Hello everyone!  Thanks for taking the time to read this post.  A few things to update you on since I last wrote…

Alexander and I continue to eat more than 60% raw and are loving it–and have a new-found respect for the importance of digestive enzymes–produced by thorough chewing, available in raw food, and found in supplements such as Catalyze– after hearing Ron Garner speak in Vancouver last week and seeing the incredible experiment he did to demonstrate their power.

Ron pulled out two cups, each with a small serving of cooked oatmeal.  The oatmeal had been sitting for awhile so was fairly solid–solid enough that the spoons did not fall out when the cups were turned upside down!  He took one of the cups, pulled apart two digestive enzyme capsules and sprinkled them on the oatmeal in that cup, and then stirred the powder into the oatmeal.  He then stirred the other one to make sure the procedure was otherwise the same, and left them to sit for 15 minutes or so while we had a break.

Then he showed us the results.

WOW.

I don’t want to spoil it in case you want to go ahead and try this–in fact,  I highly recommend you try this at home–and show your loved ones! Let’s just say the results were dramatic!

This experiment gave new meaning to the concept of “sticking to your ribs.”

With such visual and obvious proof, it’s hard to deny the power of helping our colons–and our whole bodies–with extra enzymes, especially when we’re eating a meal with cooked food.  Remember, digestive enzymes are rendered inactive–dead–at temperatures above 118 degrees Farenheit. This means we cannot get the full value out of our food when it is cooked, and it often ends up rotting in our colons.

There is no doubt in my mind that investing in digestive enzymes is a powerful step towards health.  Catalyze includes an extensive list of enzymes such as:  Amylase, Bromelain, Protease 4.5,3.5&6, lipase, papain, glucoamylase, alpha-galactosidase, malt diastase, invertase, cellulase, beta-glucanase, hemicellulase, phytase,  and lactase. Catalyze also contains tracite minerals, AFA algae, hemp protein powder, and MCT oil, in a vegetable capsule.

If you are interested in reading more about Conscious Planet’s Catalyze product, go to the products page.

(And if you are interested in trying this product and you are not a Conscious Planet member, please click on the “Join our Community” tab on the top right hand corner of the page where you can pay your $20 membership fee so that you can get the member prices on all of the products.)

I’m beginning to get a deeper understanding of the importance of colon health, and am considering my options for how best to support my colon:  herbal formula?  enemas?  colon hydrotherapy?  The latter sounds most comprehensive…but I’ll have to save some cash, first.  I’ll keep you posted ; )

By the way, I’ve had another, even healther cycle since I last wrote–NO painkillers, clean flow, very few/very small clots (this may be too much information for the squeamish (!), but for those women who struggle with their cycle, you understand the importance of this!)  Nice to have such tangible proof  that something is changing.

Also:  we bought a water filter that gives us DELICIOUS, alkaline water (our well water was slightly acidic.)  We are now drinking water that has a pH of 9 and we are LOVING it.  We both notice how much more water we drink.

And the Genesis?  I’m giving it a miss for this cycle…   : )

To your health,

Tamara

Hey folks–it’s been awhile since I posted!  I’ve been busy with various things, and not always feeling overly energetic as the detoxification continues.  Despite the lack of energy, I have definitely been noticing some positive changes since beginning the program.

Here is what I’ve noticed so far:

• I have lost weight.  People who know me might say I didn’t have any weight to lose–but I know differently!  I had noticed over last winter that I was acquiring fat cells that I had never had before, and since fat is our bodies’ way of storing excess toxins and hormones like estrogen, this wasn’t a healthy sign for me.
• Women readers may be interested to hear that I noticed a marked improvement in the physical aspect of my cycle this past month, which was my first full month on the Conscious Planet program.  Usually I have cramps that cause me to have to take 3 ibuprofen–this time I only had to take one.  More dramatically and more importantly, my flow was also MUCH healthier–lighter and virtually no clots which was very different for me.
• AND, I’m not having any cravings for chocolate–the raw cacao in our daily Shapeshift shakes does it for me.  And, even more interesting to me is that sweet foods are starting to taste sickly sweet to me–and I’m not really enjoying them much.  That IS different!

So–with these examples of tangible proof–I know that something positive is happening due to this new program of digestive enzymes, probiotics, hemp protein, and alkalizing and detoxifying minerals!  This is heartening in the face of my sometimes low energy, and in the face of the still-very-uncomfortable response I continue to get when I ingest the Genesis product!  Iy yi yi.

I do realize that discomfort and low energy are often symptoms of detoxification, and, depending on how much cleansing one’s body needs to do, this can apparently go on for some time.

Our friend and Conscious Planet sponsor Jamie was sweet enough to gift us with Charles’ book “Conscious Nutrition and the Essentials of Hemp” after the intro evening with Charles that we hosted at our home (It was wonderful to hear Charles speak again and to have him share his experience and wisdom with some friends.  Alexander had not yet heard him speak so he was pretty inspired.)

Anyway, we’re both really inspired and heartened by reading Charles’ book.  With regards to my experience detoxing, Charles writes about his own experience and says that once he started eating roughly 70% raw food and eating hemp protein consistently, his “body went into an extreme healing mode and [h]e had little if any desire or ability to exercise since all of [his] energy was going into repairing the damage [he] had previously done.”

One of his mentors, Michael O’Brien, estimates that it takes about 1 year to clean the damage done from every 7 years of eating cooked and processed food!!  Dude, that’s intense!

Now Charles eats 95% raw and has a body that feels amazingly healthy almost all of the time, so I’m trying to remind myself of his experience and use him as inspiration when I struggle with my detox symptoms.  And I do realize that the struggle is mostly mental–surrendering to what is happening instead of believing my thoughts about it reduces the struggle significantly!

For those of you who aren’t aware of the incredible health benefits of hemp protein, which forms the foundation for both of the shake formulas from Conscious Planet, here are some facts to ponder.

1. Hemp seed is the Earth’s richest and most balanced source of EFAs (essential fatty acids) and pure digestible protein.
2. Hemp oil contains GLA (Gamma-linolenic Acid) which is an important step in the body’s production of prostaglandin, which helps maintain hormonal balance.
3. Udo Erasmus says that hemp seed oil is an ‘excellent oil’ with an ‘unusually well-balanced profile.’  Hemp oil contains Omega 3 and Omega 6 EFAs in a 3 to 1 balance–unlike flax oil and others, hempseed oil can be used continuously without developing a deficiency or other imbalance of EFAs.
4. Growing hemp is also good for the planet–as Wikipedia says, hemp requires little to no pesticides, no herbicides, controls erosion of the topsoil, and produces oxygen.

Hemp seed and hemp seed oil have too many benefits to list here, actually.  There are even Conscious Planet members who are former diabetics and have been able to go off insulin because of the power of hemp!

It is really inspiring to read the testimonials on the website, and I encourage you to do so if you are at all intrigued.  Alexander and I are both excited to continue to discover the power of hemp in our own journey to wellness.

I’ll leave you with a posting from Conscious Planet, for an event which I am very excited to attend and would love to share with anyone else who is interested:

Conscious Planet is sponsoring a lecture and book signing event with: Ron Garner. Ron will bless us with his presence and in depth knowledge and experience about health and well being and launch the second edition of his amazing book: “Conscious Health.” The owner of the publishing company Namaste, famous for publishing Eckhart Tolle, says: “Ron does for the body, what Eckhart does for the mind.” This will be an enlightening evening for all!

Location: National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre, 6688 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby

Date: October 21/2008.

Time: 7pm to 9:30pm. Doors open at 6:30pm for book signing with Ron.

Cost: $10 at the door. Seating is limited. Book now!

Thanks for reading.  To personal and planetary wellness!

Tamara

Hello again.  Our journey continues, and both of us are feeling really really good about our experiences with the Conscious Planet products so far–despite my ongoing discomfort every time I take Genesis!!

Alexander told me yesterday that he has noticed some great things since doing the Conscious Planet diet.  He is no longer bloated after he eats.  He is eating much less and has sustained energy throughout the morning after our Shapeshift shakes–he loves starting his day this way and said today that he imagines that he’ll never stop wanting them in the morning.  He also has a continued appreciation of the look, texture, and taste of raw food, especially the yummy and creative salads we’ve been enjoying most days.  Overall, he says he’s been feeling clearer since starting on this program.  Hooray for real information about health, products that support such deep and unconventional knowledge, and a company that is making it accessible to people!  Thanks, Charles!

As for me–wow.  I gotta tell ya, I’m still on 1/2 the dose of Genesis every 4 or 5 days as opposed to the full dose every day.  And it still rocks me for most of 2 full days! This last time it really took me into some unprocessed feelings that were quite uncomfortable.  However, this did give me the opportunity to deal with another layer of the onion!  I don’t necessarily understand the process that is taking place, but I guess it’s just more of the emotional detoxification that can accompany heavy metal chelation.  I had been struggling with the symptoms of hormonal imbalance (specifically, estrogen dominance) for the past year or so, and it was starting to get under control before I started this process, with natural progesterone cream and the herb vitex, but this detoxification process is stirring things up–which I guess is a good thing! It’s getting to the root cause(s).  In the meantime, I literally have to pull out my calendar to decide when to take Genesis–hmm, what days in my schedule can handle me not being fully functional?!  Let’s hope that doesn’t go on for too much longer.

Anyway, I want to write a bit about raw food and why it is important.  There is a wealth of information out there on the net if you want to find out more, but in the meantime you can go to our Conscious Planet website and go to the education page and read the articles about raw food.  In the article by Joe Mercola (whose RSS feed is attached to this blog to the right of this post) he gives a ton of important information about what happens to food when it is cooked.  Holy cow.  We are SO not educated about this stuff in our culture!! Among many other things, he says that all of the enzymes present in raw foods are destroyed at temperatures as low as 118 degrees Fahrenheit! He goes on to say that

these enzymes, named “food enzymes” are important for optimum digestion. They naturally aid in digestion and become active as soon as eating commences. Cooking destroys 100% of these enzymes.

Eating enzyme-dead food places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks them, which eventually exhausts these organs. The digestion of cooked food uses valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest your food. Digestion of cooked food is much more energetically demanding than the digestion of raw food. In general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it passes through the digestive tract in a half to a third of the time it takes for cooked food.

I know that will be radical for some.  Even organic food is radical for some, never mind not cooking it.

On the subject of organic, there’s some good news from the Mercola RSS feed today as I write this:

Organic Produce Will Soon Be Cheaper Than Conventional Produce

A study suggests that the rising price of oil could soon make cereal crops grown with chemical fertilizers more expensive than those produced more naturally.

Industrial farming relies on fertilizers made from fossil fuels. These fertilizes are used to replace nutrients in the soil. Organic farming, however, improves soil fertility through crop rotations, and is therefore less affected by oil prices.

With oil predicted to reach $200 a barrel within five to 10 years, the profit margin on organic wheat, barley and oil seed rape could soon be significantly higher than for the same crops produced by non-organic methods.

• Daily Telegraph September 2, 2008

I’m going to close on that note, but before I go I want to say how excited we are to be hosting Charles for an intro night at our home on September 16th!  I look forward to sharing in his excitement again with some experience with the products under my belt…so to speak! ; )

I’ll leave you with an inspirational link–check out this wonderful clip of the new film “What About Me?” by the incredibly talented creators of One Giant Leap.  This clip makes me think about all the possibilities of human creativity that can emerge out of the higher consciousness which arises in conjunction with deep health.  Enjoy!

Tamara

Okay, so I’m atypically sensitive to the effects of products and to the sensations in my body, but holy cow!

Despite taking half the dose, and only twice a week instead of every day, Genesis is doing me in!

That said, I’m happy despite my discomfort, because it means that Genesis, along with the Hydralyte and the other products, is actually doing something! I fully understand the importance of this process of detoxification and will continue despite my funky stomach, bags under the eyes, hormonal imbalance-type symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings, aching muscles, and fatigue.  As my friend Virginia would say with a hint of sarcasm, “Good times!”

According to the description on the website, Genesis contains something that, once again, I had never hard of: fulvic acid. The description says that “fulvic acid is nature’s most complex natural molecule and a foremost organic co-enzyme, antioxidant and electrolyte that is a key ingredient plants use with photosynthesis to turn mineral rock into organic nutrients. Fulvic acid is nature’s way of “chelating” metallic minerals turning them into readily absorbed bio-available ionic form small enough to go through the cell wall and ultimately nourish us, help remove waste and repair DNA. It has innate intelligence accumulated in its complex structure to protect and support life and is one of the key factors of enzyme reactions within all living cells supporting longevity, optimum health and all life as we know it. Medicine has used this substance for thousands of years.”

Wow.

Our friend Jamie, who introduced us to Conscious Planet, was sweet enough to send us the book Conscious Kitchen, a raw foods cookbook that is sold on the Conscious Planet website. This informative book is written by Wind Walrath, the wife of the founder of Conscious Planet. It is full of beautiful-sounding recipes (none of which we’ve tried yet!) and we’ve been captivated by the wealth of information in the first part of the book. She speaks about detoxification and says that “symptoms of detoxification can be very uncomfortable and especially so if we do not understand the healing crisis that will accompany cleaning…. Headache, stomach pain, nausea, bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, excess sinus drainage, coughing, sore throat, fever, skin rashes, aching muscles and bones, and extreme fatigue….There are times when you may feel you are getting worse instead of better. Our symptoms may feel very similar to illnesses we have previously suffered as our bodies begin to dig deeper into the healing crisis….The only real way to tell the difference between actually being in a sick crisis as opposed to a healing crisis is that these symptoms will be followed by increased feelings of well being, aliveness, more energy than ever before a heightened sense of intuition and inspiration to stay with it. You will experience many good days of more clarity and energy and then there will be days when you can hardly get out of bed.“

Obviously it takes strong commitment to stick with it, so I’m digging deep. As for Alexander, he is not experiencing many physical symptoms but has found himself with a growing desire not to eat sugar, and a longing for and enjoyment of eating more raw foods. He is also finding that he needs to eat less, which is a big deal for him–he used to get seriously grumpy when his blood sugar was low, but feels noticeably different in that department. Also he’s been having some pretty wild detox dreams–vivid and symbolic.

We definitely have been eating more live, raw foods–especially salads! And we have more awareness of what we eat, for sure. There have been some simple changes like making sure the almond butter we eat is made from raw almonds (such as MaraNatha brand almond butter.) I’ve also discovered from Wind’s book that our raw almonds need to be soaked before eating to get rid of the enzyme-inhibiting substance in their brown coating. For a simple description of how to do this, click here.

There is lots more I could write about food and about water, but I’ll save those for another day since I know you, my dear reader, have a busy life too! In the meantime, if you are intrigued about what Conscious Planet is offering in terms of your own health and in terms of a possible business opportunity for yourself, get in touch with myself or Alexander through the contact info on the website and we can talk to you about how we can all help each other in this endeavour. Again, we think that the Conscious Planet model truly provides an exciting cooperative opportunity that can benefit whoever gets involved in the realms of both health and wealth. And, if you have no interest in the business side of things and simply want to try the products, that’s fine too!

In wellness,

Tamara

Hello again! Thought I’d post an update on the experience of beginning the full Conscious Planet program, which we started on August 7^th. It’s been quite the ride so far, and the next phase is yet to come!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had been given our individualized CP programs by Dorothy when she completed our wellness assessments. We got our products in the mail on August 6^th and were excited to finally begin and see whether our experiences would match the amazing testimonials we had read on the website. We were already using the hemp seeds and the hemp oil, and I was using the digestive enzymes, but we had not tried anything else in the program and we were eager to get started.

We had our first Shapeshift shake on the morning of the 7^th and have had one every day since then. Shapeshift is designed to give you a raw, enzyme-rich, and alkaline start in the morning, which is really important to help get the body closer to homeostasis—a balanced internal environment—for the day. This state is what enables the body to use its innate intelligence for self-healing and cleansing, rather than using vital resources trying to return the body to an alkaline state.

Shapeshift is a potent dark powder created from a combination of hemp protein powder, hemp nut powder, cacao powder (raw chocolate—mmmmmmmmm), and organic vegetables and greens including carrots, spinach, beets, kale, asparagus, broccoli, wheat grass, and barley grass. It also contains crystallized cane juice, rice brain, Catalyze enzyme blend (the same as the capsules I am taking) and spices to give it a chai-like flavor.

That first day, we decided to blend the Shapeshift powder with some hemp milk and water, and after letting it sit for 10 minutes to re-hydrate it was time to test it out. To quote Alexander, “Bottoms up!” Despite its slightly gritty texture, I found the taste to be subtle and quite delicious, especially being the lover of chocolate that I am! Over the past week, even when I hesitantly started to add raw spinach to the smoothies (as per our instructions to start at least 4 mornings with a full-on green drink), I have found myself enjoying the smoothies more and more. We both find them a satisfying start to the morning and have not been eating anything else until a mid-morning snack or lunch time.

Alexander started with the potent Genesis product right away and found that each time he took it (every second day) he would get a headache—a good sign, in the world of detoxification, even if uncomfortable. It means the product was beginning to move junk out of his cells.

I was surprised at the potency for me of the little bottle of Hydralyte, which is described as a “accelerated ionic mineral elixir.” (You can read more about both Genesis and Hydralyte on the products page on the CP website. ) Hydralyte is made of a concentrate of humic shale ancient plant minerals and Zeolite clay, neither of which I had ever heard of. I have done a bit of research online and discovered that Zeolite is a naturally occurring mineral group consisting of over 50 different minerals. It has been adapted for many different uses, including decontaminating radiation! Apparently, Zeolite clays are particularly known for their ability to remove toxic metals from the air, water, and soil because of their unusual structure of “pores” (channels and holes) that allows them to absorb huge amounts of contaminant materials. That should be good for my heavy metal toxicity!

Within a couple of days of taking the Hydralyte I was experiencing some really uncomfortable emotional detox symptoms—a heavy sort of hopelessness and depression as well as some fairly potent feelings of anger started to come up, kind of like triple strength PMS. Luckily that passed after a couple of days, but I was surprised by the emotional discomfort I was experiencing. I slowly increased my dose of Hydralyte to the dose recommended by Dorothy, and then increasingly began to experience more physical symptoms—feeling slightly dizzy and spacy, intermittent nausea, and increased frequency of bowel movements.

When I wrote to Dorothy about my experience, she said that “emotionally detoxing is definitely a big part of what happens as you physically detox.” She generally finds that people go through the emotional aspect of detoxing much more quickly than the physical part, which is exactly what I experienced. Who knew that physical toxins and emotions could be so connected?! She suggested that I reduce my dosage of Hydralyte if I wanted to reduce my symptoms—it’s our choice how we want to detox, and she says she prefers slower and longer herself, although some people want to get through it “fast and furious.” I have chosen to reduce my dosage slightly so that my liver and kidneys can handle the addition of Genesis, starting today! Meanwhile, Alexander will be beginning his enzymes and probiotics in week three. I very much look forward to seeing where these new detoxified bodies can take us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

If you are interested, there are some new video testimonials on the home page of the Conscious Planet website. I was especially interested in the testimonials of Challamar and Sam. Check them out here!

With appreciation,

Tamara

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I’m going to start this post by sharing with you the somewhat sobering but also inspiring results of both of our wellness assessments. Yikes!

Firstly, the Conscious Planet wellness assessment measures a crazy amount of different variables, most of which I won’t go into in this post (but would be happy to discuss with anyone who’s interested–simply post a comment on the blog or send me an email.) I’ll just go into a few of the most eye-opening and affirming results.

Basically, Dorothy determined from my hair sample that I am about six times as toxic as my body can handle. No, that’s not a typo–SIX times!! Again, as I mentioned, I had a sense of being toxic so that wasn’t necessarily a shock, but the “six times” was a bit of a jaw dropper for me.

She also told me that my cell wall permeability was a major issue and is apparently only operating at 21%!! This means that my little cells are not letting many toxins out and very little capillary nutrition in. She says that this is due to the heavy metal and chemicals in my dormant or deep state. I’ll tell you how she recommended addressing this issue in a minute.

The other surprising thing she told me was that my immune system was functioning at–get this–262%!! In this case, more does not mean better–but this result could help explain my chemical and food sensitivities. It gets even more interesting in that she says that I was born with it acting this high, due to the influence of an ancestor from 3 generations ago who had a lot of emotional traumas before he had children. I’ve since spoken to my mom and discovered that my great grandfather in fact did have a very emotionally traumatic childhood, in ways I won’t go into here, which affected his whole adult life. It is pretty wild to think about the potential impacts of genetic memory, especially for those of us whose recent ancestors were involved in any kind of war or similar kinds of trauma.

Dorothy’s analysis concluded that my health will improve 70-80% simply by detoxing. She suggested doing this by starting on the recommended Conscious Planet program, but she specifically focused on the product Genesis (which I mentioned previously) mentioning that it is so powerful that I should wait until my second week into the program (with the other products) before beginning it in order not to overload my eliminative organs–the kidney, liver, and lymph system. She also talked about the importance of the product Hydralyte which will help my cell wall permeability by creating a more alkaline environment for my cells. I will talk more about alkalinity in a moment.

Alexander’s assessment was quite different in many ways, although similar in some. Again, the assessment was extensive and talked about many interesting factors affecting his health, most of which I won’t share here. In brief though, according to Dorothy, Alexander is also more toxic than his body can handle, apparently mostly due to chemicals and fungal overgrowth. (We suspected the latter because his ears have been intensely itchy on and off for awhile now.) She also commented on his pH being extremely acidic and that he really needs to address that with green drinks at least 3 or 4 times a week for breakfast. There are many green drinks on the market, but a green drink Conscious Planet style is a shake made with the Shapeshift product (which is based on hemp protein, cacao, and vegetables) and blended with whatever alkaline-forming dense green foods you want such as kale, chard, collard greens, etc.

We were both sobered by the fact that our respective pH measurements were so acidic. We have discovered as we read about it that maintaining the proper pH balance in the body is vital to vibrant health and energy–and very difficult to do in this modern age! Our pH is affected by the type of food we eat, the water we drink, the microorganisms we play host to, our toxicity, and our stress levels. Acidity is especially an issue for those who adhere to the SAD (Standard American diet) since eating processed, packaged, and cooked food as well as too much meat, sugar, coffee and alcohol can take a serious toll on one’s biochemistry.

Basically, nearly every process that the body undergoes produces acid, but because the pH of the body needs to remain alkaline the body will do what it has to to try and stay between 7.35 and 7.45, even creating stress on other tissues or body systems by withdrawing vital minerals from them to help return the pH to alkaline. So, in the face of excess acidity, the body loses vital mineral reserves. As well, nutrients from foods cannot be absorbed properly. To add to this unhealthy picture, as your body becomes saturated with acids, bacteria, yeast, fungi, and parasites can flourish. “The hostess with the mostest”, indeed! This results in health issues such as low energy, fatigue, excess weight, poor digestion, and aches and pains. Ultimately, excess acidity eventually causes all of the more serious and scary disorders such as diabetes, cancer, etc.

According to Dorothy, my overall pH is at 6.44 and Alexander’s is at 5.83. These numbers are problematic because they are in the category of being much too acidic (a pH of 6 is TEN TIMES more acidic than a pH of 7.) We wanted to see these results for ourselves, so purchased a pH test strip package from Conscious Planet and did our respective composite pH readings from 2 days worth of scheduled urine and saliva testing. My composite reading result remained steady at 6.4, and Alexander’s was slightly higher than Dorothy’s at 6.2. Regardless, we have work to do on reducing our acidity and plan to do this with an increase in raw food, the Conscious Planet products, and, when we can afford it, a water filter that produces alkaline micro-clustered water. More on that soon.

Thanks for reading, until next time….

Tamara

Hey everyone–here we go with Part 2 of how we got involved in Conscious Planet. Thanks for reading! I hope as we go you may find some of it interesting, informative, and perhaps even inspiring in some way.

When I got home from the Conscious Planet presentation with its founder, Charles, I was pretty excited, because I knew I was onto something important. This company was not only offering products which I felt intuitively were going to be helpful to me, they were also offering a philosophy and a potential business opportunity that was in line with my beliefs and values. Their mission statement says that the “Conscious Planet Mission is to raise consciousness by creating the ideal environment for health and well being through Products, Education and Opportunity.” Sounded good to me.

I knew at that point that I wanted to feel healthier, but it wasn’t until I completed a CP wellness quiz that I really realized the breadth and depth of what total health really means. Working through the questions was a bit of a sobering experience, actually. Yikes. I was less healthy than I thought. You can check out the wellness quiz yourself if you want (look under “products” and then go to “member tools” and you can print one out.) For those who don’t want to bother with that, I can tell you that there were many questions on different themes, with multiple choice answers. An example of one that was a bit of an eye-opener was the one called “Joy Level” where the answers ranged from 1. 0-20% = scared/angry; 2. 20-40% = trusting; 3. 40-60% = loving; 4. 60-80% = peaceful; 5. 80-100% = radiant.

I wish I could say differently, but I gotta tell ya, it’s been awhile since I felt radiant!

Although I had shared my excitement and interest with my husband Alexander, I don’t think he had really “got it” until he completed his own wellness quiz. He was a little sobered by it, too, and that provided the impetus for us to take the next step.

CP employs a woman named Dorothy who is a Master Kiniesiologist, Medical Intuitive, and Master Herbalist. She does wellness assessments for members who request it, in order to give people a personalized sense of their health challenges and a personalized “prescription” of the health products that could help. We decided to pay the $20 to join up so that we could each order a full wellness assessment, part of which involved sending in a hair sample.

During the introductory evening, my body had said “yes” to several of the products. When Charles had tested them with me he said that the Genesis product, which I had been quite interested in, was too strong to start with and that I should start with Catalyze, the digestive enzymes. I knew that the latter would be helpful, regardless, given my food sensitivities, so when I looked again at the list of products, I decided only to order Catalyze to start with, along with my wellness assessment from Dorothy.

I’ve chewed on my share of papaya enzymes over the years, when I’ve over-indulged in something and needed a bit of help with my digestion, but I’d never used a full-on digestive enzyme product before. It makes sense that they are necessary, and helpful. Enzymes are found in all raw food, are part of every catalytic bodily function and are a key to life. I learned through reading that enzymes are easily destroyed by processing, heating and chemical treating, thus rendering the body unable to digest the food without compromising its own immunity and digestive resources. The folks at CP believe that enzyme supplementation is a cornerstone to rejuvenation and healing. That made sense to me and felt right for my body.

Just to be clear, I have taken a LOT of supplements in my life. Over the years I’ve bought many different vitamins, minerals, and other supplements in the hopes that they would help me feel better. I’ve had many of them delivered by mail since my favourite vitamin shop is in a different city, so I’ve opened many boxes and pulled out many supplements. Thus, my experience when I opened the box containing the Catalyze digestive enzymes surprised me a bit. As unusual as this might sound, as I pulled out the bottle, I felt something that I would describe as sort of a rush of energy from it. As I held the bottle, I felt like I was holding something quite powerful in my hands. I certainly wasn’t expecting that feeling so was a bit taken aback, but I did remember the CP claim that they take into account much more than the simple nutritional content of the ingredients. Here’s part of what they say about that:

“Most companies use only nutritional analysis to determine their products, however we know a nutrition facts panel is not enough information to make a healthy choice for you and your loved ones as the body has the final say in what it uses. An example would be a raw almond and a cooked almond. Nutritional analysis shows they are identical, however if you sprout a raw almond and plant it, it grows and creates life, and when eaten is easily digested and readily utilized by the body. A cooked almond on the other hand cannot sprout, rots when you plant it and causes indigestion and the nutrients are not easily accessed by the body and in fact it is mostly treated like a toxin.” In the making of their products, they say they also take into account Vital Life Force Energy, homeostasis, and consciousness and appropriateness, which they measure in various ways. A bit radical for some, I’m sure, but pretty interesting, considering that science has proven for awhile that the essential nature of everything is energy.

I was excited to take my first Catalyze digestive enzymes, and started with two after my dinner. Interestingly, I felt a few detoxification symptoms in the night, but that did not last and by the next day I was taking two with each meal.

What was interesting to me over the next couple of weeks as I got used to the routine of taking them was that I would be going along in my day, realize at some point that I felt tired, and then realize that I’d forgotten to take my digestive enzymes during that meal. I could definitely feel a correlation between my energy levels and whether or not I had taken the enzymes, which was pretty exciting. When I checked out the Best of Raw Food Diet website recently, I read that it said that your body can create enzymes but the process takes a lot of energy and makes you tired–think about how you feel after Christmas dinner. Further, the enzymes your body makes are not as good as the ones that were destroyed in the cooking of the food. The food will not be broken down as well and thus will be harder to digest.

I’ll wait until the next installment to fill you in on the powerful results of our wellness assessments, and to talk a little more about the somewhat intimidating world of raw food.  Also, if you get intrigued at any point about what this company is offering in terms of your own health and in terms of a possible business opportunity for yourself, get in touch with one of us and we can talk to you about how we can all help each other in this endeavour. We think that the Conscious Planet model truly provides an exciting cooperative opportunity.

In the meantime, in the interest of inspiration, and in the spirit of the fact that we are all connected, and that I believe that the journey into total health involves every realm including the political, and that our taking control of our health is a revolutionary act, here is an awesome video by the amazing Michael Franti. You gotta let go of remote control…

Tamara

How does one begin to explain all of the reasons that one begins a journey to total health? And how can one pinpoint when that journey actually begins?

To answer the first question, perhaps the most obvious reason that I can think of is that my physical energy levels have been lower than I would like them to be, on and off, for YEARS now. I’ve taken various supplements, tried various healing modalities, worked on my inner world, all with a fair amount of discipline and focus, with no huge and dramatic shift in my physical health. Although in some ways I am healthier (read: more conscious) than I’ve ever been, I still remain less energized than most of the people around me, more susceptible to extended, low-grade versions of the flu-of-the-season, and pretty sensitive to certain foods, alcohol, chemicals, etc.

It’s not that the various things I’ve tried haven’t helped in some way–many of them have–but they haven’t provided the miracle that I’m looking for, haven’t been the catalyst to springboard me into enough energy to see me leap out of bed early each morning, excited, energized, and ready to fully express myself and my gifts to the world.

In case any of you are wondering, I do know that some of the cause of these physical issues is buried in my psyche somewhere, and I’m always uncovering new layers of myself, but I know there is also an aspect of my less-than-perfect health that is simply physical and needs to be addressed through changes in what can be called my “physical language.”

We will get to more of what that last part means as we go along on this journey. And thanks for joining me, by the way.

In regards to the second question at the beginning of this post, I know it’s impossible to really pinpoint when my journey of healing began–birth? conception? 20 lifetimes ago? the big bang? However, there is a time frame I can target as an important turn in the road. Recently, I turned 38, and this was a traumatic powerful birthday for me. 2 years away from 40!!

I woke up around that time realizing that there was no turning back. I will never have the luxury of being 24 again, with all of those choices and possibilities ahead of me, and all the time in the world to allow them to unfold. More importantly, I also realized in a really deep way that there was, after all, no one coming to rescue me. No wise crone coming to magically wave a magic wand of health, no white knight on a horse coming to remove the burden of my student loan debt, no guru coming to “appoint” me and tell me that it is now, in fact, okay for me to fully express myself in the world and have the total health and wealth needed to do just that.

It was a revelation to realize that it truly is up to me. It was also a revelation to realize that I am worth more than I have been allowing myself to have or to imagine for myself, in physical health and in material abundance. I realized how tired I am of living paycheque to paycheque, basically in survival mode, and I recognized how much that way of living is a drain on my energy.

Around about that time, a friend of mine told me he was coming to town and hosting an introductory evening for a relatively new health company that he had gotten involved with called Conscious Planet. I tend to follow my instincts with these things and was instantly interested in the event. I went to the evening and was really impressed with and excited by the information presented by the founder of company, Charles Holmes. It was interesting, informative, and exciting to hear about his own healing journey and his wholistic, spiritual perspective on health. This appeared to be a company that wasn’t leaving anything out of the picture and was incorporating information about energy medicine and the consciousness of the planet that both resonated with my own beliefs and also appealed to my own tendency to think about the big picture. I knew I was onto something.

That evening after the presentation I spoke to Charles a bit and we did some interesting and unusual testing of the products to see how they fit with me, by literally asking my body about each of them to see if that was what it needed. If you’re not familiar with muscle testing, I like this youtube video which gives a pretty homegrown and simple explanation and demonstration of one way to do it. There are plenty of other videos by people in varying professions if you search for them.

I got a little overwhelmed by all the information at this point so decided not to buy any of the product on the spot but go home and think about it. What happens next on my journey with Conscious Planet so far will be in the next post…

Thanks for reading,

until next time,

Tamara