Detoxifying a Disabled Body Through Juice Feasting

As part of our New Year’s resolution my wife and I decided to do a 60 day juice feast to cleanse our bodies from years of a build-up of toxins. You read that right; that is 60 days of only drinking fruit and vegetable juices. You might be surprised, but during the entire juice feast, I felt better and more energetic than I ever have since I was a kid.

What is juice feasting?

First of all, juice feasting is not to be confused with fasting where you ingest no food and starve the body of nutrients. On the contrary, during a juice feast you typically consume about 12 to 15 pounds of fruits and vegetables (preferably organic) each day. Your body actually gets many more nutrients through a juice feast than the average American diet. The 12 to 15 pounds of fruits and vegetables turns into an equivalent of four quarts of juice and you will not feel hungry. Read more

60 Days of Juice Feasting as a Quadriplegic

Some of you who have read my earlier story about my eating habits may think that I am a little bit extreme. My wife and I eat mostly raw vegan foods. That basically means no dairy, no bread, no meat and nothing heated above 117 F. The idea is that you kill the enzymes if you heat up anything higher than that and the nutritional value of the food diminishes. Well, if anybody would have told me ten years ago that they never cooked any of their food, I would have thought that person was nuts. However, somehow we got into this after – mainly my wife – doing a lot of research. And more and more people are starting to get into this as they learn that the standard American diet is the cause of most modern diseases such as diabetes, cancer, etc… Many people have actually been able to reverse their diseases by sticking to a raw vegan diet. And it certainly has helped me in getting me healthier, more energetic and more productive as a result of that.

Our latest adventure has been our completion of 60 days of only drinking fruit and vegetable juices. We just finished that a little while ago and I can hardly describe how good I feel and how much I am buzzing with energy these days. As a quadriplegic who had a hard time staying awake past 7PM ten years ago, that is quite remarkable.  Anyway I’m not going to give too much away yet, but I am writing a story about my 60 day juicing experience and will publish it soon under our Health category.

Positive Reinforcement

Ok, I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting our own horn here, but earlier today someone told me today that he finally visited this web site and really enjoyed it! He said that he thought the stories were really inspiring, and that he thinks everyone, not just those who are disabled, would be inspired by Luc’s story and experiences and the stories of the people we have interviewed.

For me, that was wonderful to hear, and helps to fulfill my hopes that we are doing something positive here. Encouragement and positive reinforcement is such a powerful force in anything, for anyone.

I’ll will try to remember that, and make it my goal that the next time I see anyone doing something that I think is good, or well done, I’ll let that person know.

Gary Karp Asks President Obama about his Plans for Employing People with a Disability

Today Aaron and I were supposed to meet for lunch with Gary Karp, who promotes the integration of people with disabilities in the workforce – www.garykarpspeaks.com, but he had to cancel unexpectedly as he received a last minute invitation  to President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in LA. Moreover, he even got the opportunity to ask Obama the all important question listed further down below along with Obama’s response. I am glad that Gary was able to ask his question. That was much more important than our luncheon, which we have already rescheduled for next Friday anyway. Now, I’ll get the add-on bonus of hearing about his Obama experience when I meet with him next week.

How did Gary end up at President Obama’s town hall meeting?

Gary Karp was a member of Barack Obama’s Disability Advisory Committee during the campaign and Kareem Dale was the lead liaison from his group to the campaign, and now Kareem is Obama’s White House advisor on disability policy.

On Monday, March 16, Gary got an email from Kareem offering him a ticket to the event.

He was on a 6 a.m. flight to LAX from San Francisco Thursday morning, and at around 2:00 p.m. he found himself holding a microphone, looking the President of the United States in the eye (from about 30 feet), and asking his question.

Gary’s question and President Obama’s answer

The following is an excerpt from the White House transcript.

GARY’S QUESTION: I’m Gary Karp, and Mr. President, thank God for you. (Applause.) Sir, my question regards the true renaissance that’s happening with people with disabilities. They are an emerging population — millions of people who are more mobile, more educated, more healthy, more empowered by technology, and with more potential than ever before in history. But they are still trapped in very, very old social models that see them in terms of tragedy and charity and need and care. And the modern population of people with disabilities simply does not fit that model.

And as your plan succeeds and you generate these jobs, and as baby boomers retire, we’re going to need every single person of capacity to work that we can. And that must include many, many, many thousands, if not millions, of people with disabilities. (Applause.)

So – I see you nodding your head, so my first question is, do you subscribe to what I’m saying, and next of all, can you talk about how your disability agenda will release this emerging potential that’s currently wasted and untapped?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you are exactly right, that we need everybody. And every program that we have has to be thinking on the front end, how do we make sure that it is inclusive, and building into it our ability to draw on the capacities of persons with disabilities.

That’s true on the education front, where our recovery package increases funding for children with disabilities. It is true in terms of how Hilda Solis, our Secretary of Labor, will be thinking about our training programs, to make sure that we are not excluding from training for high-tech jobs, the new jobs of the future, persons with disability.

It means enforcing the ADA and fighting back on some court opinions that have tried to narrow in ways that I think are inappropriate the original intent of that legislation.

So one of the things that I think is important is to make sure, as you pointed out, that we don’t see this as an afterthought, a segregated program, but we are infusing every department, every agency, every act that we take with a mindfulness about the importance of persons with disabilities, their skills, their talents, their capacity.

That I think is the approach that my administration is going to take, and we hope that by taking that approach that attitude will infuse state and local governments that are also receiving federal money. Okay? (Applause.)

Luc’s final comment

My kudos to Gary for asking President Obama this great question. Now, let’s hope Obama will follow through on his response.

Disabled Art – Part 2 of Our Interview with Andrew Reach

This is the second half of an interview we did with an inspiring artist named Andrew Reach. For part 1 of the interview please go here. In this second half, Andrew talks more about the creation of his art, and what inspires him. Read more

Disabled Art – Interview with Digital Artist Andrew Reach

Andrew Reach began his career as an architect, culminating with such notable buildings as the Frost Art Museum and the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. United States Courthouse in Miami, Florida. But he found himself disconnected from his work as an architect when a disease of the spine, known as Scheuermann’s Kyphosis, caused him to need spinal fusion surgery. Following two surgeries to stabilize his spine in 2004, Andrew found himself no longer able to continue to work as he had before. Understandably despairing at the change his life had taken and not sure what to do, Andrew began exploring digital art at the suggestion of his partner, Bruce Baumwoll.

Using a computer and Photoshop, Andrew began to explore the digital medium as a means for expression, and now creates large format archival prints at sizes up to 90 inches long. His artwork has been featured in numerous galleries and museums around the United States, and those who see Andrew’s art often describe it as inspirational and uplifting. Andrew is a pioneer in the digital art arena and many people have been amazed by the expressionism he has been able to portray through this new form of art.

Recently, Andrew became involved as a volunteer with an art therapy program in Cleveland called the Art Therapy Studio at Metrohealth hospital. Founded in 1967, it’s the first Art Therapy program to be established in a hospital in the United States. Seeing parallels in the program’s goals and in what his art has done to help him, he realized that many of those in the program could benefit through expressing themselves in the digital medium, as he has. It is his hope that some of the art created in the program can be displayed alongside his in the near future.

We recently had the chance to interview Andrew to find out how he decided on digital art, what inspires him, and what advice he would share with anyone struggling with a disability. Below is part 1 of an interview we were privileged enough to do over the phone with Andrew Reach. For part 2 please follow this link. Read more