It was another amazeballs Saturday.  Juice traffic had a nice and steady rhythm. I want to savor this early season, this slow time to build up to the high season, to grow new muscles so that I am stronger when it gets super-busy this summer. For now, it's time to take it slow and enjoy getting to know everyone. That's what I call Happy Hours. 

Sue and Ron Smith visited the juice bar for the first time. They were spending an afternoon together doing something meaningful - taking a leisurely day trip from East Hartford to White Gate Farm because they had read Pauline's newsletter.  

While Sue shopped the market, Ron and I spent some time looking "under the bonnet" of the Nutrifaster. The celery threads were getting caught up in the machine and pushing it off balance. Ron is a mechanical engineer and explained the Physics behind the imbalance and well, we talk about LOTS of stuff at the juice bar - even Physics, another reason to love what I do.  

Ron is an avid bicyclist who rides thousands of miles each year and he and his wife are the picture of good health. As I was making a juice for Sue we were all chatting away while the Nutrifaster whirred...and then I stopped jamming celery into the machine and spun my head away from the machine and toward Ron...

What would you say if a man you just met said "...and that was the first time I died..."?

I'd say his heart was in the right place. On February 1, 2017 Ron Smith’s heart stopped seven times according to doctors. Luckily, he was in the right place at the right time and an amazing team at UConn Health saved his life...seven. times.  That life-changing, mind-blowing, "heart-stopping" event happened only two months ago and Ron is absorbing how his profound experience has altered his life and his way of thinking. He says,

"I try to pay things forward in life, but I don’t think there’s anything I’ve done, or will ever be able to do, that equals what the UConn Health team did, for how phenomenally they saved my life.  I am very humbled and appreciative.”

Apart from Luck and some mighty divine intervention, there were two key things that saved Ron's life: The UConn Health Team AND his choice to listen to his body and get his symptoms checked out. He didn't ignore the signs or simply "push through" them and that is the first, and most important step in Self-Care and living a healthy life.  

Ron has always been a very active person who exercises, eats right and even reads food labels. Yet, still he suffered from poor heart health.  He shares his story to raise awareness so that others may learn new ways to approach their own health. To read more about Ron's experience, follow this link and wherever you are, Go on, love yourself enough to listen to your body and listen to Confucius, too - "wherever you go, go with all your heart".  We love you!