Nadine’s Personal Journey
I went to my first juice fasting retreat in 2003 and I was blown away with what I learned. I loved the holistic approach. I loved the classes on nutrition and why cancer grows. I loved having deep conversations with other guests wanted , some with health issues, some who and I was a sponge soaking in all of the amazing information. I went home pumped up and I was on my way to learning more about why nutrition is the key to feeling great. I remember it was the first time I heard from one of the facilitators that “If you eat well, you are a happier person, and therefore your relationships are happier.” I then went on to receive my Masters in Holistic Nutrition and continued to learn each and every day. I am extremely passionate about food and how it can completely change you. I am enthusiastic about alkalizing my body and teaching others to do the same to keep disease away.
Nutrition changes how you feel inside and out and I loved how I was feeling. I was now happier, healthier and had a lot more energy. People would comment to me that I always had a smile on my face. That first retreat changed my life and I was very thankful I went. I have continued to bring in good nutrition from fasting along the way. I’ve attended many retreats myself over the years as I have found that life gets in the way when I try to fast on my own. Doing juice fasts at home are difficult. Retreats are much easier to achieve your goals of fasting for 4 days or longer. Retreats bring on a new level of relaxing the mind and body and the connection of the two. By the time you are leaving your retreat, you feel rejuvenated to say the least and it is on a new level, the kind of level you have never felt before if it is your first fasting retreat You are elated and almost giddy.
More and more people are going on retreats instead of vacations because of the stress of their jobs and I was one of them. I worked hard and instead of going on a vacation from the vacation I went on a retreat to renew my body and mind. It works miracles.
More of my story…We have been taught to get up, have a big breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner. We have been taught to finish our plates and eat our protein. My mom used to say when I told her I was full, “Just eat your meat.” We would eat so late in our house resulting in so many digestive problems. I was constipated. I started to take tums on a regular basis. I also had an eye disease called Iritis that started in the fifth grade. My eyes were sensitive to the sun and I had floaters. These were irritating dots that I would see on a regular basis. I started receiving steroid drops in my eyes. These drops stopped working so my eye doctor suggested I go to UCLA and receive shots of steroids so they would get to the back of the eye and not just swish around the front. So I did. I went there 3 times where they numbed up my eyes with cocaine and took a LONG needle as I watched it be stuck in my eye, as I had to keep my eyes open. It was horrible and time consuming to say the least since I lived in San Diego County.
This lasted until I was 34 years old. I had my first child and I wanted a second. I did not know I was pregnant at all but I couldn’t look at meat. It was the strangest thing but I would visualize the chicken on my plate and the cow being tortured. Then I found out I was pregnant with my second child. I went to my OB/GYN and she let me know this was something that some women go through when they are pregnant but she wanted to make sure I got enough protein in my diet and she then taught me about tofu and seitan. I was horrified. Gross I thought. I was a meat eater.
Things changed in only a few days. I had never felt better in my life!! I was happy and healthy. I started noticing that I had not had an Iritis flare up in months, which was completely unusual. I had my daughter and never had a flare up again. I really didn’t think it had to do with getting rid of the animal protein until I saw a new doctor. She said she believed it had EVERYTHING to do with getting rid of the animal protein because my body obviously did not like it and it did not deal with inflammation well. She asked if my mom or dad suffered from arthritis or any other inflammatory disease and I said, “yes – my dad had osteoarthritis and it was not good!” She said I would be smart never to eat animals again. I never did.