LindaJoy Rose, Ph.D., pioneered the raw fusion cooking method and is the author of Raw Fusion: Better Living Through Living Foods. To celebrate the start of 2012, we chatted with her to discover the insights, lessons and advice she’d learned in 2011.
2011 was a year of explosive growth, awakening, accountability and appreciation for all of the blessings in my life.
While there are still far too many individuals who remain uninformed and unconcerned about these issues, more and more people are opening their eyes to the fact that what they eat or do not eat is going to have an impact on their health, longevity, attitude and appearance.
To make 2012 your best year ever, assess your life from a holistic perspective — if you are not giving attention to a certain aspect of Self, there is going to be a backlash. For example, for many years I had been into spiritual pursuits, like meditation and expanding my mind through research, but neglected the physical. You can’t find that internal balance without eventually giving equal attention to all of the aspects of Self.
Health is high-functioning and feeling a certain vibrancy and glow flowing through your body. This would also be evident to other people as you would exude this energy.
Find a way to eliminate eating processed foods and fast foods as much as possible. From the research I’ve been doing, these foods are engineered to make them irresistible and super-palatable, exciting the hotspot centers of the brain without offering anything back in the way of nutritional support. I believe that the anti-nutrients and artificial flavorings and chemicals in these meals repress a lot of our life force energy and contribute to the development of disease.
But every once in a while, nothing is going to hit the spot like a bag of Cheetos. I have them and then don’t think about them again for awhile. Indulgences are important occasionally, otherwise the subconscious mind takes over and we lose our motivation.
In 2011, I made a point of including leafy greens in almost every meal. I eat a lot of raw foods, but I also pioneered the raw fusion method, which blends raw and cooked foods in very exciting ways. When I flash-saute some veggies in coconut oil with garlic and other spices (one of my favorite combinations is organic corn, shitake mushrooms and asparagus) and serve them over a bed of greens (spinach, arugula, butter lettuce and a spring mix), it makes for quite a tantalizing variety of flavors, temperatures and textures. Lots of nutritional yeast to top it off!
I never get tired of seeing people’s reactions to how utterly delicious this lifestyle can be. Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, said “It is easier to change a person’s religion than the way they eat.” That’s quite a statement. Our eating patterns are so deeply ingrained and that’s why it’s so hard for people to change. Mainly, people fear change and feeling deprived; I love showing them that they can change and actually enjoy the food.
I have finally locked in the habit of meditating virtually every day for no less than 20 minutes — that’s a big one as I’ve studied meditation in dozens of different formats for almost 30 years and was never able to get the discipline down.
I used to define happiness with being exuberant and excited about outer circumstances, but in 2011 it really became more about being centered, at peace with myself and not at the mercy of external stuff.
