And into my kitchen to whip up delicacies that surprise the heck out of a novice. And to raw restaurants (we’re lucky in New York to have a delicious handful of them). If they’re interested, I take them shopping. I mean, why keep anybody out of paradise? I have no vested interest in converting anybody, but when people want information, I’m thrilled to share it. They’re showing up all over the place, as clients in my holistic life and health coaching practice, as business contacts and as friends. It’s a hoot to defy a worldview.Īlthough I’m not one to live my life counting on the New Ager’s favorite, “Law of Attraction,” I’m certainly “attracting” fascinating men and women of all ages who want what I have. Ditto for watching gym people try to figure me out: I’m not young, I eat no animal protein, and yet I’m building muscle. I don’t know for how long, but today it’s a whole lot of fun when I (occasionally) share my chronological age and see the person do a double-take. I realize that I’m a mature woman and one of these days, incredible diet or not, I’ll be a little old lady. Strangers comment on my skin, my “glow.” Although I know we’re talking vegetables, not miracles, I do look quite a bit younger than I am (and younger than I did five years ago). Someone told me when I was first recovering from binge-eating: “You can’t do this with fear.” I feel the same way about raw. Only one time, when I made grape-and-celery juice but the ratio was too much grape to too little celery, did I get the telltale sugar headache. I eat fresh fruit, put bananas in smoothies and make desserts with dates and date sugar (just dates, dried and ground up). I also don’t worry about the natural sugars that are part of whole foods. Besides, after going raw, five pounds left me that I never intended to lose. I know I’m not overdoing, because I feel balanced and nourished and never have that stuffed, too-much-fat feeling. I use nuts and seeds in recipes and occasionally for eating I have avocado a couple of times a week and I often use salad dressing that has some flax or hemp oil in it. I have some treats: dried fruit, raw desserts, “bread” and crackers and kale chips made in a dehydrator, but mostly lots and lots (and lots) of greens: green juices, green salads, green smoothies, marinated greens. I drink juices and eat fruits and salads and smoothies. Happiness came even before energy and strength and clarity, but those have come, too. Now I’m more apt to say “Fabulous!” and mean that. People used to say, “How are you?” and I’d say, “Okay.” That was accurate. My default for contentment had gone up a few notches. This isn’t a marriage or a religion it’s an experiment in incredible vitality. The first thing I noticed after making the switch was how happy I felt. And it’s gone on like that for quite some time.įor days at a time I’m all raw, and on the days that I have something cooked, it’s usually just that: something, one thing-a baked potato, garbanzos in a salad. I woke up one morning and didn’t want cooked food. But later, the urge to return to raw came again. A cold snap that first spring sent me back to the comfort of hot soup and soy chai lattes. I experimented with it for several months and enjoyed it. But my soul or my cells or something deep inside me pressed me to take this turn as a most-of-the-time thing. And not in the dead of winter or when I’m at a restaurant where the A/C is set at Arctic-minus-12. Not slavishly or fanatically (as a compulsive overeater with a daily reprieve, I don’t do well with fads and tangents). It was easy to stay thin and avoid the heart disease and diabetes that plague both sides of my family of origin.īut about five years ago, I felt the nudge to go raw. Even though I did it, as Gandhi once said, “for the health of the chickens,” it was a pretty decent diet for my health, too. Once I wasn’t eating for a fix anymore, I was able to move toward a plant-based diet, ending up at profound, committed veganism. I chronicle that experience, and how others can do it, too, in my book “The Love-Powered Diet: Eating for Freedom, Health, and Joy.” Although I spent the first 30 years of my life bingeing and dieting - always gaining or losing weight, and conversely losing and gaining my flimsy self-esteem - I finally got so tired of that un-merry merry-go-round that I gave up the fight and was open to recovery from the inside out. I’ve been on a pretty good path for a long time. I woke up not long ago thinking, “This is the craziest thing: I’m well past 50 and I feel sensational.” I knew it was what the eccentric health advocate, Arnold Ehret, 100 years ago called “Paradise Health.” I had it: physically and emotionally. I didn’t know it was possible to feel this good.
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