June 2, 2006    Who to believe...


GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS from Arnold's Way!

It is the midst of a new day. It is the dawn of yesterday's breeze. It is the sunshine of tomorrow's reality that awakens our every cell to a new beginning. What I wanted to write was...I am not sure. What I wanted to say I am sure. These almost completely opposite views are a microcosm of the statements being both quoted and published about live and raw food. These are statements being printed by those in the know that contradict one another. I am a connoisseur and devout follower of any information about the great benefits of a raw food diet. The more I read the more confusing it is. I know what happens if you don't know and what happens if you read a book that espouses eating only vegetables and not fruit and what happens if you read another book that espouses fruit as the purest food for our body. What does really happen and does anyone really know what goes on inside your particular body? I doubt it.

Everyone has an answer and everyone is right. These are my thoughts on a Wednesday evening about three hours before the first of June. Today, I just finished reading a proclamation on the benefits of a raw food diet excluding fruit. It appeared to be perfectly logical, well documented and to most readers it made perfect sense. It would have been the perfect solution on how to eat if I hadn't read today another article on the same topic. Today, I just read a proclamation of why fruit is the purest form of food. It would have been the perfect solution on how to eat if I hadn't read the first article. To make matters worse, I read another article on why sprouts are the most beneficial food to eat. It is like totally unbelievable--all these authors, all these articles and all these opinions. Is there really one answer? Can everyone be right and wrong at the same time? I take a deep breath, listen to my own wisdom and to my own spirit and to my truth of what is best for me. It is that simple. Everyone has an opinion and everyone is right. I myself do mostly green smoothies, which is a combination of fruit and leafy greens in a blended drink. Yea! Victoria 'Boutenko. I read her book," Green for Life". I followed her program of drinking two green smoothies a day. Each smoothie contains approximately 9 fruits and leafy greens and I love it. That, my friend, is my answer. Who do you believe?

There are those that espouse a mostly sprout regimen. I listen to their stories of how much better they feel. I listen to their stories on how much work is required to grow all those sprouts. I listen to their test results of how much they improve and how much they didn't. I am the lucky one, being a listener of all the success stories for those that have changed their diet. I am the lucky one who listens to all those who eat a mostly green diet and hear their stories. I am the lucky one who listens to the stories of those who are drinking mostly green smoothies. I am the lucky one who knows what works and what doesn't.

I can only speak for myself. I have tried the mostly vegetable diet. I was trapped in a somewhat heinous entrapment. What ever that signifies. I use those words because I felt my body slowly disintegrating. I felt like I was going downhill fast with no stop sign. My once radiant health on a mostly fruit diet was rapidly disintegrating like an old dilapidated building that has past its prime. I had no idea what to eat. I didn't like broccoli. I didn't like celery, eggplant, cauliflower, carrots or artichokes. I did like cucumber, which is a fruit. I did like tomato, which is a fruit. I did like avocados, which are a fruit. My gosh, everything that I liked was a fruit. All these obstacles were put in front of me that was preventing me from eating vegetables. It was like a bad dream that wasn't meant to happen. I heard all those stories on the power of vegetables. I read all those articles I wanted to join the veggie bandwagon. I wanted to espouse everyone's truth except that of my own. I was a novice in the field of health. I had no medical background. I did not write any medical books. I had no medical center where I could prove my theories. What did I know? It is on this basis that I continued on my path of eating only vegetables. What I knew then is not what I know now. My health went into a tailspin that took me to the other side of a downward emotional physical slide that I almost could not get out from.

It is on that basis that I write. I write for freedom. I write of love. I write of happiness to that zenith level where I am in ecstasy. Plus, It was unbelievably rewarding when I switched to drinking mostly green smoothies daily (64 ounces). I am 59 years young and I rock, that simple and that pure. I get up loaded with energy. I have enough stamina to do a two and a half hour workout 80% of the time and then go to work. I have a job that requires my attention literally from moment to moment and yet my biggest worry of the day is whether I watered the plants. It is a no stress job being the owner of a raw food café, which literally has to create its own clientele. It is a no stress job having a store in a county where drug companies and large meat companies are the major employers. It is a no stress job where everyone one wants to put you down for your basic belief: that what you eat is the cause of all illnesses. In spite of all this, I have no stress and I am in total respect for my being and in love with every movement, every action and every thought of my daily existence.

What I know and what I experience and all that I feel would not have happened if I ate any other way. I hear the complaint of those that grow their sprouts. I hear of how much time and energy they spend growing their own food on a daily basis. I listen while I eat my banana. I hear the test results of those who avoid the fruit because of too much sugar. I eat my apple. I say wow. The results do improve and there is no joy in Mudville tonight. The daily routine of avoiding the succulent fruit in my opinion does not justify the means. I eat my grapes. I could not eat any other way. I enjoy my watermelon. It is not a treat but a walk into the vestibule of paradise lost. I am entrenched in the gloating of being fulfilled as a recipient of such fine dining. I drink the green smoothie daily. I am almost the same weight, the same waist line (30") and the same color hair with about five gray hairs. In forty-one years since my high school graduation, I still stand tall, still strong and still a young man in his prime. Life does not get any better.

It is in this vain that I salute myself, salute our guest speaker at this month's potluck who beat depression and lost 40 pounds. This was accomplished by drinking green smoothies. I salute last month's speakers who beat high blood pressure and lost 40 pounds. I salute the previous month's speaker who beat two years of agonizing back pain by eating a mostly fruit diet and lost 50 pounds. What I know is what I know. I hear over and over and over those who switch their diet to a mostly fruit and leafy green blended drink get results. It is that simple and that pure. In fact, if we were to use some type of calculations, the ratio would be so astronomically in favor of a green smoothie versus all the other lifestyles, that all other raw diets would simply give up or just fade away. I stand my ground on why fruit and leafy greens should be blended together. It should be because it works.

I thank you for your time,

Arnold.

We, at Arnold's Way have created a Mission Statement, " to Create an Energetic Movement for the transformations of a Disease Free Montgomery County (A county of 100,000 people) Arnold has made that statement and it will happen that simple that clear. We, at Arnold's Way, are creating a video library of 1000 people in this area who have healed themselves of a disease just by going on a mostly raw lifestyle. These are real people, real stories. These are our neighbors, our friends and our next-door neighbors who took bold steps by saying enough is enough. I am a responsible human being and I understand the truth of what I put in my body effects my body, my thought, my every action and every word that I put out in this world. We, at Arnold's Way, have also created a 6-week support program that will help guide, direct, listen and help you become your greatest asset in this healing process. This class begins June3rd. We, at Arnolds Way, will continue to provide week in and week out speakers who want to share their story. Produce: we have delivery every Tuesday and Friday between the hours of 2:30 and 5. P.M. Our ordering day for cases and a half case are on either the previous days Monday or Thursday before 3pm or any other day before delivery. If you want to order by the case, we have about a 200 different kinds of produce, which can be ordered. The cost will be 15 % above our cost. If you want to order a half case or less, the cost is 20 % above my cost, whenever possible. We also have a produce club, which costs 50 dollars a year and entitles one to a 15 percent discount for a full year of all produce bought. We, at Arnold's Way, have also contracted with hydroponics' manufacturing company that makes edible indoor plants including basil tomato and petunias. This will soon be available.