About

TheRealInfrared.com is a blog about Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom.

Fresh content is added regularly including topics such as:

  • How To Experience Personal Freedom
  • How To Cleanse And Heal With Whole Foods
  • Benefits of Eating a High Raw Whole Foods Diet
  • My Solutions to Personal Health Challenges
  • Creating Altered States
  • How To Feel Good
  • How To Think about Thinking
  • How To Change Your Personal Reality Quickly
  • Going Local
  • Product Reviews of Products I Use

Who Is Liz O’Garvey?

Hi, I’m Liz O’Garvey and I’m the writer behind TheRealInfrared.com. Many years ago I made a promise to myself that if I ever had the chance I would focus complete attention on examining every detail of my current life and make the necessary changes to create my personal plan for Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom.

Be careful what you wish for because the turn of events that happened to me since that moment has taken me through a very dark voyage where I was forced to immediately create my personal plan for Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom if I wanted to stay alive.

TheRealInfrared.com is a space for me to share with you my personal stories and lessons I learned on my path to achieve total health and create a personal plan for Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom. I know there are many people who feel the same inclination and will benefit from my accumulated knowledge and experience.

Most importantly, The Real Infrared is about you… how to create your own personal plan to Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom. If I can help just one person move towards that direction in any way, this adventure will be a success. You might be that one person I can help.

One day in the early years of our relationship Jay and I were walking around our campground in the Coastal Mountains of the Pacific Northwest enthralled by the natural beauty of our environment.

The cool coastal fog lightly drifted down to us through the mammoth soaring redwoods in silence and stillness. Everything was saturated with moisture accentuating the richness of the uncounted gradient shades of green. The air was fresh and alive. Crashing waves against the rocky shore rhythmically punctuated the silence and stillness.

While in our state of exuberant love enveloped within the sublime a little gray haired man stopped us to say hello. He told us that we reminded him of his wife and himself when they were young and in love and felt compelled to stop us to tell us something very important.

We took our seats at the closest picnic table and this is what he said to us. I still can hear and see him as if it was today!

He said, “When my wife and I were your age we looked a lot like you two. Everything in our world was radiant and alive. We glowed with love. You could see it in our eyes just like yours are now, sparkling with joy and boundless energy. Everyone noticed and said so.

“Like you, in the beginning of our relationship, all we wanted was to be with each other day and night. We could never get enough of the feeling of true passionate love and personal freedom our love engendered.

“We were invulnerable!”

“One day something changed. We felt the pull of society to conform and accept the fate of being an adult in this world.

“We were pulled in opposite directions. We had so many dreams of how we wanted to live our life and it was outside mainstream sensibilities. We had neither the confidence or any idea how to pull off our majestic dreams.

“We were poor people with rich people’s dreams.”

“We caved in to family, friends and societal pressure by opting for careers, a family and a beautiful home. You know the promise, our own piece of the legendary pie with all of the benefits and none of the risk.

“We planned our retirement so we could vacation in a comfortable style while still sending our kids to the best schools. But most of all my wife wanted her own Mercedes Benz. In her mind that was a sign of “making it”.

He continued as his eyes filled up with tears, “We worked long hard hours and rarely saw each other except briefly in the morning rushing off to our busy day, or in the evening after a long stressful day at work and household chores completed. Yes, we had weekends together but it was all for the kids to make sure they got what they needed.

“We strove to give them things we couldn’t have or afford growing up. We achieved all our goals.” He paused for several moments averting our eyes trying very hard to compose himself.

“My wife finally got her Mercedes Benz.”

He paused and as he pointed to a Mercedes Benz parked nearby. “Now all I do is drive her to the hospital for her chemotherapy treatments. She’s not expected to survive the cancer.”

The tears streamed down all our cheeks in unison. He wouldn’t stop there and looked us straight in the eyes as he touched us gently.

He spoke softly with a determined purpose, “Don’t do what we did.”

“Youth is wasted on the young.”

“All this beauty around you which you seem to love so much is going away. Generations that come after you will not see the natural environment like you can now. Everyday we lose more and more of our national treasures.

“Retire when you are young

when you have each other, your health,

boundless energy and unfettered freedom.”

“Experience life. Live free without needing lots of stuff. Your personal experiences are the only real value in life. Have lots of them.

“Go where ever you choose. Do what ever appeals to you. Never let anyone tell you it’s impossible or allow lack of money stop you. Follow your bliss where ever it leads. You have each other. That’s all you need. That’s everything. It’s worth more than gold or any amount of money.

“Everyone wants what you have right now.”

“Never sell your life and love for money. Exercise your personal freedom by choosing how to spend your day, your life, the precious fleeting moments of this all too short existence, that is your only true freedom.

“You’re smart. You’ll figure out how to do it. Always remember you have each other. Anything is possible when you work together.”

He was on a roll, “Go to work when you’re 50. Don’t sell the best years of your life and love to someone else for profit. By the time you’re 50, you’ll have lots of ideas because you’ve lived a full exciting adventurous life together.”

At the time we met this man my Mom’s dream was to own a convertible sports Mercedes Benz. Decades later she bought it and that was her ride to chemotherapy. My brother drives her car now because she died of cancer way too soon after buying it.

I don’t remember this man’s name but we took his advice and have never regretted our decision for a moment. Yes, there’s been extremely hard times and life threatening dangers but we’ve survived and now possess decades of priceless adventures very few ever dare to experience.

I, too, became very sick and I know that the decades of exploring Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom gave me the strength and determination to never give up.

Our relationship is number one priority in our life and we share a passion for Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom. This sustains us through all hardship. The upside outweighs the hardship a million to one without exaggeration.

Now I am over 50 and to most folks I’m considered old and oh, what these eyes have seen!

Yes, I have lived long enough to see my skin wrinkle from early sun damage and poor diet but I lived at the beach every summer for almost 20 years. I also lived on Maui for 10 years where Jay and I sat on a big volcanic rock with our feet hanging over the edge of the island watching sunsets every evening.

Together we drift dove the back wall of Molokini numerous times and came face to face with grey sharks, barracudas, ulua and humpback whales. We sat underwater for an hour inside the crater and watched a legion of manta rays visit a busy cleaner wrasse station. We watched a pair of Harlequin shrimp do their rare mating dance seen by only a handful of people in the world.

We had a clear view for the entire full lunar eclipse from our front yard on the coast in the Pacific Northwest when cloud cover obscured the view in every direction we could see. A full lunar eclipse happens only once every 400 hundred years!

We’ve lived in the coastal mountains of the Pacific Northwest without electricity and hot water practicing all the homesteading skills we learned. Not bad for a girl who grew up in the city!

We’ve seen the most breathtaking views of snow on the beach and in the giant disappearing redwoods. I went river fishing for the first time of my life and caught a jack salmon which we had that same night for dinner. We’ve had numerous close encounters with wildlife from birds to bears and have lived to tell about it. These are only a few of our rich ongoing life experiences in our natural environment.

To add balance to our rural life, Jay and I entered the University of California San Diego as re-entry students in 1985 to see if we could more fully understand the world we live in and why there is so much suffering and war.

We also wanted to know if we could work together in an academic urban environment. This experiment lasted 8 years. We took the exact same double majors and classes both graduating Summa cum laude. We were both awarded undergraduate Regents Scholarships and for our graduate work we earned the Jacob Javits Fellowship for the Arts to pursue a Master of Fine Arts Directing for Film and Theatre. Art is a very small category for the Jacob Javits Fellowship Awards.

One notable day at UCSD I will never forget is sitting in a large lecture hall with Jay in an Introduction to Sociology class, a pre-requisite for one of our majors taught by David Phillips, a preeminent scholar, professor and brilliant lecturer.

In the middle of David’s eye opening lecture, a unwary student raised his hand. David stopped his lecture to address the young man’s question. The undergraduate student asked how this information he was listening to was going to help him get a job.

David responded to the young man’s question in his most subdued matter-of -fact way. He said that if this student was able to get a job after his 4 years at UCSD, he will have failed as a teacher. The room of 200+ students fell silent. Jay and I looked at each other and began to smile.

He went on to tell the embarrassed and confused student that his education at this particular institution was not about getting job skills but learning how to think. He was told if he wanted job skills he should go to the State University not the University of California.

Right then I knew I was in the right place for me because I wanted to learn how to think not to be given a job skill to perform slave labor for society. If I knew how to think I would be able to figure out how to live in this world without a boss.

UCSD gave me the best formal education I could hope for in this world and I deserved it because I earned it. I worked my ass off. I know on my dying bed I will never regret all the jobs I didn’t take working as someone’s employee. Thanks, David!

The 2 awards Jay and I received for our graduate fellowship work was the first time in the history of Jacob Javits Fellowship that a couple had received the award in any category. And not before a legendary fight that Allen Sissel waged on our behalf unbeknown to us.

Allen was in charge of choosing the candidates for this prestigious fellowship. We submitted very political left of center media content and writings around the theme and documentary series, “Symptoms of A Sick Society.”

Allen loved us and awarded us the fellowship but before we could be notified, the national oversight committee went over Allen’s head and rejected us. They said we were trouble. Way too political. This action by the national oversight committee had never been done before in the history of the Jacob Javits Fellowship.

Allen fought for us (and himself) and won. Jay and I were both awarded the Jacob Javits Fellowship. Allen said, “I’m not sure what you two will do in this world but I know it will be something fantastic and I can’t wait to see it. Of course you’ll have to thank Jacob Javits for the opportunity and I said, “No, I’ll thank you, Allen Sissel.”

I’ve earned my wrinkles and I will not be ashamed of who I am because I refuse to conform to some unnatural plastic standard. Where is the happiness following someone else who is never happy?

In addition to the psychological and physiological benefits of embracing Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom, I have saved an enormous amounts of money on products that promise to cover my inadequacies and imperfections.

I am comfortable in my own skin and know a big smile and the inner glow and radiance that make my eyes sparkle is better than any face lift, makeup or fancy clothes. Yes, having a partner who wants to see your natural beauty and cares little for altering your appearance helps in uncounted ways.

Jay always says, “I like you in nothing better.”

I like easy, relaxed and fun. How about you?

If you want to begin to experience Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom consider evaluating your

  • current diet and overall nutrition
  • exercise and fitness routine or lack thereof
  • mental state
  • connection to the natural environment
  • loving supportive emotional environment

I wrote a free eBook to help you begin your personal path to Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom. It all starts with giving your body and mind what it needs to function at optimal health. Sign up now and begin your personal path to Natural Comfortable Living And Personal Freedom.

Everyone is naturally beautiful.

No need to hide any perceived weakness. This is a lie perpetuated by unknowingly sick individuals who are blinded by money and other people’s accepted values as the correct way to live.

Make your own values. You will realize the values delivered to you are often not in your best interest. They only seem to benefit the person or organization that perpetuates the lie.

Look over my free eBook and see if you are ready for a simple, safe target eating plan to move towards as you change your current eating patterns.The eBook outlines my personal plan for eating nutrient dense fresh whole foods that will prepare you for a cleanse, help you end a cleanse or forestall your need to cleanse at all!

Don’t take my word for it. Check it out and see if it strikes your truth bell.

My entire life was plagued with a variety of physical ailments that seemed impossible to heal. During my early years I had:

  • chronic mucus congestion
  • colds
  • sore throat and often strep throat
  • earaches
  • constipation
  • acne
  • depression
  • PMS
  • severe cramps that often caused me to vomit and pass out

Growing up my diet was based on saturated fat and refined carbohydrates:

  • high fat foods
  • low fiber sugary foods
  • white flour, white sugar, white potatoes and white rice
  • salt
  • processed foods
  • prepared snack foods
  • convenience foods
  • fast foods
  • deep-fried foods
  • packaged mixes
  • store bought salad dressings including mayonnaise substitutes
  • vegetable margarines or shortenings including hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils
  • refined oils
  • rancid fats

Over the years I continually researched and experimented on myself  to heal with various modalities such as:

  • Tai Chi Chuan
  • other Qigong practices
  • Yoga
  • TCM Traditional Chinese Medicine
  • Alexander technique
  • Diet
  • Fasting
  • Eastern and Western Herbs
  • Essential Oils
  • Supplements
  • Superfoods
  • Saunas
  • Cleanses
  • Meditation
  • Stress Management practices
  • Positive Thinking
  • Affirmations
  • Visualizations
  • Acupuncture
  • Massage

I tried any new diet plan that promised me health and rejuvenation. I explored:

  • Macrobiotics
  • Atkins
  • Ayurvedic
  • Lact-Ovo Vegetarian
  • Low Fat Vegan
  • High Fat Raw Vegan
  • Low Fat Raw Vegan
  • Natural Hygiene
  • various Candida diets
  • various Elimination diets
  • various Allergy diets
  • various anti-inflammation diets
  • various Mediterranean diets
  • Paleo diet
  • Biblical diet
  • various weight loss diets

That’s all I remember off the top of my head. There might be more.

Many of the physical ailments from my early years got worse as I developed new symptoms such as:

  • food allergies
  • food sensitivities
  • candida
  • low energy
  • muscle spasms
  • indigestion
  • gas
  • weight gain
  • night sweats
  • hot flashes
  • swollen joints
  • reduced vision

If things were not bad enough in 2004 it took a turn for the worse as Jay and I were rear ended by a truck going over 60 miles an hour totaling our little car and sending us to almost 3 years of rehab for head, neck and back injuries plus dental work.

In late 2006, we had our final medical exam by the insurance company that wanted to stop our rehab. The doctor looked at me and said I looked much older than my age and appeared to have an underlying wasting disease which was not caused by the accident. He went on to explain my dire fate. I felt like he pointed at me and said, “You’re dead!”

This diagnosis was enough to cut us off from all medical care and we had no health insurance to continue the needed therapy as recommended by our healthcare providers. I was devastated because I knew he was right. I felt horrible and over the years I tried to fake it whenever I was out in public. I’d always put on a big grin and say I was great! I probably never fooled anyone except myself.

I was frustrated, scared and angry. I was out of ideas. Me, Liz O’Garvey, expert researcher, teacher, artist, communicator and media pro who graduated Summa cum laude with a double major in Visual Arts and Communication from the University of California, San Diego and went on to complete a Master of Fine Arts whose stock and trade is ideas did not have one idea about how to proceed.

And to add insult to injury I was on one of the most beautiful places on Earth with the man of my dreams and I was dying before I really had a chance to live.

Considering my uncounted failures trying to turn my health around I contemplated suicide. I did not know what to do next to help myself once I finally figured out it was primarily diet contributing to my ill health. From there, I got into more trouble than I was already in because of all the conflicting information. Everything I tried just made things worse. On the other hand, I had to make a change because what I was doing was killing me for sure.

I was forced to sort out all the conflicting information if I was going to live. At my lowest possible moment, a miracle happened right off the porch of my jungle kitchen in Haiku on Maui. That day marked the beginning of my turn around and I began to heal for real. I continue to heal to this day and see improvements daily. I still have a ways  to go to build up the muscle mass on my body but I am getting stronger everyday, while many people I see are getting worse.

Experiencing the results of my own healing I am certain I have something valuable to share with you. I want you to have the information I discovered about what works for me in case you find yourself in a similar situation. 

 I hope you are not as sick as I was. If you are I want you to know you can get better.

If you remember our friend in the redwoods told us, “Retire when you are young when you have each other, your health, boundless energy and unfettered freedom.”

He missed something very important. He didn’t have the whole picture. He made assumptions that ill health, lack of energy, disease and loss of personal freedom were inevitable effects of aging. I unconsciously bought into that thinking for awhile until I saw and felt the irrefutable results when my ill health turned around urging me loud and clear to abandon old ideas.

What does my experience tell me? That is the measure.

I am proof that it’s very possible to regenerate or rejuvenate your body if you supply the correct conditions for life.

I can show you how to do it.

I have cultivated myself to the point where I now enjoy levels of health I never experienced in my youth or at any other time in my life. I’ve also regained the boundless energy of youth without the use of stimulants. Younger people (decades my junior) burn out way before I do as I watch them sit around and ingest coffee, soda, fruit juice, alcohol along with high fat low fiber sugary foods (These really aren’t food).

And yes, with health you meet the world head on without fear or apprehension. Opportunities become visible everywhere you look. The choice is yours. It always has been right in front of you. You were just too sick to see it. Not anymore. You feel unfettered freedom again but this time your years have bestowed the gift of wisdom given to those who survive the ordeals and live to tell of it.

You can make a new body, a new mind and a new life.

Get your free eBook right now which outlines how I use nutrient dense fresh whole foods to cleanse and heal.

If you sign up for my newsletter, I will give you my free eBook. Look for it here at The Real Infrared.

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Love life Live love,
Liz