What a busy, wonderful week.....

Tomorrow I'll have been back at Hippocrates for 7 days. Most days it feels like 70 as there has been so much that has filled the week and filled my head and spirit. All of it, every tiny bit of it has been good. From the lecture I alluded to in my last post where we discovered that 90% of our food absorption takes place in the small intestine, 22 ft. long X 1" in diameter of miraculous digestive processor. CPU, indeed.....to the importance of keeping our bodies ph positioned in the alkaline side of the balance where cancer cells and other diseases cannot survive (they thrive in an acidic environment - thus the importance of wheatgrass juice and all the 'greens'). Our wheat grass expert, Michael, gave a great lecture on food in general and wheat grass in particular. The food part was fascinating in terms of seeing our social eating obligations somewhat differently than I had before. He suggested that our past patterns had been to eat for social and emotional reasons, not nutritional. He pointed out that we let food and time define our energy. Much as we all mostly know better, we still tend to eat at prescribed meal times based on the clock rather than our appetites and I knew the truth of that for how often I eat based on that rather than real hunger. You know how we will always say to someone or to ourselves "you really have to eat something, you haven't eaten all day" and the reply is "I'm really not hungry". I think that unless someone suffers from blood sugar issues that they should probably just go with that. I don't think I will any longer decide that they or myself should eat based on the fact that it's meal time. Most of the staff here eat one meal a day, either lunch or dinner and the rest of their nutrition comes from the powerful green juices that everyone drinks at 9 (cucumber only), 11 and 4 (50% sprouts, 50% celery, cucumber and/or other green veggies). 16 oz. at each juice time. Considering the amount of nutrition in the juices, once one gets used to it you can see why hunger wouldn't be an issue. We spent a lot of time talking about how we always seem to want to see friends/family around food. He talked about having to adapt and ask friends to cut the food part and just gather for some conversation/fun/whatever and how much more enjoyable he finds this. I can see how this will become something to do because it is very difficult to meet people over food when one eats this way and yet friends/family are too important to not be able to see them because of that. Some adaptations will be needed, I'm thinking.

Wednesday is fasting day which means fasting on liquid nourishment. It is also "silent" day for those who choose to practise it which I did this week. It's never 100% silent because I had a meeting with the Health Ed Director, for example, so talk was necessary but for the most part, other than that, I maintained silence all day and it is a very liberating experience. There is noise around what with the lectures and Q & A etc. and not everyone chooses to do it but even at that, just to be quiet within oneself is relaxing. Speaking of relaxing, I've been getting up at 5:00 so that I can make it to the 7:00 class in either Qi Dong and/or Chinese Health Exercises. This lasts for an hour followed by an hour of meditation and what a way to start the day. You are so mellowed out by the end of it physically and mentally and at the same time totally energized to begin the more cerebral part of the day. The more energetic/active classes follow this so it's also a good beginning to start on those. All in all, there is lots of exercise available and this is a good thing as once this initial 3 weeks is over we will be sitting in a classroom from 10 until 5 or 6 most every day so without the early exercise I think it will be challenging. Currently we move about the campus going from building to building for different lectures or exercise class to exercise class/pool, etc. so the old body keeps moving. This is nothing but good :-)).

Today was graduation as is every Friday and once again, hearing the stories from the folks returning home brings tears and laughter. I hear the gratitude and joy they express at having found Hippocrates and the positive changes they've seen in their illness and their commitment to continue the program at home secure in the knowledge that they will be cured by their own bodies. I can't help but feel more solid in my belief that God created a miraculous creature in us and that each and every cell in our bodies has its function and given that we are supposed to be the most intelligent of all the species it behooves us do everything we can to keep our bodies in optimal condition. Why didn't I think of this at 20? :-)) A sobering study was discussed this week. Again, what a turning point WWII was in terms of our health what with the discovery of all of the toxic pesticides, herbicides, etc. People who are today under 50 years of age, for the first time ever, have a weaker DNA than their ancestors. Those over 80 years of age have the strongest. We are devolving the strength of DNA much more quickly than it was strengthened which is why we are seeing the strong surge in childhood illnesses. Parents haven't inherited those "good genes" we always like to talk about so they can't pass them on to their offspring. I can't help but think on what the expansion of this might mean in another 50 years if we don't provide our children and their children with the nutritional framework to restore the strength of that DNA. Eat your veggies!! Have a wonderful weekend......lots of love, Sally xoxo

Internal Awareness

What a great day! Okay, so now most of you see this title and probably think I'm referring to some profoundly insightful personal exploration of one's psyche. That could be, of course, but certainly was not the case with our first lecture of the day. Internal Awareness, my friends, is just that. The very necessary awareness of our own internal workings, particularly as it relates to digestion and absorption of food. I was thinking about this while on the road to Florida knowing that this is an important part of true health. For more years than I can count I have never hesitated to discuss food with any of you. We have discussed the purchase of it in all of its forms whether it be local, organic, frozen, exotic, whatever. We have also discussed at enormous length, the preparation of it as so many of us are foodies bordering on chef calibre :-) or at least fancy ourselves to be such. We have discussed the eating of it and all of the sensory stimulations that this entails. We prepare it based on flavours, colours, textures, sometimes nutritional combinations, and we applaud ourselves with a job well done and commend one another on another great meal. We have, for the most part, done this our entire adult lives. We have exchanged favourite recipes and revelled in preparing a loved ones favourite foods. Never, in all of my years, do I remember anyone ever discussing what happens to it after it leaves our mouths. With the exception of always being told as a child to "chew your food" there has never been much discussion beyond the ingestion of it. I am very happy to say and know that it's not too late to learn that it's not what we EAT but what we ABSORB that is important. Today was all about digestion and ENZYMES, the cornerstone that liquefies our food so that the nutrients in it can find their way into our bloodstreams with a little help from our pancreas, liver, gall bladder, etc. I believe that if I had ever spent as much time on this aspect of my food as I did on the part before it entered my mouth I likely never would have had colon cancer. I also think that this is one of the major reasons that colon cancer is heading shortly, if not already there, to being the #1 cause of cancer deaths in North America. People really do need to talk about this. Especially men, who seem, at the moment to have more incidence of colon cancer although women are quickly catching up, unfortunately. We must be aware of what our body tells us after we eat. Having to pop Tums, Rolaids, or prescription antacids is not the answer to stomach upset. Finding out the reason and eliminating the cause is the answer so that we don't remain a society of malnourished, albeit overfed people because we can't absorb any of the nutriton in our food due to the stressed out condition of our digestive organs. If we listen to our bodies they will tell us whether we are doing it right or not. We really do have to listen. We should be eliminating each meal within a few hours of having eaten it. That's what kids do. Ever notice that those little guys have great big poops relative to their size? That's because all of their systems work as they were intended. They have not become bogged down by the nature and quantity of what is put into them. How many of us can say the same thing? We really do have to get there because our lives depend on it. And by the way, you may have deduced that I think potty mouth is a good thing! Be well and chew your food until it's really mush! Love, Sally xoxo

Let's try this again..........

As I find myself back at Hippocrates, I really feel the need to try to share with you and myself, this incredible journey called health and healing. I wept with gratitude for the opportunity to be here again when I sat down to my wonderful, big, living, green, sprout salad for lunch after being on the road for 3 days and not able to find even a decent green salad, let alone anything organic and so alive. It really was challenging, especially after my cooler gave up on my first day out just as the temperature began to get into the 30s again. The drive here was absolutely great. Smooth, relaxing, brilliant weather and each day I found myself ready to stop after about 8 hours and that always put me right where I had planned and booked to be. God definitely had a big hand in this trip as I had really guesstimated all of it and it wouldn't have turned out so well if it were just me :-). I pulled into the Marriott in Palm Beach Shores (Singer Island) around noon today and my room wasn't ready so I figured I would check out my daily trip to Hippocrates by going over there for lunch. It will be about 20 minutes each way and I think even in rush hour shouldn't be too bad. We shall see on that. I can't help but be positive about everything as there has been absolutely nothing to diminish my optimism. Perhaps my optimism is why it all has gone so well?...lol....funny how that works, right? The resort is also gorgeous. I will try to upload a picture of the view from my balcony but again, as I've said to many of you, my coming back to Hippocrates for the Educator course seemed meant to be when I was able to book my timeshare points for the entire ten weeks!! To have it be one of the nicest places I have ever stayed simply makes it even more so. Everywhere I turn the people are helpful, friendly and gracious and it's been that way the whole way down here.

Speaking of the whole way down here, I saw more stylin' Chevys on the road on the way here than I'd ever seen anywhere. When did GM start making these very cool-looking cars? Hardly saw a Ford which I found interesting and once into NC and continuing south, lots of them there expensive imports :-). But seriously, the Chevys were very cool. Then, I remembered that the American taxpayers are 60% shareholders in GM. All of a sudden they looked smarter than I'd given most of them credit for back during the 2nd election of Dubya...They'd been redeemed when Obama got elected but then the Tea Party had me doubting again. Now, I'm just not so sure :-). We Canadians are shareholders in GM, too, remember. Best we all get to ordering those new Chevys!

I am hoping that this adventure at Hippocrates allows more time for blogging and I am surely going to give it my best. I am looking forward to an intensely personal journey into holistic health where my emotional, physical and spiritual aspects will all come together in my deeper exploration of this wonderful, healing, living foods lifestyle. I look forward to sharing it with any who would like to partake. Take care, be well and we'll talk soon. xoxo