by natalia | Jul 5, 2015 | Personal Development
There’s a story I heard many years ago that stuck with me forever – a sad tale with layers of priceless insights…
Once upon a time there were three very sensitive little kids, around 8-10 years old. They stared in wide-eyed-wonder as they observed the mesmerizing metamorphosis of cocooned caterpillars emerging into beautiful, richly colored, winged butterflies. They loved these caterpillars-come-butterflies but they were also deeply disturbed by what they perceived to be unnecessarily hard work the butterflies had to endure in order to emerge from the cocoons.
One day, they had an idea: if only they could cut away the cocoon just before the transition, the butterflies would not have to struggle! So the kids found a tiny little pair of nail scissors and, at what they deemed to be just the right moment, they carefully cut away the cocoons of the butterflies, confident that their butterfly friends would thank them for it.
As you may have guessed, it did not turn out at all the way the children had anticipated. While the butterflies were indeed fully-formed, they could not fly. The children fell into piles of tears, realizing that their attempt to assist the butterfly babies actually resulted in forever handicapping them.
Metamorphosis literally means, “to change form” – with a connotation to a higher, transcendent form. Like a baby ready to birth or a butterfly ready to emerge from its cocoon, there is no escaping the reality of the authentic journey, and there is not usually even a conscious awareness that a transcendent change of form is at hand. In many ways, if we knew wings were waiting on the other side of a painful journey, the passage would be far easier. No such luck. It’s as if the very absence of knowing is what earns us our “wings.” It is the commitment to doing what is right despite how hard it might be, to following our deepest knowing even in the face of absolute fear, that these miraculous transformations are won.
The baby and the butterfly do, however, offer us a set of fail-proof tips for dark, difficult, intimidating metamorphosis moments: they demonstrate perfect presence, intuition and instinct. Achieving that perfect posture requires putting all projection and apprehension aside so that natural, real intuition and instinct can guide the passage.
There is a confidence we gain when we have to persevere through the dark tunnels that link our transformations. Our beautiful lives are filled with these opportunities but, typically, we tend to just take one look at these challenges/opportunities and see nothing but pain, making a bee-line for the path of least resistance (if we can find one). When we choose instead to undertake our challenges armed with our fullest truth, something else happens, we evolve!
Evolution and syntropy are very similar concepts. Syntropy (more popularly known as “neg-entropy,” the opposite of entropy) means to rise to higher, more rarified orders from lesser, more chaotic arrangements. Syntropy promises unlimited rising to higher forms of life – a kind of gateway to immortality in effect. We can live the syntropic life if we can be really present in the most challenging of times and have the presence of mind to hear and follow our intuition and instinct over our knee-jerk fears.
I don’t know what your unique challenges are but I do know that in them you’ll find your greatest opportunities for metamorphosis. Difficult? Indeed, sometimes more than you think you can bear. But, there is a way through if you maintain the presence of mind and intimacy with your essence such that intuition and instinct can be your steady compass. It is through seizing these moments that we can swing up the syntropic spiral, coming into closer sync with our immortality. For those of you who find immortality too far-fetched, imagine, at least that you will rise out of your perceived land-bound limitations, taking wing with new life.
by natalia | Jul 2, 2015 | Eating
Recently, a student asked me what I think of the 80-10-10 diet. As you can imagine, I am asked about various dietary approaches all the time and while the questions are all entirely valid (what do I think about raw or Paleo or blood type, Sugar Busters, Atkins, or Zone or Banting, 80-10-10, Clean, veganism, etc., ad infinitum), this is not the question that’s going to enable you to reach your highest physical, mental and emotional expression. There is a better question to ask: “How do life-systems work and how can I repair mine?” That is an exciting question with a much more rewarding answer. (Then, if you like you can measure the dietary approach in question against the truth of what you learn about the repair of your living-system.)
All life-systems, especially your unfathomably remarkable body, operate as an interconnected, life-force-conducting-network. If the threads that connect the network are compromised by being cut or having something blocking their conductivity, the whole system will be weakened. Weakened threads only grow weaker when an active remediation process is not applied. This is why we see steady decline in the human being – it is constantly exposed to an onslaught of daily events that weaken its threads.
Undertaking the repair of the compromised threads is the only meaningful M.O. of a self-healer (or a healing catalyst).
Branded dietary approaches merely distract from this…as you might guess, all the popular circulating diets have some germs of truth to them but a germ of truth is not going to raise us to our highest human potential. It will just keep us spinning out of health, steadily weakening the threads of our life-force-network.
There is no branded diet on the market that is dynamic enough to check every box for full remediation of the integrity of your living system. However, there is a process that will do that – deep tissue cleansing coupled with recapitulation process for the mind and heart. I go into these in great detail in all of my work so I won’t repeat what that means here. But therein you have the process required for your absolute restoration and anything short of that will simply not take you where you want to go – assuming you want to restore your human technology to its primo-functionality and live your highest potential.
As for 80-10-10’s effectiveness as part of this remediation process, that’s spotty – yes, theoretically, fruit is the most ideal food for man. Unfortunately, what we get in grocery stores today is not original fruit but a hybridized super-sugared up version of fruit. Wild fruit grown in humus rich soil 10,000 years ago and then entering the bio-chemistry of a healthy human (not infested with yeast, mold and parasites like the modern human is, and assuming clean intestinal tissue) would be an excellent way of transmitting solar energy into the human body. But that is a far cry from the scenario today.
That’s not to say that a lot of people don’t report feeling much more energetic and find they lose loads of excess weight going from a mainstream diet (or even a “sloppy” vegetarian or vegan diet) to 80-10-10. Naturally, one has to consider the upgrade from the previously heinous diet to intake of water-rich fruits and greens! But the situation is full of nuance – there’s the bio-chemistry of the fruit itself to consider (highly questionable), the body it is entering (its degree of pathogenic overload), the lineage of that body (Western European or from the Caribbean – that will have a huge impact), the frequency of bowel cleansing (loads of fruit and little bowel elimination is a recipe for disaster), whether the individual can navigate the awakening of poisons that takes place when large quantities of fruit are eaten and whether they will know when to back off when it’s not working for them any longer. Modern humans are not well suited to such major intake of hybridized fruit.
All that said, if an approach calls to you on your path, then you must explore it.
Don’t take my word or any one else’s for anything. First hand knowledge (though not always fun in the gaining) is indeed always the most satisfying. In the end, it’s your quest and you must pursue your pot of gold! I can only tell you what my personal and professional experience has shown me.
On my personal journey, I have found that there have been moments when large quantities of fruit have served me very well and other times, not at all.
On the cleansing journey we have to know what signs to look for so we don’t take yesterday’s truth into tomorrow, where it doesn’t belong. May your network of life be restored to its fullest integrity and resound in the highest frequency of love.
by natalia | Jun 3, 2015 | Health & Wellness
This may be the most contentious posting I’ve ever made but I feel, in all good conscience, especially as a mother, it needs to be said, particularly as this issue reaches epidemic proportions…
Did you know that methylphenidates (brand names Ritalin and Concerta) are the single most prescribed drugs for children ages 12-17? This psychostimulant is a cousin of crystal meth, a narcotic with the same classification of cocaine and yet it is being given to healthy, smart children in escalating numbers. I hereby state for the record that under no circumstances would I ever allow this drug to be given to one of my children. I have no doubt that this statement will make me hugely unpopular with many people and initially may even come across as arrogant and lacking in sensitivity or compassion. But to the contrary, it is out of deepest compassion and understanding that I justify this statement, herewith:
1. A child’s brain is in the thick of development. In fact, we know the human brain only reaches full maturity at age 25. A school-aged child’s brain is highly absorbent and will adjust its development according to the information received by the chemicals that influence it. Do you want your child’s developing brain to mutate to the tune of narcotic psychostimulants? And we haven’t even begun to ask the questions, “Who benefits from these sales and these ADD/ADHD diagnoses?” Surely not the children. And yet, 90% of Ritalin sales represent prescriptions for children.
2. When we train our minds to focus, we increase our ability to focus. Our brain is a highly complex organ that does not benefit from being distressed by chemicals. By contrast, as all organs, its function improves with harmonious conditions and proper usage. The more we apply focus, the more we’ll increase our ability to focus. You can strengthen your brain with healthy application! Using a crutch like a focusing aid, removes this opportunity and makes the brain lazy. In effect medicating is the fast tract to atrophying the brain.
3. Yes, I concur, text books are usually uber-booooring and yes, schools are not designed in alignment with the lotus like blossoming of a healthy human brain under the right conditions. Add to that the fact that the information in these text books is dubious at best. BUT I’ll tell you what the common prison like schools and text books do have going for our kids (definitely the only thing) is that all that tedium provides is an excellent way to train the brain to focus. It creates a certain stamina, brain-endurance if you will. Look, we all did it – and probably suffered worse tedium than this generation (remember having to write dictionary pages as punishment?). We all hated the tedium (well, most of us anyway) but we flexed our brains (while we missed out on our childhoods and the even greater brain development that would have taken place under conditions that were fully conducive to our brain’s unlimited maturation. For the record, I’m not over looking that important point as I underscore a separate point at the moment.
4. Ideally, education will evolve as people break out of the mass hypnosis and see humanity’s truth and forge that change. But in the meantime, those horrid text books can serve a purpose in strengthening one’s ability to persevere through tedious material. We’ve all had the experience of reading the same page over half a dozen times and not knowing a single thing we’d read and then applying our focus and finding we could make perfect sense of it. Focus is a choice. I know. I know many readers are getting increasingly incensed with me right now because they believe it’s not a choice for their child. But there are additional factors to unveil so please keep reading as your frustrations will be addressed…
5. Most doctors and parents come to the Ritalin “solution” loosely, meaning, the child may undergo some tests (and in some cases the tests are skipped altogether or their “normal” results are over-rided). The parent and doctor can agree to make the executive decision that said child could use the extra boost and thus it is granted. The problem with this instant gratification is deeper than just a willy nilly ability to push narcotics onto unwitting kids under the guise of supporting their school work. The problem is that we project our idea of what learning means onto our kids which puts them into boxes where they cannot grow into their own truth. We put them on assembly lines because we know no other way and then, when they don’t produce what is expected, we assume there is something wrong with them (rather than there possibly being something wrong with the assembly line). Is it more likely that all these young people are deficient or that the education system rather does not serve these young minds? Okay, well, that’s a loaded question if we consider all the chemicals that babies are exposed to in utero and then in the years to follow from infant formula and mainstream foods, not to mention heavy metals and radiation that are recorded at frightening levels in utero and infancy and in breast milk. But more on that later. Just notice that we are assuming the kids are the problem while we do not take the scholastic blueprint receives little to no scrutiny. Perhaps a prescription for the remediation of common schooling would be a more effective solution?
6. While you are concerned that your child is missing the requisite attention faculties, your child may be sitting on an incredible creative gift (whether that gift it’s evident to you or not is beside the point); the gift may be dormant for a variety of reasons, or it may be active but there is always a price to be paid for opposing nature, gifts are lost. Your child may start getting straight A’s in every subject but totally lose touch with his unique spark which would have served to inspire and satisfy him his entire life through, and possibly bring light to countless others. Always ask, “What is the price for doing this?” And then you can determine if the price is worth paying.
7. You may argue that doing better at school is critical for the child’s self-esteem and that in itself makes it worth the drugs. Well, imagine the child’s self-esteem were it supported by an environment that truly nourished and nurtured that child’s truth. But for most parents that would mean undergoing a great shedding of belief systems and lifestyle themselves. Parents are typically locked into the status quo by the time they have children and just want the assembly line to go smoothly so they don’t look foolish and naturally, they want to feel they are providing an “idyllic” childhood for their kids.
8. Kids today have two other significant forces negatively impacting their ability to focus: non-stop use of technology (smartphones, handheld devices/video games, etc.) which alter brain function and catastrophic dietary intake which causes all chemical havoc to be unleashed in their blood stream, gut and brain. Add to that all the radiation and hormonal deranging caused by all of these factors and you’ll see that suggesting Ritalin, Concerta or any other focus-enhancing drug is hardly a meaningful solution. You might even say such a suggestion lacks focus.
9. Part of growing up strong is gaining confidence in your mental capacities. If a child or teen is given a crutch for their brain function, how are they ever going to have the requisite confidence in life. They will always go around feeling a little unsure of a funda-mental (forgive the pun) faculty. That is a terrible thing to do to a person. I realize that most parents agree to the Ritalin “solution” because they are trying to do the right thing and be good parents and because they want their child to do well and feel confident. But, I’m afraid this is a bizarrely ironic twist because in the long run it will not help them do well, it will make them dependent – dangerously, sadly and unnecessarily so.
In conclusion, I’ll share with you what I tell my high-school aged daughter when she comes to me saying, “Please, Mom, can’t I take Ritalin too – just for the tests? So many of my friends do.” First I explain to her all I’ve just shared above and why I wouldn’t have her mind co-opted by these destructive chemicals for anything and then I very sincerely express to her that I would rather her earn an average grade on a test that she had done her very best studying for than for her to get the best possible score having taken Ritalin.
The outright destruction of a whole generation of children’s brains resulting from the application of these brain-destroying meds will all come to light in the next 5-10 years and will likely land in a pile of the worst possible substances, the likes of thalidomide (we have yet, I warn, to see the effect of the regular use of these drugs once these kids become parents). Have we learned nothing from the past? What do we want for our kids – for them to shine their truth or for them to be squished into a distorted assembly-line-mentality of life and for that pay the price of their intact brilliant minds and who knows what else?
by natalia | Apr 25, 2015 | Health & Wellness, Personal Development
Renowned clinical nutritionist Natalia Rose, author of The Raw Food Detox Diet, was plagued with anorexia and bulimia during her teenage years, and with related challenges during her early twenties. I interviewed her last year and in part one of that interview she talks about the wisdom she has picked up on her journey of physical and spiritual healing.
“I was raised not to share this kind of stuff,” Natalia Rose tells me at the start of the interview during which she has agreed to talk, publicly and in detail, for the first time, about her struggles with disordered eating. But she is ready to tell this very personal story now, to offer hope to the many who are going through similar challenges.
She tells me that she remembers wondering, at the tender age of 15 – by which time she was already in the grips of anorexia – “‘What’s so great about life? It feels like it’s all about food and restriction.’ I was going to an amazing school and I had an amazing future ahead of me but all I could think of and see ahead was a future of having to restrict myself.”
And six years later, having left the more dangerous forms of disordered eating behind, but still waging a daily battle with her weight, her prevailing thoughts were, “If it’s this bad at 21, what will it be like at 35? After I’ve had kids I will feel matronly and so unattractive. What’s the point when it’s only going to get worse from here?”
Well, Rose is 36 now, and she has two children – 11-year-old Thandi and 9-year-old Tommy. She has the figure you see in the photo above, and depriving herself of anything she wants to eat is but a distant memory. It’s just that, with a clean body, she now desires only clean foods.
“We’re bombarded with the spoken and unspoken message, ‘Have this slim, sexy body’ but also ‘Eat this [processed] food,’” she observes. “You can’t do both.” And on the subject of life, she now has this to say, “It’s so liberating to have the path lit up. I feel like every day is a chance to make sense of more; to log more miles on this path of discovery. Life is just really, really fun.”
Her stunning transformation was thanks not only to adopting a cleansing diet and lifestyle, but also to a parallel voyage of spiritual discovery. “Yes, I changed my diet, but there was a huge leap between there and coming to consciousness. I was trying to make the life I was living work. That life doesn’t work.
“So yes, change your diet from mainstream to natural foods. But while you’re doing that, see if you can spot all the other things that need to be changed from dysfunctional to functional. This is not just about the food – this is about bringing us back to our humanity. In my case, ultimately it was a shift, on every level, from a life-deteriorating paradigm to a life-generating one that transformed me”.
Rose was raised in the affluent Los Angeles district of Encino. Her father, Ben Barrett, began his career as a heavyweight champion and then found even greater success as a recording studio contractor who worked with many of the music industry’s greats during the 60s, 70s and 80s. He was 64 when he met Rose’s mother – many years his junior – and 69 by the time his daughter was born. “I attribute the fact I have to put a lot of effort to get the health I would like to the fact I was born to an older father,” comments Rose. “This wasn’t the springy DNA of a twentysomething.”
Nonetheless, food at home was at least healthy (relatively speaking) and Rose remembers frequent trips to “70s-style, old-world health food stores – the kind that smell of B12!” adding that she, “had exposure to consciousness about food from my mother.”
Rose suffered from digestive problems as a child, and recalls stopping on street corners clutching her mid-section, doubled over with the pain. “My mother at least knew to give me acidophilus rather than go to pharmaceutical drugs, and my girlfriends came to know me for my unusual pharmacopoeia of vitamins and other remedies.”
Rose recalls that she and her mother would spend every Saturday shopping on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. “I had beautiful clothes and a willowy figure and it was a constant fashion show. It was nice but I never took it that seriously.” It was when she went to boarding school at 13 to escape LA – a world that was by then starting to confuse her – that food first became an issue.
Back home, the only treats in the pantry were raisins and, occasionally, corn chips. But at school, much of the fare was processed, laden with sugar and salt, and pastry-encrusted. “I had fun, but after four months it was time to go home for Christmas break and I couldn’t get my jeans on,” she remembers. “School was a safe environment to be plump, but home wasn’t. I was going back to fashion central. That’s when I lost my innocence about food.
“When I got off the plane, my mother didn’t have to say anything. She wasn’t even reproachful. There was just this look of, ‘What have they done to you?’ My brother and father also gave me disapproval without meaning to. My brother was very ‘cool’ and handsome, with lots of gorgeous girls around and I felt like a pile of lard next to them. So that Christmas break I decided I don’t want this body – I want that body.”
Rose went back to what she then knew about the best way to lose weight. It was 1989, and fibre was the big thing. “There was a cereal called Common Sense Oat Bran. It was really good.” She remembers. “I got everyone in school on it. The amount of gas in that girls’ cafeteria! I focused a lot on cereal and cottage cheese, and I dropped enough weight that I could go home next break and not feel like a beached whale.”
Rose remembers an extended trip to France the following year as, “the first foray into the extremes of my personality. I told myself, ‘You are going to come back super skinny.’ That was the goal. Not to learn French or to find romance. My priority on that trip was not what I was doing but what I was eating, and when I set my mind on something, I go for it.”
This was when anorexia started to exert its insidious grip on her. “It was almost a high, realising that I had the power to push beyond limitations others couldn’t,” she recalls. “Even though that’s because they’re balanced and don’t need to, in the warped mind of an anorexic it seems like a strength.”
Before long, she was existing on an egg for breakfast and a few bites of chicken and vegetables for dinner. Her weight duly plummeted – at 5’6 she soon weighed just over six stone. “The body contracts the most the first time you do something like this,” she says. “Especially a young body that is strong and able to throw off a lot of weight. I was really proud of it and I got so much praise and validation when I returned home to LA.”
Back at boarding school, Rose started to eat again and gained some weight back. Then the following spring, her father passed away. “A few nights after my Dad died I threw up for the first time,” she recalls. “It was International Night at school and I was so sad and frustrated with everything, I was mindlessly consuming all the food I could.
“I got extremely good at purging. Like anorexia, to the person ill with bulimia it can feel like this strange power that nobody else has. What it was really doing was processing my pain in a really perverse way. I was numbing myself with the food, then purging it out in a really big expression that I needed to make, but didn’t know how else to.”
During summer break, the habit spiralled further out of control, going from once or twice a day to five times a day. “I was in the house on my own so I’d eat and throw up. Then I’d feel acidic, and food would calm that, so I’d repeat the cycle. But something happened in my senior year. I was in a good space and I got over it. It just goes to show that happy, whole people don’t need to do that.”
The following summer, Rose left for the East Coast to begin her studies at New York University. Knowing no one in the city and feeling extremely isolated, the twin demons of anorexia and bulimia again became her coping mechanism. But it was a brief relapse, and she soon banished them once and for all. “I was 19 and I accepted I would have to walk through life a little plumper than I would like,” she says. And of those who have suffered with both anorexia and bulimia, Rose was certainly one of the luckier ones – she has no fertility, digestive nor dental issues.
At 19 she was already dating her future husband, Lawrence – 15 years her senior. His was a world of private jets, lavish parties, and the most expensive clothes on the most gorgeous bodies. “I knew I wouldn’t look lean, but I tried to find things that didn’t draw attention to all my wobbly bits,” she says. “I had a smaller upper body and heavy legs. I tried to find black pants that wouldn’t draw attention to the girth in my hip and thigh area. Life became about making sure I looked the part to be his girlfriend.”
So once again, food and body image consumed her every waking hour. “If I wasn’t thinking about what I’d eat for lunch and dinner I was working out on the Stairmaster,” she says. “If I threw caution to the wind and didn’t even eat excessively – just ate what those around me ate – I would be so heavy. I was also sick all the time: bronchitis, pimples, cystic acne and chronic bladder infections. Inside was painful, and outside didn’t look good.”
She adds, “I was living a life of suffering that is familiar to so many – at the mercy of when they’re going to get the next migraine or bout of IBS. I had graduated from NYU, I was engaged to a man many girls would kill to be with, and I had a great bunch of friends. Relative to what we are conditioned to want, I pretty much ‘had it all’. But I’d reached another point of thinking, ‘Life really sucks. I feel like I’m in prison being tortured.’”
It was soon after this that the concept of the raw diet and lifestyle came onto Rose’s radar. One day, while browsing in the health section of a bookstore, she picked up Paul Nison’s The Raw Life and started reading the interview with [the colon therapist] Gil Jacobs. “This particular interview spun my head around, just like destiny,” she remembers. “I put the book down, picked it up and read the interview through again. Then I decided I just had to meet this person.”
She called to schedule an appointment at Jacobs’ Manhattan clinic Chakra 17 but he was booked up well in advance so she settled for an appointment with another therapist. “In that hour I watched vast quantities of waste matter leaving my body and I thought, ‘I get it. I think we’re onto something here’.”
With every treatment, Rose felt her body shift, and her whole way of being along with it. Five months down the line she was regarding her appearance in the mirror with amazement, wondering, ‘Is that really me?’”
She began having all her colonics with Jacobs – whom she now refers to as her mentor – so she could pick his brains. She also jumped enthusiastically into the raw diet and lifestyle. “I was having a green juice in the morning, something like date and nut balls with salad for lunch, and dinner was pretty raw, too; I’d have just a few cooked meals in the week.”
She adds: “The first few months to a year, I really got into the food preparation – the juicing, spiralising and dehydrating. I was going to Indian stores in the East Village to buy spices I’d never used before. It was very entertaining, it captured my imagination, it was fun, it was flavourful, and it was almost a full-time pursuit! I was getting excited about all I could do. There was very, very little on the market to buy at the time – temple balls and flaxseed crackers and very dry banana walnut cookies, which I’d have with salad.
“What I was eating before this was ‘correct’ according to the mainstream health magazines I used to read. Now I was eating many more calories and foods we’re told we’re meant to stay away from, like nuts, avocados, bananas and dried fruit. But it was having such a beneficial effect – I was feeling and looking so much better.”
As she devoured book after book on the topic, she soon started connecting dots. “Now, looking back at how I used to struggle with my many ailments, I realised it wasn’t just me – everyone was feeling like this, and everyone was desperately attempting to stop the decaying, premature aging and all that goes with modern life. I started seeing beyond the superficial cultural concept of ‘detox’ to the sheer depth of accumulation of waste matter. That’s when the doors of perception opened. The depth of that waste is not something you get rid of in a month, nor even a year.
But Rose’s journey was about transforming her mind a well as her body, and she cautions that the raw diet and lifestyle can only take you so far on this path. “I spent 10 years getting to the bottom not just of physical stuff but of spiritual stuff as well,” she says.
“It was almost a full-time job. I was reading 10 books at a time – everything from Sufism to Shamanism, plus all of Rudolf Steiner’s books and eventually the Derrick Jensen and Daniel Quinn books, which really transformed my consciousness and which I highly recommend. All these things have been a step along the way. I don’t think everyone needs to experience all I have, but I was as hungry to make sense of life on the planet and why we’re here as to figure out the human body.”
Rose shares that her husband and her mother often used to accuse her of being ‘negative’, and still do at times. “I’m always saying: ‘Look how wrong that is,’ pointing out our society’s life-destroying norms,’” she says. “But that whole notion of, ‘Let’s be positive and look on the bright side of life’ is just another of our cultural distractions. No, let’s look at what is and do something about it. When you start to see the world in these terms, it’s a breakthrough, and you wonder why everyone doesn’t see it.”
Rose says that the journey has been a lonely one at times; that she was “often ridiculed, condescended to and made to feel I was naïve,” and that it, “took until about six or seven years ago to really nail it. The last six years I’ve been using what I know to go even further.”
So what advice does she have for gracefully dealing with those in our life who openly disapprove of our choices? “Meet it with a sense of humour,” she says, without missing a beat. “Family and close friends know how to push your buttons and many of my clients have issues in this area – but only because they’re choosing to engage with it. People get incredibly sensitive about other people’s diet choices! But no conscious or aware person would defend eating in a way that damages their body or the planet, so if you’re challenged by someone who does, be clear that you’re just not going to collude in diet drama.”
She adds: “And once you’ve found your way, however you did it, remember that that’s just something that worked for you. Be grateful and share your journey with genuinely interested people, but don’t try to convince those who aren’t, and don’t assume that your way is the only way. Humility goes hand in hand with real enlightenment.”
Rose’s husband, Lawrence, does not share her passion for the cleansing lifestyle, nor for esoteric spiritual pursuits. Many on a similar path to Rose will routinely discount any prospective partner on those grounds, but she cautions against viewing people in such ‘black-or-white’ terms. “Lawrence has a really big heart and a love for people and animals so he naturally has this sense of interconnectedness. A lot of things I’ve personally had to raise a red flag about and put a lot of effort into learning he’s had with him all along. I go at this stuff from almost an analytical or scientific perspective; he from his heart.”
And on the subject of choosing friends, Rose has this to say, “So many of the people I like to spend time with don’t eat the way I do. If I’m going out on a Saturday night I want my friend Richard to be there. He doesn’t care what he puts in his body and could probably do with a series of 500 consecutive colonics, but he makes me laugh. You only need one or two friends that can really speak your language. If you have even one you’re insanely lucky.”
She adds that when you’re physically and spiritually healthy, “you really fall in love with people and appreciate human beings and personalities, even quirky ones. You just love people so much more and you love engaging with them.”
How else do people know they’re on the right track, I ask her. “If you’re not feeing gratitude and humility, you haven’t found a working blueprint yet. If you are still trying to impose your ideas on others, you are not whole yet and are not ready to help others – in fact you may do them more harm than good. When you find you’d rather dance than teach; that you’d rather lay under the sun and enjoy the life pulsating around and within you than talk about diet; that you’d rather enjoy people than criticise people, then you’re on the right track.”
by natalia | Feb 14, 2015 | Sexuality
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, here is a bit of poetic musing to celebrate a new era of love – the high-romance that we can catch a glimpse of among balanced, sovereign beings:
At the height of the magic, the wings all have sprouted; taking flight right on time, right on key
And yet, while there is bliss and deep peacefulness,
How lovely if you’d fly with me
The heart is a gateway and we are all things
No more cages, no trappings, no masks
What once was all crass, is now clear and so vast
So, it is in this spirit, I ask…
Should the fullness surge through you and wish to be shared
Should it be natural to reach for my hand,
There is no divide – not time, space or land
Should our quickened hearts call to be paired
To know you’ve overcome, over-ruled, over-run
All the shadows, like an obstacle course
There, powerfully, you stand with sweet love in your hand
Rising to expand into Source
But to dance, fly, touch, kiss, joined with this other,
Given all you’ve mutually discovered,
Clear as day, point of fact (or I’ll eat my hat),
Innocence-lost must be finally deemed recovered.
Here we may stand, taking joy in the sight
that we’ve managed to recover our light;
Walked through the valley of the shadow of death —
even in the absence of oxygen, drawn breath!
And yet, while the view is quite fine, finally.
How lovely if you’d fly with me
– Natalia Rose
by natalia | Sep 22, 2014 | Health & Wellness
VEGAN DETOX4WOMEN (March 11, 2011)
In response to many emailed questions I have outlined below how to enjoy this lifestyle as a vegan. Detox4Women is adaptable for a vegan lifestyle, but I would like to take this opportunity to say a couple of things about a vegan detox.
First, please carefully investigate your reasons for remaining vegan. Large-scale agriculture has the same devastating effects on the planet’s animal populations as commercial goat dairy farming and fishing industry practices. Please understand that you are not doing mother earth a favor by abstaining from the animal products recommended on this program (see Natalia’s blog on veganism).
Second, a vegan approach is not the Detox4Women approach. You are not doing your body any favors, either. We do not recommend veganism as the best way to get your body where you want it to be. Women transition best when they include small amounts of animal protein in the form of goat and sheep cheese, fish, and organic eggs as part of their weekly regime. This is the true Detox4Women approach that is recommended to detoxify the body, loose weigh to achieve your optimal physique, and end the addiction to refined flours and sugars. The density of the cheese, eggs, and fish keeps my clients true to the program for a longer period of time because they enjoy meals that keep them feeling satiated and indulgent.
If you would still like to go ahead with a vegan lifestyle that encompasses the Detox4Women principals, I respect your personal decision. Here is the best way for you to move into this lifestyle:
First: start your day with the recommended breathing or meditation practice, water, and then green juice.
Second (or morning snack): more juice, or one of your low-sugar fruit choices: green apple, grapefruit, berries, or ripe banana. If you do not need a mid-morning snack, please respect your body and juice until lunch.
Lunch: a large avocado and green salad with lemon-stevia dressing and any combination of raw vegetables. If you would like to include a cooked component you can follow your salad with a baked sweet potato, vegetable soup, or bowl of low-starch grain: millet, quinoa, or buckwheat. If your body wants to continue juicing instead of eating lunch please listen.
Afternoon snack (ranging from lighter to heavier): all-vegetable juice, low-sugar fruit if at least 2 hours has passed since lunch, guacamole with raw vegetables, or avo-salsa cabbage or romaine roll-ups.
Dinner: a large raw avocado and green salad with lemon-stevia dressing followed by a baked sweet potato, cooked low-starch grain, or squash-based dish.
OR
A large raw salad with raw sesame tahini dressing, followed by banana-tahini ice cream for an all-raw diner option.
Desert: Vegan dark chocolate and an optional glass of wine.
• Favorite Avocado Salad:
• Greens
• Guacamole
• Raw corn off the cob
• Chopped cilantro
• Salsa
• Lime-stevia dressing
Blended Avocado Dressing Base
• 2 large ripe tomatoes
• ½ to whole avocado
• Lemon juice
• Stevia
• Sea salt
• Enough water to keep the blender moving
Use this as your base and take it any direction you want for a creamy salad dressing. I love a garlic-basil dressing, a stevia-Dijon dressing, or a chili-ginger dressing.
Natalia’s Sesame Tahini Dressing
• 4 Tbs raw sesame Tahini
• Large chunk of peeled and chopped ginger root
• 3 cloves diced garlic
• dash of nama shoyu soy sauce
• Juice from 2 lemons
• 1/8 cup water
• stevia to taste
This creamy dressing has been a favorite of mine since I first stole a bite out of Natalia’s dinner salad.
• Banana Tahini Ice Cream
• Blend in a high speed blender:
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 frozen bananas
• ½ tray of ice cubes
• 4 Tbs raw sesame tahini
• 2 Tbs cocoa powder
• stevia to taste
This can be enjoyed right away, or frozen and pulled out to soften 30 minutes before desert time. It is the perfect followup to a tahini-based salad.
by natalia | Apr 25, 2014 | Health & Wellness, Personal Development
‘Eat to Evolve’ Interview: On Navigating Uncharted Territory & the Extremely Green Detox
Eat to Evolve talks to Natalia Rose.
Certified Nutritionist Natalia Rose is without question one of the world’s experts on detoxification and cleansing. Since the 2005 publication of her first book, The Raw Food Detox Diet, Natalia has been teaching the purest, most effective diet and lifestyle methods to promote regenerative health and longevity. But lately, her work has emerged from its roots in classical Natural Hygiene principles and entered a new realm of liberating, uncharted territory.
These days, Natalia views cellular purification primarily as a means to an end, a vehicle whose purpose is to carry us into the discovery and embodiment of what it means to be truly human. Fully awake, unconditioned and free, hers is a path of personal sovereignty, of reclaiming control over one’s entire being on every level, body, mind and spirit.
One of Natalia’s most attractive qualities—beyond her radiant physical beauty, of course—is her authenticity. This is a person who clearly practices what she preaches. And she has been brave enough to evolve her message, to change and to grow, in full view of her public. Each new detoxification program has developed naturally and sequentially from the one before, in step with Natalia’s own personal journey towards ever-deepening degrees of transformational self-purification and awareness.
Extremely Green Detox is the next step in Natalia’s journey. Founded upon the removal of our deepest-seated obstructions and enabling uncompromised freedom from prevalent mainstream, health-depleting ideologies, this brand new program is being introduced to the world with a unique opportunity: participation in a month-long, fully supported group cleanse led by Natalia and members of her Natalia Rose Institute team.
Complete, detailed diet instructions and recipes, bi-weekly video lectures and phone conferences, food prep demos with top chef Doris Choi, and personal consultations with senior detox counselor Joanna Novick, CN, are all included in the Extremely Green Detox package. Beginning on July 1st, the program offers all the perks of going on a luxury health retreat without having to leave home (and for a fraction of the cost!!).
I spoke with Natalia earlier this week about Extremely Green Detox, the fully supported group cleanse, and why she believes we need to turn the detox dial way up in order to prevail over the assaults of living in a toxic world.
Natalia, tell me about the Extremely Green Detox. Why did you develop this program, and what is it designed to do?
The best way to describe it is this: we are living in extreme times that are taking a toll on people’s health in a way that has never been seen before. Between the pathogens that are running rampant in everybody’s body, the endocrine system being so dysfunctional and the organs being so weakened, there’s this extremely slippery slope into illness that is hard to escape. What ends up happening is that most people are having a debilitating life experience. It’s either going to be rectified by the right protocol, or it’s going to bring you all the way down, slowly or rapidly, depending on what, if anything, you do to address it.
Essentially, we have three options for dealing with a deteriorating life experience: 1) just let it go down and deteriorate all the way, 2) try to slow the deterioration by doing a few things right, or 3) correct things 100% percent.
Option three is the only way to achieve an optimal life experience. Otherwise, it’s just various shades of doom. The Extremely Green Detox is a call for us to put aside our path of least resistance—our crutches, our addictions—and correct things 100 percent. The beauty of it is that if we can follow the protocol long enough and steady enough, we can win the war, as it were, and bring our bodies back to great strength.
Where does the Extremely Green Detox fit in relation to your other programs?
It’s definitely a progression. The Raw Food Detox Diet gets people out of the mainstream way of eating. Detox 4 Women—which I want to emphasize is also for men—pulls people out of pathogenic problems such as yeasts, molds and fungal issues. And the Extremely Green Detox brings people out of the quicksand and on to the mountaintop. It’s for those of us who want that peak experience, who want our blood to be the blood of youth, and our bones to be the bones of youth. This is what we use to get to the top of the mountain. Once you’re there, if you want to do some of the other things once in a while you can, but it’s not the daily experience any more.
I noticed that many foods you allow on your other programs—low-sugar fruits, goat cheese and baked sweet potatoes, for instance—are missing from this program. What is the reason for this?
A big part of it has to do with eliminating the pathogens that still have a hold in people’s systems. We have to kill them, and for this to happen, things like sugars, fermented foods and dairy all have to be left out of the equation unless one is a true beginner.
There’s also another piece. The key to successfully moving forward in this technocratic society, which is in decline, is to have the fewest needs possible. Of course having a sense of interconnected compassion trumps all. But the person who needs the least, who is the least dependent on outside substances, is the one who will survive with the most success.
That’s why we are focusing on the raw green foods. Green food is primordial food. It’s synthesized sunlight—chlorophyll, plus the living enzymes which you just don’t get with supplements and green powders. When the majority of the diet is coming from live, vitalized green foods like wheatgrass juice, juiced greens, dark green leafy vegetables and salads, amazing changes start to happen. For one, the palate changes. Even after just a few days, the palate starts to readjust so that you actually enjoy the taste of simple, unadulterated food in its natural state. The indigenous state of tasting is regained, and this has a profound, transformational influence over the perception of what we think we need to feel satisfied and fulfilled.
So, as the palate shifts, the craving for sub-optimum substances is reduced and addictions lose their hold?
Exactly. And when addictions fall by the wayside, you become empowered. So we’ll be dealing with this during the guided cleanse. We’re even going to look at the shadowy addictions, the ones which we may not be aware of, or don’t want to admit. Even stevia can be an addiction. But as the palate readjusts, addictions fall by the wayside.
Once that happens, if we want to dabble in the less than optimum choices, we can bring those things back on an occasional basis and still maintain balance. Somebody who does the Extremely Green Detox protocol long enough to truly strengthen themselves will be able to do what we call “safe poisons” once in a while without a problem, but it will be less of a daily experience—not out of a sense of forced deprivation, but because the desire to make it a daily experience will be gone. Once the body is strengthened, the safe poisons won’t bring you down if you just do them periodically.
So raw goat cheese, for example, is a food that can be reintroduced down the road?
Raw goat cheese is a good substance that the body can utilize. If the system is in good working order and the body is clean, something like raw goat cheese is not going to undermine the system. It’s something a strong body should be able to manage. The same goes for things like wine, or a piece of fish.
The problem, though, is that our bodies are not strong. We need to find a way to maintain the highest levels of human health at a time when the world is so acidic, and we are constantly being bathed in chemicals and radiation. That’s what the Extremely Green Detox is for.
What else is different about your new program?
One big addition is the daily wheatgrass juice, which is going to be treated like a sacred meal. And green juice is also going to become a sacred meal, consumed consciously, with a sense of “I am taking in my true nourishment now.” Both of these green drinks are loaded with chlorophyll, which makes them optimum foods for the blood, the brain and so many body systems. But the wheatgrass juice in particular has another role. It will make it easier for people to do the program, because it provides a sense of fullness and satisfaction on a subtle level. It functions psychologically as well as physiologically.
So, starting with 1 ounce a day, wheatgrass juice will be included as much as people can tolerate it—five days a week if possible. And they’ll be encouraged to build on the quantity every week, so that by end of four weeks, some will be up to 4 ounces every day. Others may still be doing just 1 ounce and making a face, but they’ll be doing it!
I know that face! Wheatgrass juice can take some getting used to in the aftertaste department, but it is an amazing healing substance.
The idea is that people will come to enjoy it as essential. This has been my experience. Your body takes on the qualities of whatever substance you take in, and as your body takes on these qualities, it begins to desire those substances more. This happens with negative substances, too. The body gets used to whatever you are feeding it, and creates a habitat for that.
So, when we take in super nutrient-rich and high vibration substances, such as the wheatgrass juice, which is pure living chlorophyll, our body becomes made of that, and it craves that. Over the past few years, I have worked up to drinking 4 ounces of wheatgrass a day. Now the experience of taking it in has become one of the highlights of my day, but it was a process to get here. So this is something we will be doing together on the cleanse that I am really excited about sharing.
Can you talk a little about the Natalia Rose Institute community, and why you decided to introduce your new program, Extremely Green Detox, within the context of a fully supported cleanse?
Our goal is to create a place where people can heal, strengthen and retain their human qualities on this bizarre stage. We need to keep on finding solutions as we navigate being a human being in a non-human world.
Ultimately, the goal of a fully supported cleanse is about giving people the ability to stand alone. The bottom line is, you wake up with you in the morning. No matter who you went out to dinner with the night before, no matter what temptations were there, how are you going to feel in the morning? Will you look in the mirror and say “I guess I gave up because everyone else was doing it,” or will you feel grateful that you honored your body’s true needs, and your deeper desires to take your life experience and your health to the next level?
As long as we don’t relapse and fall back into the false notions of what “civilized people” need, we are in new territory. That can be a little scary. With the supported cleanse, we have the guidance of the leaders, along with the built-in support of the group structure, to helps us cross the bridge to get there.
It looks like you’ll be providing a lot of support during the four weeks of the program.
In addition to all the emails, there will be group calls once a week, plus a weekly video with a live chat feature. We have a private Facebook page where people can interact, and a hotline is in the works. We’ll tackle the social-emotional-mental challenges. We’re going to dismantle all of the social pressures, like a kid who wants to dismantle a computer. We’ll take it apart. This is the power of the group.
It sounds like a fantastic opportunity! People must be getting so excited.
Every day will be a whole new experience and as a result, there will be an overwhelming sense of well being from doing this program—visceral experiential knowledge, rather than textbook. Extremely Green Detox is geared towards experienced cleansers, but we’re bringing in all levels, and making modifications for different needs, so everyone will get the best out of it. Already more than 100 people are signed up! It’s almost like a small country with a new vision.
by natalia | Apr 25, 2014 | Health & Wellness
Question #1: What are some rawfood staples in your current diet? B) Are you 100% raw? C) How did you start?
I had the ideal transition experience because I didn’t regard “raw” as the holy grail but rather focused on facilitating elimination of poisons from my cells by eating in a way that maximized digestive rest so that the body could do it’s job of healing. In this way, I knew it was often preferable to eat certain cooked foods rather than certain raw foods. Raw food that are too dense or combined poorly do not exit the body any more quickly than many cooked foods and are not what I refer to in my book, The Raw Food Detox Diet, as “Quick Exit” foods. Quick Exit foods and Quick Exit meals were my measuring stick as I transitioned. For example fish and steamed vegetables are a much quicker exit choice than a raw nut burger. The fish and veggies will be much lighter in the body than the nut burger. The bottom line: the less your body expends on digestion the more it can eliminate. Elimination is the key which is lost in most of the raw food circles!
So my key tools were 1) being fastidious about proper combinations per the rules in the book to ensure ease of digestion and 2) eating “light to heavy” as I describe in the book – meaning eating the lightest foods early in the day (and first in each meal) and the heavier foods later in the day. (Eating “raw till dinner” is a great way for transitioners to get the hang of this process in an enjoyable way.) Once these habits were established it was easy to eventually kick the cooked foods out almost all-together. I say “almost” because I still eat about 2-3 cooked meals/month. But my version of a cooked meal is steamed veggies over Kombu noodles topped with a high quality marinara sauce and grated raw Alta Dena goat cheese (I melt this together in the oven – it’s amazing and a real “Quick Exit” dish! ) I no longer eat any other animal product other than the raw goat cheese. But I didn’t give up fish until I realized it actually made me feel nauseous after eating it. I waited until my body said, “ok, no more of this, please!”
In terms of staples, I eat young coconuts (and use them in my raw ice creams) daily. In summer I typically only take in green juice and fruit in the daylight hours. Dinner is usually a blended soup (my favorite is the Raw Sweet Potato Soup below) and a giant guacamole salad. I almost always enjoy 1-2 cups of the chocolate ice cream for dessert! I do not eat grains or nuts any longer – again simply because my body rejects them and they lower my vibrations. But they are very useful for transitioning.
Avocados, young coconuts, all vegetables, sea vegetables, fruits and dates are the foundation of my diet.
Question #2: What is your new book, “The Raw Food Detox Diet “ about?
I like to think of The Raw Food Detox Diet as RAW DONE RIGHT. It sets the record straight about why transition and elimination of waste is SO critical to perfect health and weight. It dispells the myths about raw food and in this way makes it much more attractive to people who think this way of eating is out of their reach. I also aimed to penetrate the mainstream diet seekers and meet them at their point of need – which is weight loss. Once you get people excited about the weight loss component, it’s easy to get them psyched about the health aspects. I wanted it to be be a home base for veteran raw-fooders and newbies alike. The book is also choc-full of real life scenarios and over 80 fabulous recipes as well as menus for every transition level (1-5).
Question #3: What is the best way to detox?
Calculate your Raw Food Transition number from the test in the book to determine how “raw” you should go at your stage. This will ensure that the detoxification process is not too aggressive or uncomfortable. Then find the easiest ways for you to 1) increase your consumption of raw fruits and veggies at mealtimes and 2) create Quick Exit meals. This is all you need to do to get Natural Law releasing the poisons from your cells and tissues. The second element is ensuring removal of these poisons via sweat, lymph drainage and bowel movements. My methods of choice are infrared saunas, body brushing and gravity method colonics respectively.
Question #4: How do you come up with a recipe?
I think about what I would really like to eat – whatever that is and I think about how I can use the Quick Exit paradigm to mix ingredients to create that experience. For example, I simply do not eat grains at all but I still love italian food. So I use the kombo noodles instead of pasta or a cabbage leaf instead of pizza crust and pile high the sauce, raw cheese, basil and oregano for a sumptuous Italian meal. I never feel deprived because I truly believe that I eat tastier, more satisfying food than anyone else on this planet. I eat a gourmet meal every night – no kidding!
Question #5: Can you share a favorite raw food recipe?
Here are two of my favorites that are new since the book was released!
Raw Blended Sweet Potato Soup 32 oz carrot juice (fresh) 1 medium sweet potato (cubed, peeled) 4 dates, pitted 1 avocado (scooped out) several dashes of pumkin pie spice
Blend until smooth. enjoy as much as you like! Makes 4-5 cups.
Blended Creamy Tomato Soup 5 ripe Holland tomatoes (halved) 1/4 cup fresh cilantro 1 T agave nectar 1/2 an avocado sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste garlic (opt)
Blend until smooth. You can add some chopped apple and fresh corn to make it more interesting…
Question #6: What are some quick tips or hints for raw newbies?
If you are feeling bloated or you’re not moving your bowels well, you’ve got to slow down the raw foods. Don’t over look the importance of food combining. Don’t look at other people and compare yourself. You need to honor your own process. For that matter don’t believe everything everyone tells you. You have to experiment on yourself to a certain degree. Lots of raw foodist are anti colonics but they are essential to removing deeply impacted matter and the old “demons” you draw up when you eat this way. But the right method is essential. Only use the Woods Gravity Method trained therapist which use a stainless steel speculum. Do not use the pressurized machines. These can back you up further. Raw foods alone would have left me with only partial benefits.
Also, be sure to transition at your correct level. Don’t be egotistical about this. If you take the test and you are a level 5 then follow the foods recommended at that level. You will still enjoy all the results but you will avoid bloating and other discomforts. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by what might seem a complicated approach to eating. It can be SO simple!. You can eat as simply as a raw salad for lunch with a handful of raw nuts and raisins and steamed veggies and baked sweet potatoes every night and be doing very deep cleansing work. Have fun with it. Remember this is meant to liberate you – not be another diet that holds you prisoner. If you do it right you should consistently move into a more uplifting space and find your body consistently improves in every way.
Question #7: Do you have any dental problems on the raw diet?
I never have. But then I have always had regular colonics since embarking on this lifestyle so the poisons would leave my system. My teeth are better than ever before, in fact – even though I eat 6-10 dates every day! My children also have beautiful teeth whilst all their contemporaries are getting cavities (and they even take their fresh apple juice to bed with them!).
Question #8: Where do you see the raw food movement heading?
I am certain that if mainstream Americans get this message the right way – as I believe it is laid out in The Raw Food Detox Diet it can become a widely accepted lifestyle. It is my hope that the message to these mainstreamers is one of gentleness and appreciation of their food-addictions and the necessity of gradual transition. These small steps can turn into giant leaps and save so many people from illness, overweight and begin to transform their lives in bigger ways that go beyond food but that right eating sets in motion. This movement could be the catalyst for very big changes in thought that effect policies, child-rearing and relationships across the board. If this happens there’s no limit to where our consciousness could go!
Question #9: Can you please tell us about some of your current projects you’re working on and/or developing?
My first point of focus is creating a Q&A section on my website: therawfooddetoxdiet.com to address the many inquiries about the lifestyle I receive every day. Next, I will be developing a follow up book to take enthusiasts to the next level and offer even more inspiration with recipes, testimonials and much more…
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Make no mistake, this approach (raw foods and quick exit foods) is the truth about the way we should be eating as humans. There is a lot of mis-information about health and diet and a lot of fear-breeding about protein, calorie counting, carbs, etc. Just listen to your intuition and know that instinctually you know what you should be eating and what is truly worthy nourishment for your magnificently designed body. And remember that health is not about what vitamins and minerals you put into your body but about removing the debris/waste matter that keeps your body from its inherent perfection.
by natalia | Apr 22, 2014 | Health & Wellness
The following interview with Natalia can also be found on Ladies Who Launch
Who Is She?
28-year-old Natalia Rose is a Clinical Nutritionist and founder of The Rose Program, a one-of-a-kind nutrition program that focuses on using natural foods to cleanse the body of toxicity, trigger weight loss and improve overall health. Different from other nutrition programs, Natalia is known for her educational trips to the health food store, one-on-one cooking lessons, and other customization methods that cater to the client’s personal tastes, health needs and lifestyle. The Rose Program also offers group sessions where members can partake in group intensive sessions and cleansing fasts in conjunction with shopping trips to Barney’s to provide motivation and distraction. Natalia runs her business out of her home office and also offers her program through phone consultations, and the Frederick Fekkai Salon and Spa. Natalia resides in New York City.
The Rose Program Philosophy:
“I teach people how to use natural foods to cleanse their bodies of the toxicity that keeps them from being as vibrantly healthy and lean as they can be. Anyone can do it — whether they travel and eat out in restaurants or run a busy household. The Rose Program focuses on consuming mostly natural foods and properly combining those foods in a way that does not overly tax the digestive system. In our culture we eat too many foods that waste our precious cleansing energies on digestion when that energy could be going to turning over new cells, healing organs and eliminating old waste matter from the body (note: excess waste matter is at the core of excess weight). This waste matter which comes from unnatural foods and pollution — things that cannot be fully utilized by our bodies is the cause of most modern-day diseases and keeps us from being the lean, vibrant, healthy beings we were born to be.”
One-on-one programs:
“My six week program is the silver bullet of health. After an initial consultation when I review the client’s health history and diet issues, the first thing we do is go to the health food store, which on one’s own can be a very confusing place because among the truly healthy offerings are just as many unhealthy ones. After leading them through the health food store isle by isle, we spend time in the kitchen where I teach them how to prepare healthy, vibrant foods that are customized to their tastes. For my Italian fans we make delicious raw pastas from zucchini. For Asian lovers, we make spring rolls and raw-vegetable sushi with unbelievably delicious dressings and sauces. I focus a lot on flavor. I attribute a lot of the program’s success to the fact that I am a foodie. I believe we should take a lot of pleasure in our food. My clients eat well, and leave the table satisfied. Eating for health and beauty should not leave one feeling deprived.”
Group sessions:
“Working in groups can be extremely motivating. I offer two kinds of group sessions—six women for six weeks and one week intensives for two hours a day. Juice fasting groups are also available to advanced clients who have been on The Rose Program for an extended period. Done as part of The Rose Program, either one-on-one or in a group is ideal and also surprisingly fun. Most fasters are amazed by how much energy they have on the second or third day of fasting on fresh vegetable juices.”
Exercise not a necessity:
“I believe in exercise but you don’t need exercise to see weight loss results on this program and the enzymes in the food help tone your body and skin. Yoga is ideal. But my favorite exercise for energy and toning is mini trampoline rebounding for 5 to 10 minutes each day.”
Background/experience:
“I grew up in Los Angeles, received my bachelors from NYU and studied nutrition at the Natural Healing institute of Naturopathy in San Diego. I used this foundation to take nutrition to the next level of deep tissue cleansing.”
Biggest challenge:
“At first, marketing on a shoestring was hard. Several years ago, nobody knew what raw foods were, but now everyone knows and wants to learn about them, so the timing was right. I believed in what I was doing from the start, which allowed me to stick with it and never give up.”
Future business growth:
“I have written a book called The Raw Food Detox Diet, which is available in bookstores everywhere. While still in a draft stage, the book contains all of my principles and my recipes, and addresses nutritional issues for every stage of life from childbearing to menopause. My goal is to find the right publisher and get it into the mainstream. I have been contemplating creating a cooking show for a cable network like the Food Network, Oxygen or WE. But most of all, I love teaching people how they can look and feel their very best while enjoying their food more than ever before.”
Personal life:
“My husband and I enjoy entertaining at home and spending buckets of playtime with our kids. I try to create boundaries between my personal life and business life—otherwise I would be talking about food 24 – 7. When you work from home it can be difficult to determine what is work time and what is family time. As a mother, your children and home will demand to come first. Gradually, you’ll find your balance. And ultimately, if mother is happy, the whole household benefits.”
Words of advice:
“Don’t invest your time and money until you have done a thorough analysis of the business. Be a pessimistic not optimistic business plan writer. Be careful what you promise people and always over-deliver.”
by natalia | Apr 22, 2014 | Health & Wellness
TOOLS OF THE TRADE (October 24, 2011)
Dear Natalia Rose Institute, How do I use bentonite clay? I have heard it is a detoxifyer, should I take it every day?
Thank you, Rebekah
The Tools of the Trade
We do not recommend the use of supplements. They address health in an allopathic way, where putting something in to a toxic system is an attempt to fix a problem. This lifestyle puts the focus on the removal of the obstruction that is the cause of the discomfort and disease. The following list of tools are all modalities to assist in the removal of toxic accumulation in the body.*
Bentonite Clay
Sonne’s Detoxificant No.7 is a pure bentonite clay that can be taken internally to help absorb a fatty toxic substance so that it can pass easily along instead of sticking in the tissue. It can also ease gastric distress caused by rancid substances (including those that have turned rancid because they have been trapped in the body at 98.6 degrees for too long).
It should not be taken therapeutically on a daily basis. It is bulky and could actually slow down movement in the system if taken with too much regularity.
Dosage: 1 tbspn with or following a meal
Good timing: Goat milk ice cream, or the occasional buttery sauce will lodge in the clay instead of the intestine and move through the body nicely. This is not a band aid or a repair of damage done, but more to use as a tool for the evenings of planned indulgence that keep us loving this life. Take 1 tablespoon right in the middle of the substance if possible, but afterward will work as well. For example, eat half of your serving, a tbspoon of clay, and then finish your portion.
Bentonite clay is also wonderful for children who are feeling poorly. Because of it’s absorbing properties it can often ease a toxin-ingestion stomach ache.
Aloe Vera
Herbal Answers Aloe is raw and 100% pure. It lubricates the intestinal tract and can soften very hard and caked-on tarry matter.
Dosage: 2-4oz (the cap is a perfect 2 oz measuring tool) each morning on an empty stomach for two weeks will help someone who is having hard and painful releases, or intense colonic treatments. It softens scabby baked-on matter. I like to recommend aloe for clients who have had heavy protein-based diets before cleansing, even if they were eating large amounts of nut-based dishes instead of meat. Think of aloe as a softener and lubricant to help the waste begin to mobilize.
Aloe vera topically straight from the plant (which is easy to grow at home or find in the wild in desert areas like Arizona and New Mexico) is a tried and true burn remedy, and also an herbal treatment for overexposure to the sun. Simply break off a spiny arm and use the clear gel that oozes out as a salve or balm on burn blisters, cracked lips, or on any part of the skin after a long day at the beach.
Castor Oil
Castor oil should not be ingested, but instead applied as a hot pack to the abdomen to help mobilize waste. It can aid the cleansing process by helping bowel movements and making colonics more effective.
Dosage: spread a light layer onto the abdomen and massage it into the skin while lying down. Next, cover the area with a cloth-wrapped hot water bottle and relax for 20 minutes. This method is very effective in the same circumstances as the aloe, performing even more of a lubricative task and helping the older hard matter to gently progress through the large intestine.
Good Timing: This is a nice way to relax before dinner on a cold winter night, in leu of a hot bath. It is also a wonderful remedy for children who are constipated or having hard and painful bowel movements.
CandiGone and Candex
These two herbal formulas help to kill off the Candida yeast that we attempt to diminish with a low starch and sugar approach to eating.
Dosage: Both Candex and CandiGone recommend a twice daily dosage, when in fact taking the whole day’s allotment at once is just as (if not more) effective.
Good Timing: Take these alone and on an empty stomach. Either in the morning or mid-afternoon several hours after lunch.
Oregano Oil
Pure oregano oil is what you want, and there are a lot of inexpensive mixes on the market. Pick the (pricier) glass dropper bottle with cold-pressed oil of oregano as its only ingredient.
Dosage: Two drops on or under the tongue on an empty stomach are an effective way to help irradiate yeast and fungal growth. You can also add a couple of drops to a salad, or a chilled soup (like gazpacho).
Good Timing: This can be taken in conjunction with Candex or CandiGone either first thing in the morning or mid-afternoon well after lunch.
Probiotics
Ascended Health products listed on the site are really special products that both Natalia and I have had great success with. They are able to pass through the stomach’s digestive juices and arrive safely to cultivate in the intestine. Dr Ohirra’s probiotic pearls are also wonderful.
Dosage: You can take the full recommended dosage at once, alone and on an empty stomach.
Good Timing: These work really well if taken several times a year until the bottle runs out. Alternating the two is a great move: first finish a full course of one, and then begin the other. This will cultivate healthy bacteria, which should begin to thrive in your fresh and clean colon.
Body Brush
Herba Prima, and several other companies as well, make wonderful natural bristle body brushes. Use them on dry skin, and first thing in the morning. Start with the feet and work upwards in small firm strokes towards the heart focusing on the lymphatic areas on the backs of the knees and front of the pelvis (bikini line/hip joint). Work towards your center. Then start at the fingertips and repeat, also moving in towards your middle. You can also concentrate some additional attention on the backs of the thighs, or other areas you would like to help loosen. This gives your epidermal layer a faster turnover time, and sends blood rushing through the body. Your chi will be free-flowing, and your lymphatic system properly draining. And just watch that cellulite start to diminish…
Coconut Oil
This is our favorite moisturizer. If applied after bath or shower time, the skin will be luxuriously soft and silky. You can use it on the face if it’s not too heavy for you, but often summer is not the time for such a greasy layer. Coconut oil and aloe vera also help the skin recuperate from sun damage, so if you’re spending your summer getting a little overexposed, ending your day with coconut oil before bedtime is a great way to love your skin.
Rebounder
ReboundAir and Belicon are the rebounder companies we’ve chosen to feature on the site. ReboundAir makes a model that folds neatly in half and slides under the bed or couch for easy storage (and easy travel). We favor this type of body movement for many reasons.
1. First, the impact increases bone density the way any impact aerobic activity will, without the accompanying joint and tissue damage of an activity like running. No aching knees or sagging breast tissue here! It’s safe and easy for bodies that may still be holding extra weight which would otherwise add too much strain to the frame of the body.
2. Rebounding helps stimulate lymphatic drainage, and makes a marked difference in cellulite areas. It tightens and lifts, and works the whole body at once.
3. The squeeze of pressure that you feel at the top of each just is assisting each cell in the body with detoxification.
Try starting with jazz-stye high kicks (landing on first one leg, then the other) with alternating arm swings. The kicking leg is using the whole front of the leg, the landing leg the back of the leg and buttock, the arms and abs are incorporated. You will really see and feel the results.
YouTube and many bookstores have more rebounding video workouts to find the motion that feels right for you. Start with a 10 minute workout and build your way up to half an hour to 45 minutes. I’ve found rebounding to be most effective (like most workouts) when used daily for a period, followed by a break. Keep the body guessing. Or just use it on rainy or cold days when outdoor movement doesn’t feel right.
Note: When the body is more burdened with toxic accumulation rebounding will be more difficult. As you cleanse, you will be able to stay on your rebounder longer and longer.
•This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment. Please consult your health care provider before making any health care decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition.
