Every day when we arise we are presented with the opportunity to begin our lives all over again. This is the grand gift of life, which allows us to reinvent ourselves over and over again throughout our time in the physical body.

In that awakening, the digestive fire that dwells in each of us is ready to be fed – or suffocated. This is determined by what we eat, and the essence or theme of our day depends on the eating choices we make.

Food is combustible energy for the body. Choose good food and the body runs well – with energy, health, and immunity. Choose poorly…well you see the picture.

When someone says “raw food” it brings to mind florets of dry broccoli, a bunch of lettuce with no dressing, the produce you pass by each day in the market. In the past this has been an easy image to hold. Not so much any longer. Thrive has reshaped that image, redefined “raw food” such that it is now a mental aroma wafting through the thought center, making the mouth water and the body navigate of its own accord.

I am guilty of mainstream taste buds. I own them. Never liked the foods my parents insisted I have, perhaps for that very reason. And, like so many people in our society, tantalizing those taste buds is simply a matter of mega doses of refined sugar. So common is this paradigm that 2/3 of the sugar consumed in this country is used in manufacturing our food products. We have, as a society corrupted our sense of taste over the decades to the point where we no longer have alignment between what is good for us and what tastes good to us.

Healthy foods are a tough sell to mainstream taste buds.

Enter Thrive. It’s very simple. You can tell you’re being transformed in two ways. The first is when you start loving foods you’ve previously rejected. The second is when the person preparing your food does so with such joy that the energy of the preparation actually is absorbed in the eating.

My thinly veiled excuses are shattered. No more can I say ‘well that just doesn’t taste good’. No more can I claim cooking is too complex; thinking of menus, too complex; preparation, too complex.

I’ve been redefined by Thrive’s raw food menu, by their love, by their attitude, by their caring. I’ve been hydrated, oxygenated, alkalinized, and empowered. My food is free of chemicals and my body notices the difference.

The road is just beginning – as it always is – and there’s much still to do. But, Thrive has shifted my perspective from one of eating what is good to eating what is good for me. And, in the process, Thrive has unified what was previously two opposing forces – food that is good for you and food that tastes great.

Gordon Kaplan, Seattle, WA

Tags: gala of gratitude