Category Archives: Remedies

Set an Intention

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These are not easy days, to say the least. But one thing that really helps me is to start each day by setting an intention.

What does that mean? Well, I might say to myself, “Today, I will take a few deep breaths.” Or, “I will keep my eyes on the road.” Or, “I will be kind to myself.” Intentions can be abstract or concrete. They can help you study, close your eyes, or stretch your arms to the ceiling a couple of times a day. They can let you stay in bed, ask for a back rub, take a long bath. Intentions are multi-purpose, which is an essential part of their charm. I weave them into the fabric of my days, and they make my weeks more interesting, resilient, even productive. The possibilities are endless. Continue reading →

Trust Your Gut

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We’ve got a big problem in this country: we have lost the ability to listen to our own bodies. We eat things that make us feel sick, but we don’t make the connection. 

We discount how we actually feel in favor of how we think we should feel, at least according to the latest nutrition claims and advertising on that box of “Frosty-0 Jumbos” or “Specialized Healthy Nutrient-Brand.” [I made up these names in case you couldn’t tell.] Here we have an entire country filled with people who feel kind of sick, for one reason or another, and have no idea why. That’s pretty wild all by itself, but it’s just half the story. The other half of the story is that we continue to accept as dogma all kinds of food-related information, even in the face of significant evidence to the contrary. We experience distressing symptoms, and then ignore them. Continue reading →

When My Friend Bob Turned His Health Around

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A while ago, I ran into my old friend Bob, and I was delighted to see a much slimmer, trimmer, happier-looking guy than I had seen the previous time. He and I had had a conversation about six months earlier, and I had suggested increasing the protein in his breakfast, and switching out the soda for unsweetened iced tea. That’s all. We hadn’t talked since. Continue reading →

Can a Simple Bowl of Fruit Heal Us?

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“We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters. If not, we will perish as fools.”  —Congressman John Lewis on July 8, 2016.

The events of the past week have shaken me, like many, and I don’t feel much like talking about food. Today I want to talk about something else. Like most important lessons, I have learned this one the hard way.  Continue reading →

Be Here Now

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“Be here now” is what Thich Nhat Hanh says. I think about that sentence a lot. It grounds me in the present and keeps me here, no matter what I’m doing, No matter when and where I’m doing it. Not there, not then, but here and now. For a long time I thought of “Be Here Now” as “be HERE now.” Sometimes “be here NOW.” But last week, for the first time, I heard myself think “BE here now.” Notice: Thich Nhat Hanh said BE here now, not DO here now. Continue reading →