Crunchy Granola.

While talking to a newish client, one that I had only seen once before, we realized we had a lot in common and were making each other laugh at the thought of how we once lived. We were both so health conscious with our diets that we refer to those days as “crunchy granola.”  She is not yet 40 so a good 5+ years younger than me. When I was in my 20’s I was hell bent on having a totally healthy diet and living forever. That meant giving up meat and all animal proteins altogether. A vegan. It lasted about 6 months and I looked like I resided in a concentration camp. Bones sticking out everywhere and my already pale complexion was almost transparent with a slight greenish- orange hue from all the vegetables I was ingesting. I was also taking buckets of vitamins and even swallowing algae in pill form from a lake in upstate NY. Klammoth lake if I remember correctly, and let’s not forget the shark cartilage pills to fight off the cancer I didn’t have. I believed, and to some extent still believe, that these things do have their benefits but I tend to go full steam ahead when I decide to try a new diet, workout, etc. When juicing became the thing to do I bought a $300 juicer after seeing “the juice man” have a seminar at a local hotel conference center. I thought, THANK GOD I’m getting this machine! I need it immediately!! It took 6-8 weeks for delivery once it was ordered. I thought I’d die waiting for it to finally come. I then bought bags of apples, oranges, pears, carrots, spinach, kale, cabbage, garlic, ginger, etc. I juiced every morning and felt good but probably would have noticed better results if I wasn’t only in my 20’s and only eating healthy crap all day! Rabbits had worse diets than I did in those days.  After those 6 months of barely eating and not really being able to be social with friends because it was almost impossible to eat out in restaurants back in the 80’s while avoiding all animal proteins, I was beginning to be fed up with being so “healthy.”  Today it’s more attainable with healthier eating menu’s and stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Food’s and the like. My client however had a similar, but slightly different version of crunchy granola. She did a lot of the same as I did, and took similar supplements, but she took it even a step further. She would buy only fresh unpasteurized milk, which if you’ve tried to buy it anywhere, it isn’t easy. She told me she’d have to go to an abandoned parking lot and wait for an amish man to show up and sell his products. I believe it was an illegal transaction because non pasteurization and licensing laws. She also bought chicken stock that was in a gelatin-like state until it was heated. Once when she was unable to get to the “drop off point” she had her now husband go pick it up for her. He called her saying he thought it was crazy and thought he was going to get arrested and she screamed into the phone, “DON’T LEAVE UNTIL YOU GET IT!!!”  Needless to say we were laughing at the intensity of how much we were into this way of life that it didn’t matter how far we took it. One of the signs I took as enough is enough was when a coworker in a salon I was working in asked me if I was out back grazing when she couldn’t find me. I found that as much as I like to be healthy and eat organically and do right by nature and our fellow creatures that we share this earth with, I have to be realistic. I even went as far as eating macrobiotics for a while that was torture for me. That diet was highly restrictive of any sugar and had certain “regulations” regarding what fruits and vegetables were allowed to be eaten. What was grown during the day as opposed to at night. What was indigenous to out climate and not a tropical one, etc. Now moderation is key. Healthy and organic mixed with the foods I grew up with and are in my every day life. Do you want to tell my 76 year old italian mother that her meatballs are poison and you refuse to eat them? I dare you! With age comes wisdom. The things that were so important to me, as well as my client, aren’t so much anymore. Now I place more value in quality of life as opposed to quantity. Indulging in things not so healthy but then getting back to a program that gets me back on a healthy track. That’s what works for me, and my client agrees. I gave her a fabulous new hair color just today, and she’s 8 months pregnant. Of course we used a pregnancy friendly technique…