Ashley_G, Age 19, 7DW Level 1, Introduction- Student/Secretary

[Ashley_G]

Hi Everyone! It's such pleasure to join such kind and encouraging group to go through this cleanse with and be there for other cleansers too!

My name is Ashley, I'm from Las Vegas - born and raised here, and I am 19 years old. I am a student studying to be a registered nurse and work part-time at my father's law office. I have 3 older brother's (I'm the baby), so I'm sure you can imagine what that was like growing up! LoL- No it wasn't too bad...they are just really protective of me. My parent's are really supportive of me doing the cleanses and making the lifestyle changes, which will be so helpful! I hope they will see the great changes in my health over time and want to join me with bettering our health!

I have been on and off the Atkin's diet for about 4 years now and I have had problems with constipation, irregular bm's, and mild acne that comes and goes. From doing the Atkins diet for so long, I have become used to eating mostly protein and don't usually eat fruits and vegetables - just salads. So, changing from eating mostly protein to eating fruits and vegetables is going to be a challange, but I am looking forward to this lifestyle change!

I am pretty active and work out 4-5 days a week. I want to start out young with my health - eating right, cleasing, fasting, exercising, ect. - so that later on in my life I won't be reaping the bad consequences from the poor decisions that I have made. Life is too short to be living in poor health! I want to live life to the fullest in the the best health that I can!

Back to my eating habits...I eat a lot of chicken, cheese, protein bars, salads, eggs, some vegetables - rarely though! From all the years of consuming large amounts of animal protein, I have all this toxic waste laying around inside of me that I need to get out! :confused:

I hope to have a healthier life - physically and mentally. I am so excited to be starting this new lifestyle and cleansing journey with all of you! :D

Blessings,

Ashley

[Janaka_P]

Welcome to HPS Ashley,
Congratulations on taking such a positive step at your age - a great start to you life!
I think you will find this program much more satisfying than Atkins!
:)

[Megan_O]

Hi Ashley,

It sounds like you're doing a lot of positive things for yourself already. I wish you much success with your first cleanse. It seems you're starting your pre-cleanse very quickly. There is a huge amount of information to absorb. I hope you have most of the next 2 days free to assimilate it all! Take care and good luck.

[Virginia_M]

Ashley,

A huge welcome to you and for making the wonderful investment onto your health so early in life. I read a fasting book prior to HPS and it said you are punished by your bad habits of living, not for them but by them.

I am so happy for you to have found HPS because you will reap tremendous benefits - Living a Full Life!!!

Love and Light

[Ashley_G]

Hi Janaka P, Megan O, and Viginia M!!

Thank you for for the warm welcome! I am so glad I found this website and cleansing program at such a young age!

There is A LOT of information to grasp so I'm a going to change my pre-cleansing date to next week on May 16, 2005. That would be a better week for me to start and by then I should have most of the information I need for the pre-cleanse.

Thanks again for the warm welcomes! I look forward to following your cleanses!

Ashley

[Richard_D]

Hi Ashley,

You may have already guessed this, but you're not the first graduate of the Atkins school to find your way here--I'm not talking about myself, either, just have noticed that there are some who got themselves bundled up with far too much overcooked proteins and developed some serious elimination problems from that. You're young enough you probably could go years without having major trouble, but why wait to be kind to yourself? The best kind of medicine is the preventative sort, and the fact that you're here already demonstrates that you understand this concept very well.

I don't know the full Atkins program, but I will hand it to the Doc, he had some good points about avoiding refined grains and other starches. I have talked to a number of his converts who believed they couldn't eat fruit because it contains too much sugar, though, and that's just ridiculous. As you come to know the program here, you'll see that fruits are probably the single most nutritious food there is, if a choice has to be made.

But enough rambling. Welcome to the group, and may your every experience be enlightening and rewarding.

Rick

[Ashley_G]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the kind and encouraging welcome! Your right about about Dr. Atkins emphasizing staying away from refined sugars and grains- it was good for me to stay away from that. But that fact that I stayed away from fruits and vegetables for the same reason the people you talked to did, has caused me problems.

Since I found this program I have started to eat more fruits and vegetables and practicing the food combining. So I'm on my way to bettering my health!

Ashley

[Stephen_C]

Hi Ashley,

Welcome to the program. I'm sure you will delight in all the information and support you will receive by coming here. It's great to see someone at your age taking control of their health, rather than waiting later in life after things have gotten out of hand to do so.

Get a nice binder and print all the netwonder series you receive to save for future references, because you will be referring back to it as you progress along the cleansing path.

I look forward to joining along with you as you start your cleansing...

Stephen_C

[Martin_J]

Hi Ashley,

Welcome to the HPS cleansing journey. Glad you could join us. It is nice to hear from someone who went the high protein, low carb route and decided to get on the right track by trying the concepts as laid out here. I, too, was fresh off five years of the Atkins mentality before the numbing rude awakening of severe constipation brought me to HPS (one of those that Richard mentions). Jos-hua is very confident that the levels he has laid out will get you where you need to go. Enjoy the gift that you are about (have already begun) to give to yourself.

[Ashley_G]

Hi Stephen and Martin,

Thank you for your warm welcome! I just read though some of your posts and what an inspiration you both are! You both have overcome a lot and I look forward to learning from your experiences.

Martin, I'm so glad that someone else has gone through the same problem with constipation from atkins like I have. I was reading through your testimonial and was so happy to hear that HPS has helped you out tremendously with that problem as well as others!

Stephen, thank you for the advice for putting the netwonder series in a binder - that will be much easier than going to the computer everytime to refer back to it.

God Bless,

Ashley

[Belinda_G]

Dear Ashley,

Fantastic that you are hear - Welcome from me.

I am so excited that you have discovered this program and will discover a viewpoint different from your current. I do not know much about the Aitkins diet except what I have read here and wonder how the bounty of mother nature can be seen as so dangerous!

There is so much divinity in fruit and vegetables....

Best wishes for your journey here.
love Belinda

[Jos-hua Medicine man]

Hi and welcome Ashley,

I'm glad you are starting out now on this path and that your parents are supportive... that is most important.

I recently raised the age for whom this program is suitable for (from 19 to 21) because a few people at 19 had so many objections from their parents that it caused too much headaches for me.. but I see anyway you went ahead and ordered.... lucky you. :p

I can feel your excitment and happiness.... so please take note of my comment here... take it slow... take your time... don't push or rush....don't create anything that will make you drop it all (i.e. moving ahead too quickly)... just take it step by step and you will find tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction from taking control of your health at such an early age.

wishing you all the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Andrew_K]

Yeah Joshua's right about parents... I'm so lucky to live with an understanding mother and stepdad, who do lots of cleansing and fasting themselves. Even my incredibly supportive dad and stepmom, who give me money to help me travel to crazy places at a whim just so that I can broaden my horizons, still said this program was nutsy over the top obsessive health crap. So, I hope your parents are more on the thats-wierd-but-as-long-as-your-paying-for-it-go-nuts side.

And Atkins blows. The guy needs to emphasize *living* foods, not *protein* foods. I've never met anybody who benefited from it. Welcome to a useful health program :)

And welcome to the under-21 club :D

[Ashley_G]

Hi Jos-hua, Andrew, and Belinda!!

Thanks for the great welcome! I am very thankful that my family is being supportive with me on this to better my health! At first they were a little apprehensive about it, but now that they have read more about fasting and cleansing - there are a little more at ease about it...

I think they are so supportive of me to start this program because they have seen me struggle with constipation and so forth and see that nothing else is working!

Andrew- that is awesome that your parents give you money to travel to great places!! What a blessing it is to have supportive parents! Yes, I do agree that Atkins blows!! It has caused nothing but problems - lol. :rolleyes:
But, I am so glad that I found HPS before it gets worse! Thanks for welcoming me into the under-21 club - haha :)

Thank you Jos-hua for the wonderful advice and kind words! I will try to take it slow and take my time! :D

God bless,

Ashley

[David_T]

Hey Ashley ... welcome!

Coming in late to this message, I am going to repeat a lot of what others said ... of course if I didn't, I wouldn't have much to say :p

It is wonderful that you are doing this at a young age. This is a process and a life style. As you have said a life style change. You have been in the mind set of dieting. A diet is something you do (presumably) for a period of time and then go back to your regular life. One of the problems with diets is that you are left feeling like "when this diet is over, I can eat like I want." In other words, you aren't building and long term habits. A diet is a temporary fix, something that works on symptoms (over weight) and not the problem (poor eating habits.)

A change in life style is much different. Here you are saying that there is a way I want to be in the world -- I want to be healthy, I want to feel good and alive, I want to eat in a way that best supports myself. I WANT to eat what is good for me.

Many people are caught up in feeling like they are "entitled" to eat whatever they want; it is almost like a reward to engage in pleasing their sensory cravings. Some do it because as a child their parents controlled the food, and now that they are "grownups" they are in charge and can eat damn well whatever they want!

Most people when faced with the notion of changing their life style are shocked and ready to fight to keep their right to eat whatever, whenever they want. They don't realize that it is a child inside running the show. Their little child voice is having a tantrum.

Indeed, look at what we are addicted to -- fried foods, alcohol, candy and sweets... we fight for our right to eat these things ... don't let anyone tell us we can't. But we don't stop to think that these are habits and addictions. These tastes are acquired habits. If we were raised as canables, we would love and crave human meat!

What this means is that we can decide what we want and enjoy. And it means that our lifestyle change doesn't have to be one of doing without or fighting or using force to keep on the right path. It means we decide what we want to develop a taste for, and slowly, systematicly acquire a taste for the things we want to -- and lose interest in the things we don't want.

This discipline of choosing what you want -- and then training your body to be in align with your desires (rather than alowing your body cravings to dictate) is a very powerful process. To do it with your food -- to go against what most of society says and to listen to your inner voice (your higher self) and parent your body ( your ego or lower self) is a discipline that will allow you to manafest anything you want in your life.

Welcome to the path.

Love and light,

David

[Ashley_G]

Hi David!

Thank you for the wonderful welcome!

Everything you mentioned is SO true and well-put!! It's great to get insight from people who have been through this, and can help and encourage us along the way!

I do want to eat what is right for me and get out of the mind-set of dieting and continue with practicing the new habits and lifestyle changes...so much to look forward to! :D

Thanks again,

Ashley

[Anna_P]

Hi Ashley,

Welcome to HPS! I'm just getting caught up on your story, since you so kindly posted on my thread. I chuckled when I saw you were a secretary (legal because of your dad?) studying to be a nurse. I went to college majoring in nursing (Univeristy of Vermont) and ended up, half way through my junior year!, getting out of nursing and into speech therapy and audiology. But then I ended up being a legal secretary for 25 years! (All this was 35 years ago!)

Now I'm doing what I really love - teaching piano and voice.

Welcome to the group - as everyone has said - congrats to you for starting so young. Your life will be enriched because of it.

Cheers!
Anna P

[Ashley_G]

Hi Anna!

Wow, that's so funny how you were majoring to be a nurse and ended up being a legal secretary for 25 years! What changed your mind about nursing?
I like being a legal secretary, but I really want to help take care of people and I have wanted to be a nurse for such a long time...2 of my aunts are nurses and they inspired me to become one also.

That's great that you are doing what you really love!

Thanks for the warm welcome and congrats! I hope you are doing well on your cleanse.

Ashley