I was always really active in my life, both professionally and personally. In my profession, I was a chef on private yachts and then on research vessels. My job has always been very physically demanding, but I was strong. I could do it.
About eight years ago, in 2000, things got really bad. I would come home from a trip and not be able to move! I would get shooting and burning pains in the trigger points up and down my back, horrible pains up under my shoulder blades and various other places in my back and strange ones in my upper arms. It was like someone was sticking a hot probe in me and twisting it.
My aches and pains became a constant companion. I would try to go sailing on a Saturday, no big deal. But the day after, I felt as though I had been beaten and battered. This started happening with everything. Walking bothered me. Sitting bothered me.
I stopped doing everything; no more sailing on the weekend. I finally donated my boat to a club. Now, instead of sailing, I would get off work on a Friday and I would spend the entire weekend on my couch, isolated and scared. I was completely incapable of making a decision about anything. Sleep was also becoming less and less. I was terrified.
My father had Fibromyalgia and it was bad for him. He believed in traditional methods of treating disease, but I did not. So, once my doctor diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia, I consulted alternative practitioners. I would manage to go to the chiropractor, massage therapist, and acupuncturist � and so would my hard earned money from my job at sea. In 2003, I started doing an aggressive technique called body rolling, which is like a self-massage.
I was spending a lot of time managing my symptoms, but I was off my couch and actually able to socialize more. I would go through so many peaks and valleys � still feeling like I was just managing it � but hanging on by a thread. I was mad at God. I am a bit ashamed to say that, but it's true.
Then, in January 2008, a sister in Christ named Marty called me. She asked me to come over right away because she had a tape she wanted me to listen to. She was adamant: I needed to hear this! On that tape was John, a Health Minister on our local Christian radio station, talking about Hallelujah Acres, George Malkmus and, of course, BarleyMax. It changed my life.
I met with John two days later and started on BarleyMax three times a day. In three weeks I was feeling good & wow! I was actually feeling good even when I first woke up and when I was sleeping. I knew I was going to North Carolina to learn as much as I could and completely change my diet and lifestyle.
My schedule permitted me to go in July, so I went to the Hallelujah Acres Diet & Lifestyle 2-Day Workshop, and then Health Minister training. This was the major change, the miracle, the true gift. I am on the diet completely 100% and I am a new person. It happened so fast. I started on July 14th and, on the eighth day, a knot on my right wrist from arthritis disappeared. I have the same one on the left side; it's still there, but without pain.
I have really no symptoms of fibromyalgia at all at the moment, not even the shooting pains that used to come and go just to let you know it was still there.
What a world of difference for me! All I can say is that every day is better and better and that this is where I should have been all along. The answers and cure were right there in front of me (or inside of me, really). God has been so good to me all along. If He weren't, I would have been out of my mind. As I write this, I have just completed three weeks on the diet and I am feeling so blessed; it's a whole new start for me. This body belongs to the Holy Spirit, of course. He gave us everything we need to maintain it. Thank you, Hallelujah Acres!
If anyone is ever thinking of being immersed to learn and to be with like minded people, Shelby NC is the place to be! You can't help but want what they have: truly vibrant health and spirit. Have a blessed day. I am off to the Arctic Circle with my regenerating body!
