Born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1942, Annette knows so little of her birthplace that she has always claimed to be from Detroit, Michigan. She has lived in Miami, Florida so long that it has become home.
While attending George Washington Carver High School in Coconut Grove, Florida, she met and married Amos Larkins, Jr., who is nine years older than she and with whom she recently celebrated their fifty-ninth wedding anniversary. The year was 1958, and she was sixteen years old. Two years later she gave birth to their first son Amos II; their second son Anthony was born ten months and eighteen days later, a little over a month after her nineteenth birthday. Annette announced that she had contributed to the perpetuation of the species and was finished with childbearing. “They were so close together; it was like having twins,” she says.
When the boys were ten and eleven years old, she began singing at a local nightclub on Miami Beach, where she remained for two and a half years.
Choosing not to pursue stardom on a grand scale, Annette chose, instead, to enroll at Miami-Dade Community College, majoring in liberal arts. She graduated with high honors, receiving the highest achievement award for foreign languages; Spanish is her second language.
To determine if she wanted a career in teaching, she taught Spanish as a substitute teacher. She also worked as a reservations clerk for an airline, which afforded extensive travel benefits. In their in-flight magazine, the company published an article that Annette wrote. She manufactured a salad dressing; The Little Chef’s dressing was a popular item in health food stores, and customers were disappointed when it was no longer available. One day while shopping in one of the stores where the dressing had been sold, Annette encountered a lady who asked, “You’re The Little Chef aren’t you?”
“Yes, well, I was.” replied Annette.
“They told me that you stopped making the dressing, and I am, now, looking for something comparable to it. My son says that if he can’t have The Little Chef’s, then he just won’t eat salads.”
“What a commercial!” thought Annette; however, she would not be swayed by such remarks. The reason she had produced the dressing in the first place was because people said she should market it; so, she did, but she lacked the passion to see it though to its greatest potential.
One day when her husband, a diversified businessman, requested that she obtain a Property and Casualty Insurance License, to complement his Life and Health License, she did that too.
Her perpetual quest for knowledge and new experiences eventually landed Annette into the computer age. In this world of motherboards, CPU’s, and unknown peripheral ices, she found fascination and challenge. No longer a stranger in foreign territory, to date, Annette has built numerous personal computers.
After learning so much about computers, she wondered, “What now?” She preceded by combining acquired technical knowledge with innate creatively to compose personal greeting cards, using poetry to accommodate the occasion, along with clipart, photographs, and a protective plastic cover. She also wrote a textbook for her grandson that taught him how to read and helped with his first-grade studies.
“I have always been passionate about motivating individuals to make changes that will enrich their lives; I like stimulating the psyche of others and helping them to discover the power within themselves,” she expresses.
Annette’s desire to help others achieve a healthier lifestyle is manifested through the production of her DVDs Annette’s Raw Kitchen, Health Alternatives Interviews, and her booklets Journey To Health, Journey To health 2, and Journey To Health 3.
Having investigated assorted career opportunities, she now recognizes that the health field is where she belongs, and she plans to serve in that arena for as long as possible!
About Us
Journey To Health
Book Review
By Helen Gilliam
Fifty-eight years young Annette Larkins wrote Journey To Health in response to the many questions asked her over the years. Even before people knew her age, they wanted to know, “How big is your waist?” “What do you use on your skin?” How do you stay so thin?” Of course, when they found out her age, the question was, “How do you stay so young?” In essences they wanted to know her secrets.
Annette says, “There are no secrets, but to experience the joy of living, we must be willing to replace negatives with positives, whether the choices are in food or in other areas of our lives.”
She recognizes that although food plays a major role in healthful living, one should also consider psychological attitude, physiological exercise, and inner spirituality to insure the elopment of a whole, well-functioning human being.
In this forty-page booklet, Annette introduces her lifestyle by sharing true health stories, by teaching sprouting, by talking about juicing, by highlighting healthful hints, and by providing sixteen delicious living food recipes.
The booklet offers inspiration, motivation, and encouragement to those seeking health alternatives.
Introduction
My first booklet, “Journey To Health,” introduces the living foods lifestyle and my connection to it. Since the booklet continues to inspire interested readers who are requesting more information, I am honored to present “Journey To Health 2,” in hopes that it may, likewise, continue to inspire.
The search for the Fountain of Youth certainly continues, long after Ponce de Leon sailed off into the sunset. Many try to hold on to or to find youth with creams and lotions and magic potions—in bottles, in jars, in beauty spas.
Why do we want to remain young? Some reasons are to look good, to feel well, and to maintain an energy level that allows us to meet life’s challenges.
The bad news is that we will chronologically age if we live, for not to grow old is to die young. The good news is that we can slow down the aging process, and no matter how old we become chronologically, we can achieve our desire to look good, to feel well, and to meet life’s challenges. We can have the best of both worlds—the fruitfulness of youth and the wisdom of age. Instead of relying on quick and synthetic fixes, we can commit to abide as closely as possible to the laws of nature.
Abiding by nature’s laws increases our potential to attain quality of life and longevity. Nature’s laws are simple: eat foods in their natural state; refrain from laziness; breathe fresh air, and drink in the gift of sunshine.
We humans complicate matters by trying to improve on perfection. We insist on making foods better when nature has already made them as good as they can get.
At sixty years young, living foods continue to be my weapon against the ills affecting so many in our society. Living foods are found in The Kingdom of Living Foods—Live and Raw—where Live is King, Raw is Queen, and I am a willing and loyal subject.
The Kingdom of Living Foods is not a new world. In the beginning man and woman ate only live and raw foods, without firing or cooking them. It was when people began to rob foods of their life-giving, health-giving elements that mysterious illnesses emerged, and shorter life spans ensued. Consequently, today hospitals are filled with people who are digging their graves with their forks.
Every so often there is a return to things or ways of old; “Everything old is new again!” Centuries and millenniums have thrust us into a state of disarray where food is concerned. It is time we get back to basics. Back to the Garden of Eden is the ideal place to be, but because we live in modern times, in a different environment, with taste buds gone astray, we can concentrate on improving our present lifestyle. Salvador Dalí, the famous Spanish painter, said, “Do not fear perfection; you will never achieve it.”
Nevertheless, we owe it to ourselves to do the best we can. Living foods, along with exercise, sunshine, rest, and positive thinking, are a means to this end. Additionally, we must reduce our stress levels. Stress can kill! We need, therefore, to reduce its presence whenever and wherever feasible. Worry not about that which we cannot control, but let
us be about the business of controlling that which is within our power to manage. We can
manage eating better to live better. Living better through better eating frees us to learn more and to become more productive, caring human beings.
The information given in the following pages offers food for thought. I have endeavored to plant seeds that will motivate you to cultivate a harvest of plenty. Earth’s garden can yield no better crop than humankind.
Go forth and be fruitful! 
