Change of Place. Back in Michigan. Change of Diet?

Well, I'm back in Michigan staying with my folks for a month before moving to Chile.

Before I left Puerto Rico and the Ann Wigmore Natural Health Institute, Kelly came to visit me.  We spent a week driving around the coast exploring the island.  We took the ferry from Fajardo and went to the island of Culebra for a few nights.  The beaches and snorkeling was fantastic!  Lot's of sea turtles!  

I really love Puerto Rico:  Its people, mountains, rain forests, beaches and its tropical produce.

I really love its tropical produce!  The coconuts, bananas, papayas, oranges, limes, grapefruit, avocados, mangos, watermelons, and more... 

However, I was really happy to eat an apple yesterday, or rather, several apples.  It's tough to find a good organic apple shipped to PR.  I needed a separation from Michigan to realize how much I love and appreciate simple things like apples, cherries, berries, etc...

I will now miss the tropical foods very much.  Anyone who hung out with me in PR may attest to the vast amount of bananas I ate.   I believe I could beat anyone in a banana eating contest.  The PR bananas and varieties are SO GOOD.  One banana that I believe they called "apple banana" has a berry like flavor that would sometimes make me feel like I was eating strawberry shortcake or a similar desert- just the banana!  Brilliant!

While traveling around PR, it was difficult to find good greens whenever I left the institute where we were growing greens ourselves.  So, I usually resorted to a high fruitarian diet.  The best place to buy fruit is not from the supermarkets but from all the fruit stands that are set up daily on busy roads.

While visiting a beach one day, I stood out like a total foreigner as I ate watermelon.  Although I was the only white kid on the beach- tanned white kid that is- it was my watermelon that was drawing attention.  I cut it half and scooped it out with a spoon.  A young group of locals started talking to me and thought it was funny how I ate the watermelon like a bowl.  I'm not sure if it was just the way I was eating it that was weird or if eating watermelon on the beach in general is weird...  We communicated a bit with our little understanding and speaking of English and Spanish.  It was nice. 

Although I was able to use Puerto Rico's abundant raw tropical fruit to create a healthy diet for myself, I found this contrasted with much of the island both culturally and economically.  Unfortunately, there is an abundant amount of fast food in Puerto Rico.  Traditional bakeries are everywhere serving nutritionally lacking products of refined sugars and flours.  Food carts and trucks are parked on every street and corner serving fried meats, plantains (tostones) and other foods.  Obesity is very common and it seems like fry oils are as imbedded in the current culture as it is in the cells and pores of the people.

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I thought about food and health a lot while I was in Puerto Rico:  What foods do I like most?  Eat most?  What fuels me best for my particular body type and activity?  Where do these foods come from?  

I recall reading a nutrition book that challenged me with a radical suggestion that sounded something like this:

The majority of your food should come from fresh local seasonal produce.  Perhaps you should MOVE to the region whose produce and growing season suits your diet and needs.

Woah!  This idea may seem far out but it makes intuitive sense to me.  

From my little bit of studies and experience, I think that diets and health use to be very traditional.   People adapted to the available and abundant food sources of their geographic region.  For example, a high consumption of seal, whale, salmon for Alaskan eskimos.  High consumption of fish, rice, and sea vegetables in Japan and coastal regions.  Corn and chia staples for the Tarahumara tribe of Mexico.  Perhaps high fruitarian diet for the tropics...

Perhaps particular people have physically adapted to better digest and perform with foods of that region as well, or perhaps sought the food that suited their needs best.  For example, the Tarahumara is known for being a running tribe and their diet includes chia seed that has the property to retain water for a longer period of time when soaked, which is important for hydration in hot climates.  I haven't studied any of this enough though to really know...  

When I say adapt, I mean to eat to really live healthily and not just survive but thrive.  In terms of Puerto Rico, I cannot believe that the people have adapted because they thrive best on a high diet of fried foods.  Obesity doesn't seem essential for thriving in the tropics whereas it may be for insulation and survival in the Arctic. 

Right now, I do believe there is no optimal universal diet.  That belief relies on the premise that I couldn't recommend a high tropical fruit diet for an eskimo that lives in freezing temperatures.  It simply isn't possible, at least naturally.

Although if a universal diet is possible, I think it would include a very high quantity of GREENS.  The Ann Wigmore Living Foods Lifestyle is created in a very SIMPLE way in terms of ingredients for a universal approach to health and healing.  The main staples are sprouts and greens along with sprouted nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies and fermented foods.  I believe there is much truth to the Living Foods Lifestyle in which you can then add or tweak foods for your own personal needs. 

Bananas are probably one of the biggest staples in my diet because they are my go-to base for breakfast smoothies.  There are very few days when my breakfast is not a smoothie.  My typical smoothie in Puerto Rico would contain some combination of bananas, almond milk, rejuvelac, chia seed, avocado, coconut, sprouted buckwheat groats, sunflower greens, mixed greens, carob, mango, or papaya.

Now that I'm back in Michigan, I'm thinking of how I may rework my smoothie a bit more for this region... however, I'll probably still eat a good amount of bananas for now, even though they don't taste as great.

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Perhaps I am may be best suited to live in a tropical region.  However, I'm not gonna settle yet.  I'm gonna keep traveling and exploring:  Looking for the geography, the community, the food, the fun and everything else in life that suits me best.

I'm not saying I'm gonna settle in the tropics one day just for a banana.  Food is very important to me, but there are plenty of other aspects aside from a year round growing season that support the lifestyle I'm creating:  Lots of sunshine, barefoot running on the beach, the fresh air by the sea, the latin music and percussion.  I love the idea of living in a thatch tree house that I make myself...  I love the fact that I just spent the first winter in a long time where I didn't experience a fair to significant amount of seasonal depression during winter in Michigan.  The only thing I really missed was friends and family.  But, just like fruit, I realize by separation how much I appreciate them! 

Change "Only Important" Stories with Facebook: Alien Encounters and Preserving the Future with Pizza!

Personally, I think Facebook is relatively a waste of my time.  I took a 3 month hiatus over the summer while interning and learning the raw food lifestyle at the Creative Health Institute.  Most of my communication was by snail mail and I used my cell phone very little.  That was nice.  And healthy.

I reactivated my account a couple of months ago when I needed to Share videos for a freelance job I did. Since then, I've stayed "plugged-in" and may be regretting it...

Facebook continues to lose its usefulness for me over the years:  I no longer need to find that drunk girl I met the night before during a party in college.  I can remember the majority of birthdays of my family and select friends.  I am okay with being a jerk for not knowing your birthday with my lack of checking Facebook.  I use to find "Events" useful... but after college, fewer friends use Facebook regularly to make an invitation reliable, ex. "Why weren't you at my birthday party man?!  I sent you the FB invitation."  The layout has become more and more cluttered with lame "Friend" stories and statuses.  And I don't care to learn the "New" features with each frequent update.

The one thing I find Facebook useful for is to contact the friends of which I don't have their email or phone number and vice versa.

By having an active Facebook account, I still get sucked into checking it on a regular basis to see if anyone's contacted me.  Afterwards, I scroll through the "News Stories" for that sixth sense of what my friends are doing far away.  

The problem for me is that a lot of the "Stories" are generally lame or from people I don't know well.  99% of the time, even if you're my close friend, I don't care what you ate, what you saw, what you did.  For the remaining 1% of the time, I want to read something really awesome like, "Crazy night!  Got really drunk, surfed a tidal wave, and ate the raw meat of a shark after killing it with my bear hands!!!!!!!!!!!! :)"  I also want that Status Update followed with an Event invitation to have a bonfire on the beach with a bunch of friends to eat the remaining shark meat while playing drums and dancing with the shark jaws. 

Just the other day, I couldn't find any cool shark stories on Facebook because the Detroit Lions beat the Dallas Cowboys and are undefeated.  I don't have to watch football to know that.  A hundred people told me that with their Status Update.  In an effort to find a good shark story, I made another effort to Unsubscribe from the Stories of people I don't know well enough and/or care.  

It was at this point I discovered a new Facebook feature that gave me more options of how I can Subscribe to this crappy content: "All Updates, Most Updates, or Only Important."  It was the third option that made me laugh!  "Most Important."  Really?!  Come on Facebook!  I know you're company is worth millions or billions of dollars, but this "Most Important" feature seems a little self righteous.  I don't think I've ever read any "News" or anything of real importance via a Facebook Update.  They certainly might exist, but they're at the bottom of the list of drunken photos from the night before and what people ate afterwards.

Actually, this "Most Important" could be a great idea!  If I Subscribe to only the "Most Important" updates from all of my "Friends," I can then find out those who I should absolutely avoid.  I'm very sorry to say this, but if I read that you have eaten a pizza and that is the most important thing you can tell me... Well, I'm gonna stop being your friend, both on the internet and in real life. 

I'm not counting myself out on all of this either.  I certainly contribute my fair share of links and status updates to clog the toilet of information which is the internet.  I still contribute wasteful tweets and links about how I'm running, or eating raw food, or blah blah...

At this point I'm not sure where I'm going... So I travel 88 m.p.h far into the future while reflecting on all this rather lame information being archived on some crazy giant Google server.  Here, I meet an alien riding a hover board around a Google server that stands alone amongst mountains of concrete debris and bent steel.  I look to the alien, whom I've never met, and he or she says, "Welcome Lazer!"  

How does this fricking alien know my name?  Before I can ponder the question, the alien feeds me an entire pizza, 10 shots of booze, and takes a 100 photos of me while I vomit.  What the fuck was that for alien?  Hiccup!  The alien captures my vomit in a large glass vile, straps it to his back, and pulls me onto his hover board.  We fly towards an enormous starship and the alien explains:

I need to keep you alive!  I'm well informed about your subsistence on pizza and alcohol along with your necessity of self documentation.  We've got lots of questions for you!

My skin tans from the bright entrance light of the starship.

I'm an anthropologist and I've been studying the human race for millennia.  We recently discovered this artifact on Earth that we call Google.  From it, we've collected countless data.  We've been very fortunate in our research to uncover your Facebook!

Inside the starship, I'm lead into a large cathedral with thousands of aliens and one giant alien on a thrown at the top of a thousand stairs.

Please proceed to our Leader.

I stare at the alien while trying to process all of this information.  He or she pushes me forward and I now stand at the steps before their Leader.  He or She begins:

Mr. Lazer, I'm impressed we have found you!  Although the human species discovered time travel, very few of you have made an attempt to use it.  You were all too busy documenting your present that you forgot about the past and stopped looking towards the future.  We thank you for coming!

In an instant, the Leader flies down the thousand stairs feeds me an entire pizza, 10 shots of booze, and takes a 100 photos while I vomit again.  Before I can wipe my mouth, he returns to his thrown at the speed of light.

Your Facebook, Mr. Lazer, is the most impressive document we have read among any other species.  It's more important than anything our ownkind has authored.  The last generation of humankind successfully destroyed planet Earth while documenting every single detail leading up to it.  From this authoritative document, authored by every member of your species, we have insight into the last living day of Earth: We know what each of you was doing, what you liked, what you ate, what you thought, what you were feeling, what you looked like- it is truly incredible!

The Facebook, Mr. Lazer, is like a religious text or philosophy for our species.  It offers us all of the insight and knowledge on how not to live.  Humankind destroyed its very own environment that it created and the Facebook tells us exactly how you did it.  Our species learned the secret to surviving happily and sustainably by doing the opposite of what the Facebook says.  In doing so, our species and millions of others have inhabited millions of planets for millions of years.  We thank you for your contribution to the Facebook.  It has saved millions of lives.

Whoah!!!  Facebook is very important I guess.  I never looked at it that way...

Can you tell us more about the original Creator, Mark Zuckerberg?

Ummm... well I never personally met him, like in physical person you know... I think there were a few more than he... at least originally... Did you happen to see the film The Social Network?

Oh yes, the Mr. David film, very interesting indeed!  We've only seen select scenes though... We uncovered a scratched Blu-Ray disk under remnants of Arizona... Tell us more!

Well, I saw it at the theater and-

Was there popcorn?

Well yes, there was-

Tell us, what is popcorn really like?

Well, it's like popped kernels usually covered in butter and salt that you eat-

Oh, are you hungry again?

Before I can reply, the leader flies down the stairs, stuffs me with another pizza, and 10 shots.  I'm not sure if he takes my photos or if I vomit because at that point I black out.

Now I'm hungover, trying to collect my thoughts and finish this blog entry.

Lately, I was thinking that Facebook can be pretty dumb along with the people, including myself, that contribute to it. I thought that the quality of our lives may suffer from the use of Facebook and other lame technology and communication.  I thought we are creating an exponentially growing clutter of crappy pointless information.  I wanted to at least inspire myself and others to create better lives for themselves and better content or "Stories" that we share via Facebook, Twitter, etc.  

Now I realize that I may be wrong.  Every bit of information we share on the internet that may be dumb and useless now... will be very important to the survival of aliens and the Universe in the far future!

So... If you want to eat a pizza, go for it!  And please tell me about it via Facebook and Twitter.  And know this: For every person that "Like"s you eating pizza, one alien will be saved!

Change in Taste + Health: I'm a Certified Raw Living Foods Chef!

Citrus Mint Gazpacho.  My own recipe.  Delicious for that hot summer day!

Last weekend I completed my internship at the Creative Health Institute in Union City, MI where I have been transitioning to a raw living foods diet.  I spent 3 months of the summer here and several hours in the kitchen preparing delicious healthy gourmet raw meals, snacks, and desserts.  I've felt a great transformation in my health and energy as a result of this diet, including: increased physical performance with my running, a boosted sex drive, mental clarity, general happiness and more!  I'm now a firm believer that a balanced high raw diet is a critical component for a healthy life.

Receiving my certifications from Master Chef Na Young Anderson.  Na began her journey to raw living foods when she first came to CHI with ovarian cancer in 2009.  Since then, she has healed herself and continues to teach at CHI.

One of my most rewarding experiences in the kitchen was the development of my palette:  My first day, I tried a salad dressing that was prepared and the chef asked me, "What does it need?"  At that time I was pretty clueless. The majority of my food preparation in the past was simple and singular: SPICY.  I still love spicy food, but now I understand the complexity of all the flavors much more: spicy, sweet, bitter, sour, etc. and how different ingredients, herbs, and spices will affect that.  I can now taste a recipe and figure out what it may need to improve itself.  It's so rewarding to add that pinch of this or that from your intuition, taste it, and say, "Much better!"  Since then, I've created several meals just from intuition and taste and people will say, "That was fantastic!  I must have the recipe," and I smile, point to my head and say, "It's up there!"

Raw Vegan Blueberry Banana Crepes with Cashew Frosting.

Aside from flavor and taste, I'm becoming more and more intuitive with the nutrients I eat.  I'll typically eat to nourish my body and not just be full.  I feel more and more connected to what my body needs.  My body has craved both nutrients and junk food during this transition.  I've found my appetite to shrink at times when I was eating nutrient dense raw living foods.  Then my appetite grew tremendously at times since I've been training for a marathon.  I would crave more carbs and fruits.  Then, there were other times when I was able to eat a GREAT amount of junk food, more than I had prior to my transitioning, and STILL not feel full.  That's usually what happens when your body is hungry for nutrients and you give it junk.  It's been a crazy fun experience as I continue to experiment both with my diet and exercise.

Staff, Volunteers, and Guests at Creative Health Institute

As I move towards the future, I'll continue to incorporate the raw living foods lifestyle and share it with those who want to learn.  I may also try working as a personal chef for a few of my family members to get greater experience. I'd also like to travel and perhaps work as a personal chef on a ship!  We'll see!

Wheatgrass Face.  Good for skin.  Taken during my 10 Day Detox.

A quiet night at CHI.

CHI grounds.  Firefly show.  The photo doesn't do justice.

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Now I'm not a nutritionist, but a few tips if you are interested in transitioning to a raw living foods diet:

-RESEARCH.  Read books, websites, watch videos, listen to podcasts on nutrition and the raw living foods lifestyle.  Everyone has a different body type, will experience the diet in their own way, and will need to develop their own personal approach to better health.

-TIME.  The transition takes time.  And unless you're extreme, it will most likely continue to be a transition for a long time.  Judgement and guilt can present itself on the day to day basis:  Say you "slip" and have X food one day and you feel like you blew it... That happens and you shouldn't have any negative feelings about it.  Just remember that you're intention is to improve your health, your working at it, and getting better each day.

-ADD FIRST.  THEN SUBTRACT.  The important thing is to add healthy raw food to your diet.  If you love a particular food, don't subtract it right away.  That approach most likely won't work for you.  As you make progress adding more and more raw, the later steps are to slowly subtract the unhealthy components, perhaps doing less and less quantities until you can do without.  Again, it's a transition.

- DETOXING.  Toxins enter the body through a variety of means: the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe.  The body naturally tries to release toxins through a variety of means: lymph fluid, excrement, urine, sweat.  However, toxins are stored in the body's cells when you consume higher levels of toxins: chemicals in processed foods, pesticides on non-organic foods, unnatural cleaning supplies, etc.  

When you start eating a high raw diet, you're body will detox.  And it will continue to detox throughout eating raw foods.  Detox symptoms can include: irritability, fatigue, headaches, and more.  If you slowly incorporate more raw, you may slowly feel detox symptoms.  

Some suggest doing a rapid detox cleanse such as the detox programs offered at the Creative Health Institute and other centers.  When I did my 10 Day Detox at CHI, I had days of irritability and fatigue.  And I came in as a young rather fit individual with no health conditions.  I did eat meat and dairy, but, I ate a good amount of raw fruits and veggies and tried to avoid processed foods.  I also exercised somewhat regularly.  It wasn't until my 3rd or 4th week on the diet when I experienced my "awakening" of energy.  And it felt great!  I started running everyday and now I'm training for a marathon.

So if you're beginning the transition at an older age, or with a poorer diet, just know that these symptoms are natural and you'll probably experience them more than I did.

Again, I just want to reiterate that I'm not a nutritionist, doctor, or expert.  I'm still transitioning, will continue to do so, while researching and learning more of what I think is a wonderful lifestyle.  I strongly advocate a well balanced raw living foods diet from both my personal experience and some of the miracles I've seen while at the Creative Health Institute, but you must be responsible for your own decisions and perhaps consult experts while doing so.

Change in Running: My 1st Half Marathon on Raw Food

Look for me with the headband, green tank, and yellow shorts!

I finished the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half Marathon Run this past Sunday, June 5th, 2011!  And I did quite well for my own expectations.

My breathing and body felt great for the entire 13.1 miles and I did it in 1 hour 42 minutes and 18 seconds with an average 7:49 per mile pace.  I only trained for about 2 weeks too!  I attribute a majority of my performance to the excellent diet of 100% raw living foods I've been eating as an intern at CHI.

My results:

Chip Time = 1:42:18

Clock Time = 1:43:34

Pace = 7:49

Overall Place = 375 out of 3137 finishers (Top 12%)

Sex Place = 319 out of 1679 male finishers (Top 19%)

Division Place = 40 out of 100 male, age 20-24 finishers (Top 40%)

Now, I don't really consider myself a runner.  At least yet.  This was my 1st race and I didn't have much time to train or learn about the sport in general.  This was mainly a quick mile marker for me to achieve my goal of finishing a full marathon.  I'll be running the Detroit Marathon October 16th and I'll definitely be training for it.

The goal of a finishing a marathon is important to me because it represents both physical and mental possibilities and restrictions.  There was a time when I thought the idea of running 26 miles was crazy and something I was incapable of.  I still think it's far... But now, I think it is possible.  As I continue to run, I grow stronger physically and mentally.  Those original ideas of restrictions are now changing to possibilities.  And it feels great!

This was my training schedule and some of my diet and prep for the 1/2 marathon:

5/4: 2.5 mi

5/5: 2.5 mi

5/6-5/15:  10 Day Raw Detox at CHI.  Transitioning to Raw diet.  No running, but some Yoga and Rebounding.

5/16-5/22:  Busy as CHI intern in the kitchen.  No running, little exercise.

5/23:  3.5 mi.  I begin to notice a sharp increase in energy for the first time since coming off the raw detox.

5/24:  5.6 mi

5/25:  6.5 mi

5/26:  Some weight lifting and stretching.

5/27:  9.5 mi

5/28:  Rest

5/29:  11 mi.  (My feet were sore, but breathing and muscles felt good.)

5/30:  Some weight lifting and stretching.

5/31:  5 mi.  I notice my left calve is really tight and bothering me a bit.

6/1:  5 mi.  Epsom salt bath in the evening.

6/2:  2.5 mi.  Epsom salt bath in the evening.

Dinner:  I had like 6 fresh garden burgers in lettuce wraps.  (My appetite has definitely increased with all the running.)

6/3 (2 days before race):  Rest.  I had my first colonic.  It was awesome and I felt great and much lighter afterwards.  Epsom salt bath in the evening.  My left calve is feeling better.

Breakfast:  Extra large bowl muesli (chopped almonds, pecans, walnuts, raisins, coconut...) with almond milk.  Banana, blueberries, strawberries, glass of orange juice.

Lunch:  Green energy soup smoothie.

Dinner:  Green energy soup smoothies and salad with sprouts.

6/4 (Day before Race):  Rest.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal, banana, blueberries.

Lunch: Chocolate banana smoothie with raw cacoa, maca, and hemp seed.

Dinner:  Snacked on apples, bananas, strawberries throughout the evening

Evening enema to clean me out so I won't have to take a crap during the race- and it worked :)

6/5:  HALF MARATHON RACE DAY.

Breakfast:  Smoothie (1 banana, 1 carton blueberries, 2 cups goji berries, 2 cups rejuvelac).

Drank 20 oz of rejuvelac prior to race (a fermented sprouted seed drink, high in probiotics).

Bathroom right before race started.  Didn't have to take a bathroom stop during the entire race- my plan worked out!

A few things I learned during the race as a newbie from either my experience or others:

-I shouldn't have worn a 100% cotton tank during the race.  From sweat and the t-shirt rubbing for 13 miles, my nipples were sore afterwards.
-Trim or shave armpit hair more.  13 miles of sweating and arms moving resulted in a bit of underarm rash burn.

-I didn't wear a watch or have a pace watch.  I did the math at each mile marker clock and realized I was keeping a consistent 8:00 pace.

-I would watch people who looked like pretty good runners and keep pace with them for a while.  Sometimes I would notice my breathing was better, or I felt better, so I'd move up.  Continued this throughout the race.

-I didn't know when to pick up my pace... I started speeding up my pace after mile 11.  The end of the race was uphill so I was worried about when to give my full energy.

-I say or think positive affirmations when I run and I repeat them.  Especially during spells when I may feel fatigue.  My favorite one that I learned at CHI and I continue to use is:  "Everyday in Every Way, I'm getting Better, Better, Better, and Better.  Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, and Spiritually."  For running, I sometimes like to switch "Better" to "Stronger."

-I did this race without headphones because they discourage their use on the race website.  I normally run with headphones as it helps me pass the time...  However, there was a lot of stimulation during the race and lack of headphones was no problem.
-I especially enjoy when neighbors are at the street cheering runners on.  I also got a few free high fives from little kids which helped.

-It was great to here family and friends cheer you on near the finish line!

-It was really gross to see that they were serving greasy pizza at the finish line... and that a lot of the runners were eating it... blah!  I went out to lunch with family and had a fruit salad and veggie salad. 

Thanks to my family and friends who were able to support me at the finish line!  It helped a lot!  Also thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for the photos!

I'll keep ya updated on my training and diet for the Detroit marathon.  Raw living foods baby!

The Creative Health Institute (CHI): What is it?

Creative Health Institute, 112 W. Union City Rd, Union City, MI 49094

What is this Creative Health Institute (CHI) place that I've been interning at for a month now?

Well first, our mission statement:

Our commitment is to inspire every participant in our program to live a transformed life of superb health and well-being and to enroll others in sharing our vision.

CHI teaches health and wellness through the raw living foods philosophy as originated by the late Dr. Ann Wigmore.  The core ingredients to the lifestyle are super nutritious young organic greens, fruits, sprouted nuts and seeds, fermented foods, and dehydrated foods.  The importance of living foods lies in the enzymes that assist in digestion so that the body can properly absorb the nutritious foods it takes in.  When food is cooked above 110 degrees, those enzymes start to break down and we lose a majority of the food's nutritional value.  The three most important foods of the Wigmore program are rejuvelac (a fermented sprouted seed drink), energy soup, and wheat grass juice.

Along with nutrition, the Wigmore program believes in proper digestion, assimilation, elimination.  At CHI, we eat a lot of pre-digestive foods such as blended foods and we take the time to chew our food well to aid digestion and assimilation.  We practice proper food combining and we eat foods like sprouts that are rich in enzymes to support digestion.  We do lymphatic exercises, skin brushing, and enemas for elimination of toxins that are absorbed by the body via food, air, skin (soaps, detergents, etc.)

[Yes, you heard me right: I do enemas now.  Yikes!  I was nervous at first, but they're easy and you feel great after them.  Enemas we're historically the natural way to aid digestive problems and support a healthy colon... then I don't know what happened... people became uncomfortable talking about poop and thought it's better to take digestive drugs.  More on this some other time.]

CHI offers several programs:

-10 Day Detox/Rebuild Program

-10 Day Detox/Rebuild Program - Weight Loss

-5 Day Detox/Rebuild Program

-5 Day Detox/Rebuild Program - Weight Loss

-Juice Fast

-Raw Chef 1, 2, 3

At CHI, we believe the body is wonderful and self-healing.  By eating nutritious raw living foods, you support and build your immune system to fight disease.  Participants young and old come to CHI to heal health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, obesity, and more... While some attend to continue to maintain their health with the self-healing tools we teach.  Many of the guest teachers here are passionate volunteers who attended CHI in the past and healed themselves of major health issues like cancer.  A lot of miracles happen in the world of living foods!

As an intern, I've taken the 10 Day Detox program.  Afterwards, I've been working in the kitchen and juicing wheatgrass.  I'll be working in the grow room soon enough too.  It's a lot of work, so it's sometimes tough to keep up with posts.  I'm still really new to the raw living foods lifestyle so I'll be posting information as I learn it.  Feel free to comment if I say something inaccurate.

Here are some photos of the lovely environment surrounded by farm country:

Russian Banya (Sauna) on left.  You can jump in the river after, only 10 ft away.

Future garden.

The grow room.  Lots of wheatgrass!

The intern house.

Change in Lifestyle: 100% Raw @ Creative Health Institute

I'm undertaking a significant lifestyle change.  I'm living in farm country at the Creative Health Institute in Michigan where I have transitioned to a 100% raw living foods diet.  Previously, I enjoyed meat, dairy, and other foods that I've given up indefinitely- and not feeling that bad about it.

I arrived May 3rd and shortly thereafter began their 10 Day Detox program.  It was a crazy experience which I'll be sharing in future posts. After successfully completely the detox, I started my internship 2 days ago.  I'll be here at CHI until August where I'll be learning much about nutrition, preparing gourmet raw living foods, and alternative ways of self healing, all while eating a nutritious and delicious raw diet.

A little perspective:  I believed I kept a healthy diet prior to arriving at CHI but I'm already rethinking that after being here 2 weeks and taking a few nutrition classes.  I'll probably be a different person when I leave here.  I'll certainly be embracing a majority of the diet at least.

From the moment I walked in the door and the director smiled and hugged me, I knew Creative Health Institute was a special place.  This was reinforced later in the week when an intern graduated: There was a small certificate ceremony in which kind words were said about the individual and both the intern and staff cried tears of joy.  I cannot say that anyone cried when I left my film internships in LA.  I was lucky if they remembered my name. 

For the rest of the summer, this blog will mainly focus on my experience here, providing insights and ideas on health and nutrition, food recipes, and more.

Keep up with my blog and you'll learn how to enjoy and embrace a raw living foods diet too!

I made an awesome raw pizza!  Delicious!

Change in Health: I'm No Charlie Sheen, But I Can Still Detox

A few weeks ago, I applied for an internship at the Creative Health Institute.  They are a raw living foods program in Michigan that offers several workshops and classes such as Detox/Rebuild programs and Raw Chef certifications.

Just today, I received a phone call that I was accepted and will start on May 3rd and intern throughout August.

My mom, who has taken a few classes, informed me of the internship opportunity.  I applied for several reasons:  I've been wanting to try a raw diet for a while now and figured this would be one of the best ways to implement it.  This interest comes from a general desire to control my health and feel good.  After feeling a bit scattered and un-centered this past dreadful winter, I figure some time to meditate and be with myself will be good for my well-being.  I plan to finally write a feature screenplay I've been putting off.  I'd like to learn and practice a bit of music as well. I've also been thinking of training for a marathon and hope this new raw diet will boost my energy in that pursuit.

So in just 3 weeks, I'll be moving to the west side of Michigan.  Shortly after arriving, I'll start the detox program and give up much of the foods I currently eat in hope of better health.  Although I do enjoy eating animals, I feel that I could do without them, at least for a while.  No big deal. Instead of doing shots of liquor at the bar, I'll be doing shots of wheatgrass on the farm.  Cheers!

I'll keep you updated on this health experiment.