November 28, 2005    About Two Women

GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS from Arnold's Way!

It’s a mild winter day and it’s that time of the month when the forces of life, forces of commitment and forces of truth are riding on my shoulders like a heavy load of cement ready to fall. My truth seeks an opening of pure air, a semblance of words that can create some type of joy and some type of sadness for what feelings exist in me today. I speak of two women who were my customers. Both of whom I spoke with at some length and both understood the seriousness and the commitment it takes of changing one's lifestyle, day in and day out from a mostly cooked diet to mostly raw. Gloria (not her real name) was 63 and about 60 pounds overweight. She had been struggling not only with her weight but also with high blood pressure, a high sugar count, not mentioning the aches and pains. I spoke to her of the value in cutting back on the meat and dairy products. I showed her the movie, “Diet For A New America”, especially the graphic hospital scenes of pulling out the arterioscleroses fat during a heart surgery. The movie showed scene after scene and testimonial after testimonial of what meat, dairy, chicken, and fish diet will do to our immune system. Gloria listened and she understood. She tried to change her lifestyle. Gloria tried week after week. But what happens in my store is not always what happens on the outside. I refuse adamantly not to sell any meat, dairy or fish product, whether canned, fresh, organic or grain fed.

Death is death. All animals whether fish, poultry or pig deserve life. Their death is recognized as death when we place it in our bodies. Our bodies do not have the necessary tools to break up, digest or assimilate them in our system without some serious side effects: hence disease. Hence, crime in the street (Food and Behavior by Barbara Stilts). Hence major mental disorders including depression, bi polar and schizophrenia. Our bodies cannot eat dead animals loaded with antibiotics, uric acid and arochodonic acid without serious side effects. This does not include all the perfumes and dyes which make the meat more edible and presentable. These chemical additives have an almost life threatening effect on our immune system. Which in reality, it does. As quoted in the book, Rave Diet,“ there have been more people killed on cholesterol and saturated fat than all the wars and car accidents combined”. It was all these things that Gloria heard. “I wish I could change my lifestyle”, she stated. I wish I could say that when Gloria went shopping she did not purchase any of these meats. I wish I could say that when Gloria ate out, she didn’t order any of those things. All these things I wish I could say but I can’t. Gloria used to come into our store about every two weeks saying she was sorry for not following the lifestyle. She used to come in about every two weeks complaining of her high blood pressure, her aches and pains and promising that as soon as she leaves she will start changing her lifestyle. I heard her story, I listened and I encouraged her. I did not do enough. This week Gloria died.  It is this vain that I write.

I write of Wenda Carpenter who also had a similar story (To Wenda, please forgive me if I got some of the facts mixed up). Wenda came to me quite by accident. It was one of those chance accidents that changed her life, her family and all those around her. Wenda just happened in the store on one of her curiosity strolls, wondering what was a store that so completely did not fit in Lansdale, doing here. She walked in and was immediately offered a banana whip. It was at that moment I caught her attention. She was eating and I was talking. I was talking about the banana, about the fruit and about the life force that she consumed with her every bite; a simple banana that came into being with help of the sun, the earth and the universal force of life. A single banana has over 500,000 phytonutrients. To this day it blows me away on the forces that created the banana and also created every other fruit and veggie as well as all life’s existence.

I am humbled by the universal forces that exist around me. Wenda saw all this and Wenda too, felt the forces.  She was a believer in God. She knew right away what she had to do. Get help for what she was going to embark on that required the greatest amount of strength and perseverance that anybody could ever take on.  She enlisted her son, Scott, to help.  They took two of my classes together. What they did next took on monumental proportion that even to this day she does not quite fully understand. They went home as a team and told the five other members of their family, Wenda’s husband and Scott’s four other brothers and sisters, that their food choices were going to change drastically. Wenda, who used to be in her kitchen for hours cooking, was changing her ways. There would be no more cooking, period. The blender was replacing the stove.  The pots and pans were going out the door. The shopping at the supermarket was going bye bye. She stated firmly and emphatically most of the food was now being bought at Arnold’s Way. There was no argument. There were no buts. If you don’t like it buy your own food. Wenda is my hero. I have the utmost admiration for her. She said her truth and the children grudgingly followed suit. They were, to say the least, a little angry. Her husband was not real happy with the decision. Wenda was in her glory, no more cooking, no more pots and pans. Wenda bought fruit by the case: bananas, strawberries, oranges and much more. All these, she believed were God’s gifts for her liking. Wenda lost 40 pounds and her skin cleared up. She had more energy and more time. Her kids not only learned to make smoothies, they are now thriving on them.   Her once overweight son, lost 50 pounds while another son had so much energy he began riding his bike to school. Her husband, who was not a happy camper in the beginning, came in smiling yesterday saying he loves oranges.

I wrote of two women both of whom I shared the ideal of changing one's diet. It is in this vane I continue on my journey.

I thank you for your time. Arnold