| As the calendar year draws to a close, and I am | | | | Feldenkrais Method, Jaffe-Mellor technique, massage |
| contemplating New Year's Resolutions, I am reflecting | | | | therapy, cranial sacral therapy, naturopathy, |
| on the ongoing process of healing ourselves and the | | | | orthomolecular medicine, to name only a few. Some |
| planet. Many truths have been revealed to me during | | | | of these methods were helpful for awhile. Results |
| the past couple of years in my journey back to a | | | | would last only a few hours or a few days. Others |
| healthful and purposeful life. Whether you have been | | | | were not helpful at all, and there was no money-back |
| searching for a short time or a very long time for a | | | | guarantee on any of these products or services. |
| solution to your health challenges, have you carefully | | | | What an expensive journey! Does any of this sound |
| considered what you are eating and thoroughly | | | | a little bit familiar? |
| educated yourself about what's in your food? What | | | | It took me many years of grueling physical suffering |
| are those ingredients? Where did they come from? | | | | to realize that my body was too physically toxic |
| How were they produced? If you have not yet | | | | during the first decade of my physical illnesses to |
| investigated this, you will be very surprised when you | | | | integrate or benefit from the holistic "remedies" I had |
| do, and you may decide you are ready for a positive | | | | been using. I trust that many such energetically |
| change. | | | | based therapies I tried DO in fact work. However, |
| Two years ago I found myself wandering through a | | | | they are most effective when the physical body's |
| Holistic Health Expo event, sponsored by the Center | | | | nutritional foundation is optimally balanced. They may |
| for Balance in Newton, Massachusetts. One of the | | | | be much less beneficial when a person is not eating |
| first booths I stopped at showcased a wise man | | | | well. |
| named David Snieckus. His booth display was | | | | Up until 2004, I was still eating a conventional |
| miraculously simple.....a pot of soup on a white table | | | | American diet. I enjoyed red meat, chicken, some |
| cloth with some of his business cards. That's it!! I'd | | | | vegetables, lots of pasta and bread, and just about |
| been to this annual event a number of times in | | | | anything that was QUICK and EASY to prepare, |
| previous years, but I had never seen anyone | | | | because I was so fatigued all the time. Historically, |
| promoting something as simple as home cooked | | | | I've had a deep passion for ice cream, cookies, |
| soup. I was particularly intrigued by the simplicity of | | | | chocolate, and desserts of all sorts. |
| this booth, so I struck up a conversation with him. | | | | Two years after meeting David, attending his |
| In a very energetic and enthusiastic tone, David | | | | cooking classes, informative guest speaker events, |
| explained to me that he was hosting an event later | | | | community meals and a summer macrobiotic retreat |
| that week, where an exceptionally healthy meal | | | | in Maine, macrobiotic cooking has become a sacred |
| would be served in the company of a guest speaker | | | | and staple routine in my life. My passion for ice cream |
| (a cookbook author named Jessica Porter), who | | | | has faded. Improvements in my eating habits are |
| would be giving a talk about macrobiotics. He said this | | | | now sustainable. David has helped me re-define what |
| event was something I should not miss. I attended | | | | it means to eat well. I've learned to prepare delicious, |
| the lecture later that week. Jessica was lively, | | | | gorgeous food I had never tried before, and it turns |
| amazingly entertaining, drawing laughter out of the | | | | out that it tastes like REAL food, and it is not |
| crowd, and the food was fantastic. It was certainly | | | | complicated to prepare. I now understand that many |
| more tasty and satisfying than anything I was | | | | wholesome, plant-based meals can be prepared in far |
| preparing for myself at home. This initial, direct | | | | less time than it takes to dine out at restaurants or |
| experience with macrobiotic food convinced me that | | | | cook animal based foods, and then present myself to |
| this type of cooking warranted further exploration. | | | | my doctors asking for help with the latest painful |
| When I first met David, I was still manifesting a long | | | | symptoms. |
| list of physical and emotional ailments for which I had | | | | I've never been more motivated than at the present |
| STILL NOT found a reliable holistic solution after | | | | time to remain committed to plant-based, whole |
| dedicating nearly ALL of my spare time and spare | | | | foods cooking and eating. When I cook for my family |
| cash to what I thought was a detailed and thorough | | | | and friends they are now impressed and want to try |
| search over the past eleven years. And, yet another | | | | such recipes on their own. My arthritis doctor remains |
| year of suffering had gone by.....it was already | | | | puzzled that I have sustained a 15 lb weight loss over |
| November.....it would soon be January.....time for more | | | | the past two years and that my body weight is |
| life-changing resolutions. I'd become thoroughly | | | | completely normal. There have already been |
| exhausted and de-motivated after my extended | | | | substantial economic benefits to the changes I have |
| search and exploration of methods to rid myself of | | | | made to my eating style. I'm spending far less on |
| fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue, | | | | prescription drugs and nutritional supplements than I |
| sleep dysfunction, and chronic anxiety. My eleven | | | | have in past years, because I don't need all of them |
| year quest to re-gain my health had already cost me | | | | anymore. I wish I had met David 10 years ago. I |
| at least $100,000 in out of pocket medical expenses. | | | | would have saved myself a great deal of physical |
| I had stopped keeping tabs on my medical spending; | | | | and emotional suffering and MONEY! |
| it was too depressing. Over the years there have | | | | All my pre-conceived notions about what it would be |
| been endless prescription drug co-payments, physical | | | | like to be free from conventional food, laden with |
| therapy, large quantities of nutritional supplements, | | | | animal products and refined ingredients have been |
| custom herbal preparations, homeopathic remedies, | | | | proven false in my direct experience with what David |
| magnets, and fees for MANY different types of | | | | is teaching and with eating the wholesome, unrefined, |
| holistic practitioners. Are you tired yet? I tried | | | | plant-based foods he has taught me to select and |
| acupuncture, Reiki, energy healing, Qi Gong, | | | | prepare. |