Remember when you were little and your parents would harp on you to “Eat your vegetables!”?

It started for me as far back as I can remember when I was kindly commanded to remain at the dinner table until every pea on my plate was gone. Lucky for me, Scooter, our little beagle, was a pea fan and a co-conspirator, quietly cleaning up the ones that – oops – dropped from my plate!

Since that time I’ve become pretty good at ‘eating healthy’ and finishing my peas. After all, I’m a health coach. I should know a little about that.

 

An ugly “untreatable” condition

 

It wasn’t until my legs went south with an “untreatable condition” diagnosed as “Pigmented Purpuric Dermatoses”, that I learned the value of that incessant parental advice.

 

Pigmented Purpuric what?

 

Described in medical journals as a “chronic disease of mostly unknown etiology that has a very distinctive clinical appearance.” Distinctive – hell – it was ugly! I looked like I had been in a train wreck from the knees down. The front of my legs were covered with red blotches that resembled large bruises.

The most disturbing aspect was the “unknown” part. Translation – untreatable. No one knew exactly what caused it or how to make it go away!

I saw vascular specialists, medical and holistic practitioners, energy healers – you name them, I saw them. No one knew. I used exotic creams and poultices. I even put my yoga moves to the test with legs up the wall, hoping gravity would do the trick!

The spots got larger and darker.

 

An unexpected cure

 

It wasn’t until my friend, Chrystal, called me with a last-minute invite to hear Dr. Terry Wahls,  that things started to change.

Wahls, a physician and professor of medicine, was in town to present to our medical community her healing journey with Multiple Sclerosis. She had literally done the impossible, reversing her own severe case of MS, moving from wheel chair and physically crippled, back onto her feet and biking several miles daily.

As she went over the protocol that had led to her cure, one part stopped me in my tracks: 9 cups of vegetables a day! Three cruciferous. Three greens. Three highly colored vegetables.

 

What if?

 

Her protocol kept repeating in my mind. What if the veins in my legs that were going haywire, breaking, and causing the red patches, just needed a huge dose of nutrients. ‘Phytonutrients’. The chemicals of plants.

At this point, I was desperate to try anything. What if this could help?

I assessed my current intake of veggies. Abysmal even for a health coach. I was lucky if I was getting 3 cups a day. So I started to pick it up, making sure that each day I included one – rather huge – salad with as many different colors as possible.

Within a few months (I had had this condition for several years now) I noticed a slight change – or was I imagining it? The spots seemed to be lightening.

I continued to add vegetables, often adding new ones and sometimes juicing to increase nutrients.

 

Greens, slaws, and more greens!

 

I created slaws, with a mix of crunchy vegetables that wouldn’t wilt with a hint of dressing. Adding a little bacon to the mix turned my husband into a man-fan – a major feat as most guys I know are not the veggie type.

Today, several months later, my legs have almost cleared. Not perfect, but they’re improving.  I’ve implemented a few other changes… more sleep, less sitting, a vascular supplement, and some morning sun to try and lock in the healing.

 

Carotenoids, resveratrol, flavonoids, and aging

 

Most of you don’t have this condition. However, 6 out of every 10 people in this country have some chronic illness. Something going wrong: discomfort, undiagnosed conditions, skin rashes, joint pain, fibromyalgia, diabetes, gut dysfunction, broken thyroid, etc.

And when we’re broken and sick, our aging clocks whirl in fast forward. The body, lacking the nutrients it needs to keep us well, breaks down and gets old before its time.

Carotenoids, resveratrol, flavonoids, glucosinolates… all of these exotic sounding phytonutrients are just veggies – and your body’s building blocks.

 

Adding in…

 

‘Adding in’ is a simple process I use to add nutrients into my diet – the fuel the body needs to stay vital and strong: A few more vegetables, one big salad, some greens or avocado with morning eggs, roasted chilled asparagus with a little drizzle of lemon and olive oil for an afternoon snack. The Standard American Diet falls short in this category with about 60% of its calories derived from highly-processed foods .

 

Your self-healing body

 

Your body is a miraculous, regenerative, and forgiving creation that, when given what it needs, can rebuild and heal all by itself. It can even grow younger – biologically speaking. It just needs you to cooperate and feed it well!

Do that and it will take care of you, keep all your systems running smoothly, and help you live long and strong!

 

And, as always, if you need help assessing your diet, figuring out what’s missing, or what needs to be added in, shoot me an email and I’ll take a look and give you some guidelines.

 

email me @ elaine@elainepauly.com

 

Join me on the journey to live long & strong & young!   ♥