I’m going to get radical here for a minute. Hold onto your horses, but consider letting go of what you already know and hear me out.
rad·i·cal
adjective
1. (especially of change or action) relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough.
“a radical overhaul of the existing regulatory framework”
2. of or going to the root or origin.
contributed by http://www.pinterest.com/pin/157274211959984207/
What led me to do the work I do?
It’s because I have a fundamental belief that the food system is broken. A hefty claim, a bold assertion—I know.
And what led me to believe—to know with all my being—that the food system was broken?
It was because my own body was destroyed after decades of eating even a marginally “healthy” modern American diet. In order to fix my body, I had to examine the source of my problems. I had to get radical—down to the root.
In doing so I discovered some huge, capital ’T’ Truths that weren’t so pretty. In fact, I denied them for as long as I could stand because they challenged everything I knew and thought about myself, how healthy I believed myself to be, how my mom fed me, and even what everyone around me took for granted.
These new ideas weren’t widely accepted.
The thing that floors me the most about the food system is completely absurd, and I mean this in the looniest, most nonsensical kind of way. (As opposed to some avant guard art that pushes the status quo.) I’m talking about how the food system is straight up bonkers here.
The #1 thing that needs to shift to have a healthier society and a non-busted food system? The thing that if we fix, EVERYONE gets healthier?
It’s simply this:
Focus on getting the right nutrients.
What do people focus on instead?
Cheap fuel and fillers.
The price people pay for just filling their bellies so they stop growling is enormous. They’re missing the biggest opportunity to supercharge their nutritional content with solid, beneficial gut flora.
How, you ask? With fermented foods.
We want this! We need this boomin’ bellyful of healthy bacteria most of all. A healthy gut flora will help digest and extract more nutrients from food.
This is where we need to be focusing—not on trying to get through lunchtime as fast as we can so we can go back to work, but on truly nourishing our bodies. If that’s the priority, then everything else is…well, ok—maybe this isn’t the best metaphor—but everything else is gravy.
The reason people have to work so hard right now to figure out what they need to eat for their body is because the food system is broken. People are (still) being told to eat in a way that doesn’t work.
So rather than get all weepy and just curl up on the couch with gluten-free microwavable TV dinner, here’s the BEST thing we can do about this busted food system that we’ve inherited. (Yes, find solace in the fact that we didn’t make it, but we have a choice over what to do with it.)
We need to get as educated as possible about how humans eat, what makes us healthy, and what we need in our lives to feel good.
Here’s the other capital ’T’ Truth that knocked me over. It was when I realized—midway through my winding road to what’s now exceptional health—that no one was going to save me.
And the hard-knock truth when I started my health coaching practice? I can’t save anyone else either. But here’s what I could do.
I could learn how to be healthy. I also saw an opportunity to learn how to help other people be healthy. My friend Stella likes to call this being a ‘Classy Ambassador.’ It’s when you lead by example in so graceful and non-pushy a way that other people can’t help but be intrigued with what you’re up to.
At first it appeared that I stumbled into this leadership discovery, but I was clear-headed enough that I saw an opportunity to become a leader in this field, both on a small and large scale. I’m not saying my path is for everyone. But when I realized that:
1) I could heal my own broken body
2) I could teach other people they steps I took to heal their broken bodies
3) that with each broken body healed, one brick of the broken food system was dismantled
I couldn’t see doing it any other way.
Why? Because there’s grandparents in nursing homes, children in schools, people in hospitals who are the most negatively affected by this faulty food system we’ve inherited. Ironically, they’re the people that need nutrition the MOST.
So I write this knowing that I’m more than just a little bit of an upstart. I write this knowing that I might alienate some people who disagree, or who aren’t ready to hear what I’m saying, or who just don’t like me for what ever reason. I HAD to make a decision to be okay with that. Because to be radical means that you are willing to stand by your beliefs, no matter how it affects your popularity.
Whatever you believe at your core, I hope you’re willing to choose your Truth over the status quo. I hope that when it comes down to living with integrity that you’re willing to shift your whole previous belief system, if that’s what it takes. I hope that you’re even ready to push aside what your family taught you in the past or what they think now.
This is how change happens. This is how we fix the food system and learn how to nourish our bodies first, and up next, the world.
