THE KOREAN SPA

The word sauna is an ancient Finnish word which means the traditional Finnish bath as well as the bathhouse itself. The oldest known saunas were pits dug into a slope or hill and used as homes during the winter. The Finns used the sauna as a place to cleanse the mind, rejuvenate and refresh the spirit, prepare the dead for burial, and - because it was usually the cleanest structure and had water available - as a place to give birth. The sauna is still an important part of daily family life in Finland and most homes have a sauna.

Saunas can be found in most cultures: Finland, the Baltic countries, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the UK, southern Europe, Central America, the US, Africa, Japan, Australia and Korea.

In Korea, the sauna is essentially a public bathhouse. Families come to enjoy the day together, with the men and women taking showers, whirlpools, and massages in separate parts of the facility, but coming together for the saunas.

A friend and I decided to try to local Korean sauna I had heard so much about. I have enjoyed dry saunas in the spas and hotels I have stayed in over the years. My country club offered one as an amenity in the ladies' locker room. My friend, a client of my partner and our business, is in the middle of a detox program and wanted to use the sauna to help "sweat" out some impurities. So we set out on a Sunday for an adventure!

We passed the entrance to the Spa and had to double back. Not expecting the facility to be marked by a gate with a ceramic family of giraffes on the crossbar, we missed the turn-in the first time around, sure it was the entrance to a safari-type park. When the Spa came into view at the end of the drive, the parking lot was quite full. I felt like I was looking at a small town casino: two huge sitting lions graced either side of the staircase to the entrance. Once inside, I don't know if casino is the word I would have chosen to describe the place.

We entered, taking our shoes off, getting locker keys and a set of pink gym shorts with top. Then we were ushered into the women's locker room. Various shapes, sizes, and ages of females were walking around nude (as I had been told we had to be when I called for information).

We put our shoes in one tiny locker and our clothes in a larger one across the room. Grabbing a towel the size of a small guest hand towel, we walked into the shower room. With a wall of showers on one side, four whirlpools in the middle, each with a different temperature and mineral content, a wet sauna, a cold pool in the middle of the room, and the open massage and body scrub area on the other side, the room was moist to say the least. Moms, with little ones, young girls, older women in head scarves: this was a real cross-section of the female condition.

Showered and in our pink outfit (the guys get blue), we entered the co-ed portion of the Spa. A restaurant, rows of pink fake leather couches, trimmed in Victorian curlicued white wood, and various saunas greeted us. Some people were asleep on the couches or on mats on the floor. Some ate. Some watched T. V. Children played. Gongs would chime and a soft Asian voice would say something. Often that would create a mad rush into one of the sauna rooms. We were not in Kansas anymore.

First, we entered The Pyramid Room. The walls are covered with 23 carat gold to help cleanse impurities. The pyramid shape channels metaphysical energy. This sauna felt good. At 115 degrees, I hadn't started to sweat yet when my friend started to feel a little light-headed. This is often the case when doing a detox.

We left The Pyramid Room and entered The Ice Room, the equivalent of a cold plunge pool. Chilled to just above freezing (35 degrees), it was suggested that you rub your towel over your skin to get the best out of the stimulation to blood flow. The floor was covered with grass mats and it was too cold to comfortably be barefooted on the floor without them.

After several minutes, we went into The Salt Room. Made from 350 million year old salt rocks, this rooms aids in rejuvenating the skin. The temperature gauge said 120 degrees. The floors had cloth mats over the grass mats and, if you were not resting on the cloth, you would end up with a huge red mark on your skin. The walls were too hot to touch for long. I was just beginning to glisten when my friend said she thought she should leave because she was feeling a bit nauseous. Again we went into The Ice Room to lower our body temperature.

There is a Yellow-Soil Crystal Room heated to 115 degrees and unique to Korean culture. It combines infrared rays with the absorptive nature of the yellow soil to extract toxins within the body.

The Base Rock Bath Room contains amethyst crystals, yellow soil and a bed-like slab of imported Japanese Siraka, a mineral said to have fantastic healing abilities. This room is heated to 127 degrees.

The Fire Sudatorium, or sweating bath, is made from elvan stones. The intense heat (165 to 170 degrees) is said to be exhilarating.

There is The Oxygen Room, the "Hawng-Toe-Ssut-Jjim" Room (yellow soil and wormwood steam room), and the Bulgama. This is the room everyone runs into when the gong sounds. It contains amethysts crystals and the elvan stone - a unique living stone. When the gong sounds, it means that a flatbed car loaded with the stones, which are heated to 155 degrees, is brought in on tracks and heats the room up dramatically.

Enough sauna. We decided to have the Body Scrub and Massage. So back into the shower room we go, to shower and wait for out table which is one of about eight behind a sand-blasted glass wall depicting characters from The Simpsons. I kid you not. Apparently, this T. V. show is huge in Korea.

All the tables are in a row and each has a tiny lady clad only in bra and panties...some matching and quite lovely and some not so much. Each table is covered in turquoise plastic and once on the table, your tiny lady pours a bucket of water over you and applies a salt rub that is vigorously worked into your skin with loofahs...not once, not twice, but trice. Interspersed with a bucket of water being flung on you after each phase of the scrub, by the end, I felt as though I had auditioned for the final dance scene in Flashdance. Oh, what a feeling.

Then the tiny lady washes and oils you and begins the massage. There is a language barrier so if you have issues with range of motion there is no way to communicate that to her. Front, back, back, front...at one point, I felt that I would slide off my table and bounce along all the other ones until I reached the floor! I was fine with everything until - on my stomach - she climbed on the bottoms of my feet with her knees. Holy Seoul! She could tell by the frantic waving of my arms that this was not something I was keen on. When she climbed up on my buttocks with the same knees, it actually felt good...

The massage is a bit rough. You feel a little slung around. There is slapping and cupping...must be the Korean way. No gentle Four Seasons pampering here. Because you are in a big room with everything else going on, it is not quiet and soothing. And it is wet! I think I came in with a few more freckles than I left with, but my skin did feel smooth. On the way home, my friend told me that every time my tiny lady would finish one part of the treatment, she would take her bra off and wash herself. Maybe she was afraid I had cooties.

THE PERFECT LIFE

The other day at lunch, I overheard a conversation between two young women. They were talking about a mutual friend, describing her as having the 'perfect' life. Their tone indicated that they wanted it, but didn't feel they would have that kind of life.

I started thinking.

Is life supposed to be perfect? Where is that written?

And what would the 'perfect' life look like?

That evening, I was sitting in my back yard, listening to the birds' songs as they settled into their nests for the night. A soft spring breeze blew across my face. The night was clear and full of stars. What would MY perfect life look like?

I would have a roof over my head.

I would have clean food on my table.

I would have an open and loving relationship with my daughter.

I would have friends I care for, who care for me.

I would have laughter.

I would have work to do that mattered to me and made me glad to have a place to go each day.

I would have a bottle of Don Julio 1942 on the bar.

I would have amazing sex as often as possible.

Well, seven out of eight ain't bad!

As I sat that evening, I thought, "I HAVE the perfect life!"

And I don't even believe there is such a thing...

What would your 'perfect' life look like? I'd love to hear from you.

DIGGIN' IN THE LIFE

I knew I was through the roughest time after my divorce this Spring when I looked out at the dozen or so plant containers on my patios and started planning what I would put in each one.

For the past year and a half, I didn't care that there were dead plants that I hadn't even felt like pulling out of the pots. When they say it takes eighteen months to two years to recover from divorce, even if you asked for it, "they" weren't kidding.

So, here I am, on the other side of that abyss and Spring has sprung and I am a planting savant!

Even when I was first married and all I had was an apartment balcony, I loved planting containers. When we had our first home, a sunny back yard cried out for a vegetable garden...asparagus, dill around the tomato plants so the worms go there instead of to the fruit... and lots flowers that reminded me of my grandparents, especially my grandmother - consummate gardeners. How I wish I had asked then all the questions that flood my mind now; but I was young and I didn't know I would love gardening, so I never asked.

Trial and error, I gardened my way through many years of marriage, a couple of apartments and two houses, cats doing wheelies between my feet as I dead-headed flowers, watered container pots, added bird feeders, yard sculptures, stone features...dug in the "life."

Soil is life.

And there is such joy derived from looking at a small flower bed that has been weeded, freshly turned, and planted with whatever I fancy at that moment in time. I used to get up in the middle of the night and look out at the pots and beds by the light of the moon...fresh plantings gave me that much happiness: a sense of satisfaction, the spark of creation, order out of chaos, the promise of growth and beauty.

Soil is full of life. Ants churning underground, turning the soil, doing the ant-work...earthworms aerating and tilling even the hardest clay soil (how do their soft mucosal noses not snap off from the effort of pushing up through hard packed Texas dirt?) , adding nutrients to the mix...both creating space and a habitable environment for all the organisms that are needed to enrich our earth.

Soil is not just dirt. Soil is the foundation for everything we eat and for everything that we eat to eat. But we haven't been good stewards of the land. From chemicals and fertilizers to pesticides to rain forest destruction to scraping the top soil only to come in with filler after all the trees have been cut down to build a parking lot, we are destroying this rich and vital few inches of that which sustains us.

What it requires of each of us, even if just in the few square feet over which we may have control, is an understanding of the implications of our choices. Many may argue that man was given dominion over the earth, but destruction of it's precious resources is not the act of a kind and benevolent or wise ruler.

A little TLC of the soil leads to the joy of loving something, creating beauty in one's midst, teaching by decisions congruent with core values. Then there is being outside in wonderful weather, painting a picture through the palette of well chosen plants and flowers, building a habitat for birds, butterflies, ladybugs, praying mantises, worms and ants!

Digging in the life is better than a trip to a shrink...while you plant, you can problem solve, chart the next steps for the life you are creating, spend time with kids or grandkids, and create an oasis of peace and beauty in the midst of a hectic and toxic world.

And it is a wonderful sign of hope for a better tomorrow and faith that the future holds promise!

You might want to watch this and pass it along to friends:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/the-soil-crisis-and-the-problem-solvers/#more-1774

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE

I am not perfect.

While this comes as no surprise to my family and my business partner, it may be a shock to several of you reading this right now!

I have been really dialed in regarding how I eat for about the past four years...gluten-free, fully hydrated (pure - not tap - water), no sugar, high purine proteins (I'm a fast oxidizer), lots of organic veggies. This, along with proper movement and training workouts, is how I lost weight, got off seven prescription medications, and regained a vibrant, healthy life.

My old bug-a-boo was refined carbs...give me a homemade biscuit or a scone, crackers, pasta, a dense whole-wheat bread and I thought I was one happy camper. Desserts often seemed like the perfect breakfast. Now I know what dysfunctions were operating in my body...adrenal fatigue, thyroid immune disease, leaky gut syndrome, parasitic/bacterial infestation. I was propping up a system struggling to function due to improper nutrition by eating more of the same non-foods that had created the problem in the first place: a kick of sugar for energy and then more later on when that resulted in an energy crash. And the cycle kept repeating itself.

So when I changed not only my way of living but MY WAY OF THINKING about how I wanted to live and be, I felt pretty smug, truth be known! I thought I had it knocked, TKO'ed, on the ropes..."it" being the disempowering, unhealthy lifestyle and cravings.

A couple of months ago, I started wanting sweets. So I indulged myself, but not with the old, bad-for-me sweets. I was eating gluten-free, honey-sweetened macaroons or goat milk ice cream, or granola made with gluten-free organic oats and nuts, sweetened with organic maple syrup. But I was eating this every day, sometimes twice a day. And I wasn't moving as much.

Although I was still training twice a week, I was sitting at my desk, on my computer for hours at a time...no fresh air, not as much dynamic movement due to training through some pretty severe biceps tendonitis, caused by a freakish non-accident accident.

And the result? My weight went up a couple of pounds, I was feeling discouraged and a bit blue, my colon wasn't working was well as before and the colon is a big problem area for me due to my old food habits.

Interesting difference in this set-back now from what it might have been way back when...I acknowledged what was going on and how I was feeling about it. I 'sat with it", if you will, dispassionately, almost as though it wasn't me, but someone else. I looked at the possible causes for the return of craving for sweets and what might be the solutions for what I believed to be the root issues. I ALLOWED MYSELF TO NOT BE PERFECT. No judgements as to my depth of character, strength of will, love of self. No blame on how I was reared, that I never got that pony I thought I wanted when I was eight, that I'm not 5'10". And not even a trace of fear that this was going to be the beginning of a spiraling back into the unhealthy life I had lived.

I charted a course, with the help of my coach/mentor: return to the food plan that is best for me, creates the most energy, makes me the happiest, and results in the body that works and looks the best. And move more! Get out in this beautiful Spring and soak up some Vitamin D, hear the birds chirp, feel the warm sun on my face, revel in the happiness that this kind of weather creates in me.

That was a week ago. Here are the results of just one week: two pounds less on the scale and better colon function. And you know what else? I have a quiet and renewed confidence that the old habits are gone because I have faced a familiar nemesis with a whole new set of tools in my toolbox. What joy and freedom this brings me!

Better yet? You, too, can learn how to live an empowered life! If that doesn't make you want to get up and dance, what would.

BODIES THE EXHIBITION

Many thoughts raced through my mind as I walked through this wondrous exhibit: how I would love to have a photographic memory, so as not to lose one bit of the information presented...how woefully uneducated we are about our bodies, this temple we have been given in which to grow, learn, love, live...how might we care for ourselves if we truly knew what processes were going on under our skin, day in, day out, every second of our lives.

One of the wonderful aspects of the exhibit is the opportunity to see the relationship of every organ, muscle, bone, tendon, ligament, vein...how ingeniously our organs are arranged to fill such a small, compact space - twisting, over-lapping, nestled snugly against each other so no fraction of an inch is lost...how each muscle is layered from surface to deep interior according to the action it performs and the direction the fibers of each muscle take, making how to train each muscle so much more apparent...how delicate the bones of the body actually are...how the tendons and ligaments attach and travel from bone to muscle or organ, allowing movement and function to take place...how vast the vascular system is and where it is the densest.

This is such a wonderful teaching tool! Why doesn't our educational system avail itself of this type of presentation? Children need to start learning what a resource their bodies are, the functions performed (voluntarily and involuntarily), how this thing they are transported by their entire lives actually works. If every citizen was given this knowledge - not watered down,

but clearly presented in language we could understand - it seems that it would create in us the desire to care for ourselves so differently...or restated, the desire to care for ourselves. If the result of providing this kind of educational programming was a healther population who took responsibility for their wellness, the dollars saved in healthcare would pay for the presentation tenfold.

To see this exhibit is to be struck by what a divine creation we are. Now I have no intention of getting embroiled in a debate between Darwinism and Creationism...I am fine with everyone believing whatever it is they believe. It doesn't matter what we think: we are walking around in a miraculous vehicle! Our bodies perform countless functions and processes, with or without our help. And if we are really living in a way that hinders this performance, our bodies perform anyway, to the best of their ability, until it just can't be done any longer. Think how wonderful the work could be done with just a little bit of help from us. And don't we have a responsibility to do so?

If you haven't seen The Exhibition, go. If you have seen it, go again!

Here are just a few of the amazing things going on inside us...

...our digestive tract is about 25 feet long.

...the adult circulatory system is made up of the heart and 100,000 miles of blood vessels.

...the urinary bladder can store more than 1.5 pints of urine before needing to be emptied.

...the skin is the largest and heaviest organ system of the body.

...the bones in our skeletal system are, ounce for ounce, stronger than 'mild'steel, but make up only about 14% of the body's total weight.

...the abdominal muscles form the center of the body, connecting to both the muscles of the lower and upper limbs, and the back, and are vital to motion and control.

...if all the muscles of the body worked together, they could generate enough power to life more than ten tons.

...as the main conduit between the brain and the body, the spinal cord transmits millions of nerve impulses per second at speeds exceeding 270 miles per hour.

...the brain contains one trillion nerve cells that are in constant communication with each other and with all parts of the body.

...the tiny fibers within our taste buds bind with molecules of food and send impulses to the brain, which determine which digestive enzymes need to be released to break down the food.

...the liver is the second heaviest organ of the body (after the skin) and weighs close to 3.5 pounds.

...as we inhale, oxygen feeds every cell in the body and, in turn, the cells use that oxygen to burn glucose, giving us the energy to breathe again.

...the heart valves push 4,300 gallons of blood through the heart every day.

...it takes less than sixty seconds for a drop of blood to transit the superhighway that is our circulatory system.

Our bodies are so much more intricate and complex than any machine, computer, or whiz-bang gadget we could possibly imagine. Care for yours.

Muppet Wisdom

"I really do believe that all of you are at the beginning of a wonderful journey. As you start traveling down that road of life, remember this: There are never enough comfort stops. The places you're going to are never on the map. And once you get that map out, you won't be able to refold it no matter how smart you are.

So forget the map, roll down the windows, and whenever you can, pull over and have a picnic with a pig. And if you can help it, never fly as cargo."

Kermit, the Frog

It's Never Too Late - My Journey to Wellness

How to begin? I guess with the "first day of the rest of my life," which was August 4, 2006. That was the day I met with CHEK Practitioner and Coach Scott Herrera. To say it was a seven-hour appointment that changed everything would be an understatement. Actually, a little background material might be appropriate.

Growing up, I was a bookworm. Although my biological father was a talented athlete in many sports through high school and in the Army, my mother and step-father were neither athletic nor sports-minded. My family moved around – a lot – and I was a solitary child, living in the world of my imagination and that of the authors whose work I poured over, often by flashlight underneath the covers after I was supposed to be asleep.

It wasn’t until after my only child was born that I started exercising and trying my hand at sports. I fell in love with tennis and found out that I was actually pretty good at it. I didn’t like losing, but I didn’t know how to compete. I played tennis five days a week, often twice a day. In addition, I started running. Though not fast, I was religious about it and entered local 3K and 5K races in Dallas. During the first eight years of my daughter’s life, I also dieted. One, The Beverly Hills Diet, resulted in a morning where I literally crawled down the stairs to wait – on the floor – for my child to be picked up by her carpool. I was too weak to stand. When I called my doctor and told him what I had been doing he said, “Go eat a piece of toast, for God’s sake.” For two to three years, I ate no meat…I was a lacto-vegetarian, living on cheese, nuts, fruit, yogurt, and bread and crackers. I often did a liquid day on Monday…water, fruit or V8 juice, coffee, and broth, but from bouillon cubes, not homemade. I also used a laxative at least once a week. There was a period of time when I was probably taking an over-the-counter laxative every two to three days. Even when I wasn’t doing that crazy stuff, I was on a low- or no-fat diet with lots of grains…I thought I was eating healthy because I was eating whole grain bread.

Then one of my old tennis buddies started an aerobics studio in Dallas, one of the first. I was immediately hooked. She and I formed a corporation and opened up several other studios, one on The Miracle Mile on Lovers Lane and another in Arlington. Usually, I taught two classes a day, sometimes three (it was a rite of passage to actually teach three in a row, like that made you some kind of legend…not many could/would do that). Soon after opening The Workout on Lovers Lane, I was working seven days a week. Classes started at 6:00 AM and ended at 9:00 PM. We had a good staff, but the hours were intense and, as the owner/managing partner, I was always on call. When I was at the studio, I felt I should be home with my family. When I was with my family, I felt I should be at the studio. Mostly, I was at the studio. I would go home and wait for carpool, then take my girl to work where she would wait for her daddy to pick her up after his run at the end of the day. They would go home and my husband would fix dinner (one year, he got the Mother’s Day card and gift), do homework, and wait for me to get off work. Often, I would fall asleep on the couch, in my leotards, too exhausted to eat. I weighed 111 pounds and was 5’6”. I looked great. Wired and tired is how I would describe myself, knowing what I know now.

When my daughter entered high school, my partner and I sold our studios. I tried to find a place to exercise, but the product we had offered was of such high quality that I couldn’t take just any class…it really bothered me when instructors couldn’t count eight beats to a measure. By this time, I had stopped running, but I walked practically every day; one day a week I would do an eight-mile walk. My hips would kill me at the end of that distance, so even though I felt I needed more, I usually only walked three to five miles at a 11-13 minute pace.

Once my child was in college, a friend and I started playing singles tennis again, which I had given up right before opening the aerobics studio. I played in the city club league during the school year and, during the summer, our club had a team that played in the Volvo league. I was the only singles player (each team had to have one singles player and the rest were doubles teams). One of those years, our team went to regionals, which was great fun even though it was in south Texas in August. We missed going to the national championships by two points.

I was still active, but I was gaining weight. My eating habits didn’t seem different…low fat, high fiber. Where once my cholesterol had been poster-child low, now I was on medication. Ditto for blood pressure…hormone replacement…acid reflux…and thyroid.

I tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watcher’s…and I could lose weight on these programs, but once I went back on a “normal” diet, that weight – and more – would pile right back on. My internist treated me as though I just didn’t have enough will power to eat less. My weight ballooned to 177 pounds and I had shrunk to 5’51/2”. I wasn’t able to sleep more than a few hours at a time and I had back pain, radiating down the outside of my left leg into my calf. I didn’t look great. I didn’t feel great. Emotionally, I wasn’t great, on many levels.

My Pilates instructor and friend had consulted Scott Herrera for nutritional help and thought I might benefit from his expertise. I asked her (what an angel she was in my life) to call Scott to see if he would take me on as a new client. So there I was, on the ‘first day of the rest of my life.” Seven hours of epiphany later, I was on a journey from which there is no turning back. And thank God for that.

Scott had sent what seemed like reams of paperwork…HAQ, Lifestyle Questionnaire, Pain Diagram, to name just a few. I had gone on-line to take the Metabolic Typing Test as well. When I first came to Scott’s office, all of those things were complete and in his possession. We didn’t talk about food. We didn’t talk about exercise. I remember early on in that first conversation being asked what I was most afraid of. The flood gates opened when I answered, “I’m afraid I will have to leave my marriage in order to save myself.” That was not the first time I had uttered those words.

So Scott and I talked for many sessions, many hours about the mental/emotional aspects of my dis-eased state. I was angered by what I felt traditional medicine knew and didn’t tell me or by what they simply didn’t deem important or believe contributed to the condition my condition was in. I was on fire with concepts that I had not heard articulated in quite the way Scott presented them to me. This ignited a dormant spirituality which had been pushed into the background of my life. Books I had never heard of were listed as must-reads. Paul Chek’s work was central to the process of wellness for Scott and for me. Scott began teaching me more effective coping mechanisms, different frames of reference for problem solving. We talked about learning to manage my life, to establish core values for every chakra, how to have non-violent dialogue…how to look at and live life differently, in a more integrated, fulfilling way.

Then we started working on food and implementing my food plan based upon the results of the Metabolic Typing Test. Scott took me to a local cafe he had convinced to cook clean food cleanly…they would actually cook according to the Metabolic Typing program for Scott’s clients. I was so focused and committed to healing myself that within four months I had lost 40 pounds. This was done, not by starving, not by ramping up a cardio program (I hadn’t even started training with Scott yet), but simply by eating right for my metabolic type. I was eating more than I had in 20 years. I was eating organic fat which I hadn’t eaten in 20 years…ghee, organic beef, buffalo, wild salmon, coconut oil, organic free-range eggs. I was drinking half my body weight in ounces of pure, bottled water daily, and I was gluten-free. Most grains contain a protein called gliadin, which can be extrememly difficult for some stomachs to breakdown and digest. This can lead to a host of GI tract problems that, over time, spill out into other areas of the body. I thought being gluten-free would be impossible for me. but I have been for 3 ½ years and I am so grateful for that one thing. I always knew something was wrong when I ate breads, crackers, etc., because it would start a feeding frenzy…I simply could not get enough. But everything was explained to me in a way that made sense and fortified my desire to implement the program. When Scott told me I needed to eat good fat, I remember asking him how he could tell a woman who was fat to eat fat. He asked me to trust him. I did. I do. It works. It’s true.

Eventually, I made it into the gym. But this was not the kind of exercise I had known. No crazy cardio, no heavy or really any weight work in the beginning. I was “working in”, not working out, in order to rest and heal a broken body, build energy, learn body awareness, develop my stabilizing muscles and balance. I was exercising less and exercising less intensely than I had my whole adult life. But it wasn’t easy, fluffy stuff. I was learning how to use my body efficiently and safely. Many things made me feel like a klutz, but I wasn’t completely hopeless and, with time, I was able to master things and move on to learn other things. My body showed the results and the results looked and felt good.

I also started working, through Scott, with Dr. Daniel Kalish. Conversations and body systems analysis testing revealed that I was borderline Stage 2-Stage 3 Adrenal Fatigue and that I had gut issues. As going gluten-free began to heal my intestinal lining, all sorts of things presented themselves. I had parasites and bacterial infections…all typical in a person who ate gluten when they were sensitive to it. I embarked upon another phase of my journey to health and wellness. Various food and herbal based supplements were added to my daily program in order to boost an exhausted body to start doing the functional things that a healthy body should be able to do. The goal was always to be able to get off the supplements; I was using them for support until I was better, not as a prescription for the rest of my life.

I could write volumes, about every subtle nuance of the next 2 years. Here are some highlights: I left my marriage of 40 years. I started taking some of the same courses that Scott had taken, as he suggested. I became certified as a Metabolic Typing Advisor, CHEK HLC Level 3, CHEK Exercise Coach. I tore up my left knee on my off-road bike, which led to meeting and working with Guy Voyer, O.D., taking his ELDOA and Myofascial Stretching Courses. Scott rehabilitated that knee and I have not needed to have surgery to replace the ACL or repair the torn meniscus. I begin using some of the supplemental protocols developed by Dr. Cass Ingram. I passed a parasitical fluke (which I wish I had kept to put in a jar of formaldehyde, but I was too grossed out by the thought of having THAT in my body). I got rid of HPV and moderate cervical dysplasia in three months after starting an Ingram protocol. Using a combination of Kalish and Ingram protocols and sheer refusal to give up, I am off all the prescription medications that I was on 3 ½ years ago, with the blessings of my traditional physicians and with blood work that proves I don’t need the Rx. My weight has been stable since I started the metabolic typing food plan, although I did get too thin right after my divorce. I regained the lost ½ inch through training and ELDOA work with Scott and Guy. I started a business centered around the coaching and business model Scott Herrera uses and has been generous enough to share with me. I teach segmental exercise classes – abs, glutes, hamstrings, quads and adductors training). Scott and I have started an LLC through which we offer quality bottled water and the best supplement lines we can find for our clients. My libido is alive and well. I have discovered that happiness is living within one’s core values, creating a life that is not dependent upon the actions of others, and learning to love and forgive oneself. I have a sense of purpose I never experienced before and a desire to teach others, specifically women, that it is never too late to create health, to live a life that is congruent with one’s heart and soul, to discover a passion and zest for something new.

Would I pretend this has been easy? No. I have cried more in the last 3 years than in my entire life, and I was a pretty good crier in the old days. Would I say that it is worth it? Yes, oh yes. I have also laughed more in the last 3 years than in my entire life. I have met wonderful people from all over the world. I have been taught and mentored by some eccentric geniuses. I have discovered that I can take care of myself even if it scares me silly. I delight in life’s delicious ironies, and there are many. I can’t wait to see what the future brings…what I bring to myself. I have learned to be grateful, for everything, especially my genetics and the wonderful machine that is my body. I have learned that I am a co-creator, and always have been, of my life. I have stopped blaming others and started looking within.

I teach in gratitude for having been taught.