I was recently in Paris and saw the spectacular Claude Monet Exhibition at the Grand Palais. This Retrospective of Monet's work filled room after room with light-filled paintings that covered a major part of Monet's life and evolution.
I was struck by the experience of the richness of his journey. Each room introduced me to another facet of Monet's glimmering art, his history, his choices, his greatness and his humanness. I left the exhibition with a fuller sense of who Monet was as an artist and a heightened appreciation of his immense talent and humanity.
The richness that I received from getting the bigger picture of Monet's life is what I experienced as I went through each room of the Holistic Integrative Nutrition and Health Counseling program offered by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Instead of seeing merely one painting or one room of paintings, I was being exposed to a whole living museum of the art of health.
So not only is there a room of over 100 various diets based on bio-individuality, but there's a room filled with looking at relationships, another room for exercise, another for doing what you love in your career or life and still another room for the inner person/spirituality. The whole person is nurtured in this school. I consider that to have a truly healthy and fulfilling life, it's about more than the right diet or nutrition program. Health and well being have many colors in the palette that make the art work that is YOU--as a healthy, vital being. And the trick is finding the color tones that are honed to your body and make-up.
What serendipity to discover a school that recognizes the whole person. What a rarity in education! Joshua Rosenthal founded the Institute and developed this enlightened approach to Holistic Nutrition and the multileveled aspects of health and well-being. He ,created an educational art form where you learn how to draw on your intuitive knowing and learn simple, yet profound practical concepts that can have a huge impact on your and other people's health and healing.
Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. and Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., distinguished doctors, authors and lecturers at Institute of Integrative Nutrition and worldwide, said in slightly different ways, that the greatest tool in their arsenals is the food we eat and the lifestyle we live. With a palette of colors of the rainbow of our food, we can paint ourselves healthy. We just have to pick up the paintbrush and experiment with mixing colors--you can feel the benefits of learning how an array of colorful whole, unprocessed foods can give the needed nutrients so many of us are lacking. You can also learn the art of how to revitalize your body and more easily avoid or deal with stress through meditation and exercise. A personal health coach/counselor can give you support on an ongoing basis while you are developing a more balanced, energized, colorful life and enriched relationships.
Personally, during this year of exploring further my own bio-individuality, I lost those few extra pounds around the middle that I couldn't seem to budge try as I may. Also, I'd say my vitality increased by at least 25 percent and my immune system improved greatly. My portrait became more colorful, vibrant and relaxed.
I'd love to see your portrait, knowing it can transform before your very eyes. One of my greatest joys is to support you in creating your masterpiece.
I'll close with a quote that came my way recently:
"In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love."
--Marc Chagall
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Institute for Integrative Nutrition | The world's largest ...
Thank you for your blog post and for talking so candidly about your experience at Integrative Nutrition. I really appreciate your sincerity and the thoughtfulness you brought to this post. The school is not only about eating healthy, and nutrition, it's also about personal transformation, which you have captured here so wonderfully.
Best regards,
Joshua Rosenthal
Founder & Director
Institute for Integrative Nutrition
Ever since visiting my wife's family in rural Tennesee and seeing aunts and uncles living well into their 90's, I've been convinced that those folks were onto something. Here they were, eating all the wrong things: buscuits and gravy, ham, sausage, eggs and enough colesterol to clog a sewer main and yet, they were remarkably healthy. The mitigating circumstance seemed to be that they were augmenting all the bad food with tons of fresh fruit and vegetables that were homegrown and "organic." And even the bad stuff like sausage was free of the hormones, antibiotics, and other swell things we get in the hyperprocessed deli section of our local supermarket.
Of course they also led very physical lives: outdoors cutting hay and tending the flocks and gardens. Since most of us don't have the advantage of an agrarian enviornment, I guess the next best thing for urban-sprawl dwellers is to seek out the kind of food everybody ate in the old days- the homegrown stuff. And because of our eminent interest in getting healthy and staying that way into our dotage, it is gratifying to see so many organic labels appearing on the foods even in the Vons and Ralphs markets.
One thing that I have learned over time is that I tended to consume more calories than I expended in my daily activities. A cupped handful of cooked grains, a palm sized portion of protein, and two handfuls of vegetables is a sufficient meal. (and fits easily on a salad plate)
I can appreciate the comments about healthy food costing more. For this reason, I no longer shop at Whole Foods. Instead, I support my local co-operative store, where I can purchase raw milk and my grains in bulk. I also support local farmers by having my organic vegetables delivered to my door through http://farmfreshtoyou.com while growing herbs in planters on my patio.
It saddens me to hear about someone having to drive 20 miles to get produce, and how residents without cars must rely on convenience stores. My suggestion is to freeze fruits and vegetables for later consumption, and perhaps make co-operative purchases. (the folks with a car make weekly produce purchases for the entire building and get reimbursed)
My personal goal is to try and only eat foods that appear in nature. (i.e.: no processed foods)
I found that conclusion quite puzzling, because, for every other living species on the planet, there is at least one diet that does fit all in that species. Are we so special, or are we just ignorant? I believe that, over the last 10,000 years, since the advent of agriculture, one person’s food has now become another person’s poison. However, that does not negate the possibility that there is a set of foods that are healthy for all.
As a researcher, I took a different approach to finding answers, using nature, not nutritionists, as a template. Some of you may remember her - she evolved us. My 20 year study ignored the contradictory research from the nutrition industry, and instead took me into such fields as anthropology, zoology, paleopathology, primatology, zoopharmacognosy, and ethnobotany.
What I found bears little resemblance to what others offer as a healthy diet, which changes with the wind. Why, just last week, Andy Weil admitted to 40 years of wrong information, finally embracing saturated fat:
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400919/Rethinking-Saturated-Fat.html
Lo and behold, there is a diet (The Original Diet) that does fit all, proven by the largest “clinical trial” in the history of our species.
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
A research organization
It's not a personal matter as is often offered as a defence (Oh, mind your own business!) since obesity goes with diabetes, heart probs and Medicare costs. This is the nation's business and taxes to pay for these fatties med bills.
Cutting intake is the way to get rid of excess weight, no matter what you eat but how much! Or a tummy tuck.
Note the "picture" of those you admire most, knowing that appearances can be deceiving. and learn from their personal holistic practices, even those they operate by instinct, rather than by practice. Learn to translate "body language," your own and that of others. With practice, you can become fluent in "holistic," the language of better health.
http://coreessencehealth.com/
also the same name on facebook