This book contains “the practice” for daily living that is as simple as it is powerful. The daily practice of Think, Eat, Move, when mindfully and proactively integrated and embraced into your life, will support you in creating and experiencing your “greatest day” everyday.
As a wellness and lifestyle expert and a baby boomer at midlife, I have made it my professional and personal mission to take a stand and not fall prey to what many see as the inevitable decline and demise of our collective health, vitality, and outlook as a nation. This in spite of the challenging facts, daunting statistics, and what appears to be a direct and downward trend toward greater doom and gloom in regard to the health and well-being of Americans. I know that we are better than these facts and figures, and that we, as a collective whole, are ready to reverse the trends in obesity, diabetes, cancer, depression, and self-imposed malaise.
My optimism is growing; I see powerful reasons for hope. I hear it from friends and strangers, from schools and communities, from neighbors, and from professional colleagues. I see it in the way people desire to be more, to be better—to catch fire again and reclaim the life and livelihood they came here to express. By taking responsibility and applying the simple, empowering, and revolutionary principles found in this book, you will not only transform your health and well-being but also your overall happiness and life fulfillment. As a result, you will act as a catalyst to shift the tides, the momentum, and the grim outlook of those around you. Indeed, these interesting times will require transformation of our self-imposed mediocrity in order to build a movement toward outstanding, awesome, and epic world-class living.
I know personally how it feels to transform a life from average to amazing. I did not grow up in a highly functional, optimistic, exercise-focused, and veggie-and-granola-eating family; and I know what it is like to face one’s mortality. I have loved and lost parents, friends, and patients to preventable diseases. I have sat with Buddhist monks at 20,000 feet in the Himalayas and worked the graveyard shift at truck stops. I have experienced generations of alcoholism and thrived living in a spiritual community. I have built and lost multimillion-dollar businesses; and I have been brought to my knees with a learning disability and a love for the human spirit and God.
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My life today is a very different experience than the beginning of my life. My genetic heritage is scarred by cancer, diabetes, heart disease, alcoholism, and depression; and my early years were marked by fear and stress. But my parents had tenacity and grit, which has been a blessing to me along my journey; they loved me but struggled together. My self-esteem and confidence suffered, and I struggled in school with dyslexia and barely graduated high school. I was constantly beating myself up, finding fault, and replacing what I perceived as criticism and disappointment with my own version of self-loathing.
My early teen years were a time of great struggle. One morning, I stayed home from school, faking being sick because I was too scared to take a math test. The combination of being challenged with undiagnosed dyslexia and suffering from low confidence made for severe test anxiety. This particular morning, Jack LaLanne entered our living room via his television show. Decked out in his signature blue jumpsuit, I was mesmerized by his energy and his desire to serve and inspire. I could not take my eyes off him! Jack said that daily exercise was the penance that he paid for being able to feel good all day long. Boy, was I ready to feel good! I bought into every single word he said, and in that moment, Jack became my teacher and my mentor. He was exactly what I wanted and needed in my life; he tapped something deep inside me, and I was forever changed.
“All motion creates positive emotion,” said Jack. At that time, I did not fully understand the power of movement—how it positively affects psychology, giving one the ability to navigate stress in a healthier way; its power to raise self-esteem, confidence, brilliance, and presence. Today, I absolutely live by this motto. I strive to be a testament to it daily, and there is no doubt that it saved my life—and it will do the same for you.
My love of movement and mindfulness led me to study many other great teachers of self-development. From meditation to yoga to mysticism, I began to devour it all. I coupled my physical development and growth with the study of holistic health and well-being by integrating Eastern and Western ideas and practices on how to achieve peak living and thriving. My deep, burning desire was to heal my wounded and defeated self, shift my paradigm from surviving to thriving, and take what I was learning and share it with the world around me.
The love of living well gave me the vision to become a physician, despite being told by my high school guidance counselor that I’d be better served at a technical school, if anywhere. College was no easy task, but I was bound and determined to succeed. It was a rough road before I finally landed at Marlboro College, a small liberal arts college in Vermont where I received my undergraduate degree. From there, I chose the holistic path of naturopathic medicine, which combines Western (conventional) medicine and science with nutrition, exercise, herbal medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, and lifestyle medicine. Naturopathic medical school gave me a greater appreciation for science and an understanding of how the body works. The integrative, holistic philosophy opened my eyes to the idea of body and mind working together to create a life of limitless happiness, vitality, and empowerment.
Over the past twenty-plus years, I have witnessed the positive transformation of others, both professionally and personally, when they decide to become fully alive. From my experiences, this is what I know: we all have a story, and we can choose to allow this story to dictate our life’s experiences—or not. We can use it as an excuse to hold us back and keep us living small, or we can use it to serve us in making our life an epic expression of awesome.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of traveling to India with Made by Survivors, an international nonprofit organization that employs and educates survivors of slavery and other human rights abuses, including women and children living in red-light areas and border towns in extreme poverty. I had the honor of working with young women who had been victims of trafficking and sex slavery, and it was a life-changing, transformational experience for me on so many levels. These young women had lived through hell but were now living in shelter homes of safety, restoration, and rehabilitation, receiving the necessary support, education, nutrition, and love that had been taken from them at an early age—some as young as nine and ten years old. They were learning many life skills for the first time, including self-empowerment and self-love.
These girls had so much hope and love and joy in their hearts, in spite of the unspeakable horrors they experienced in their young lives. I witnessed this firsthand when I had the chance to talk to a group of survivors about self-care, nutrition, their bodies, and what it means to have a positive body image. I’m not sure why I was expecting something different, but I was surprised that they wanted the same things most of us want—to feel beautiful, loved, strong, and safe. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves, blame their circumstances, or dwell on their past experiences. Instead, they looked boldly ahead at what they were becoming, and were grateful every day for the opportunity to learn and grow.
What if we all approached life and our self-care with such appreciation, enthusiasm, and intention? I truly believe that self-care is a form of social activism; it is not selfish. It is the means through which we can transform ourselves and those around us.
It is my deepest desire to effect change in the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health of individuals and communities across our country and globally. As a natural optimist, I can admit that it sometimes makes me sad when I experience beautiful, talented, and gifted beings self-sabotaging by buying into the idea that they’ll never be happy, fit, loved, successful, or healthy because it’s just not in the cards for them this lifetime. I don’t buy it. We’re all here to make a difference; and we’re all deserving and capable of loving relationships, radiant health, and happiness.
Since my experience in India, I believe I won the life lottery by being born in North America during a time when, for the most part, I am free to do, create, and be anything that I desire. I haven’t always made the best choices, but every moment of every day I can choose to do something differently. I am free. I am worthy and so are you—I want you to know that deep within your soul. I want you to know that you are loved.
More important than anything else is the idea that despite your history or my history, past or present, we are here to do something great—to thrive. It is my mission to share what I know with you and others so that you can experience more happiness, peace, and love in your life and then spread it across the nation and the world. I believe in you—that your own personal mission and vision are necessary on this planet, which is why your self-care is so important.
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Both James and I are excited to share our experience and our expertise with you. We hope you will use some of our practices of positive and proactive thinking; mindful, healthy, and plant-based eating; and moving daily to claim or reclaim your awesome self in order to thrive.
Do it for yourself, those you love, and those you’ve never even met. The world will be better and brighter, and so will you.
Namaste.