I’m hosting a 5-day plant based cleanse from Jan 4th-Jan 8th.  (Let me know if you want to participate.) One of the participants asked me if she would be restricted with coffee and caffeine.  This simple question got me thinking.  What if a healthy diet and lifestyle was perceived differently?

Is a healthy lifestyle a sacrifice or a desired journey?                                                     Is a healthy lifestyle restrictive or liberating?                                                                    Does a cleaner diet mean missing out on delicious foods or is it about discovering all the great foods that taste good and will make you feel amazing?

Think about it.  It’s hard for me to fully describe the benefits.  It’s difficult to explain to people that I really don’t feel deprived.  If I did, I would not have stuck with this for so many years.  I feel fortunate that I honesty enjoy my lifestyle.  It’s not forced.  It’s certainly not something someone else is convincing me to do.  The hardest thing for people to believe is that I don’t miss junk food, meat and dairy!  I actually enjoy salads, veggies, brown rice and fruit.  To me that’s freedom from the addictive grip of foods that are harmful.  It’s freedom from worrying about being the ‘odd ball’ that doesn’t eat chatty everyone else is having.  It’s freedom from being stuck in a routine that doesn’t serve me and continuing to consume toxins.  Changing your mind is the first step.

It’s really something you have to experience for yourself.  I can tell you all about my experiences and some general benefits such as having more energy, feeling lighter and less bloated and being in a better mood.  Everyone’s experience will be different and you owe it to yourself to give it a try.  Thinking of it in a positive light is very powerful.

What if you could find satisfaction in a wholesome unprocessed diet made up of mainly plant based foods?  We all know about the long-term health benefits.  The major obstacle is our attachment to the instant gratification of the foods we have come to love, foods that are pumped with artificial flavor enhancers, sugar, oil, salt and oil.

I’ll end with this.  I recently watched a story on CNN where a former heroin addict who was also a gymnast was discussing how he relapsed after 1 1/2 years of being clean.  It happened after a shoulder surgery when he was given a strong painkiller that made him feel as good as heroin did and he became re-addicted.  This happened a few more times ( as he had more surgeries for injuries) and he decided that whenever he had surgery he would have to resort to other methods of numbing the pain and break free from the euphoric feeling of prescription pain meds and heroin.  He found his freedom.