well, me and where I am emotionally was different. I was cleansing with a friend, yet I have done that before. The particular cleanse I was doing, again, I have done that before. So, we'll come back to this question.

Our diets have changed dramatically since our youth. I remember getting milk from the local farmer, my mother making spaghetti sauce, and fast food was a luxury that occurred once a year.

I don't need to describe how it is today--because we all know--it's almost impossible to find unpasteurized milk, homemade spaghetti sauce is a luxury and fast food for some is the norm.

 Our vegetables are be modified, sprayed with pesticides, chemicals are added to many foods to add to their shelf life, color, packaging with added chemicals, and the list goes on. How has this changed us? We have more allergies, addictions, obesity, chronic illness, emotional disorders, medicated children and adults than ever before.

So what can we do? We can change our eating (cook at home, grow your own food, slow down, eat mindfully) and buying habits (buy organic, eat locally grown food that's in season, read ingredients and don't buy anything that has ingredients that you can't pronounce or know what they are) just a couple suggestions. Does it have to be a total overhaul? We can start small and work our way to changing the aspects of our lives we want to be different--one bite at a time.

So, what was different this time? ME!! Where I'm at in my life, my practice, with my family and career, I see things from a clearer perspective and through my November cleanse, my eyes, tastes and body was changed. I was actually able to give up my worst addiction or habit (diet soda--I know I'm embarrassed to admit it) easily.  When I tried to drink some after the cleanse was over, I just couldn't. People from all parts of my life commented on my transformation. I had wished I had taken before and after pics, but I didn't.

I will be leading a group whole food cleanse starting on March 1st, 2014.  If you are interested, check out the flyer on my website, Wake Up From Winter. I will be blogging throughout the cleanse. Please feel free to share any experiences you have had with changing food habits (or any other appropriate ones) below. Bon appetite!