Health & Wellbeing

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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Running to Save My Life

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I ran my first kilometre when I was in Grade five. I hated it.

I was in Mr. Pawlak’s class that year. Mr Pawlak was the resident health nut at our school. He wore gym clothes when he taught us Math. It was 1981, right before the huge Adidas bag craze that hit in grade six in 1982. He wore Adidas short shorts – the ones with the white stripes down the sides – and he paired them with a tight striped polo t-shirt.

He created something he called the Health Hustle for gym class, which was essentially low impact aerobics set to music. Personally, I blamed this new daily physical torture on Olivia Newton John’s “Physical” album. Fitness – and 1980s workout wear – were all the rage back then and Mr. Pawlak wanted to make sure we were fit. I was a skinny kid when I was 11, but I wasn’t fit. Seriously, whenever I heard “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” or the instrumental “Popcorn” songs outside the four walls of our school gym, I would start to sweat involuntarily and breathe heavily like a Pavlov dog.

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Why I Can Now Thank My Battle With an Eating Disorder

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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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You Are Drunk and this is the Edge of the Roof

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edge of the roof

I’m going to share a skill that a child can learn in just a few minutes. But even though it’s a very simple to learn, it takes a lifetime to master. First, a story.

I’m usually a light sleeper. But a few months ago, in the middle of the night, my wife had to shake me awake. “David, I’m scared,” she said. “What’s happened now?” I asked. For the past three nights we’d been kept awake by our neighbour, Kendrick*. He’d been banging the walls with what sounded like a hammer. He’d been having a midnight bonfire in his garden, burning furniture that he threw out of the window. He’d been playing booming music. And he’d been wandering the streets outside our house with a large knife in his hand. Kendrick was a drug addict, and we’d been having a merry time of it.

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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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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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5 Ways to Be Present This Summer

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be present

It seems to be this way every year—one morning I wake up and it’s suddenly summer. Everything seems once again alive and moving. I’m relieved for the sunshine and the cleansing rain of an afternoon thunderstorm.

As I was walking my dog this morning it occurred to me that, as much as I think I’m enjoying the summer, I haven’t really been taking advantage of it the way I should be. I haven’t been embracing the moment. I still find myself inside participating in activities much more suited to the winter months—watching movies, baking, spending hours on the computer. It’s not that these things don’t have value, but it’s time for me to stop thinking about the beauty of summer and start actually enjoying it. Here’s what I’m going to do to start being present this summer:

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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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