My friend Sparks asked to write you a letter about healthy eating habits for Pehi, a movement towards bettering ourselves and others through happiness *PehiMVMNT*. In this letter, I will let you in on my daily habits and how they have formed over decades. Did I tell you that I kinda geek out on nutritional knowledge? Well I gained it over the passed 20 year being a vegetarian. Yeah... I'm 30 now April 2018, so how did a 10 year old decide to go vegetarian around a family of meat eaters? Well, growing up in Boulder, Colorado is the answer, all my friends and their mom's were doing it, literally! 10 year old Gracie thought, "I don't want to kill aminals to eat them!" I also agreed that testing on them wasn't nice either. So there you have it! My activism days start in fifth grade, primary target: cruelty towards animals, then later people and the planet.

It did take me a while to figure out how to eat right though. I usually ate the same thing, just, "without the meat please." One time my dad made fun of me, "you sure you don't want to leave off the salad too?" Well that's just it? What do I eat now and how DO I stay healthy? This brings us to the rainbow, don't ya know?!

To begin, follow the Ayurvedic Diet, which I learned from my yoga teacher trainings of 2014 at Konalani and Shononi Ashrams. First start with the sweetness of fruit red delicious, oranges, bananas. The fruit will inspire the digestive enzyme Amylase. Amylase will be so hopped up on sugar, she will go and tell the stomach and intestines, "nourishment is on the way!"

The stomach will then prepare an acid bath to take on the beets, meats, grains, and fats. The small intestine will take on breaking down food to tiny molecules over miles of digestive tissue. Leafy greens, blue berries, and leafy purple kale get the gall bladder going signaling the end of digestion and time to soak up some vitamins.

Of course, variety is key and a routine of desert first, delicious home made meal with sweet ginger tea, and salad will make the belly happy. Limit the dairy and carbs, they make it too easy. Probiotics: Kimchi, Kombucha, yogurt, supplements!

Finally, be mindful of the how everyone: the plants, animals, people, and mama Earth, all contributed to your meal and were their treated lovingly? Give thanks and give it often, it makes your inner light glow.