Oy!

hi guys-

it has been a week, ya' know? well, you don't know, but trust me.

i have not had much to blog about in the last days; i am still trying to figure out what it is you want to hear from me. i can't imagine that you could be interested in my day to day stuff, so i struggle with what to write about. i have been busy working and doubt you will find it
interesting, so i prayed for inspiration and the topic came to me.

in the last few days, i have run into several people who have changed the course of their lives with their diet choices. and while they have rid their bodies of the symptoms of disease, i am not sure that i would classify them as well and happy. they seem to live their lives, post-disease, in mortal fear of the next thing. now before you get all upset, hear me out.

when i was ill (a billion years ago), i recovered through my food choices and got on with my life. i was so happy to be well that the scope of my possibilities over-shadowed any fear that i held about my illness returning or whatever other nightmare i could imagine. and i'm italian; trust me we can imagine some pretty bad stuff. i worked hard at my health and worked just as hard to understand the principles of food that had so clearly helped me to recover. that understanding gave me power and freedom to live my life richly with great gusto.

but it seems that more and more people who are looking to food for a 'cure' are finding themselves in a world that is no bigger than the perimeter of their plate. and that makes me sad. people get so caught up in the dogma of an idea that they forget to live in the world. fear takes over their entire life. they question everything and listen to every loony tune on the planet for advice. they wear blinders to common sense.

some of the ideas being perpetuated under the guise of natural living make me scratch my head in wonder. who came up with the idea that regular visits to the gym are so toxic that your cancer might return because of the electrical currents from the machines and the sweat from all those meat eaters working out next to you? listen, i am totally in on the idea of 'energy' and its power in our lives, but seriously. some of this stuff is just nuts. where did our common sense fly off to?

food is a life-sustaining, sexy, powerful aspect of being human. mother nature, in all her wisdom, made food an enjoyable thing so we would eat it and create life. food that is whole and unprocessed, as nature intended, is a gloriously wonderful thing, meant to be savored and enjoyed; i doubt she intended for it to become something we wring out hands over in fear.

i have spoken to people just this week who are in such fear of food that they stress over each morsel that they consume. can that be healthy? not in my book. while we have adulterated food to a point where some of it is not recognizable as food, if you have made the switch to a whole, unprocessed, plant-based diet, it's time to relax. the hard part is over. trust me, if you are ill and using food as your tool for recovery, it's not tomatoes or olive oil that got you into trouble. it's not roasted peppers and crusty bread either. if you are at all like i was, it's diet soda and snicker bars that did you in.

all i am saying is that if you have decided to eat well, a whole, unprocessed, plant-based diet, leave your anxiety at the door, please. enjoy all the abundance that nature provides and cook as though your life depends on it, but do it with passion, intuition and love. it is the difference between enjoying the health you have created or living in a self-created prison of fear and anxiety over your choices. understand the food you eat and free yourself. food is sexy, yummy, sexy and well, sexy. not enjoying it is criminal and makes you so not fun to be with.

okay, enough ranting...time for boot camp!