I started my raw food journey as a lone wolf. I just came out of an 18-day water fast and cooking food did not make sense to me anymore. My water fast was one of the most transformative spiritual experiences I have ever gone through. During my fast, I went through emotional battles each evening, and it started to get very intense around day 10. Slowly, my perception and relationship with food changed. When I decided to break my fast, everything changed. I saw raw food for what it was and dove deep into the esoteric information found inside this lifestyle. I read Arnold Ehret’s series of books on the mucusless diet, and Dr. Shelton’s book The Art and Science of Fasting. I discovered this was a path to heal the deep toxicity issues that had been weighing me down for many years. I remember looking at a carrot and saying to myself, “Why do we cook you?” I saw the carrot for what it was and what it had to offer. Since I had been drinking only water for 18 days, I was in a different plane of consciousness, and this is where I needed to go to separate from and break the old patterns within me.    I was raw for about one year before finding Hippocrates, and the Hippocrates Online Program shined like a beacon of light showing me this is what I needed to be successful in this lifestyle. This program supplied me with the education and resources to live this path. My spiritual, mental, and physical transformation all have common ground with what I put in my body. Taking care of the body supports the mind to allow the consciousness to go through periods of evolution. In the midst of going through these changes, I would often sift through what I thought I knew to question what I believed. The program gave me information, testimonials, and years’ worth of clinical data in order for me to build a solid foundation.   A great gift that entered my life recently is that my parents have changed their lifestyle habits. Not only with food but many aspects of their life. When your family starts to change as well, that’s when you know you have personally changed. For most people, our family is the closest network of people we are around, and our families are often the ones to create the most resistance to our path of change. We often love our family so much that we find ourselves pushing our lifestyle onto them because we want them to change for the better. I learned this lesson at the beginning of my raw food journey, and the best decision I made was to let go. Slowly, I started focusing on myself, and one day, my family just changed and started seeking health! My family juices every day, drinks distilled water, and is letting go of outdated nutritional beliefs. My family’s transformation is a gift that keeps on giving.    This Program did not really change my beliefs about food since I was already raw, juicing, fasting, and applying supplementation. However, this program refined what I knew and gave me a clear concise path to follow. I did not feel like a lone wolf anymore, and I knew I wasn’t going to have to continue fighting the uphill battle to find reliable information. The program showed me holes in my diet and cleaned up my lifestyle. Once I fine-tuned everything, I could then really dial in my life and allow my body to heal.    I have taken life-changing steps to make this lifestyle fully mine, and I have been blessed with a partner who has been with me every single step of the way. When I decided to go raw, I redesigned my entire kitchen to make my life flow the way I wanted it. I immediately invested in the tools I needed such as a Vitamix, dehydrator, juicer, and I started a sprout operation. I went a year and a half one hundred percent raw. I incorporated daily and intermittent fasting. I did a 76-day juice fast, and my partner did 112 days and she was able to heal some digestive issues that the medical system could not figure out. We definitely had the internal/emotional ups and downs that arise when you start to break old patterns, but these were some of the greatest lessons we have learned. One of the most profound changes we made to our life, and this is something in which I mentor many of my clients, is we made our own transformation the number one priority in our life. This means if someone or something wasn’t good for us, we phased it out of our life without feelings of guilt or shame.   If I do not look after my health, I will not find the greatest potential within me. Period. In essence, maintaining health has consequences that last much longer than the blink-of-an-eye of time I have in this human experience. This life is a chance for me to evolve, grow, and become who I truly am—and in becoming my truth, I have the ability to embody light for others. It is a great responsibility to become aware of your deeper truths because turning away is no longer an option. Awareness is truly the greatest responsibility.   The western medical system falls vastly short when it comes to overall health and wellness and keeping people healthy. I do not completely discredit western medicine because our emergency medical system with all its incredible technology that saves thousands of lives, is truly amazing.  However, the western model keeps you in the system if you do not understand how it works, and it will make you dependent on forces outside of yourself. This is the most dangerous part of it. The truth and power that lies within every single human being is so infinite and vast our finite minds cannot comprehend, so therefore taking care of the physical vessel allows us to keep the channels open to a consciousness that is able to transform. The medical system clamps and shuts down these channels which, in return, damages the human being on many levels.   One step my partner and I have taken to contribute to the health of the planet besides the way we eat and live, is we have dedicated both our lives to helping humanity. I started a career in coaching and mentoring, providing space for people to go through their evolution to higher consciousness. In the states of higher consciousness, a person naturally and organically starts to feel the call of becoming one with the planet, animals, and every single human being. I have allowed myself to become transparent and vulnerable which has brought me humbly close to feeling the sensitivity of every living thing on this planet. We no longer kill flies; we catch them in a net and free them outside. I do not trim plants that do not need to be trimmed. I lost the desire to pick flowers to allow their beauty to continue serving life. I now enjoy the observation of being alive and one with life, instead of feeling separate.   Communication is one of the most profound ways to move energy in the body, and life taught me this lesson in great detail. Before I went through my transformation, I lived a life filled with lies and deceit. The lies and deceit were a way for my deep-seated pain to be hidden, and I continued to self-destruct and lose the closest people in my life. I lost communication with my Spirit, myself, and mother earth. I went through a period of almost two years where I came clean and told the truth to everyone I was lying to. So much sickness left my body. There was even a time where for two days I felt like I was dying because the lies that were leaving my body were so deep, and the confessions were to the closest person in my life: my partner. Things we hold inside create dis-ease to the mind, body, and Spirit. The lessons I have learned showed me to live as if my life was displayed on a billboard for the world to see. I have nothing to hide, my dirty laundry has been cleaned and folded, and I am an open book.   I make it a daily practice to look at and dissect my daily life. My yoga practice has been part of the foundation of discovering who I am. I usually exercise 6 days per week. I know how important exercise is but I am not going to lie, sometimes I have to really push myself into movement. My exercise routine consists of a very strict, physical Ashtanga yoga practice. It takes 1.5 hours to complete my full routine, and I do my full routine 4 to 5 times per week. The other days I focus on getting in at least a half hour. Yoga has been one of the best teachers and the relationship I have with it is sincere and growing. Yoga will be a lifelong guide that I will nurture and be thankful for because it continues to open me up to new things.    I have been healing myself from some very deep injuries that occurred in my body from the chaos I put it through during my time in the military and the years I spent in combat sports. There was a time I thought I would be walking with a cane for the rest of my life, and picking up a glass of water off the floor was something I dreaded. When I exercise, it is to bring wellness to my body. I do what my body wants and what feels good. Falling back on my yoga always seems to allow my body to get the strength, endurance, and openness that is needed to allow healing to occur.    Above all else, the practice of slowing down and syncing with Spirit has become a huge point of awareness in my life. When we slow down and allow life to show us what wants to happen, and how it will happen, so much energy can be saved. In this space, I become efficient and the decisions I make are in alignment, and I therefore operate in a much clearer way of being.   As a mentor, I must live authentically what I am offering. I am careful where I put my time and energy because I want to be a part of something authentic. If health does not become a focus for most people, they have the potential to live a life filled with pain and suffering. I will continue to be a part of organizations that align with my values to maximize my efforts as a mentor. In the meantime, I will grow my own practice and continue to visualize myself in front of millions of people extending help any way I can.   One of the best things I can say about being a mentor and coach is that it keeps me always striving to see myself. I know that a candle’s light can only shine as the size of its flame. I know that I can only share my experience and wisdom. I have always sought out the best, real, and genuine experts in all that I have been seeking. I want the real deal in all that I do, and not regurgitated information. I do not want to mentor and coach a person from a false persona. I want to offer my life as proof—that transformation is possible even when it seems impossible.    A simple practice I have found to help me in my pursuit of better health, lifestyle, and choices is to always do the best I can in the circumstance I am in. The Hippocrates lifestyle is no doubt the tip of the spear when it comes to how to live well, but why not go for it with everything we have in us?!