The word “dream” has several meanings. When people talk about a new business a dream takes on this meaning: a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal. When others look at your dream and think you are crazy their view takes on this meaning: an unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy. Depending on your state of mind you may be inclined to believe the latter about your dream. But if you have a passion, a feeling deep down that you are doing the right thing, no matter what anyone else thinks, you become an entrepreneur. Win or lose, success or fail, you know you have to run with it.
The idea of starting an aquaponics farm came from my father, Don Robuck. Battling heart disease and poor health he started to dig for the truth of better health. He started the journey with the Forks over Knives documentary which outlined what NOT to eat then went in search of what TO eat. He found Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s 3 steps to Incredible Health. Basically heavy on micronutrients with the absence of animal proteins and processed foods. With the massive amount of produce he would need to sustain this way of living it made sense to grow his own. As he dug deeper he found that with little land and low costs he can start a farm to feed his family pretty easily. He continued to eat along the general guidelines of Dr. Fuhrman’s plan and started feeling..well incredible! He couldn’t stop talking about it with his friends and family. He wanted the world to know about his new found secret and how easy it is to do. Just eat more veggies! And to this day if you get him started on this subject you will be listening for a while.. So long story short he decided he didn’t want to keep it to himself. He wants to share it with the world. He wants to educate the community (and anyone who will listen) on what it means to find incredible health.
Around the beginning of his journey he included his daughter. That would be me, Denise Arceneaux. Mother of two beautiful children age 5 and 3. Wife to her soulmate and partner in all things, Cliff who happens to be a Physician Assistant in Alabama. That part will be important to the story later. Me and my husband are veterans to health and nutrition. We both discovered our love of food (that doesn’t love us back) at a young age and have basically struggled with that love-hate relationship ever since. We both strive to be the healthiest we can in a world where it’s way too easy not to. Cliff started in college to lose weight through Weight Watchers. I started seeking proper nutrition in high school when I realized if I didn’t figure it out I would likely end up with an eating disorder. More is outlined on my blog Journey to Incredible Health. My passion has always been to help people to better their health to the point that I joined Weight Watchers myself to serve as a leader for 4 years. With this background it was natural that my father would come to me with his discovery. I remember the moment before we watched Forks over Knives. In our core we knew this documentary was going to change us. Were we ready for this? It was going to change everything. We were not going to be able to pretend to be in darkness anymore. Life as we knew it was going to be over!! Ok maybe not. So we pressed “play”. And life as we knew it was forever changed.
Don’t get me wrong, the struggle is real. It took us some time easing into this lifestyle where meat was pure evil and cow’s milk no longer does a body good. But then we started to feel the difference. Our stomach didn’t hurt after eating dinner. Our mind was sharp and alive after drinking our superfood smoothie. We no longer wanted to crash every afternoon at 2pm. Now, we too, want to spread the word. As my father realized his dream for an aquaponics farm, we saw an outlet to be able to help people achieve better health. Or as Dr. Fuhrman calls it… incredible health!