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SEPTEMBER 26th, 2010
HOWDY, AGAIN!
TO ALL OUR LIVEFOODFACTORFRIENDS!
Ride On! Read On!
PART 2: DAY 2:
BREAKING THE CORRECT NATURAL HYGIENE FAST
HOW TO...
CHOOSE LIFE! DO RIGHT! GAIN WEIGHT!
I got it! With "DAY 1" at Our Homestead done, the fast, it was time for "DAY 2" and breaking the fast. This was a whole new adventure! Eating had never been such pleasure!
I started out with a few mouthfuls of melon, little bites offered in a green and gold glass dish the shape of a butterfly. The melon balls were spread out to make them look like a lot. But this wasn't simply "some melon." It was the best and the sweetest I'd ever tasted! There were 3 to choose from, in case the first wasn't "a sweetest-ever choice" -- but it certainly was! Victoria explained: "After being fed mushy and non-sweet watermelon every meal for 18 days at one retreat, I swore that if I ever had a Natural Hygiene health retreat, I would only serve the best, the tastiest food! I swore I would never make anyone eat anything that was not the right consistency, that was not yummy! And since The HighJoy Horse is in the picture? Well, no guest feels guilty about wasting perfectly-good-but-not-yummy-food -- because there is no waste! The HighJoy Horse is not picky! So? We just happily give anything not fit for us to him!" Since I served myself throughout the day and Victoria came over for the 1 lengthy visit each day, I was instructed to do 6 servings a day and to... "PUT INTO HIGH'S TAKE-OUT HORSEY-BAG ANYTHING NOT YUMMY!"
For 3 days, I had more and more at each little feeding. These "feedings" were actually gourmet presentations, the likes of which I'd only experienced in the finest 4-star restaurants! Everything was served to perfection, on fun and fascinating dishes. The first melon servings were small, delicious, and amazing! I got the finest service and linen, all laid out to perfection. I was amazed that eating those little bites wiped me out! I rested and slept far more with breaking the fast than I ever had during the fast! It was exhausting to eat and let my body process the food! It was hard to believe how much energy it took to eat and process food! All I wanted to do was sleep until the next feeding! I had finally -- let go and let God! After all melons, then 2 days of juices were added to the melon mix. Drinks were served in little, gold-leaf trimmed glasses with little, gold-gilded spoons. We had cozy beverage parties for 2 from Victoria's upcoming BeverageBook manuscript. The parties were so special, the flavor combinations so yummy, the drinks so delicious and nutritious! I could actually feel the "life force" in this food being used to enliven me! Somehow, all the time and care taken with each meal, along with the lessons in picking the fruit and veggies and how to make the drinks, caused each little serving to become very filling and satisfying. Victoria assured me that all of this was only a prelude to actually eating whole live-foods again.
IT WAS NOW MY FULL-TIME JOB TO GAIN WEIGHT! I had gone to 90 pounds. I wanted to get up to 118 to be happy. These little beverages of different flavors in darling glasses became appetizers before our whole food meals. Victoria had found a clever way to get several recipe ideas into each meal prepared so that I would go home e tasty meals, always with the most dazzling of settings, service, dishes, and linens, each becoming more and more elaborate, as if being entertained in a palace by royalty. In short, I became very spoiled.
Let me digress slightly to the way new foods were introduced. This was both psychologically and physiologically well thought out, making me very careful and confident to make my own. I was now on The GetWell
Weight-Gain System. Victoria would give gratitude, especially during the
massages: "Thank God! You didn't die!" Yes! I was on DAY 2 with
veggies, nuts and seeds, but with fruit -- lots of fresh fruit, lots of
dried fruit -- and with lots of servings throughout every day until I
reached my 118! And I had put my 5 burdens into a high joy perspective!
Going home to lighten the load on my mule was going to be fun! It was a
good day to start my new life!
At our naturecurerawfoodhealthretreat, it is an exercise in being
re-born, re-wired, re-raised -- from infancy right through early
adulthood -- but it happens very quickly: in just 2 days! The rest of the
maturing takes place after you leave. The experience was that life
changing. I was very blessed (The words "fortunate" or "lucky" are not
allowed onto the premises!) to have the time to stay at the retreat with
The Wilderness Woman, for the entire recommended 6 weeks -- "TO GET AS
GOOD AS IT CAN GET" so that I could re-create myself into good health,
both inside and out, learn how to make the turnaround to save my life!
The most important aspect of the DAY 2 re-feeding is, of course, the
food. After we progressed from melons-only, the melon remained the
starter of each new day. Every morning began with a juicy-ripe melon.
Speaking of "juices," after a few days of juices in breaking my fast,
they also remained in place as appetizers 20 minutes before the
main dish, on Victoria's part: it was exciting to see the master at work! Every day, more new foods were introduced into the equation -- some I had never even heard of, let alone tasted! And every night was a preparation for the next day's new foods. For example, a charming, little glass of the sweetest orange juice ever (Yeah, OJ can be charming. But you'd have to be here to get that!) was blended with just a few cashews into a delicious, frothy, little cocktail. That night the cashew nuts were placed in a large jar, in plain view. I was told to eat a few ounces of nuts along with some lettuce and celery, as one of my 6 mini-meals the next day. This gives the mind time to anticipate and the body time to prepare for the digestion of a newly introduced food. So it went on a daily basis: a meal of introduction and the discovery of the next day's new foods! Since every new food tastes like the best thing you've ever eaten in your life, this is a very pleasurable time! This happens for 2 reasons. Number 1, this is the true after-effect of post-fast re-feeding. TASTE BUD MANIA! Every Health Seeker deserves to have this experience! All foods become awesome! Number 2, Victoria serves only the best, the ripest, the most in season, and most delicious of fruit and veggies in the world! To quote: "If 'this...' isn't tasty enough to make you happy (Insert here, 'watermelon' or 'cantaloupe' or 'carrot' or 'celery,' etc.), toss it into the bin for the horse! He is not picky! He loves it all!" What fun! GUILT-FREE TOSSING! There is no waste, no haunting memories about starving children in foreign countries instilled by grandmothers, because the horse needs and eats it all! Kind of like an ancient, Roman banquet, without the decadence -- only the joy! Perhaps this is why the horse is named "HighJoy"? He certainly performs a wonderful service, and he gets extreme pleasure doing it, too! I have seen him eat out of his big dishes -- he absolutely trembles while eating our raw scraps! Talk about a win-win situation! Everybody eats to the max!
We all know everything can't be "blue sky & red roses" all the time. Re-feeding is not an exception. I was cautioned about a process that takes place during this time called "retracing." It is, in short, a brief but intensive reliving of the symptoms of the illnesses you managed to help your body throw off by fasting.
In my case, there was a 1-day "earache headache." And 1 day was quite enough. One of my chief complaints when I arrived was my "sinus condition" with which I had coped from childhood. It had expanded to include an earache during a bout of flu approximately 8 years ago. This particular flu had been termed a "hanger-on-er" and included an earache. It was the first I'd ever experienced, then well into my 40s. And it didn't ever let me alone after that flu! I kept getting the earache right into my 60s. After visiting many MDs and taking many tests including an MRI, they concluded I had no actual earache! (OKAY?!??#*!) They declared it "part of a sinus allergy." (Bet you know where this is going.) After several of both years and allergy doctors, I was on daily steroid sinus spray for my "allergy." I managed to experience the "earache headache" less often after that. And when I did get one, over-the-counter pain medicine would help it go away. Before the wonderful sinus spray, nothing would help when one of these things would hit. And I experienced constant pain for 8 - 10 days at time. So, I settled in with my spray, at over $100 a month, and decided, as my grandmother used to say, "It is better then getting shot in the leg." During re-feeding at Our Homestead, I had one for one whole day and used only one ice-pack. (Darned if I was going to take something for an earache at this late stage of the game!) Then, lo and behold! It receded and was gone! Relief and good riddance!
My second symptom to be retraced was my "bladder irritation" -- the chronic discomfort and pain in my bladder that I lived with, occurring 2 - 3 times a week during "bad times" and once every month or 2 during "good times." This had resulted from the many bladder infections I had started to experience in my 30s and that had simply settled in to Irritation (The Third Stage of Disease, according to Dr. Tilden) that I had learned to live with. I had been treating it with herbal remedies. I took these herbs constantly and prayed they would work for me. But I foresaw a bad end, since nothing was ever totally cleared up. Of course, all the MDs tested me and assured me I was fine. But I didn't ever have complete freedom from the returning discomfort. At Our Homestead, I actually waited hopefully for this bladder retracing since I knew it would be a signal that the body was healing and fine-tuning itself to re-adjust to food and wellness and that I would indeed be free of the decades-old condition after this event! It did occur and only lasted a few hours, and I knew another milestone was passed. So re-feeding also requires faith, understanding, and a bit of bravery. But it is well worth the effort and is, in the end, the point that DAY 2 is leading up to. That final, little "CLICK," when all circuits and systems are... "GO!"
The Wilderness Woman can be a tough character! You must be tough to live in the wilderness, after all, with only a horse for a companion! Part of her character is to not buy into and not feed fear and not to give a great deal of sympathy when aches and pains come and then go. Most every time, I would moan or groan about a new ache or pain, I got: "WONDERFUL! SOMETHING GOOD IS HAPPENING!" If any agony persisted for days, I would get some sympathy. I see now, she is not hard-hearted. She is just trying to get us into the "This too shall pass" mode and get our attention on healing to come from the misery instead of the actual misery of the moment. She was very matter of fact about detox symptoms, healing crises, and retracing episodes and looking to the healing, which in turn enabled me to adopt the same attitude. I wondered, "Was I, too, learning to... 'COUNT IT ALL JOY'?"
During all the dining, my responsibility was still to rest, be calm, and reclaim my strength. As just mentioned, I actually rested more deeply and completely while eating than I had on my fast. When the body is waking up to digesting, it is also experiencing a huge energy-expenditure load that simply doesn't exist while fasting. In short, I would eat and go to sleep, with barely a choice in the matter. Sometimes, the food would "hit" me. I would begin to droop at table, toward the end of the meal, as if finishing a long banquet, even though these delicious meals were, in reality, quite small. Victoria was always very understanding and would insist that I stand up and walk to bed immediately, even walking with me and tucking me in, sometimes, which was very sweet. Little by little, my strength began to return in earnest. Like during DAY 1 of fasting, I could sit and talk with Victoria for a while, always a treat, with so much to learn about food combining, energy conservation, and menu planning. ("One should best always include celery and/or cucumber and/or lettuce -- at least 2 of the 3 -- with every meal: essential for the high water content, digestion enhancement, and necessary minerals" is one such example.) Eventually, I was able to do the dishes. In fact, I was requested to do them. "Part of the low rates, part of getting active again," Victoria would explain. "And to keep me off my feet until I get knee replacements." But since she had spent the previous weeks waiting on me hand and foot, I was happy to help and pleased to be able do so.
Another fine and fun aspect of re-feeding were the recipes. While Victoria was preparing the meals, she would pull out all the ingredients and explain and demonstrate the food preparation. I was attending a live live-food preparation show! Some of the recipes were so delicious, I actually felt like they might not be "legal" in the live-food world. (That was due to her "secret ingredients!") They tasted too good! But they also seemed a little complicated, although most had just 2 to 4 ingredients. I was later to realize how simple they really were! Remember, I had been a Sheltonian whole-raw-live-fooder for 10 months before my arrival (except for a few nut-based recipes for weight-gain right before I came. That was were John started making the funny faces!) I was used to plain fare. I watched Victoria do her fascinating food preps and thought to myself, "This is fine for while I was here, but I am going back to my regular, no-reciped, plain-served veggies, nuts and seeds -- but with fruits -- on my plate when I get home."
I told her not to overextend herself teaching me, because I probably wouldn't utilize the teachings. She retorted: "Fine! All the easier for me! That will save me hours and hours of time and energy. Why would I fix you all these yummy recipes if you want to eat how you did before you came -- except now you will just add fruit? Why would I even put out the effort? Fine." Somehow though, a couple of the recipes had stuck in my craw, most notably the cashew dressing and the various avocado butters and dressings. I began to make them on my own and pour them over veggie salads and to dip veggies into them. Then one day, I got really curious and found the recipe for tahini in The Live Food Factor. I tuned in, turned on, and got high on recipe possibilities! From that moment on, I told Victoria, "Forgive me! I recant. I want it all!" A whole, new live-food world opened up! I took the crash course in food prep, not only from Victoria but from lots of live-food recipe books and videos in Our Wonderful Homestead Library! I now have a live-food gourmet repertoire that will make meals exciting!
When John and I would entertain friends with our Sheltonian meals, guests were really turned off to Natural Hygiene and live-foods! Victoria commented: "You were doing the very smartest, the very best thing you could possibly do to alienate your friends and to get them to turn away from becoming Health Seekers! Just putting a whole avocado, a whole tomato, 3 big romaine lettuce leaves, a red bell pepper, and 3 pickling cucumbers on the plate? Are you kidding? Take the average folks off the street and feed them like that? They will leave early and head for the closest restaurant, laughing all the way at the ridiculous evening of 'entertainment' they had been sucked into! OH -- but give them a beverage-tasting appetizer of several flavors of fresh fruits and veggies and maybe nuts and seeds, wait awhile and follow up with a small and yummy and well-plated veggie salad, wait awhile and follow up with small servings of 3 frozen-fruit creams and ices with toppings spread out before them? Well, they will be charmed for life! The way to their left-brain inquiring mind and its decision-making is through their right-brain being delighted with and inspired by sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell of our foods!"
Glad I wised up the last weeks and learned this. Everything there was a learning experience. Even the simple act of eating! And since I had been letting others do most all of my thinking for me in this live-foods trip, I had a lot to learn! Victoria did add: "Most of us Natural Hygienists do eat our food whole and raw We just wash off the foods and set them on plates. Many of us do make a quick dressing or other recipe of 2 - 4 items with regularity. But when we want to win over a not-so-sure-about-live-foods Health Seeker? The way to their hearts is through their senses! It is then that we want to reach into our creativity and serve stunning meals! And yes -- with recipes!"
As strength returned, I discovered the mild yet effective form of exercise that is The BodySlant routine. Simply lying on The BodySlant is good for every cell and system in the body. Also, doing so is an excellent form of deep, restorative relaxation. I made sure to slant at least 1/2 hour a day and sometimes twice a day. I will have a BodyStant waiting for me when I get home, as Victoria gets them to us for even less than the company that makes them.
I still used sunbathing for restoration and took short strolls around the grounds. One day into Day 2, I was opening the gate in anticipation of Victoria's arrival. I stepped out into the street and noticed the sun dappling the pavement. I looked down the street and spied the lovely lay of the land where Our Hygiene Homestead in The Woods was situated -- in the shade of the tall evergreens with the sun shining all the way down the lane on one side. Suddenly! I was charmed! I was like a yard dog that rarely gets turned loose! I took off down the street, following the sunshine! I walked and walked, checking out surroundings and feeling -- OH! SO LIGHT AND FREE! I could not make myself turn around and didn't want to! A spirit of adventure had captivated me! Finally, after rounding a large curve, I began to realize that if I veered off too many times I could become lost in the woodside. So I settled down and slowly, casually made my way back. When I returned, I felt my pulse all over my body! I felt so alive! From that day on, I made regular strolls a part of my regime. The last 2 days, I continued on around all the curves and found out that it was a big circle that ended up back at Our Homestead! Not being a Wilderness Woman myself, I never would have guessed that! But it was so much fun to feel the lay of the land enter my soul! My country exploration was a gold-plated, adventuresome hoot!
Now, I was looking forward to sight-seeing. Victoria had promised we'd have "into the mountains." Thinking to myself I was already "in the mountains," I wasn't prepared to see in just a 60 miles' drive a little Switzerland! Our Homestead mountains were but little foothills, after all! These were 5,000 foot high mountains, snow-capped and with winds raging through the valleys. Each scenic turnout was more breath-taking then the previous! Blue-green rivers and real wilderness were all around us! The Wilderness Woman was in her most "deerly remembered and beloved habitat," as she had ridden the trails here many times in her youth with saddle bags of food and a sleeping bag and her saddle as her pillow for bedding! Being in our 60s and of the same 60s' Hippie vintage, the most fun part of the whole drive was Victoria and I singing along with tapes of oldies. The Eagles were flying high again! With big wilderness all around us, with pristine life all around us, happiness bubbled up from inside us, as from a natural well.
Victoria kept the literature coming she knew I needed throughout DAY 1 and DAY 2. She had been suggesting I listen to her 4 sets of "playful, lively, right brain affirmations" on compact discs and read the book that goes with them. I ignored her 3 suggestions over the weeks. But one evening, I decided to listen to them: GetWell*StayWell Affirmations for Americans, FastWell & GetWell, EatWell & StayWell, and ExerciseWell & StayWell. By this time, I was well into DAY 2 and eating. As they say in the cartoons: "BANG! WOW! POW! ZAP! ZOWIE!" The book -- GetWell*StayWell Affirmations for Americans! -- is the most definitive work on fasting, eating, living, and Energy Enhancing I had ever experienced! NOT READ, MIND YOU, BUT -- EXPERIENCED! Right there on the living room sofa, my life changed! It is a work of transformation! It is a distillate of the entire raw food movement, Natural Hygiene, the mind-body connection, and alternative health care -- all in one volume! CLEAR! CONCISE! INSPIRING! I wish I had more descriptive words to explain a piece of literature. All I can say beyond this is that if you are bothering to read this, you owe it to yourself to read that. You will not be the same, nor will you ever want to be the same! I stayed up all night reading it. I e-mailed The Wilderness Woman in the middle of the night: "Now I know who I am with! A genius! Now I know who you are! A genius! After all our time on the phone and e-mails for 6 weeks, after all my weeks here -- I never really knew who you were! A genius!" I promptly gave her the names and addresses my 6 best friends to have her send them the GetWell*StayWell Affirmations for Americans! book. I wrote her: "I don't even want to go home until John reads this book and listens to the recordings -- he is a wonderful husband, but I want him to also get AS GOOD AS IT GETS! And these affirmations materials are a fast-track to getting there!"
Let's go way back into the history of health, Natural Hygiene health, which has given us Victoria BidWell. Back in the 1800s, in Europe, Father Sebastian Kneipp founded Naturopathy. Dr. Henry Lindlahr brought this work to the United States as "The Nature Cure' which was comprised of several forms of hydrotherapy and much of what Victoria has neatly summarized as "The 10 Energy Enhancers," including the strict eating of fresh, uncooked fruit and vegetables and nuts and seeds. Following in his father's footsteps, Dr. Victor H. Lindlahr, carried on and produced his most famous work: You Are What You Eat. (My mother actually studied Lindlahr and told me about him many years ago! Imagine my surprise to see his most famous book Nature Cure at The Nature Cure Retreat!) In the early 1900s, Dr. Herbert Shelton studied the 1800s' Natural Hygiene Pioneers and the various off-shoot branches of alternative health care, including Dr. Victor H. Lindlahr. In rejecting hydrotherapy and in resurrecting the teachings of The Natural Hygiene Pioneers, Dr. Shelton put out 40 books on the correct way to live and keep the body in good repair, as well as 40 years of magazines. And he opened and closed 7 Dr. Shelton's Health School(s). Health Seekers across America who found his works were smitten! Likewise, Dr. Virginia Vetrano studied The Hygiene Pioneers and then worked with Dr. Shelton, herself publishing and lecturing and running health retreats for Health Seekers.
Her daughter and son-in-law, Drs. Tosca and Greg Haag, now carry on Dr. Vetrano's work. Then Victoria comes along in 1976. While mostly self-taught ("I read everything I could find that Dr. Shelton ever wrote -- all in 1 year.") and then learning even more by teaching T.C. Fry's Life Science Health System, she also studied with Dr. Vetrano and The Doctors Haag and also visited or worked at retreats all over the country. She has authored and co-authored many books. But this GetWell*StayWell Affirmations for Americans! book, in my estimation, is the crowning achievement and final culmination of all their work, not simply her own. The baton has been passed, once again. After reading this "affirmative manual for life," I realized who I was dealing with and bowed to her superior wisdom in all aspects of my health-seeking for the rest of DAY 2. I was living with and working with "the expert of all the experts" and had finally realized it. What a feeling of security and confidence! What a wonderful privilege!
Still, Victoria cautioned me upon reading this: "I am well-pleased you have appreciated my GetWellHStayWell Affirmations for Americans! book and recordings in the very spirit in which I prepared them -- and probably more than anyone else since they came out in 1994. But I do not want you to look at me as "the expert of all the experts,' please! In fact, this is my final, parting word for you as you leave. It is the lesson I hope all who read this get: Do not put yourself in the hands of anyone but yourself! Do not be in awe of so-called 'experts'! The Medical Mentality at Its Very Worst is about giving up your life to the doctors. Natural Hygiene at Its Very Best is about taking full self-responsibility for your life! Do your own studying! Do your own research! Do your own questioning! Make your own choices! And live your own life accordingly! PLEASE! And if you do take stock in the experts? Seek first Natural Hygiene, as it is The Superlative, Alternative Health Care System!"
All worked up, she continued with this monologue, there, our last night while in The Eagle's Nest and after my going-away dinner party: "Sandra, your thoughtless following of John's diet taken off The Internet and given your near-death, no-fruit twist almost killed you. All this happened because you let others do your thinking for you. Letting someone else shop for your meals and fix them and clean up after you -- and then deciding yourself to throw out the fruit? That almost killed you! Here at Our Homestead, you have acquired an inquiring mind. It has been a beautiful thing to watch. Keep developing it, please. I may be a genius and an expert. But it is your life. Don't give yourself away to anyone so easily -- ever again, except to God, of course, and to Correct Natural Hygiene which is DNA-based on The Natural, Physiological Laws of Life! When www.health4thebillions.org does open up in November? It will be a safe haven for Health Seekers. Go there for your continuing education. I am furious that this "Halloween- skeleton-skinny' happened to you! Since Dr. Shelton's and Our 3 Texas Doctors' names were used on that website? It gives all of Natural Hygiene a bad name. And please, no more odd twists to Natural Hygiene without at least running them past me."
DAY 1 and DAY 2 lasted for 6 weeks! I am home now and well on the mend, gaining ounces of healthy tissue built on live-foods -- every day. I have left Victoria a new digital scale so guests can see the 1/10 pound at a time weight-gain or weight-loss they pray for. Victoria is leaving me with so many surprise gifts, my story is already too long to list them all. Even at Our Homestead, I was lightening my mule's load and will continue to do so. I have hauled my mule carrying my 5"burdens" home with me -- although I did have a little trouble getting him on the plane!
The Wilderness Woman and I e-mail often now. My coaches and cheerleaders -- Victoria, Dr. Tosca, and John -- are all still at work with me. One more thing I must share. When The Wilderness Woman wept at the airport as we held each other in good-bye hugs, I knew her rough and tough mode of communicating was mostly just a put-on... sweetness resides in her soul.
I am still living The 10 Energy Enhancers strictly. I certainly do look healthy. I have a suspicious amount of high energy! Could Natural Hygiene really turn a person around so completely in just 6 weeks? I haven't had an earache or bladder infection since my fast! The USANA acidophilis and digestive enzymes make a serious improvement in how I process my meals! And I feel good! This is very,very very phenomenal!
People need to recover themselves every so often. Now, as long as we have Our Homestead, we GetWell Friends all have a home away from home to retreat into. I could never have afforded $1,000 a week.The Nature Cure Raw Food Health Retreat is the way. Today, I am a happy 110 pounds and gaining. THANK GOD, I DIDN'T DIE! Now, instead of my own skeleton-skin-suit, I can plan a far more fun Halloween costume for our New Orleans Mardi Gras!
While breaking my Correct Natural Hygiene Fast and feeling frisky, Victoria gave me her Wilderness Woman Walking Stick and told me: "IT IS TIME TO GO TAKE A HIKE!" She told me how the English Romantic Poets and American Authors of the 1800s had "wandered lonely as the clouds" to see the beauties of nature swaying and dancing in the winds! So, I did... it as such an adventure! Now, I am in our own backwoods. And I have picked up my own Wilderness Woman Walking Stick! I can use it for weight-lifting, stretching, and fighting off the bears and howling wolves!
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