Abandoning The Guilt Trip

While stress gets a lot of press because of its harmful effects on your health, guilt is usually overlooked as being equally destructive.  Whether someone tries to make you feel guilty or you succumb to it yourself, what good comes from feeling guilty?  Remorse for hurting somebody is one thing, but oftentimes we feel guilty because we ate cake, or because we think we're not doing something well enough.  What if we turned guilt around and practiced loving kindness toward ourselves, accepting that we are good enough and that we're all doing the best we can?  We might finally experience a new level of well-being and breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Guilt-Free Eating

One of the worst things we can do during a meal is to feel guilty about what we're eating.  Think of the mental stress we create if we're not enjoying our food, but rather feeling stressed about it?  I'm not advocating that you eat junk food and feel good about it, but that you choose food consciously and then savor it.  One of the explanations I like regarding why French people are generally thin is that they take time to really enjoy their food. In my blog post about learning this lesson with donuts, I share how I had to confront my desire for donuts so I could then let go of it and move beyond the guilt I had created around it.

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Changing the Game Plan to Live Your Passion

Sometimes the signposts that re-direct our lives come in unexpected ways.  We always have a choice – to acknowledge and follow those signs, or to ignore them because they don’t fit in with our “plan.”  Especially when it comes to discovering our ultimate purpose in life, it’s never too early to pay attention and change the game plan.

Why wait until you’ve spent 30 years in the wrong job to discover what the universe has been trying to tell you?

I truly believe that we’re constantly being sent messages to guide us on our path, and we just have to look for them to know what our path is.

Sometimes these signs come in disguised packages.

One of the things I’m most grateful for in my life is that I discovered Ayurveda when I was 22 years old.  Though I had planned to do community development work in South Africa, my life took a turn when I became introduced to Ayurveda  through The Yoga of Herbs by Dr. Vasant Lad.

Here’s the juicy story:

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How Simple Nutritional Changes Can Radically Improve Your Pet's Health

As a nutritionist, it should have seemed obvious to me that I could heal my dog by changing his food. But honestly it took me a little while to realize just how radically important it was. I've always bought high quality food for my dog, but even organic, all natural pet food may cause problems if your pet is sensitive for some reason or another. Here's some very interesting facts I learned with my dog Rascal. If your pet has any health issues, consider our story and perhaps you can also heal them by switching their food!

A year ago, my 2 year-old Doberman, Rascal, developed a wart above his eye. It grew very quickly and was nearing his eyelid, so I scheduled him with the vet to have the wart removed. Three months post-op, the wart began to grow again. A repeat surgery was out of the question because his heart didn't do well under anesthesia. I had to think of another treatment. At that time, I was feeding him Whole Foods brand dry dog food with salmon oil drizzled on top. I thought that perhaps switching him to the more expensive grain-free dog food might make a difference. Sure enough, within a few days, the wart started to shrink. Within a few weeks, it was gone.

Fast forward to a few months later, Rascal started to seem stiff when he'd get up out of his armchair or off of his pillow. The stiffness appeared to progress into pain, to the point that he would rarely get up. Once he was up and running around, he seemed ok. But the pain and stiffness seemed to get worse and worse. I really didn't think it could be arthritis in such a young dog, but we tried glucosamine supplements, different fish oils, and probiotics. Nothing really seemed to help. Then I thought, maybe I should buy the very best raw meat dog food. The one I bought was called VitaEssentials, and contained the organ meats as well. Amazingly, within a week or so, we noticed that he was perkier and got up more easily. As the weeks went on, he just got better and better. I couldn't believe it, and at the same time, I thought "Of course!" I see good nutrition make such a huge difference for people on a daily basis. Why wouldn't it be exactly the same for my dog?

Eventually we decided to start to make the raw meat (and our cash!) go farther by combining the dry grain-free food with the raw meat. He did really well with that for a long time. Last week, however, we noticed a fast-growing wart on his nose. So... Rascal is back to all raw food. Now he's getting Steve's which combines raw meat with veggies and coconut oil. I'll post an update when the wart goes away, which I'm guessing it will!

Moral of the story: Good nutrition makes a radical difference with our pets just like it does for us humans. If your pet has any health issues, such as allergies, pain, skin conditions, or digestive trouble, consider paying more at the pet food or grocery store than at the veterinarian's. It's very likely that your pet will improve radically given the right food. Perhaps try grain-free to start, and then progress to all raw if that's not enough. You can buy it or make your own. My guess is that if you're reading this article, you care a lot about what goes into your mouth and will want the best for your pet as well.

Please share your story below if you've also healed your pet with food. I'd love to hear more stories like this!