By Lauren Nastasi

I have come to the realization that healing has to do with many things; not just my diet. I am sure many of you already knew this, but the problem is realizing how to fix it. For me, the issue was digging down and finding what needed to be healed.

I have Crohn’s Disease and have been working toward healing it with a high raw, vegan diet consisting of green juices, green smoothies, and high quality, wholesome food. I previously composed a post about my journey on Crazy Sexy Life, but I have always felt a piece of the puzzle was missing. The problem was finding it!

What was the missing piece? Spirituality, silly! I pray, do yoga and receive acupuncture treatments, but my mind was never clear. I needed to become in touch with my spiritual side, the one hidden and trying to come out!

A few days before the new year, I had my Tarot cards read. I was in a New Age/Spiritual store and had struck up a conversation with the woman that worked there. We had talked a few times, so I felt fairly comfortable with her. When she offered me a reading, I felt I should do it. Having been raised Catholic, I was pretty relieved when I didn’t burst into flames after the reading was completed. I just hope my Naunee (grandmother) doesn’t read this! Anyway, the reading was very surprising because of how accurate the cards were. Before I left, the reader told me that I need to pay attention to signs from the universe and my angels (to be more spiritual). I thought I was already being as spiritual as I could be because I practice yoga, pray and meditate during acupuncture. What more could I do?

It took me a few weeks to really get the message. I did yoga, but I was always thinking about what I had to do next and not really staying present. During acupuncture, I would meditate for 15 minutes and snap out of it thinking the hour was almost over with 45 minutes left. During those 45 minutes, my mind would think about anything and everything except the present moment.

Then, it happened! I heard the angels loud and clear! Well, not really, but I finally got it. Something clicked! A good friend was talking about reading spiritual books, and I thought to myself, “I need to read a good self-help/spiritual book.” I went out and found a book that looked interesting, titled You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise L. Hay. I like this author, and in fact, I have her other text, Meditations to Heal Your Life. Instead of listening to my instincts, I put the book down and walked away. Not long after, I read a comment on MyCSL mentioning Hay’s book! Kicking myself for not buying it, I went out the next day and purchased it. This began my listenening to the universe.

A few days later, I picked out an “Angel Card” from Oracle Cards, and I drew the “Sensitivity” card. It stated that being sensitive is not a bad thing, and this was actually a new idea to me. I am a sensitive person and always felt it wasn’t a good trait. That same day, I was watching a show and someone mentioned crying isn’t weakness, but rather, not being able to show emotion is. Could these signs be any clearer?

I’ve since decided that I am not going to hide my feelings or feel embarrassed if something bothers me. Instead, I am going to let it out. I started journaling more, going to meditation class and becoming more in touch with my “spiritual self.” After all, look what being present and listening to my instincts has given me: more clarity than I have had in years. Now, it’s time to use it, and hopefully, it will help me on this crazy sexy healing journey!

Lauren Nastasi is a Research Assistant for Crazy Sexy Life. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and pug, Ginger. Her blog can be found at Gingeristhenewpink.blogspot.com.

Crohns disease? What’s that? I had never heard of Crohns until I was diagnosed with it 2005. An inflammatory bowel disease, Crohns can be debilitating, embarrassing, and painful all at once. It is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract. Here I was a perfectly healthy 21 year old girl, just moved in with my fiancé, my whole life ahead of me, nothing to slow me down; man was I wrong! I thought I was invincible.

I ate a healthy diet (so I thought), exercised for over an hour a day, and took great care of myself. How did I get Crohns? I asked myself this question over and over again. I worried about it day and night which didn’t help my symptoms. I was a constant worrier. I stressed out over everything! My head was always consumed with worries. What if this? What if that? What if? What if? What if? Having a disease that there is no cure for and no explanation of why people get it made me a mad woman!

I refused medication because before Crohns I wouldn’t even take Tylenol! They think I am going to take steroids? They must be crazy! My arrogant attitude caused me to be hospitalized for a week. I had to receive blood transfusions, cat scans, and I was pumped with fluids and medications. This all just added to the stress of my everyday life. I was going against everything I believed in. When I left the hospital I had a new found look on life. After all, my doctors told me I was moments away from cardiac arrest. I felt blessed just to be alive.

I followed my doctors instructions and took all the medications I was given. I felt like a pin cushion from all the needle poking and a human pharmacy from the pill popping. The side effects from all the medications made me feel crazy. It was if I was a different person. After I got over the trauma of the whole situation I decided to talk to my doctor. I asked him if there was anything I could do to get off of medication. Since my intestines were so inflamed and ulcerated it was very unlikely. So I asked him about my diet. Maybe I was eating something that caused all of this? He told me that diet has nothing to do with Crohns. I found this extremely hard to believe and decided to do my own research.

I hadn’t touched red meat or milk since I was a child, but the doctors and my family were pushing it on me since I needed protein. Grossed out by the thought of putting red meat into my body, I consumed lots of other proteins like eggs, turkey, chicken, fish, soy products, and yogurt. I still wasn’t feeling better. I noticed after I would eat these foods, I would feel sick immediately. On my wedding day, I was sick! We had to leave our honeymoon two days early due to the pain I was feeling. Hmm, maybe white meat and dairy aren’t as healthy as I thought? So right away, I took extreme measures and became a vegan.

I felt better instantly. I remained healthy without flare ups for over a year. Maybe NOW I could go off of my medication? My doctor again turned me down! It was time to explore elsewhere, so I found an Osteopath. He ran a few tests on me and told me it was fine to go off of medication. Oh glory day!!! For the next 3 months, I ate a vegan diet which consisted of mostly cooked and soy foods. I was drinking a ton of wine on the weekends, and I thought “as long as I stick to being a vegan, I won’t flare up“. Even though I changed my diet, I was still stressing over everything! I would do yoga once a week and felt extremely calm for hours after the class. Once a problem arose in my life I went right back into worry mode. Of course, I became sick again. I can NOT get away with anything. Back to the hospital, back on steroids, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory medication. It was time for a new game plan.

I read a book by Paul Nison when I was first diagnosed. He talked about raw food and how it helped him cure his Crohns disease. So as an extremist, I decided to take it on. I slowly started adding more raw foods, green juice, and smoothies into my diet. I started to feel like myself again. On Christmas Day 2008, I stopped my steroid, and antibiotics (with my gastroenterologist’s permission) and I had never felt better. I only take one medication, a shot, every other week. Now my diet is what I call high-raw vegan. I eat raw all day except for dinner which I might have some cooked food. I am in no way perfect. Once a week, I have pasta (I am Italian- tomato sauce runs through my blood), but my diet is mostly raw. I exercise, practice prayer, meditation and yoga.

I feel alive again! Will I flare again? Who knows? However, this time I know how to get myself back on track. Will I ever be able to stop my medication? I don’t know. I will not allow myself to worry about it. I take it a day at a time and I’ve learned not to worry about the little things. I feel that Crohns has put me on a path I would have never explored. The best part is that I truly enjoy this lifestyle and am confident that it is the healthiest decision I will ever make.

Lauren Nastasi is a 25 year old vegan who lives in New Jersey with her husband and pug Ginger. She has a food blog that she updates frequently: Gingeristhenewpink.blogspot.com