We’re trying more and more to share the experiences and stories of other divas around the world because we feel the best way to learn is by sharing with and inspiring one another. Here’s a letter I received this week by Carina after she completed our Green Smoothie Detox. Carina sent me a few of her pictures for this article and I’ll include a few of them below. She’s a knitter and makes gorgeous designs. You can learn more about her knitted works of wonder here.
Hi Tera,
I am finally getting around to writing you back. Wow, life has been intense lately!! The past month was a lot more than I expected, but things seem to be settling in around here and there are some things I really want to say about the detox. I’m going to try to be brief for both our sakes, and because my family is waiting for me. First just a little about my personal history.
I consider myself a recovering perfectionist in the sense that addicts consider themselves “recovering” for life. For many reasons my perfectionism manifested in food issues an obsession from the time I was a child. I have never had an eating disorder as most people know them, under or over eating, but I did have food obsession/perfectionism issues for most of my life. When I started really facing my obsession/perfectionism (which, as you can well imagine was not limited to food) I had to drop any ideas about what I thought nutrition was. I had to STOP thinking about food… what was “good” what was “bad” what I “should” or “should not” be eating/doing/thinking. It was the only way for me to get to the root of the fears I had. I ate what everyone else ate when they were eating. It was scary. And then it was liberating. And then it was funny. And then I was FREE!! For about 5 years I did this. I never even came close the Standard American Diet, but I dropped all the judgment and dogma around what I put in my mouth and why. I did this with a lot of help and support and my life is very different now.
In January of ’09 my mom started having some health problems. She went on a raw diet to help herself heal and loved the results. She asked me to accompany her on a trip to the Living Light institute in California. I have to tell you, I was genuinely afraid to go. common in people who follow rigid diet structures and I didn’t know how that was going to feel for me. I went to support my mom. I am a trained personal chef and was familiar with raw foods so I didn’t learn much, but I did get in the habit of having green smoothies every day and I liked the way I felt. I also realized I really was healthy regarding the 
obsession. I was far enough past all of it that I felt fine… totally secure.
Last fall I started getting help for my chronic migraines. Long story short, I discovered I am gluten intolerant and was in at least the second stage of adrenal fatigue. I got off gluten, down to 1/2 cup of coffee a day, and started taking supplements for adrenal support. I have only had TWO migraines since last November and I was losing 6-8 days a month to them prior to that. This was all very encouraging and led to more changes… less dairy, more greens, more smoothies. It was a natural progression and I was following my intuition. That’s about the time your detox plan came along. I decided to do the detox to face my inherent belief that I am frail and weak. I wanted to see what would happen and I wanted to feel stronger.
I didn’t follow the plan to the letter, but the changes I saw were incredible. After the prep week and the first week of the detox ALL of the lines in my face disappeared and my lips plumped up. These were not at all the effects I was going for or even expected, but I was SO impressed. My digestion improved, my energy improved and my anxiety levels decreased. the circles under my eyes lightened.
The last two weeks my girls and I went to stay with my in-laws while my husband was out of town and our bathroom was being remodeled. It was a lot harder to stick with it when I wasn’t in my own home. It was interesting to see the positive effects I saw gradually fade with the changes in my diet. Even still I don’t feel even a hint of obsessive tendencies. I’m super excited about what I’ve learned on this detox.
I love the way you ran it. I think so many people need help seeing the world/themselves/their food in a spectrum of color instead of black and white. They need help knowing they are NOT what they eat, but so much more than that, and that the way they think and their internal language is so much more important that the food they are eating. You really support these ideas. I know it must be difficult to be in your shoes with the perspective you have, but I really heard you trying to gently and lovingly introduce people to these concepts. Beautiful! You talk like I feel and how I think, and it’s refreshing. You all are revolutionaries in “diet” world. I hope you stick with it because this is exactly the perspective people need to be introduced to to heal and get where they want to be.
Thanks so much. It was a great experience.