The Tough Part About Raw Food is the Tough Part About Food

Raw bean burritos with guacamole, salsa, cilantro, and spinach wrapped in cabbage tortillas






The toughest part about eating raw is that you have to prepare all the food yourself, from scratch.

Notice anything funny about that sentence?

We're supposed to be making food from scratch!! Going raw just forces you to do this. Then we say, "going raw is so much work!" In fact, eating healthy in general is "so much work." At least, compared to what we're used to.

We have transitioned from one- to two-income households in these last decades and have gone to convenience foods in the process which involve either throwing packages into the microwave or into a pan of boiling water to prepare. Then there's fast-food or simply eating out too much.

For the sake of our health, we MUST go back to the old custom of preparing our own food at home from scratch. Certainly there are times and places for going out to eat with friends or to celebrate, but I do not feel there is a place for boxed, bagged, or microwaveable meals.

I think for most people, transitioning to making all food from scratch would be one of the hardest changes they could make, yet it would have an instant and powerful effect on their health for the better.

It's so funny--people think the food they eat at restaurants tastes so good because of some brilliant chef in the kitchen (which is surely the case at times), but really, it tastes so good because it completely over-stimulates your taste buds with salt, sugar, and oil. There's nothing magic there. If you want to reproduce the "superior" restaurant food taste at home, put four times the salt, sugar, or oil in whatever you are making. Then appreciate why it is so much healthier to be the one in control of your food.

Once you've been making all your food on your own, going raw won't seem like any work at all. You'll just be making different recipes than before. Pretty simple.

Food as Religion and Culture

Raw milkshake: walnuts, agave, raw chocolate powder





America is often made fun of as the country with no culture. We are a very young country and do not have the hundreds- and thousands-years old traditions that most other cultures in the world have.

However, this is not at all the case. Our culture may be a little less romantic, without the artistic architecture, traditional dress, or family and community structure, but it is practiced and ingrained just the same.

Taking food as an important example: we have a totally culturally-ingrained diet. I did not realize this at all throughout my life because I am, of course, part of this culture. I thought Americans had a moderate, relaxed diet and also must eat the way we do because it has been proven to be healthy. We love science and are always studying the effects of everything. If we are so modern and smart, we wouldn't be so rigid on something like food which we can learn so much about, and thereby adjust to suit our health. We would change the way we eat at a moment's notice if we knew we needed to, or if we thought it would help us lose weight. However, it is obvious when we look that we only make such changes as still fit within our cultural way of eating.

Remember in the '80s and '90s how we were warned that animal fat contributed to heart disease. This idea is not standing the test of further scientific study, as it turns out, but how many people went vegetarian when, for a couple of decades, this was the prevailing viewpoint? Vegetarianism has been on the rise for decades, but not in the numbers you would have expected considering how widespread this belief was and actually still is.

This type of tunnel-visioned approach was really obvious to me when I went to India. I have spent two months there total, and have just found it hilarious the way any Indian will back up the way they eat, 100%. Practically everything is deep-fried, even breakfast food. Rice and bread products are eaten at absolutely every meal and snack. The spice level can sometimes be just ridiculous. All of these things are taken completely for granted as healthy and delicious. When my husband and I would occasionally point out that, nutritionally, eating a mountain of rice twice a day really amounted to nothing and probably even did harm, his parents would mostly shrug and say, sure, maybe. It didn't change what they did, and it probably never will. The changes a typical Indian would be willing to make in their diet would amount to an inch in one direction or another.

I found this silly and sometimes frustrating, and, of course, thought Americans were above that.

Americans are not above this at all. The changes 90% of Americans are willing to make are also an inch in one direction or another. Our staple foods of meat, potatoes, dairy, pizza, burgers, ice cream, and soda will never be given up by the majority of the population. These are the foundation foods of our culture, some of which are, arguably, far worse than a mountain of rice.

We DON'T listen to science unless it shows us something easy or convenient we can change. Most of us feel we have to give up our entire identities to simply leave out certain foods and become thoroughly depressed at the idea. Isn't this strange? Americans treat their diet as a religion, as does almost any other traditional culture. We follow it on faith, and conversion is extremely difficult. We eat as part of our identity, part of our comfort, part of how we connect with other people. I don't believe there is a place for faith in diet, do you?

Witness the common offense taken by many meat-eaters when it comes out you are a vegetarian, which you will know about if you happen to be one. Honestly, I could more easily say I was a pathological liar to avoid the disdain and condescension I have encountered. I keep my eating habits a secret as long as possible until a meal comes up where I have to let it be known. At least with religion, though, we have some etiquette, as we are taught to accept those who have different beliefs.

I don't mean to guilt-trip Americans--as I said, it is entirely natural to hold on to diet and food habits as part of culture. But we MUST be aware that we are doing this. If we fool ourselves into thinking we eat based solely on scientific evidence for health benefits behind food, then we will stay laughably ignorant and probably very unhealthy.

I only wish that the rigid defenders of the American diet (not that they all are that way, by any means) would simply say, "I haven't spent much time researching health and nutrition, but I like to eat meat because it tastes good. I haven't heard anything bad enough to stop me yet." At least this includes self-awareness and honesty. The most important thing for us to be honest with ourselves about is that 100% of us believe what we are told until we are adults. At that point, each one of us has a responsibility to challenge our beliefs and learn from truly trustworthy and expert sources.

Such issues become obvious if you ever read the book The China Study which I am almost halfway through now. This is the largest and most scientifically strict nutrition study ever undertaken. It involves a conglomeration of a massive number of studies conducted over a period of 27 years. It isn't a book based on conclusions from a few skewed graphs connecting animal fat with heart disease. It is finally surfacing that animal fat does not contribute to heart disease in the ways we previously thought and that those conclusions were based on some very incomplete and improperly interpreted statistics.

The evidence for consuming a plant-based diet to avoid disease, based on this study, is simply incontrovertible. Yet this doctor, in undertaking the research, had to deal with other scientists who wouldn't even work with him or who claimed results had been mixed up because the findings ran so counter to everything they believed in. By every single rigorous definition of proper and strict rules of conducting science, this study surpasses them all. Yet his own very intelligent colleagues could not psychologically cope with the answers.

And why on earth has it taken me years of being a total nutrition nerd to even hear about and then read this book? Not because it isn't rigidly backed up by the highest standards while being published, study by study, in the most prestigious and reputable scientific journals. No, it's because people do not like the answers very much. And because it hasn't been packaged and marketed as a fad diet (yet).

This is the scientific, objective, progressive society we live in? We might conduct our studies well, even come up with good ones in the first place, but, as one doctor who studies the mind/body disease connection put it, "some end up in the Bermuda Triangle." They are not argued or disputed, but they disappear, ignored, and never to be heard from again. Even studies that can save thousands and thousands of lives. Inexpensively, with no side effects, and--heck, without health insurance.

Psychology and food must be gently unwound from eachother. Food is not a religion, and even culture is not a religion. People are dying by the thousands of easily preventable diseases, and we sit here still saying, "No! I don't want to change!" What is going on with people when to simply let go of certain foods induces a personal crisis and an extreme emotional reaction? Is this crisis preferable to getting sick? Granted, we are not given a lot of tools in this world to navigate personal crises, but I'll wing it at one of those before taking my chances in a hospital bed.

Wholly Holistic Healing

I am so excited that the concept of holistic healing is becoming very popular. Most people seem to know what that means--that more than the physical body has to be treated for healing to occur. We are multi-faceted beings, with minds, bodies, and spirits that all need to be in alignment for vibrant health to be experienced.

In my practice, I address physical and mental ailments with Pranic Healing and, in addition, place importance on healthy food and lifestyle choices in order to prevent illness and maintain health. (I will complete my nutrition consultant program by the summer and add this officially, including nutrition protocols to heal particular ailments.)

The first step is healing from present ailments, and the second is to prevent any more from occurring. However, there are several parts to each of these steps.

The first part of holistic healing is to heal past psychological trauma. This may involve blockages, specific traumatic events, chronic negative thinking, negative attachments, and unhealthy patterns. By releasing past negativity, a person is immediately freed to move forward, live in the present, and be fully empowered. Pranic Healing is a brilliant modality which heals even severe trauma in a fraction of the time it would take with conventional talk therapy. Forgiveness is absolutely key in this process, as lack of forgiveness can manifest as severe health ailments, and complete forgiveness is a requirement for total healing and moving forward. One must be completely ready and willing to Let Go.

Next is to heal any mental ailment (ex: depression), chronic pain, sickness, or other physical ailment. This can be done with Pranic Healing and nutrition therapy. Emotional issues could potentially surface again at this point, as disease is often a manifestation of our mental state. All processed foods must be eliminated and only whole foods, preferably organic, should be consumed. This means the body is getting real nourishment, allowing it to carry out its natural and powerful healing processes which are so often hindered by our food choices. Balanced nutrition is also key to emotional and mental health.

Fasting might have a place as cleaning the body and purging obstructions is very influential in allowing flow and also proper assimilation of nutrition. Again, emotional issues can come up during fasting as emotional experiences are stored in the body. This new freedom and emotional clarity can even be scary at times, but is necessary for health, a sense of well-being, and true personal power.

Other targeted therapies might be useful or required such as massage, chiropractic, or others.

The third part is to permanently alter lifestyle habits over a transition period. This allows a person to stay healthy and prevent future mental or physical illness. The point is to become as independent as possible in staying healthy and healing oneself. Health is our natural state and should not require frequent and regular intervention from healers.

At-home, from scratch, whole food preparation for 90% or more of meals is necessary. Purchasing pre-prepared meals, whether from grocery stores or restaurants means consuming substances which are not actually food and shouldn't be put into our bodies in the first place. Or, it means consuming excessive amounts of salt, oil, and other things which should be consumed in a moderate balance. Only by making your own food will you have control over your health.

A WIDE variety of plant foods should be eaten and raw dairy is preferable over pasteurized for much easier digestion. Meat must be hormone and antibiotic-free, free range, and beef should be grass-fed. Sugar should be practically eliminated, as sweets can be made at home easily without it. Pranic Healing is fabulous for food addiction healing, whether due to the physically addictive nature of sugar and caffeine or from the emotional addiction aspect of eating. An exercise and meditation routine has to be established as well, even if it only starts with just once a week for each. These might be dramatic changes for many people, and they won't happen overnight, but the goal is total health freedom, and these are, therefore, all essential.

Coping techniques for stress may be required for some, as well as overall stress reduction in general. Certain lifestyle changes could be required, perhaps as small as turning off the TV or as large as changing jobs. Life balance in all areas is required for peace, health, and sanity. Are you doing what you love? Do you at least have time for your hobbies, or time to yourself? Relationship assessment is also important, including family, friends, co-workers, and romantic relationships: toxic relationships do to our energy what toxic food does to our bodies. Energetic hygiene using Pranic Healing techniques is always taught: saltwater baths, cord-cutting, and keeping the home environment clean.

These elements combined will truly treat the whole person and make them health-independent, as every person has the natural right to be. Our culture has somehow gotten so far off track that such a system is even required, when all this should be natural. It is the right of everyone to feel vibrant, alive, peaceful, and fully healthy all the time.

Toxic Bodies, Toxic Minds

A suddenly major interest among health-conscious people is detoxification. The fact that we are toxifying our bodies in the first place is a subject worth serious consideration and is usually skipped over in the conversation about detoxing. Why should detoxification be necessary at all? Why do we have to "clean up after ourselves"? What are we putting into our bodies in the first place?

What is a toxin? In general, the word toxin refers to something chemical, not considered food or nourishment, and which does not belong in our bodies. Toxins can be chemicals in the air, water, beauty products, and food which we ingest or which are absorbed through the skin. Toxins are, in part, stored in the tissues and lymph fluid.

Toxins are not stored intentionally--why doesn't the body just get rid of them? The body does get rid of plenty of junk we ingest, however, not everything can be eliminated easily. The way that toxins end up stuck in the tissues and lymph is due to a simple process of diffusion. Immediately after eating cooked food, the blood becomes thick. This is the reason one cannot eat 8 hours before surgery: the blood is too thick for surgeons to safely operate. Due to this thickness, toxins diffuse into the lymph which is thin and light in comparison. When fasting or eating raw food, the blood becomes thin and toxins naturally diffuse out of the lymph fluid and into the bloodstream. Then they are eliminated.

More complicated than that, however, is toxic residue. Toxic residue is basically a layer of junk lining the intestinal tract. This junk inhibits proper absorption of nutrients, which is the purpose of the intestines. This reduces the nutrition we can get from our food, even when we are eating what we should in the first place. Where does this come from? Cooked food, especially animal products, which are difficult to digest and do not "burn" cleanly. Toxic residue keeps us out of touch with our bodies. Many people believe food cravings are messages from the body, and sometimes they are, but often we are just craving what we are addicted to. This layer of junk is a barrier between the real messages of our body and our awareness, and our bodies cannot communicate through it. Until you have detoxified, you will not hear very well your body's real messages.

This junk stuck in the intestinal wall can actually ferment by being stuck in the gut for too long, hence becoming toxic. This buildup does also leak continuously into the bloodstream and cause problems, however, as illustrated by Gabriel Cousens, MD in his book Conscious Eating:

"Many people think that the phrase 'toxins in the body' is just some jargon of food faddists. Research over the last 100 years shows that these bowel toxins actually exist. Not only do they exist, but they also have a tremendous negative impact on mental and physical well-being. Toxins usually come from a process called 'intestinal toxemia,' an overgrowth of putrefactive intestinal bacteria in the small and large intestines. These toxins are then released into the blood stream and from there affect both our mental and physical functioning. Intestinal toxemia is predominately caused by a high-protein and low complex carbohydrate diet. Intestinal toxemia not only has been associated with severe mental symptoms such as psychosis, but with a variety of mental imbalances.

As early as 1917, Drs. Satterlee and Eldridge presented 518 cases at an American Medical Association conference that had mental symptoms which were cured by removing the intestinal toxemia. The reported symptoms of intestinal toxemia which are familiar to many people: mental sluggishness, dullness, and stupidity; loss of concentration and/or memory; mental incoordination, irritability, lack of confidence, and excessive and useless worry; exaggerated introspection, hypochondrias, and phobias; depression and melancholy; obsessions and delusions; and hallucinations, suicidal tendencies, delirium, and stupor. Senility symptoms are also common with intestinal toxemia."

Gee, does anyone here know any Americans that seem excessively anxious, stupid, or sluggish??

I'm going to make the bold statement that toxemia is rampant in this country. I do believe that our food HAS made us dumb and complacent, quite easily managed and manageable by the so-called powers that be.

The long-term solution is to eat more raw food and less cooked food, especially less animal products. Eat lots of raw leafy greens and fruit which contain fiber. For a more sudden and possibly slightly painful detox process, you can do a fast which will rather quickly and dramatically release toxins into the bloodstream and then out of the system. This might put you through some unpleasant symptoms as all this garbage comes out from its hiding place. It can be mild to severe, from a headache or a little crankiness to getting a cold or major aches and pains in the body. However, I have heard of wonderful benefits to doing this such as lasting weight loss, disappearance of minor health problems, especially digestive problems, among other things.

The question in my mind is: if we are meant to eat meat and cooked food, why does it leave us with a ton of toxic buildup that causes mental disorders and requires a dramatic fast to get rid of? And then, as popular raw food author, Shazzie, points out: "detox to retox?" because it sounds good to do these fasts or detox diets for anywhere from 3-30 days, but if you're going to go back to your old diet again...? Well, still way better to do a twice yearly fast than none at all.

Getting "High"

One thing I wish I knew when I was in college is that putting toxic substances into your body is only one way to get high and, by far, the most painful.

Being "spiritual" sounds pretty dull to most people. In most religious traditions, it involved going off to live in a nunnery or maybe be a celibate priest. One was supposed to renounce earthly pleasures.

Modern spirituality has a different approach, however, and does not require anyone to ignore the fact that part of our existence is physical (the other part being energetic). In fact, I would say success is measured, in this system, by how much fun you are having.

I realize how completely hilarious this sounds, but experiencing regular meditation and spiritual growth is as close to living on the edge as you can get. Ha! There, I said it.

Think of a time when your mind was totally blown open. Maybe you read a book that blew the lid off your previously-held beliefs. Or you watched an incredible documentary. Or you traveled to another country and saw a completely different way to live. These examples are pale comparisons to what it is like to experience the metaphysical-and magical-reality we all live in. Meditating can be like learning half a book of new and incredible information without having to read, and a book that might never have been written, at that. For the rest of the day, things come into your mind from nowhere, making you laugh out loud or stop dead in your tracks.

Drugs and alcohol are toys compared to what every human has the capacity to experience. I have, more than once, gotten to work, having meditated right before I left (I work at a restaurant) and found it difficult to get oriented to even do my job.

Spiritual people love getting high! We've just noticed that messing up your body and going through the side effects of hangovers, comedowns, depression, exhaustion, sleep interruptions, bad dreams, regrets, and bar tabs is a terribly ineffective way to do so.

Reflections on Raw Food

It's been about two weeks of eating almost 100% raw. I am committed to being fully honest and cannot say that I have not had a bite of cooked food. I have essentially eaten three raw meals per day the entire time--it's just that in between those meals have had either bites of other peoples' food, a snack while going out with a friend, and a soy chai twice at a coffee shop.

Which doesn't sound bad at all, I know, but I definitely hoped for "perfection" on my two-month commitment. The tough thing about raw food is that by being "perfect" and keeping absolutely any cooked food away from your mouth, you experience that over-the-top healthy feeling. For me, I don't seem to get it until I have been absolutely strictly raw for about a week. Seeing as I have not been so strict, although I notice changes, they are not the dramatic ones I enjoyed the last time when I did this diet for a month. Which THEN tends to make you less motivated....which is kind of where I am at at the moment.

The positive changes I have noticed are:
no interest in alcohol
no interest in sugar, cheese, or bread
absolutely loving all the raw meals I eat without missing anything
calmer mind
never heaviness after any meal
less hungry and less appetite--small meals will fill me for hours
no obsessiveness/cravings/compulsive thoughts about food
sleeping very well
much more energy in meditation

What I got the last time around (when I was strict) but not this time:
much less sleep needed--2 hours less per night
no negative thoughts/feelings
constant happy "buzz"

And this doesn't make it sound like I am missing out on a lot, but those three that I am not experiencing this time around are some big ones.

And, about that happy buzz, I have to mention a couple of powerful off-setting factors: it's winter (and feeling like a very long one to me), and my husband has been gone a week now on his 4-week contract job in Indiana, leaving me kind of lonely/bored. So part of that lack could be due to circumstance.

I think I am also not noticing as much drastic change because since doing raw last summer, I have added a lot of raw food into my life. It's been my habit for months to eat several raw meals per week, and I've been drinking green smoothies for months now. Before I ever tried raw food, I was eating zero and then went to 100% almost overnight. That exciting, drastic change probably won't be felt by me again unless I go back to eating significantly worse than I have been for the past 9 months. I am probably feeling 10 times better than a year ago but don't notice because I have added raw food gradually over a long period, so this 90% raw food diet of the last two weeks was just one or two steps upward.

I am reading lots of raw food dieting accounts online and it's kind of giving me an inferiority complex! Everyone seems to be doing a perfect job of it and having a fabulous time! This amazes me because the first time I ever did this, it was EXTREMELY difficult. I was tortured, craving my regular foods night and day for the first week. Then there was immense frustration in making the recipes which really took practice (as well as learning to avoid the difficult ones--and knowing in advance which ones will be difficult!). I am having a much easier time the second time around with no cravings and no difficulty making the recipes. I am just, somehow, not motivated to be super strict and I don't know why.

One important difference between me and a lot of people who start this diet is that I don't have any health concerns, nor am I overweight. Almost everyone who decides to do this who I have ever read about has health problems or weight problems. These are obviously enormous motivating factors for people. Who wants to go back to their old foods if they will be 50+ pounds overweight or suffer extreme pains or illnesses? I already rarely get sick in the first place. So for that reason, it's hard to be a perfectionist.

I think for now, I will accept taking my goal down to a 90-95% raw food diet for the remaining six weeks. This percentage is pretty comfortable and natural for me. Maybe I will change my mind and choose to be more strict later, but I am happy with this for now.

The Middle Road?

One of the most common things I hear when I tell people I'm only eating raw food for a certain duration is that I shouldn't be too extremist and moderation is best.

My question is, what is moderation?

In a raw food book written by two siblings brought up on raw food (Victoria Boutenko's kids), they were visited by a child services worker at the door once. Some school kid's parents thought they were suffering from child abuse because of the strange lunches they brought to school. They asked the kids what they had for lunch today, and, knowing what this child services worker wanted to hear, they said "we ate McDonald's." The person was satisfied and left.

Eating pizza and burgers is considered moderation today, an average middle-of-the-road diet. Wasn't it just 50 years ago that people commonly had 3-martini lunches? Old movies just crack me up because there's barely a scene where the characters aren't drinking straight whiskey, bourbon, or scotch every time they're home. That was moderation.

Then you tell someone you're going to eat an incredible variety of plant foods and not cook them, and they think you've fallen off the deep end. But slicing potatoes and deep-frying them in grease--that makes sense. The only nutritional concept they're familiar with is protein--that's in meat!! But ask them where they're getting the maybe two dozen required vitamins and minerals, and they probably can't identify where to find even one of these nutrients--let alone tell you how THEY are fulfilling these requirements for themselves.

The extremists are the average Americans.

As I read in one of my favorite books, most people take better care of their cars than their bodies. The mechanic has a tizzy if you wait an extra month before getting your oil changed. But the doctor doesn't really mind what you do, there's always a pill!

The middle road isn't the sum average of what everyone in your culture is doing. We are blessed to have some pretty sophisticated techniques now to understand what happens when we do certain things to our bodies. It's time to let science rather than the overwhelming number of unhealthy grocery and restaurant chains guide our idea of "moderation." Culture and popularity so often reign in these decisions such as what we should eat. And Americans pride themselves so much on their freedom, their open-mindedness, and their individuality.

So let those values run free a little!

Meditation: a health requirement

today's lunch: marinated portobello mushroom sandwich with avocado, lettuce, and tomato on raw sprouted grain bread...delicious






I know it can be tiring to hear about all the new things they have to do every day in order to be healthy. It IS a lot of work when you grow up in a modernized society where we are supposed to work at least 40 hours/week, go drinking with your friends, get enough sleep, etc. All these obligations take time.

However, nothing is more important than health. If you are in pain or unable to enjoy life with others, little else will really matter to you.

When I hear people say they don't have time for such things, what I automatically want to ask them is, "how many hours of TV do you watch per week?" Exercise can only take 3-4 hours per week, and meditation as little as 1-2 hours per week. Can we not eliminate a few of our favorite programs to lengthen our lives and dramatically improve our quality of living?

If you don't make your health a priority, this so-called civilization WILL drag you down and you will be sucked into reality shows, potato chips, and a half-asleep, sedated kind of awareness.

So, yes, no one else may be doing it, but: you have to exercise regularly. You just do. You have to eat foods in their whole, original form. You may not buy things that come in boxes. You may not eat at a fast-food restaurant. You may not eat un-organic meat or dairy products. Yes, I am issuing an ultimatum.

So this one more thing... You have to do it too. You have to meditate.

Let me say right away that meditation does not necessarily equal keeping the mind silent for a certain duration. This may be one type of meditation, and it seems to be meditation's definition to most people. However, I expect this to be a huge deterrent to an otherwise interested person--this the hardest meditation technique out there!! Meditation can be extremely simple and easy.

First of all, what is meditation? There are a lot of ways of looking at this word. Meditation can be a quiet walk in the park and it can be an 8-hour marathon during a retreat. My definition of meditation is a state of receptivity and quiet where you stop doing or thinking about any physical or worldly matter.

What generally happens during meditation, when your intention is set, is divine energy comes down through the top of the head. Energy is simply your life force. It keeps you alive and "energized" when, without this energy, the physical body would die. When we quiet ourselves, we open ourselves to this divine energy.

We are all already connected to it. Every living thing has what is called a spiritual cord going out from the top of the head to this infinite source. In the average person, this cord is very thin, like a thread. In a regular meditator, it is wider. In a saint or highly developed teacher, it can be much wider than the physical body. The larger your cord, the bigger the supply of steady energy. During meditation, the cord expands and then partially retracts again afterward. It's one of your spiritual muscle, and you want to make it as strong as you can.

So you don't have to have a perfectly quiet mind to let this energy in. You just have to be still and set the intention to meditate, to be in a state of relaxation and peace and to receive healing and rejuvenation. Set this intention or ask for it specifically...and I promise you will be heard.

Meditation is your metaphysical daily exercise routine. Remember, healing can be done on a physical or energetic level or both. Energy healing can often be faster than physical. If you are already charging up your energy body daily, you are healing yourself energetically daily. This is extremely powerful.

You will notice significant changes over time if you make this a regular practice. I can tell you what you might expect, or you can just try it yourself. There's already enough written on this topic. Everyone is different, and there's no need to believe what I am saying. Just try it for yourself and prove or dis-prove it.

One thing I've noticed with myself is that if I go a long time without meditation, I start to get slightly depressed. The world also starts looking very one-dimensional, dull, depressing, linear, and also infuriating. Everything is infused with energy and has its own "magic." You will have very little sense of this truth if you have no energetic healing or meditation experience to expand yourself. Meditation gives me a sense of excitement.

So, yes, robust health does take time. But your meditation doesn't have to take longer than 15 minutes a day. And at least you don't need to pay for a gym membership....

P.S. At pranichealing.com you can purchase the CD for the Meditation on Twin Hearts. It takes 20 minutes and is extremely powerful. It is designed to flush out the energy body of negativity and congestion and then powerfully energize it.