The Next Healthy Thing for Me - A Letter to My Friends & Community

Dear Fabulous Friends and Community,

I am a student again! I have enrolled in a health and nutrition class with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. The course is a year long and at the end I will be a certified health coach. I'm SO excited! Wooowhoo! Since it's a distance learning course and all the info came to me weeks ago, I've totally cheated and have read and listened to a whole bunch of the material we are to cover. It's great stuff!

As most, if not all, of you know, I have always been interested in health and nutrition. My obsession with local food, gardening, eating and all things health-related is going to develop into my next career!

I'm going to learn a lot about all the different dietary theories out there. From the Zone Diet to the Blood Type Diet to Five Element Theory (which, by the way, I'd never heard of - Shocking!). I'm also going to learn a lot about listening, the basics of food consumption, and the latest in dietary theory - As well as the business end of being a health coach.

I chose Integrative Nutrition because of their basic philosophy, which is:

There are two types of food: 
Primary Food consists of our relationships, our physical activity, our career and our spiritual practice.
Secondary Food is what we put in our mouths.

This was a revelation to me when I heard it! The world got brighter and bigger and all the stuff in my head around food and place and self-care and community started to link up like a string of old Christmas lights when you replace the right bulb! Fascinating!

There is no one-size-fits-all diet: 
What invigorates you may bore me. What I eat to feel great might make you feel lethargic. What works for your body might make me have a rash! We all are intuitive and smart enough to figure out what will bring optimal health and happiness. . . all we need is information, support and encouragement along the way.

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? 

What will I do with all this new-found learning and inspiration?

Here's my vision for this year:

• I'm going to share it with you. Here on my blog. So please check in occasionally to see what's new!
• I'm going to offer seminars to groups, starting (hopefully) with my workplace. 
• I'm going to take on clients who want to increase their health and happiness. 

Here's my vision for a few years after that:
I'm going to buy a piece of land and start a biodynamic human-scale garden/farm that will serve as the centerpiece for seminars, weekend retreats and classes about nutritionally dense food, how to grow it, how to cook it, how to enjoy eating it - and taking care of our children, grandchildren and ourselves as we age.

Sounds fun, doesn't it?!

Where will this garden/farm be? I have no idea, but I'm looking for that piece of land. Two to five acres with water rights in an area that's pretty and has a good growing season. Not sure if that's California, Idaho, Oregon or Washington - or someplace I haven't thought of yet.

I'm planning to apprentice on a biodynamic farm, either the fall of 2011 or the spring of 2012, for a year. There are a few out there that pay a small stipend, which is all I really need.

I am looking forward to the next part of my journey and sharing it with you. I cannot begin to express what you all mean to me.

For those of you who are new in my world, I have family and friends that are amazing. They've been there for me through many different phases in my life (not all good) and I love and admire every single one of them. 

Of course, I can't do this alone. I will need your help and encouragement along the way.

To start with, if you have information about, or know of, a piece of land that is for sale that I would love, or a biodynamic farm that hires help, please post a comment or email me at greenlifejunkie@gmail.com.

Here's to the future!

Love to you all,
Tamara

PS - Mr. Green is totally supportive of this new adventure. Crazy man!  :)