Alternative Therapies to traditional medicine are becoming more and more popular. I hope it’s because people are finally realizing that traditional medicine is not always helping us, but maybe it’s because our grandparents might have known what they were talking about. Whatever the reason, I am glad to see some shift in people’s lives. Is our quality of life better if we have to depend on various prescription drugs the rest of our lives, and what is that really doing to our bodies?
Throughout high school I was a vegetarian. Not really ‘on purpose’ or for any valid reason, I just lost the taste for any meat other than chicken. Well, you can only eat so much chicken before that gets old. I would not have called this a healthy diet either because of the daily lunch of French fries and Pepsi. I was not picky; I just did not want to eat meat. I was even willing to pick the meat out of soups and chili if need be. About three years later I gradually started eating meat again due to my boyfriend (now husband) getting me to try different dishes when we went out.
Less than 10 years later, I went vegetarian again. This time was for my health. I wanted to feel better, and not have to worry about how I might feel after I ate. I never knew what my system would agree with and it became a chore to try to be careful about what I was eating. I did not have any of these problems when I was vegetarian, so my rationale was that this would be the way to fix it. I put a lot of thought into the matter, but my fear was how it would affect my husband and children. I did not want to have to prepare separate meals for us. August 27, 2007 my husband came home and out-of-the-blue asked me if I thought I would feel better if I stopped eating meat again. This was all I needed to know that it was time to try it. I educated myself about my decision to be sure that this time I would be healthy and not lacking any type of nutrition. Hands down, best decision.
To be honest, I was consumed by learning about the vegetarian and vegan diets. It was all that I enjoyed reading about. I wanted to share this with others and help them to understand why it was so much better. I wanted to set an example for my children so that they would have a healthier lifestyle far from the Standard American Diet. During this journey I discovered the Global College of Natural Medicine. They offered a program as a Nutritional Consultant that would teach me all about detoxification, nutrition (including supplementation), physical fitness, alternative healing methods, and weight loss. My husband finally told me to go ahead and sign up for the program that way I would officially know what I was talking about.
I could have been a tyrant about this and completely changed my family’s eating habits, but I do not believe that change of this type can be forced upon someone. I have educated my own family and gradually we have changed many staple items in our household. Our biggest challenge was mayonnaise. My husband loves his Dukes and did not want to change, but when he realized that I was using Vegenaise in everything that I prepared, even my potato salad; he had to admit that it was not that bad. The economical side of him realized that it was crazy to be buying two products, so he switched.
I will admit that I have never been one to like taking medicines and learning about other methods of healing outside of conventional medicine has been a blessing. I never liked having to take birth control pills and when they put me on an acid-reducer and high-blood pressure medicine at the age of 25, I was not happy. I believed what they were telling me and took the medication for a whole year. Once I changed my diet all of these health issues went away, and I have not taken the medication in two years now. My son has always had bad allergies and was on 5 medications at one point. I did not want him to go through his life on medications, so with a little education, I changed some minor things in his diet and he has been medication free for about 2 years as well. He still gets occasional seasonal flare-ups, but nothing that cannot be controlled.
Another life-saver has been the Neti Pot. I was so skeptical of this product and did not buy it for a long time, but after finally purchasing and trying it once, I am a believer. Any sickness that tries to rear its head gets drowned out by the Neti Pot and herbal tea.
I have since graduated and call myself a Nutritional Educator. I have started my own website and enjoy educating those interested. Most of it starts off as curiosity, but I think that knowing it is better for you than a traditional diet, and finding out that it is not as hard as you think, always helps. Why wouldn’t we want a better quality of life?
This is just my personal testimony of how alternative therapy has changed my life. I have seen it work in others and it is such a joy to see people take control of their health. I have truly enjoyed this part the most.
