Cedric Tippenhauer Hippocrates Online Program

It was my 44th birthday. I was at home celebrating the occasion with friends and family, feeling grateful to be surrounded by loved ones but yet, I also felt occupied, maybe even consumed by this one topic that had been on my mind for months now. My Health. I grew up on a diet that mainly consisted of meat, bread, butter and almost no vegetables. Though I physically, and mentally felt ok, this voice had been showing up in my mind letting me know that it was very unlikely that the way I had been eating my entire life was going to take me far. Maybe I had been lucky for 44 years, but that same voice was also telling me not to continue to test my luck. I chose to listen to that voice, and this journey I had never anticipated began.   

Before discovering the Hippocrates Wellness, and signing up for the online program I had somehow mysteriously came across the Forks Over Knife film that traces the storyline of Dr. T. Collin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at Cleveland Clinic who on separate paths came to the same discoveries and conclusion that chronic diseases could almost always be prevented, and in some cases reversed by adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet.

The film was a big turning point in my life because the very next day after watching it, I had given up animal products and adopted a vegan diet.

At first, I must admit that I was super concerned about what I was going to be eating from that day on. I knew that I was not going to go back to eating meat, but I was also very aware that I knew very little about what being vegan was all about, and also knew that I had spent my entire life not eating much vegetables.  To make a long story short, I was pleasantly surprised as I started to discover the most amazing vegan dishes. I was having such a good time eating a vegan diet that I never really missed eating any meat. That was a big moment for me as I felt that I was on my way to become healthier. Though I was happy to have given up the animal products, I still felt that something was  missing. I was exercising regularly, followed a vegan diet, but that wasn’t it. It’s not until four years later when my girlfriend at the time signed up for the Hippocrates online program that everything clicked. I was sitting next to her one day as she was listening to a video from the course and everything I was hearing resonated with me. I not only watched the entire video with her, but I ended up asking her if I could go back to the start of the lessons and listen to them. Two weeks later, I was on the phone with Tony Vernon from Hippocrates signing up for the program. If I were to answer the question as to why I took the online program, I would say that my path led to it. In the last year, I have so much enjoyed the material from the course with lessons that I have gone over two, or three times as I found them to be fascinating. I had found the source of information I didn't even know I was looking for as my entire life took the turn I had been seeking for the last five years.

I was now in route for a life changing experience as I was learning, and discovering so much information from the Hippocrates program. Every aspect of my life, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual, had been touched by the program. 

Mentally, I started healing. The course pushed me to learn more about myself and brought to the surface personal things which I had not realized how they were impacting my everyday life. Learning deeply about psychotherapy, and booking a live session with Anthony Chatham was not only helpful, but also an eye opening experience for me. I had now acquired the right tools to get myself to a healthy place mentally. I now keep myself busy and entertained learning new things in order to keep my mind sharp. I follow the Hippocrates diet with nutrient dense foods to feed the brain, and I pay more attention to my gut health than I ever did before after having learned the direct connection between our gut and our brain. 

Our mental health wasn’t the only thing I learned about. 

The lessons on our physical self were mind blowing. I always knew that exercising was important but with everything I learned I realized that I basically knew close to nothing about our human body. Learning about the different types of exercises was important to me. Prior to the course, if I was running I felt like I was doing great. At times, I would get into weight lifting for a bit, but never consistently. I never thought of including aerobic and anaerobic exercises, with the weight lifting, and some stretching exercises for flexibility. Now that I understand the role, and importance of each of these types of exercises, it is hard for me to continue with my old routine. Now as I better understand the impact that exercising has on our brain, our mood, or preserving our bone density as we age, I find myself exercising with a much bigger purpose. I pay close attention to my sleep so that I can recover properly and feel rested in the morning. The Hippocrates diet full of nutrient dense foods helps me power through it.  

Where I really had everything to learn was when we started covering our emotional well being. My views and understanding on this topic was very limited before the program. I knew nothing about mind, body medicine, or the impact that the way we feel emotionally has on our well being, or our ability to heal. I used to hold everything inside of me and never express how I felt and of course not realizing the impact it had on my life.      

Today, I barely recognize myself, the person that I am becoming and it’s an amazing experience. The simple fact that I am now more knowledgeable about the food choices that I make has had a big impact on my life. Before the program I had limited beliefs about what I should be eating in order to be healthy. I absolutely had never heard of spirulina, a fresh water algae with the highest source of protein, or sunflower sprouts being the most nutritious plant on land, nor dulce, an algae from our oceans offering so many minerals to our body. Before the program I did not know that you could not only live a healthy lifestyle on a vegan whole food, plant based diet, but that you could actually thrive on such a diet sourced from our land, our fresh waters, and oceans.    

It’s now very hard for me to ignore everything that I have learned. I may be tempted to eat a piece of cake, full of sugar at a birthday gathering, but I don’t do it without knowing that I am shorting myself. I don’t do it knowing that something I ate wasn’t my best choice. I am also now able to have an honest look at how eating the way I did before impacted my life. Because I wasn’t making the healthiest choices, I wasn’t the healthiest person which means I found myself to be sick very often. The common cold was a regular thing, doctors visits came often and of course without any real results because I never made the necessary changes to my lifestyle. It is even harder for me to think about the money that I have spent being sick all the time, purchasing over the counter medicine, and always having to go and see a doctor. I”m sure that it cost my insurance company as well, and I can’t help but to wonder if that may have also contributed to the continuous increase in my premiums year after year. I can only imagine what is happening on a bigger scale in our healthcare system.    

Being more knowledgeable has helped me make better health decisions, not just for myself, but for my family as well. Since taking the Hippocrates online program just about every aspect of my life has been impacted in a positive way. Incorporating the HW lifestyle into my everyday life has been my biggest accomplishment thus far. I say this because everything about my life has changed from the moment I wake up, until the moment I go to bed. My activities have changed. I now grow a lot of the food that I eat.  My routines have changed. I no longer eat breakfast. I now have a glass of lemon water every morning, followed by a shot of wheatgrass which I also grow myself. I have incorporated meditation as a daily practice which has helped me calm my mind. My grocery list I still don’t recognize because instead of potato chips, and soda, it now has items such as cucumber and celery which I use in a green juice that I make just about every day at ten in the morning.

It has been very helpful for me to block time in my calendar in order to make sure that I’m dedicating time to all the important areas of my life. With the information from the course I now try my best to make sure that I take care of my physical, mental, spiritual, social, and emotional self. I even now go to the extent of adding each of these categories into my weekly calendar in order to give myself the best chance at living a holistic lifestyle. 

Learning to plan ahead has helped me tremendously. Without proper planning it was hard for me to grow enough sprouts so that I would not run out of them. Planning ahead was crucial because every time I would not be prepared, I would revert back to my old ways which included some unhealthy choices. 

All of these changes and improvements to my lifestyle have impacted a lot more than just myself. I find it actually very hard not to share everything that I have learned from the HW program with others. As I am sharing this information, and way of life with others a lot more than our health is being impacted by our decisions. The health of the planet as well is impacted by our decisions. To stop eating meat alone is enough to make a big difference in our environment, and every single one of us counts, and matters. Of course our food source plays a big role in the health of our planet but the idea overall is to learn to live in a sustainable way as a species. I have learned to use less plastic throughout the course and I know that I make a difference every time I make the choice not to use plastic. My friends and family are around me every day, so I know that they are watching, observing, getting curious, and without a doubt they are getting motivated to live healthier lives, and taking a bigger part in making choices to heal themselves, and in the process help our planet heal as well. 

So far the steps that I have taken to improve the health of the planet have been to do my best at leading by example. Being authentic, honest, and imperfect. Being transparent about the fact that I am learning myself, and trying my best every day and accepting my failures, and successes but most importantly learning from those lessons in order to continue to live a better life on a healthier planet which we all get to call home.

The biggest impact for me has been the practice of exercising. The section in the program on Exercise Immunology had a big impact in my life. I now have a deeper understanding of the importance of exercising. I find it to have a direct impact on the way that I feel physically, and mentally. I genuinely feel better. Since the program I committed myself to walking 4 miles, 6 days a week. Most of the time, I do it speed walking. I’m out there early in the morning, 6:00 am when nature seems to also be waking up. It takes me an hour to complete the 4 mile distance and the feeling of accomplishment at the end, the feeling of having done it is indescribable. It sets the tone for the day and puts me in the right mood as I tackle the rest of my activities. I also made a commitment to go cycling once a week so every weekend (weather permitted), a friend and I get together and go on a long bicycle ride. There are times we cover a distance of over 20 miles in a couple of hours. It’s a fun time. We get to exercise while sometimes discovering areas which we did not know about in our neighborhood. My next goal is to incorporate weight lifting into my schedule. It is not a form of exercise that I have generally enjoyed, but now that I have a better understanding of the important role our muscles play in our health, especially as we get older, it is hard for me to ignore the facts and not include weight lifting into my exercise routines.   

Having completed the Hippocrates online program has put me in a position where I can now help others improve their lifestyle and help transition into the Hippocrates lifestyle. The wealth of information which I have received throughout the program has made it impossible for me not to share the knowledge with others all around me. My goal is to start with myself. I must be confident in what I am doing before I can realistically help someone-else, and that’s exactly what the program has done for me. With practice I have learned so much about myself that I did not know before incorporating a raw, living food plant-based diet into my lifestyle. I can now share my experiences with others as they are learning and incorporating these changes in their lives. I have found it to be much easier for me to be an influence on others when my focus is on being my best. I believe that the pure fact of being transparent, honest and authentic makes it a little easier for others to relate to me and therefore to the message that I am trying to convey, the Hippocrates lifestyle. The results that I have been experiencing while still learning to live a healthier lifestyle has drawn more curiosity from friends and family all around me resulting in some of them learning and now applying some of these lifestyle changes into their lives, and their surroundings. One soul at a time is how I am planning to work, and help anyone who is curious enough to dare to feel better in their everyday life. So far I have had the opportunity to have the most amazing conversations with well over 30 friends and family members who have all taken a little piece of the Hippocrates lifestyle with them. Some have incorporated lemon water in the morning, which I think is fabulous because I know that it is hydrating them, and helping their bodies become a little more alkaline. Others have stopped eating animal products which is a big win for their health, and the health of the planet. Of course I wish everyone I met was jumping into the program full force the way I did, but I do understand the importance of working at everyone’s pace. I am myself working at my own pace and it seems to be working. Positively impacting 1000 people with the lifestyle I believe to be very possible and I  look at it as a responsibility of mine now. I was fortunate to have met someone who introduced me to the program. I will forever be grateful toward them as I get to heal, and become a healthier person. It is now a mission of mine to return the favor tenfold.

It is now hard for me to look back and envision my life without the Hippocrates lifestyle. My knowledge and understanding about life, and living a sustainable lifestyle as a human being has allowed me to live with a level of health which was foreign to me not that long ago. The program has taught me to be a better human being, a healthier human being. Mentally, spiritually, emotionally I am at a much better place, and sharing this knowledge, helping others, I believe is the right thing to do. Having shifted some of my limited beliefs about what we should eat, the power of our thoughts, and the importance of exercising are just a few of the areas where I have benefited the most, and now find myself in a position where I can help others. Raising our energy levels, understanding that we are energetic beings, and that we can take charge of our lives and of our health is the message that I am committed to communicate all around me. I give thanks everyday to be in a position to be able to offer the world a better version of myself, and to everyone that has contributed to the birth, and expansion of  Hippocrates Wellness, I say thank you.