Health

How to Start Juicing and Reclaim Your Health

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start juicing

For the last seven years I have devoted all of my time and energy to reclaiming my health after totally losing it to Lyme Disease: a systemic bacterial infection contracted from the bite of a poppy-seed sized tick.

Seven years ago I was a workaholic PhD student, who spent all of her time at the gym, training for the Chicago marathon. I ate cake for dinner or whole French baguettes slathered with peanut butter and butter (yes…a double butter whammy), and I drank copious cups of coffee. I loved my sugary, frantic, social butterfly existence. I had absolutely nothing to worry about. My life was galloping along, and I was embracing every minute of it. And then, like a buff of smoke, my health disappeared. And, my entire life changed.

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Why I Can Now Thank My Battle With an Eating Disorder

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eating disorder

I still remember the day I forced myself to throw up for the first time.

I was sitting at home on the couch watching my favourite TV show at the time ‘Home and Away’. I was 13 and there was a young girl on the screen not much older than me who was anxious about her weight. It had just been someone’s birthday on the show and there was a giant chocolate cake in the fridge which she took to her room and engulfed. Ashamed, she quickly ran to the bathroom, stuck her fingers down her throat and forced every last bit back up again.

As ridiculous as it seems now, it’s like a light bulb went off in my mind that day. I thought to myself, ‘If she can eat delicious sweets and still stay thin by forcing herself to throw up then, that’s what I will do too.’ And so I did. That day lead to me to an extremely lonely 10 year battle with bulimia.

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The Former Couch Potato’s Guide to Embracing Exercise

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embracing exercise

As a couch potato and irregular exerciser, I was in a painful place. One of the hardest things to do is taking those first steps on the way to regular exercise. Because I continually started and stopped exercising, I was often taking those first steps. Then a few weeks later, I’d notice that I was no longer exercising again and the cycle would repeat itself.

One day, the mantra was interrupted with the thought ‘What if I changed my thinking?’ Maybe I could just accept exercise as ‘something that I did’, a bit like cleaning my teeth. That was the beginning of the end of my love affair with the couch.

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Putting Cancer on the Back Burner

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father and daughter

I remember being told about my biopsy. My doctor sat down and said, “I’m sorry; it’s melanoma.” I told him he didn’t need to apologize, and thanked him for his work. The news took a while to set in.

Truthfully, it was a chance to learn and grow. My pre-cancer schedule focused on work and building my wealth. My post-diagnosis schedule involved much more quality time with my amazing wife and daughter.

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The Importance of Complete and Total Mental Breakdown

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mental breakdown

Your neighbour quits his job and moves to Hollywood to try his hand at acting. Your sister relocates to Penang to raise a baby in a shack on the beach. Someone you know moves to Kyoto to become a ninja. If you’re like me, you’ve probably watched others make great sweeping life changes and thought to yourself all the reasons this is not possible for you. You may even have a list that looks something like this:

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How Training in Martial Arts Can Further Your Career

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Learning martial arts – not the most orthodox way to gain a promotion I know, but martial arts can change your life in a variety of ways. Martial arts can turn you into a fighter in all elements of life and it will give you respect for yourself and others, and improve your health and well-being.

If you’re not the athletic type consider this: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is often referred to as a “human game of chess” and is renowned for attracting computer geeks, accountants and all other types of intellectuals. Still not convinced? Okay, well consider the following eight benefits to training in martial arts.

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How to Keep From Becoming a Meditation Dropout

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meditation

I talk about meditation with nearly everyone I meet. It just comes up naturally when they ask me what I do. “I teach meditation,” I always respond. A common reply is, “I tried meditation.” “What happened?” I ask. “Oh, it was really good. Really helped me. But I lost it somewhere. I really should get back into it.”

Almost everybody knows that meditation is beneficial. Many have tried meditating. Even more have vague plans to meditate “some day.” So why do people fail at meditation?

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The Free Resource That Can Help You Cope With Anything

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When I had my comic memoir published by an award-winning independent press in 2008, I thought it would be the pinnacle of my professional writing career. But after my publisher went bankrupt one year later, taking with him most of my dreams, that celebratory moment turned into one of despair.

Standing in our basement, looking at the five big crates of unsold books we were left with after the experience, my husband wondered aloud what we were going to do with them. I said to him: “We can always make a bonfire and toast marshmallows.” Suddenly, the tension seemed to lift.

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What is Your Body Telling You?

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what is your body telling you?

Last week I started getting the sniffles. I felt a cold coming and knew I had to take it easy for the next few days if I didn’t want to get sick. But I carried on writing, thinking that I was only sitting at home and not doing much.

The next morning, however, I came down with a full-blown cold and fever and was bed bound for the next few days. As I laid in bed nursing my head and going through boxes of tissues, I tried to decipher how I had caught a cold.

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Changing Your Body Image

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body image

For most of my life, my happiness depended on the reflection I saw in the mirror.

I was convinced that the way I looked and the number I saw on the scale determined my worthiness as a daughter, sister, girlfriend and later a wife.

This completely ridiculous notion led to more than 2 decades of misery. During those years I felt trapped inside my body, without any hope to ever be able to find relief or a way to free myself. I lived in a state of oppression and despised everything about myself and my appearance.

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How I Beat Anorexia

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beat anorexia

About a year ago, I made a decision that not only changed, but saved my life.

I committed to healing my shattered soul.

I have been suffering from anorexia nervosa for 14 years.

My childhood had been anything but peaceful. Growing up with a brother who tortured me both mentally and physically every single day of my young life was nothing but hell.

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