Photo Credit: Shawn Laksmi

Tevia Celli-Recht is an amazing human being. She is also the very best spin instructor I've ever had. If you are in LA, you MUST run now and take one of her classes at Updog Cycling and Yoga on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood....and she has her own over-the-top delicious vegan baking company, The Lil' Vegan Baker That Could. Connect to the previous blogs about her here and here.

Tevia is an insane athlete who also has MS (multiple sclerosis). She manages her MS symptoms through a plant-based, vegan diet and some supplements, and this combination has literally halted her MS symptoms! Among her other pursuits, she has invented a fitness machine called the E-Ryde.  It's so groovy.  It doesn't require any electricity or power to work....so it's super enviro just like a spin bike!!  

I love taking her spin classes; she is seriously the best spin teacher I have ever found. I missed her SO much when I was in NYC for the play. Her class is great and difficult, deep and wonderful. She inspires you to keep adjusting and teaches joy and wellness.  She focuses on making sure her students keep proper alignment while they are spinning. I've found that many teachers do not do this and they look so unsafe on their bikes - it makes me cringe! Tevia keeps you safe while pushing you to be your best!! She is just such a bad-ass.  Her class is really a meditation, as you are constantly thinking of keeping your shoulders down, your back relaxed, trying to make your lats touch together (I'm probably saying that wrong but you know what I mean), keeping your tummy in, positioning your butt way over the seat and opening your heart.  She also teaches not to push down with your feet but to pull your legs up into your stomach, and to wiggle your toes and relax your hands. Tevia explains this better in the class....she is sexy up there with her passion, commitment and force! Her classes are empowering, they strengthen you and make you appreciate your life. She is truly a superhero to me!

I also recently met a young woman in Tevia's class named Amanda. She said she had read The Kind Diet and had her mom read it and they are now both on our journey. She is a Kind Lifer on our site. It makes me so happy when I meet you guys!

Tevia did the MS Ride for 4 years, as well as a spin-a-thon for them, and raised $600,000 for the organization!! She says they are a great organization as far as offering services for people with MS, such as paying medical bills and providing food for those who are too sick. They also do a lot of research that one day might find a cure for MS. She is now focusing her efforts on Dr. John McDougall's research, which uses a low-fat vegan diet for MS and has shown great success. Tevia decided Dr. McDougall could use her help, so she is no longer doing the MS ride. As she is now working with Dr. McDougall, she decided to resign from the National MS Society (Southern California) Board of Trustees, as she believed it would be a conflict of interest for her to keep her post there while raising money for a particular MS study. Her feelings are that she knows this diet has worked for her, and although it might not work for all MS patients, it could benefit many. MS has so many different degrees of the disease, so those like Tevia who do not have a progressive type strongly benefit from Dr. McDougall's research.

You can learn more about Dr. McDougall's research and donate to his efforts here.

I applaud Tevia for turning her efforts toward healing instead of research and such. The food that doctors provide to sick people with MS is likely not the food that could heal them. As far as the "one day we'll find a cure" idea goes, I believe that the cure is in prevention. So yay Tevia!