October/November/December 2019

GOOD FAT L I F E

Q3 ISSUE OCTOBER 2019

MODERN HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

68

THE BILLION DOLLAR SECRET 9 GUILT FREE SNACKS

COMPASSION AT WORK

DR. SHAWNE DUPERON Founder of Project Forgive

THE APOLOGY YOU WILL NEVER RECEIVE

KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH COMPASSION & EMPATHY

the

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O “Deep compassion for others begins with compassion for ourselves.”

Sherri Richards

ur focus in this issue is on compassion. Why? The world needs more of it. Period. Each of us experiences those moments in our daily lives when we feel loving kindness toward another person, and we don’t know what to do or say.

Your friend calls and says her mom’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, or you hear there was another mass shooting that killed 20 people, or your dog is dying. Then there is the other side of the day when you feel great irritation because you just ate a whole bag of potato chips when you promised yourself you were done with chips, or your coworker dropped the ball, or your child lost their homework AGAIN. We experience multiple opportunities every day to use all different kinds of compassion, as you will read about in the pages that follow, even handling our medical bills can bring compassion into play. Compassion is a big topic and unfortunately, we are not usually even taught the basics growing up. It’s often just too uncomfortable.

I personally gained so much from each of our stories in this issue. All three of the books we reviewed presented new ideas on compassion from three very different perspectives. They walked us through how to show up powerfully for ourselves and for others especially when you have no clue what to do or say, and you desperately want to do something to ease the painful situation. Other leadership skills like “The Apology” that Dr. Shawne presents, take us to our core pain and allow us to quickly step into a transformed place that creates instant connection and the ability to move forward by letting go of situations that may have been holding us back for decades. I know I would have handled many personal and work situations differently had I had all these tools in my toolbox.

And then there is the food. Who knew that snacking has evolved into an integral way of life worldwide? By increasing your awareness about the way you snack you can easily increase your overall health and wellbeing while releasing some of those ways you beat up on yourself around food.

As we approach the final quarter of 2019, our thoughts begin to move to the holidays and all that comes with them. Great anticipation of happy family gatherings, or not. Giving our year-end gifts to the charities we value, the overabundance of delicious and waistline increasing food and that inundating swirl around finding the perfect gifts at the best deals on Black Friday. I’ve noticed as the years go by, the end of another year brings both feelings of joy as we celebrate the holidays (that 5-year-old in me still shows up), anticipation about a fresh new year, and then there may be some sadness as another year comes to a close. It is our intention that you, dear reader, will move into 2020 a more compassionate person, and experience a richer fuller GOOD FAT Life.

Compassion is a skill that can be taught, it just takes a willingness to want to learn and practice. Like everything else, deepening our compassion skillset begins with awareness. I promise the journey is worth it.

With much love Sherri Richards

Publisher sherri@goodfatlife.com 4 | Good Fat Life

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Contributing AUTHORS

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Joey Leslie

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6 | Good Fat Life

TABLE OF

CONTENTS october / november / december 2019

20

24

Compassion & Empathy Keys to Good Health

8 12 16 18 20

26 The 68 Billion Dollar Secret Compassion at Work Dr. Shawne Duperon Good To Know Sherri’s Favorites

28 30 32 34

Heal Often Comfort Always Healthy Keto Recipe Grace Yourself Telling Your Money Story The Reading Room

Compassion or Coffee:

What’s In Your Cup?

22

The Guilty Pleasure of a Snack

30 October 2019 | 7

THE 68 BILLION DOLLAR SECRET

by Kimberly Speranza

8 | Good Fat Life

H

ealthcare has a $68,000,000,000 little secret.

So what in the world does this secret mean to you and me?

Here is my story.

When my mother was diagnosed with Lewy-Body dementia, I had no idea the struggle it would be to manage her care. But when the grief of losing my mother was put on pause as the medical bills consumed my father and me, something was terribly wrong.

Born and raised in a small farming community in Nebraska, my Father was hardworking, faithful, and honest. On a fall morning, we sat at the kitchen table trying to solve the equation of 32 bills, 65 explanation of benefit (EOB) summaries, endless pages of insurance policy information, and 7 “helpful” FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sheets.

The numbers just didn’t add up. As I looked at my father trying to make sense of all this paperwork, I knew this was a losing battle.

We were in trouble. I just started crying.

Dad had done everything right. He had worked hard, saved for retirement, and had solid insurance through his blue-collar job of managing grain elevators. My parents were surrounded by generations of family and a supportive community. Yet here we stood at the crossroad of either paying a $35,000 medical bill or having my mother’s healthcare treatments stop. We were caught in between the double bind of bouncing between the healthcare provider and the insurance carrier. We were spending hours going nowhere. The question no one could answer was, “why did a fully insured person owe $35,000 during treatment?”

us through the stress and the mess. But by late winter, I was pregnant with twins, 2,000 miles from home sitting in the administrative office of a large hospital in Rochester Minnesota. I waited all day for someone to answer one simple question: Why is my Mom’s insurance coverage being denied?

While I dug my heels into my mothers care, my husband was busy doing research. He took the task of trying to find us help when there was none to be found. What he did find, however, was breathtaking. Investigative research exposing facts like 40% or more of all medical bills have errors. Fast forward to today, over 50% of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills, 62% of Americans fear to receive a large medical bill, and over 200,000,000 million claims are denied by insurance carriers each year.

As that fateful winter day was ending with no solution in sight, a different administrative staff agreed to see the “crazy pregnant lady” once again. As we sat down in her office she once again began to re-explain the situation.

As I pleaded with her that we were being forced to pay or take my Mother home, I asked her to triple check the codes (there are now 68,000 diagnosis codes). As she sat looking at her computer, an astonished look came over her face. The hospital had coded her procedure as a psychological treatment. That misidentified code lead to a denial of insurance coverage that produced an unwarranted $35,000 medical bill my father was being forced to pay or take Mom home.

Savvy to the corporate world, I rarely take no for an answer. I thought my tenacity could manage October 2019 | 9

Unfortunately, my mother’s story is all too common.

But what did emerge from our loss was HealthLock, our company that has helped over 100,000 families, seniors, stressed out daughters, grieving husbands and widowed wives uncover the truth. Our experts have saved our community over $50,000,000 in healthcare costs. Our claim denial appeals rate is 68%. Our member’s letters and testimonials continually share how they love the peace of mind of being protected.

Today, our personal mission is to verify every medical, dental, vision, and RX bill to protect our friends, family, and community. Our Community of Care can come alongside you to bear the burden of healthcare administration and show you our stress-reducing app features like real-time deductible tracking, one-click insurance policy coverage, medical record management, and much more.

Over the 13 years of caring for my mother before the disease overcame her, we gained a lifetime of education on the secret side of healthcare that has lost a level of its compassion. We experienced a system that is complicated and expensive and where it seems procedures and processes are sometimes more important then wellness and care.

During this time, my husband realized there was one consistent and startling fact that we kept uncovering, many of the medical bills, insurance coverage denials, and costs during my mother’s care were wrong.

But, does anyone else realize this? How big is this problem? How many other families are battling just like us, or worse, how many have just given up and over-paid? How many families were unnecessarily forced to file bankruptcy due to these mistakes? We had to find out.

What we uncovered that day was a massive healthcare problem totaling over $68,000,000,000 a year in overcharges due to mistakes, errors, claim denials, greed, and fraud. Almost worse, according to Gallup, American’s fear a high medical bill more than terrorism, loss of job, retirement planning…more than any other issue facing American’s today. THIS IS BIG! We must bring compassion and honesty back to healthcare.

10 | Good Fat Life

If you download HealthLock from the App Store or Google Play and use referral code THETRUTH, you’ll receive a free medical bill audit covering the past 2 years. We’ve made it really simple and you don’t’ have to send or upload anything. The app automatically downloads your claims, organizes them in an easy to understand format, and audits them for errors and overcharges.

The download and audit is free. See if you’ve been overcharged.

More importantly, join us in our mission to be part of a Community of Care providing compassion as we uncover the truth to healthcare costs. We have thousands of stories to tell and hope we can come alongside your healthcare journey.

Go to getHealthLock.com/thetruth for more information and learn how we’re donating 20% of your member fee to support the mission of Project Forgive. And please know, Scott and I do not earn any income from your membership.

Kimberly is the co-founder of Healthlock, a former advertising executive and pilates instructor. She resides with her husband and two children in Franklin, TN.

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The value of consuming glands is to acquire the DNA which helps repair that organ in the body. There are other valuable nutrients in glands, too.

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COMPASSION AT WORK

by Joey Leslie

W

e are in a conference room outside of Detroit this past August when a woman I’ve been randomly paired with - let’s refer to her as Gracestarts spilling her guts to me about her mother.

12 | Good Fat Life

She is crying as she tells me her elderly mom hasn’t spoken to her in years even though Grace is, in large part, her only lifeline. Grace pays the mortgage on the house her mother won’t allow her into. She pays the phone bill even though they aren’t on speaking terms. The list goes on.

Dr. Shawne, as she’s affectionately called, a six-time EMMY® Award Winner, one-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and a world-class communicator with a Ph.D. in Gossip (literally) said, the popular Bootcamp is designed to show leaders the importance and impact of taking risks.

“You’re going to screw up… ,” she said.

“It’s part of being human; it’s part of being a leader. Risk-taking allows for agility, disruption, and problem-solving.

It’s inevitable that it won’t always go the way you planned. The key is how quickly can you forgive yourself and others, to get back on track.”

Grace says she might as well be an only child because her siblings stopped helping her out years ago. Her father is a sweet man, but he’s ailing, too, and his voice gets lost in the fray of hard feelings.

Then we hear Dr. Shawne Duperon call out, “Switch!”

Just like that, it’s my turn to embrace vulnerability. But there’s a twist. I’m to respond to Grace as if I were her mother. It’s my job, in this activity, to give her the apology her mother will not.. the apology she’ll never receive.

I have 10 seconds to look Grace in her mascara-smudged blue eyes and speak on behalf of her mom and more than 20 years of pain. I’m panicking, at a loss for words as Grace and I lean into each other instinctively as to not miss a word or a feeling in this crowded, emotionally-charged room where about 75 other people are doing the same thing.

Then I hear myself say, “My dear, I am so sorry I have hurt you…”

From there, my words flowed easily and felt like the truth - A gift. In less than one minute, the healing had begun for us both.

It may sound like a scene from a ‘feelings retreat,’ and to the uninitiated, it can feel exactly as such. But this activity aptly called “The Apology,” was a part of a HighPressure Communications Bootcamp created and led by Dr. Shawne Duperon for high-level business leaders.

With activities, tools, and strategies designed to help leaders embrace vulnerability, empathy, and compassion, Dr. Shawne gives people permission to take empathy into all areas of their lives - especially the workplace.

Her client roster includes forward-thinking companies such as Bosch, Corteva and General Motors (GM) where Reginald Humphrey, GM’s Asst. Director of Supplier Engagement has helped make Dr. Shawne’s tools and practices a part of the corporate culture.

Humphrey said compassion and forgiveness are key characteristics of great business leaders but are often overlooked and undervalued.

“As a leader, you are consistently faced with risk-taking, and you need to find innovative methods to solve problems and cultivate new ideas,” Humphrey said. “You have to be able to forgive yourself and others in this disruptive business environment in order to encourage creativity that delivers competitive and innovative solutions. We [at GM] embrace this perspective, which is why we support progressive conversations like ‘forgiveness as a leader.’”

Humphrey first participated in Dr. Shawne’s workshop in 2017 during a conference held by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). He was Board Chairman of the Great Lakes Women’s Business Council at that time and found the activities so impactful he has since sponsored workshops that include these conversations for Women Business Enterprises across the United States.

October 2019 | 13

To support the continued growth and work around the world, the group recently launched “The Apology” Necklace, a $25 sterling silver dove necklace crafted exclusively as a fundraiser for the Project Forgive Foundation.

Available at ProjectForgive.org, Dr. Shawne says the dove necklace represents bringing diverse communities together by developing and advancing skills for people who have direct and daily interaction with children.

It comes packaged with Project Forgive’s most-requested tool - the 3-step process to accept the apology you’ll never receive - and 100% of all proceeds go directly to Project Forgive.

The signature tool of Project Forgive, ‘The Apology’ is now being practiced in corporations, not-forprofit organizations, associations and universities around the world.

Next up is a soon-to-be-released, non-religious, nonpartisan documentary that explores forgiveness: the myths; the health implications of choosing to forgive (or not to); and the real stories of people who have overcome pain, bitterness, and anger and found joy.

THE RISE OF PROJECT FORGIVE

PIVOT POINTS

Project Forgive started as a short video created by Dr. Shawne to initiate a conversation on forgiveness. No politics, no religion, just an authentic inquiry of what forgiveness means to people across the globe.

Like most good things, Dr. Shawne’s “The Apology” was born out of necessity. But it is because of her willingness to accept, if not embrace, her own vulnerability that the power of her work has been able to help so many others.

The video’s compelling story is about a man - a friend of Dr. Shawne’s - who lost his wife and children to a drunk driver and responded with unexpected compassion. The video went viral to tens of thousands of screens across the globe.

Yes, Dr. Shawne is consistently rated among the top speakers and trainers globally and has been featured on major media such as CNN, ABC, NBC, CBC, and Inc. Magazine.

Since then, Project Forgive has been officially endorsed

by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and has grown to reach millions of people each month in social media and tens of thousands via Facebook Live broadcasts.

Its impact was so powerful and far-reaching that Project Forgive was honored with a 2016 Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the progressive and authentic conversations it caused globally.

This unprecedented response was the catalyst for the Project Forgive Foundation, a 501c3 non-religious, nonpartisan organization, committed to causing community impact in mental health.

The organization’s programs and tools are designed to empower teachers, probation officers, and other community leaders who are most involved with developing, teaching, and mentoring kids.

14 | Good Fat Life

Meanwhile, in this last year, she lost her father and sister to cancer. Her brother and mother are facing terminal cancer today. And her relationship with her mother can be described as ‘challenging’ for about as far back as Dr. Shawne can remember.

“My background includes childhood trauma and sexual abuse,” she said. “My mother carried a lot of guilt; I carried a lot of shame.

By practicing her own philosophies relentlessly, she has been able to release much of the pain and resentment that has defined her relationship with her mom for so many years.

“We’ve worked as a mother-daughter team to move through the years of betrayal, pain, and anguish,” she said. “Our relationship is far from perfect, and we have come full circle with respect, love, and appreciation for each others’ journey.

In that way, “The Apology” serves as a pivot point. And for entrepreneurs like author Randy Gage - whose story is featured in the upcoming Project Forgive documentary - it’s the difference between deciding to be the victor in your story or the victim.

Gage knows firsthand that forgiveness is a powerful tool.

While living in Miami during the “Cocaine Cowboy” days, Gage was shot in a robbery attempt and left for dead in the street. Fortunately, doctors saved his life with emergency surgery. Unfortunately, they also removed his healthy appendix because, as one doctor explained it, “we were in there anyway.”

This left Gage with two choices to make: how to feel toward the person who put a bullet in him and how to feel about the person who saved him but stole his organ in the process.

Gage reasoned that to hang on to hate or revenge against the man who tried to kill him would have poisoned his mind and prevented a complete recovery. To hang on to resentment for the people who kept him alive would be choosing to hang on to victimhood.

Ultimately he chose to forgive them both.

“I too have been powerless over an addiction,” Gage said. “The man who shot me was operating in an entirely different life track, but he unknowingly offered me an opportunity for great personal growth and my life has been enriched greatly because of him. I also realized that the doctors had done the best they could with what they had to work with and with the consciousness they had at that moment.”

Since then, Gage has written multiple NYT Best Sellers and delivers power speeches and seminars on stages around the world.

He frequently speaks in the corporate world, sharing his story of how compassion and forgiveness are not simply topics for New Age workshops but are actual requirements for success in business.

Much like Dr. Shawne, Gage recognizes that it’s often most difficult and most important - to forgive ourselves, a topic which he addresses in his popular “Prosperity Podcast.”

“I came to understand that no matter how bad I thought I was, I intuitively knew that I must forgive myself and move on or I would continue to manifest a life of misery, limitation and lack,” Gage said. “When someone comes to me, and his or her prosperity seems blocked, this is where I look first. Only once they forgive themselves can they become successful.”

For more information on Project Forgive, please visit projectforgive.org

Joey Leslie is a Creative Consultant for Good Fat Life and the founder of Cleverest Group, a marketing agency specializing in brand identity and storytelling. You can reach him at joey@cleverestgroup.com.

MORE GOOD NEWS While business leaders such as GM’s Humphrey are finding ways to bring compassion into the workplace, thought leaders like Randy Harris are finding ways to put more compassion out into the world.

When Harris launched the website UnderstandingCompassion.com in 2015, he set out to showcase random acts of kindness taking place around the world, and to celebrate the people behind them.

He believes people want - and need - to know about the good things happening in the world.

“In our first year we had numerous posts on social media reach over 1 million shares and videos topping 10, 30, and 80 million views,” Harris said. “It showed us that people are really seeking positive stories and information in the media.”

Harris said the website now receives around 1 million visitors monthly and reaches more than 300 million people monthly through social media.

Popular stories on the site include that of a terminally-ill, 91-year-old woman who knitted thousands of winter hats for the homeless while she was in the hospital and two children who asked their dad to stop their car so they could help a disabled stranger shovel snow from his sidewalk.

Harris said stories about celebrities are popular as well, in part because people appreciate seeing wealthy people put their money toward making the world a better place. Bonus points if they do it without drawing attention to themselves.

“It’s very common to see people commenting that they were moved to tears by how beautiful these acts of kindness were,” Harris said. “Many people who regularly read stories of kindness and compassion find themselves being kinder to strangers in their daily lives as well, which is what we’re all about.”

October 2019 | 15

GOOD TO KNOW OR THOSE THINGS YOU WISH SOMEONE WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU – BUT DIDN’T!

by Sherri Richards

W

e hear stories all the time about those helpful hints, or people who are doing fascinating work in the world, that we just need to tell you about to make life easier. Or even better, they can help you to take your current conversation to a whole new place.

In each issue of Good Fat Life, we will collect these “Good To Knows” into one place that will be easy for you to refer back to.

1

Gum Disease is linked with heart disease; therefore, it is essential to keep up with your dental health, even if you are not concerned about your smile. Flossing fosters longevity, independent of brushing one’s teeth, as does seeing the dentist at least twice per year. An analysis in the Journal of Aging Research found that people who never flossed increased their risk of mortality by 30 percent compared to those who flossed every day. Skipping your annual dentist appointment increases your risk of mortality by 30 to 50 percent compared to people who saw the dentist two or more times a year, and never brushing at night increased mortality risk by 20 to 50 percent. Worth, Feb-April 2017

2

According to Dr. Peter Attlia, the Founder of the Peter Attlia, Drive Podcast, Longevity is a balance of lifespan (living longer) and healthspan (living better); Increasing lifespan boils down to delaying the inevitability of death, which mathematically equates to delaying the onset of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease (heart attack and stroke), cancer, and accidental death. Taken together, these broad causes of death account for about 80% of deaths in a non-smoking population.

16 | Good Fat Life

Enhancing healthspan, by contrast, boils down to avoiding (or at a minimum delaying as long as possible) three categories of Decline: • Cognitive Decline. Decline in executive function, processing speed, and memory; Alzheimer’s disease is an extreme version of this decline, but many far less severe forms of this decline are pervasive.

• Physical Decline. Decline in stability, flexibility, mobility, strength, muscle mass, bone density, aerobic function, anaerobic function, functional movement, freedom from pain, and sexual function.

• Emotional Decline. Decline in mindfulness, social support, sense of purpose, fulfillment, and relationality.

While death is absolute and inevitable, a loss of the three elements of healthspan is not. They are relative (different people will have different thresholds of what constitutes decline), analog (they progress in stages rather than exist as an all-or-none switch), and most importantly, they are not inevitable.

To learn more, check out, “The 5 tactics in Peter’s longevity toolkit,” at peterattiamd.com/the-5-tactics-in-thelongevity-toolkit. We will be talking more about these tactics in upcoming issues of Good Fat Life.

I’d love to hear your “Good to Know” helpful hints, life hacks or about people who have evidenced-based ideas to share, that provide for a deeper conversation about topics that contribute to a deeper, richer and more profound life.

Email me at Sherri@goodfatlife.com.

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The design features a romantic Moroccan trellis pattern, which brings a sense of the exotic into your home or office. It functions as a humidifier, atomizer, and aroma diffuser in one simple-touse product. The Desert Mist also offers multiple settings—High, Low, and Intermittent mode— to permeate your home or office for up to 10 hours of blissful aromatherapy. The Desert Mist is designed to run longer and offer more features, so you can customize your aromatherapy experience to any mood. It offers 10 LED colored light options, including an alluring candle-like flicker mode.

With its beautiful design, this elegant diffuser will fit right in with any home or office décor.

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Sherri's Favorites

We all try to ensure that we’re as beautiful on the outside as we are on the inside, so why not use a product that provides the kind of results you’d expect from us. Luscious and purely perfect Face Pudding are naturally scented and leave the face silky smooth. I mean, it’s as they say, the proof is in the pudding!

O’ For Feet Sake can turn your little piggies from a source of shame to a claim of fame in two weeks or less. Infused with Tea Tree oil and natural butters and oils, it’s a combination that your feet can feel and you can see.

A Lo-Lo Bar is an artisan-quality moisturizer made from locally sourced beeswax and skin loving oils and butters. The moisturizer deeply penetrates the skin and lasts through multiple hand washings. Double your pleasure and scrunch in hair for shine & frizz control!

Bar-maids.com Pumpkin Spice and Everything Good Fat and Nut Free. It’s yummy good and the macros rock with a 4.2:1 ratio of fats to protein and carbs combined. The bar is designed to help your body transform from burning sugar to burning fat.

The hand-made Pumpkin Spice Bar is packed with 16 grams of the best plant-based fats from raw and organic cacao butter. Fat is the most efficient fuel source of sustainable energy for your body.

Enjoy the delicious taste and health benefits. Make it a great companion to have with you to satisfy your sweet tooth and giving you a boost of calm and consistent energy.

Gluten-Free, Vegan, Grain Free, Soy Free, High % Raw and Organic, Hand-made. goodfatcompany.com

October 2019 | 19

FLIP THE SCRIPT

COMPASSION OR COFFEE: WHAT’S IN YOUR CUP?

by Lori Burns

A

pathy. Indifference. Disregard. Desensitized.

Do I have everyone’s attention? Good. Often these words make us feel uncomfortable, even cause tension. Or do we feel anything when we hear these expressions? Aren’t we taught that it’s better to focus on positive ideologies like joy, acceptance, hope, and love? Despite our best efforts, the reality is, our world 20 | Good Fat Life

is full of both darkness and light. So, what makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, or makes us want to turn a blind eye when we see our elderly neighbor scraping ice from their windshield during winter? Have we have become so used to the suffering of others that it doesn’t affect us anymore? This attitude of indifference, unconcern, unresponsiveness,

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Dallas. I had luggage, purse, and latte in hand. The gentleman in front of me had carry-on luggage, and a monstrous back-pack attached to his body like the hunch-back of Notre-dame. Unbeknownst to him, I and my latte were directly behind his giant backpack as he swung it off his body in an attempt to heave it into the overhead bin. I am pretty sure I heard my coffee cry out in pain as it left the cup. Or maybe that was me crying.

Regardless, most of the latte ended up on my white, super cute, “I am going to Dallas for a women’s conference” teeshirt. Now, you would think that the man would have said something, anything. Nope. He looked at me like I shouldn’t have brought the latte onto the plane in the first place. And then he took his seat and looked at his phone. Indifferent.

Desensitized. As did everyone else that witnessed the death of my latte. What? Why was this man’s empathy tank empty? And, to top it off, not one person around me offered a napkin, tissue, or even condolences for my loss. I stood there with the new design on my white t-shirt, still in shock, bordering on depression, mostly at the utter lack of compassion from my fellow humans.

The word compassion literally means “to suffer together.”

It means the willingness to truly take action to alleviate another’s suffering and requires an interconnectedness that is neither self-centered nor selfish. It is not a skill you can learn simply by watching or looking at your phone. We need to be modeling the act of compassion in our homes,

In closing, I leave you with these final thoughts. Kristen was awesome. In a nutshell, I was impressed by her actions over and beyond her job. It is the reason I am writing a letter to Southwest Airlines about one of their employees. She didn’t save a life, rescue a puppy, or cure cancer. She just saw a woman in distress that her latte had been spilled, but coffee can be replaced, and a white shirt can be cleaned. There will be more flights. And with more flights means more opportunities for me to put into practice the thing that I learned from Kristin: empathy in action.

My name is Lori Burns. I am a wife, mother, and student working towards my master’s degree in professional counseling. I currently live in Franklin, Tennessee, love watching football, my son plays golf, the Oregon coast, and French-pressed coffee. My son Christopher is 14, going into the 9th grade this fall. After 20 years of marriage, my husband still thinks I am the funniest person on the planet, and always lets me manage the remote control. We are a perfect match. And he loves fish….go figure.

GUSTO BIST N UOSocial events and the holidays are fast R

O

My story has a happy ending. Kristen, the Southwest flight attendant, saw the whole thing. She did not have to help.

It was not her job to whisk me to the back of the plane, strip my tee-shirt off, clean it, (completely, I might add), and boldly offer her extra clothes to me, a total stranger, while my tee-shirt dried. That was an act of compassion that instantly restored my faith in humanity. I pondered what made her different from other people who ignored my hardship, even when I needed an extra set of hands to pick up the lid of the latte. What made Kristen want to help me, and why didn’t the man who killed my latte even apologize? And more importantly, why were the people so indifferent? These are heavy questions, and the answers are somewhat subjective. Everyone has a story. I don’t know what back-pack man’s story is, or why he seemingly didn’t care about spilling coffee on my shirt, or why the other 15 people that watched it happen and didn’t jump up to help. I only care about the one person that had compassion on me, even though she had 150 people to get onto a plane, seated, and counted. She took human kindness to a whole other level.

to the upcoming generation of children. We need to be teaching them to look at situations from other peoples viewpoints, thereby practicing empathy and learning compassion.

B

and detachment is everywhere, even in the friendliest of towns. And apparently on airplanes.

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October 2019 | 21

THE GUILTY PLEASURE OF THE SNACK

by Sherri Richards

W

hen I was a kid, we were not allowed to snack as it would ruin our meals. No wonder we had to stay outside until dinner – who wanted hungry, crabby kids around?

Innovative products in functional ingredients, convenience, and organic foods, as well as advancement in areas of packaging technology, are expected to provide a future growth opportunity in snack foods.

Well, times have changed.

“The average American now eats three commercial savory baked snacks (pretzels, popcorn, crackers, etc.) every day, and that’s before we even start to factor in the cupcakes, sodas, energy bars, and toaster pastries,” as stated in Bee Wilson’s September 7, 2019 article in the Wall Street Journal.

This also implies that the shift away from the traditional three meals a day, is not just occurring here in the United States, it is happening worldwide. Apparently, as a result of this, ready-to-eat food is the largest segment of the overall conventional and non-conventional food industry.

That is why we see snack food marketed everywhere food is offered. Eating is a necessity of life, and the way we humans are eating is changing.

According to Mordor Intelligence, “the global market for snack food is expected to reach 762 billion US dollars by 2024. This segment is growing at a fast pace, as a result of the high consumer acceptance for such food globally.

The 21st century has seen significant population growth combined with extremely busy lifestyles, making quick and easily available food critical. Busy lives exclude sufficient time to prepare and cook a home meal and have

22 | Good Fat Life

forced people to rely on convenience foods and/or snacks, eating smaller meals on the run or grazing throughout the day.

The original purpose of the snack was to keep fits of hunger at bay between meals.

Today, as a result of the new lifestyle, snacks are multi-functioned. They are used to satisfy hunger, dissolve cravings and boredom, soothe feelings of stress, increase certain kinds of nutrition, control weight and/or instill quick energy. This does not include the potential temptations offered at “special” sporting and art events, as well as, family and holiday get-togethers! They are laden with snacks on steroids and, because they are considered “special,” we give ourselves a “pass” on counting them.

On the one hand, if we use our snacking to our advantage, a snack can be a healthy option that may actually, keep our weight under control, keep us performing at our optimal levels and feeling “good.” On the other hand, bad snacking can result in ineffective behavior, declining health, and just plain “feeling bad.” The good news?

You get to choose.

Now, here is the kicker. One of the theories Laura Jack learned in her training to become a health coach at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, is the idea of bio-individuality. In short, “there is no perfect way of eating that works for everybody.” The food that works for your unique body, age and lifestyle, may make another person gain weight and feel lethargic. In addition, there may not be a way of eating, that will work for you for the rest of your life. Our bodies are changing all the time. Thus, it is important to our overall health and well-being, to pay attention to what we snack on continuously, and how we feel and pay attention to what our bodies are telling us, it may be time for a change.

The main reason the Good Fat Bars; a clean, high fat, low carb bar, was developed and marketed, was because

Dr. Darren Schmidt saw hundreds of patients in his clinic weekly, who were sick as a result of not getting the proper and adequate nutrition needed, especially when it came to good fat. There was not an easy grab-and-go good fat snack available on the market. It’s hard to carry around an avocado. In fact, the FDA had to create a whole new food category for the Good Fat Bars!

Snacking is one of those topics that can also bring on guilt. How many people hate to confess that they raid the kitchen at night? The key issue is awareness. The next time you start opening the cupboards and refrigerator looking to appease that craving, just stop for a moment and ask yourself if you are really hungry, just bored, or delaying the fact it’s time to go to bed. Be open to answering the question honestly. This is how to build awareness.

A significant key to most everything, including healthy snacking, starts with awareness. One of my clients found that when she paid attention, some days she was really hungry, and other days just delaying bedtime. The truth was that it varied. However, when she determined that she was, in fact, hungry, she sought a healthy snack, and as a side effect (or because of) her sleep even improved!

So, what is a healthy snack? The answer is it depends on your goals and the type of food you eat. The most common answer is a combination of good fat, protein, and fiber. It is critical to read the labels, as many snacks are processed foods in disguise that are loaded with sugar, bad fats, and preservatives. The ideal snack has about 100 calories per serving if it is truly a snack or 250 calories if it is a meal replacement. You can find excellent, delicious, and healthy snacks regardless if you are Keto, Vegan, Paleo, etc.

For more healthy snack recipes, go to Gracesavorysweet.com/recipies

NINE SNACK SUGGESTIONS Vegetables: If the guideline is to eat 9 cups of vegetables a day as my nutritionist tells me, this is the only way I will get the volume in.

Cucumbers, celery, or peppers with ¼ cup of hummus.

Broccoli or Cauliflower with olive oil and sea salt Celery Sticks with almonds or almond butter Celery sticks with Pimento cheese Raw nuts: Keep a bag of almonds or walnuts handy.

Fresh Fruit: An apple with a slice of cheese or almond butter Fresh or frozen berries with plain full fat yogurt Eggs: Hard Boiled or Deviled Green Olives stuffed with cheese

October 2019 | 23

COMPASSION & EMPATHY KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH

C

by Dr. Partha Nandi

ompassion is a critical component of being a good doctor, but beyond my medical practice, compassion is an important element of all my relationships. Practicing compassion and empathy makes me a better husband, father, and friend. As an added benefit, it is good for my health.

Exercising empathy, and consciously incorporating compassion in your relationships, can improve your physical and emotional well-being.

HOW DOES COMPASSION IMPACT HEALTH? Our bodies are interconnected systems. When we talk about health, we must not just consider physical functions. Our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves are all powerfully – and beautifully – linked.

Compassion is the emotional recognition of another’s suffering.

When we exercise empathy, we acknowledge what others are going through. We stand in that pain with them. It is a powerful emotion; it can soothe the suffering of others as well as provide strong health benefits.

Those who practice compassion report less stress, and therefore a reprieve from the negative physical effects that stress can trigger or worsen – including high blood pressure and heart disease, gastrointestinal distress, and diabetes.

Additionally, research has shown that practicing compassion may lower inflammation and increase the body’s ability to fight disease by strengthening the immune system.

WANT HAPPINESS AND A LONG LIFE? TRY COMPASSION. Research supports a correlation between compassion and happiness. When researchers gave money to participants, they found that those who spent money on others reported feeling happier than those who spent the money on themselves.

Research with children as young as two showed similar results.

24 | Good Fat Life

Compassion involves a shift in the way we see others, and it can also affect the way others view us. In studies and surveys, compassionate people were rated as being more attractive and happier.

Being compassionate means connecting with others in deep, meaningful ways. When we feel connected with others, we are more at peace with ourselves. Our bodies heal more quickly from injury and illness. Research even suggests that compassionate people may live longer!

HOW DO I BECOME MORE COMPASSIONATE? It’s a simple formula: Compassionate people show compassion. If you want to have more compassion in your relationships, make a conscious effort to practice it.

Be mindful in your relationships. Listen – really listen – to others.

Forgive. Love. Model these behaviors for your children.

Volunteer in your community. Whether it be volunteering at a homeless shelter, visiting a nursing home, or getting involved with a tutoring program for disadvantaged youth, there are countless ways to make a positive impact in your community and to show compassion to those who may be suffering.

Practicing compassion makes us happier and healthier. Helping those in need helps us, too. askdrnandi.com SOURCES askdrnandi.com/stress-how-to-beat-it askdrnandi.com/5-ways-body-reacts-yourestressed askdrnandi.com/chronic-inflammation-causessymptoms-and-treatment greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_ make_giving_feel_good psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-17888-001

Lighten Up 2020

What’s weighing you down?

• Let G o of Mental Weight • Let G o of Physical Weight • Let G o of Financial Problems • Let G o of the Stuff In Your House Join us along with your fellow community members to rid yourself from what’s bogging you down.

For more details on how you can participate, go to goodfatlife.com/lightenup2020 October 2019 | 25

Heal O ften.

Comfort A lways.

by Joanmarie Vanaski

Natural View Market creates the proper environment for living a healthier lifestyle with a wonderful boutique-like feel. Shelves are stocked with the best, high- quality brands of herbs, nutritional supplements, and Homeopathy.

Hummer has created a fun and whimsical side of the shopping experience, too, including a large selection of unique essential oils, handmade soaps, chocolates, teas, candles, and more.

“We appreciate that you are a three-dimensional being- body, mind, and spirit, woven together as one,” Hummer said. “Any action, thought or feeling that one has, will create a rippling effect on not only our own body but in those that surround us in our community. Wellbeing is the state of being comfortable, healthy, and happy. Compassion and comfort is our priority.”

The staff at NVM takes great care in helping customers find the perfect protocol to meet their wellness goals, and that goes beyond the products they offer.

L

ife can take its toll on all of us in many ways.

Sometimes waking up to face the day can be quite a challenge on its own, but stores like Natural View Market make it easier to build wellness into your life in a variety of ways.

Heal often. Comfort always. That was Karen Hummer’s mission when she opened Natural View Market in downtown Brighton, MI in 2009.

Realizing that there is no quick fix for optimal health, Hummer set out to create a space where people can find a variety of products and services, to help them nurture themselves and others, along the infinite journey toward wellness.

26 | Good Fat Life

Essential oils are a great way to recover and help ease wounds of the heart and nourish the spirit of compassion for ourselves and others. The spiritual influence of the essential oil Rose has been known for thousands of years and has the highest spiritual frequency of all essential oils. It opens the heart chakra, allowing one to feel unconditional love and is perfect for opening and uplifting compassion and care as an everyday experience.

If someone has a day that causes them to feel anguish and self-concern, there is nothing better then offering them a warm cup of Linden tea, it is indispensable in today’s stressful world. It’s so easy to make someone’s day by offering a delicious tea that will bring calm and inner peace.

What if you are caring for an elderly parent or a disabled family member and begin to suffer “compassion fatigue”?

Revitalization can be easily found through a formulated Flower Essence combination of Olive, Red Chestnut and Star of Bethlehem.

This deeply restorative remedy will bring calm, soothing healing qualities, comfort, and reassurance. It can be especially helpful when we feel in shock or are greatly overwhelmed.

Because ongoing education about timely wellness topics is paramount to wellness, Hummer offers regular seminars at Natural View Market addressing current health concerns and issues. She also encourages the NVM staff to engage in the educational training needed to enhance their knowledge about everything Natural View Market has to offer.

A Wellness MedSpa located on the second floor hosts a full staff of Certified Wellness Practitioners who offer special services such as, Naturopathy, Hair Analysis, Nutritional Therapy, Colonics, Holistic Parent Coaching, Infant Massage, Emotional Freedom Technique, Reiki, Homeopathy, Plant Stem Cell, and Flower Essences Therapies.

NVM also has an on-staff professional beauty consultant who can help customers choose the right color cosmetics or skincare options, from their topof-the-line products, which are clean and free of harmful chemicals.

Hours: M-F 9-7 • Sat 9-5 • Sun 11-5 128 W. Main Street • Brighton, MI 48116

www.naturalviewmarket.com • 810-225-7300 October 2019 | 27

HEALTHY KETO RECIPE

by Kristi Hunt Sauces. They can be so simple, yet so powerful. When it comes to chicken, I prefer to have it dressed up with a bright and flavorful sauce; chicken doesn’t excite me, it’s more of a vessel to deliver sauce in. This Hawaiian sauce does the trick!

It’s quick and simple to prepare, and contains ingredients that you most likely already have in your pantry. Although I’m pairing it here with chicken thighs, it can be paired with any protein that you prefer. Serve it up with cauliflower rice and charred peppers and onions for a complete meal.

Hawaiian Chicken Thighs

Serves 4 Per serving: Cal 168, Fat 8g, Carb 2g Protein 22g Ingredients 1 tbsp tomato paste 1 tbsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce) 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 tsp rice vinegar ¼ tsp ginger powder ¼ tsp garlic powder Salt to taste 1 lb chicken thighs Directions Season chicken thighs with salt and roast at 425 degrees until cooked thoroughly, or approximately 30-35 minutes. Whisk together sauce ingredients in a small bowl, and drizzle over cooked chicken.

Growing up, one of my favorite things to do was to play “cooking show” where I would pull spices and ingredients out of the pantry to create my own culinary masterpieces. After graduating with a bachelor in Marketing and International Business, I moved to Chicago and pursued a career in business. Falling in love with the food scene, I enrolled in a traditional French Culinary program.

Soon after I began working in the culinary industry, where I developed a gluten intolerance and dairy sensitivity. That is when I discovered that food served a purpose far greater than being a delicious pleasure. Food is fuel, and my focus shifted to preparing foods that not only taste great but serve the body.

As the Nutritionist at the Good Fat Company we provide clean, sustainable fuel for the body. My approach with product development is to create simple yet pleasurable products that our bodies can trust and rely upon.

28 | Good Fat Life

Live YOUR Best Life!

Live Your Best life and live it well. It’s your life! It’s not Regan’s, Megan’s, or Jim’s; it’s yours. You don’t have to be a millionaire, a size zero, or a Missionary like Mother Theresa unless of course, you want to! We want to equip you with ways to live YOUR best life, whatever that means to you!

Topics will include: Money - Men make more, thus save more, yet women live longer, what’s up with that?

Holistic Fitness - (Mind and Body) because Fitness is a balance of what we eat, how we move, and our self-talk.

panel expert will fan out in the space to create a safety pod of small group discussions, i.e., exchanges. Attendees can then move to the pod of their choice.

Panel experts will not lead the conversation but instead, steer and answer questions. The intent is to have an open forum in a smaller space where you can move freely to and from each exchange.

Remember: There is no selling, grandstanding, soapboxing, or taking over an exchange. Creativity flows better when we are collaborative, not competitive.

Business - Leadership and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, learn ways to become an ally and how to handle bias, your’s included.

Our Moderator is Lisa Barry and our panelists are Cherisa Allen, Cynthia Bowman, Emily Haberkern, Regan Hizer.

Inspiration - Don’t self-destruct; instead, self instruct to purpose, belonging, and pride.

wxwbusiness.com/events/annual-forum

When the panel finishes, the exchanges will begin. Each

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GRACE YOURSELF

3 WAYS TO STOP BEING HARD ON YOURSELF STARTING NOW

by Wini Curley, PhD

I

was visiting my friend recently (let’s call her Alice), and was reminded how hard we can be on ourselves for no good reason. We were getting ready to leave the house for a fun day of shopping. Alice was gathering bags and getting organized. She wasn’t aware that I could hear her muttering to herself. As she fumbled with something, I heard her express with great sarcasm and some anger at her clumsiness, “That was a great move, Alice”. Next I heard “That was dumb” followed by “Good grief! Can’t you do anything right?” This whole ‘conversation’ took about 3 minutes. Alice was all smiles as she came up the stairs to where I was waiting. The harsh critic I had just heard had become invisible.

30 | Good Fat Life

Alice is a sweet and kind person. I know she would never speak to me the same way she criticized herself. You know you can use more self-compassion when you speak to yourself (silently or out loud), much more severely than you speak to others.

And we all do it! It is a bad and often unconscious habit.

Most of us have some version of this conversation with ourselves daily. It is usually needlessly critical, especially for the situation. Alice was being much too hard on herself.

Learning self-compassion is important because the negative energy and emotion generated by continual inner

criticism are draining, distracting, and demoralizing. When that is going on inside, it is challenging to stay positive on the outside. When your inner and outer worlds do not match, it takes a toll on your soul.

unkind to yourself by judging mistakes too severely. It is normal to make mistakes along the way of growth and improvement. Mistakes are just ways for us to learn important lessons so we can remember them.

This duality is part of why so many people are exhausted almost all the time. On the outside they appear successful and together, while on the Inside they feel like a fraud or unworthy of love or success. They believe what their inner critic is constantly saying. When you hear people talking about trusting their inner voice, this is not the one they mean!

You’ve heard it before, and I’ll say it again. Perfection is an unachievable goal. While you may have moments of perfection, it does not last. To make it even more elusive, your definition of what is ‘perfect’ shifts and changes as your perceptions and perspective grow with you. Having standards is one thing; beating yourself up for not being perfect is a waste of energy. Do the best you can learn from mistakes, keep going, and forgive yourself for slips and trips along the way.

What is your inner critic’s favorite phrase? Pay attention for one week to how you talk to yourself. Notice the common phrases that repeat. As you become more aware of your inner critic, you can use the three tips below to develop more self –compassion and practice being kinder to yourself.

1. Neutralize the Negative – As you become more aware of your inner critic’s favorite phrases, also notice the judgment of yourself that comes with it. You can neutralize that judgment and release its negative energy.

Try responding to your inner critic to keep from getting stuck in a rut of negativity from unkind self-talk.

For example, if your inner critic asks a question like “What’s wrong with you?” answer kindly. Say back (either internally or out loud) something like “honestly, not much,” or “only a few minor flaws, nothing critical.” To combine it with #3 below, make a joke like “I could use a nap, but otherwise, I’m good.” If your inner critic is accusatory – “you are (fill in the blank – stupid, lazy, worthless), then use your intention and say ‘release/reset’ to neutralize the negativity of the statement. Open your heart and respond with something compassionate that reflects the truth of your situation, “I am (fill in the blank – capable, tired, new at this, rushing too much).”

Imagine what you would say to a friend or a loved one to give them perspective on the reality of the situation.

Recognizing and acknowledging the challenge without judging your performance (see #2 below) helps neutralize the negatives.

2. Avoid the Perfectionism Trap - We all make mistakes.

It is part of being human. If you are like me, you may have a personal value to strive for improvement, and ultimately, excellence. You can still do that, and not be inappropriately

3. Keep it Light – Just like with any conversation, it is the energy and tone of what is said that makes the impact sometimes more powerfully than the actual words. How you talk to yourself matters as much as what you say. Our inner critic is typically serious and intense - usually overly so for the situation. Insert balance in your response to your inner critic by not allowing your self-talk to be more serious than it needs to be.

Alice was simply gathering belongings to get on the road.

She was rushing, and as a result, was clumsy. Her angry comment “that was a great move” could have been easily and appropriately diffused by laughing at herself. She could have responded with a joke – “you think that’s great, wait till you see me tango!” Put your imagination and sense of humor to work!

You have the power to diffuse the negative impact of your inner critic. Use the three tips above to add balance to your inner conversation. Be creative and kind in how you respond, using combinations of the three tips above. Eventually, your inner critic will become kinder and more compassionate. You will stop being too hard on yourself as a natural progression.

Wini Curley, PhD is a Leadership and Resilience Expert, Inspirational Speaker, and Teamwork Consultant. Organizations hire Dr. Wini to show stressed leaders and their teams how to pivot effectively in the face of challenges and energize their next win - whether they are on a roll or in a hole. She provides targeted training and coaching that blends her personal development expertise, deep intuitive skills, and inner science geek. Clients engage and expand through her innovative approaches to build trust, breakdown internal barriers, and strengthen resilience. Learn more at www.WiniCurley.com and www.GiftsFromWini.com.

October 2019 | 31

MONEY THERAPY

TELLING YOUR MONEY STORY

by Sherri Richards

W

“money” was a ticking time bomb. The truth was the hot mess had always been there; the steady paycheck had just kept the wolves at bay.

It was easy to know what my salary and benefits should be in the corporate world. Where I worked, there were always salary systems to say this job pays in the range of this much. It was relatively unemotional, (except at review time when raises and bonuses were discussed).

You generally knew what to expect. When I left that world to venture out on my own, I found the topic of

In our society, almost 60% of us have less than $1000 in savings, leaving us one small disaster away from a financial crisis. The number one cause of divorce is related to conflicts around money. It’s not just the fighting, it’s also the lying, (often to ourselves), passiveaggressive behavior, and associated guilt and shame that gets us. This is even before we get to the actual mechanics of working with our money, i.e. paying bills and investing. I can say I have lived this experience myself. It was not pretty.

hen I left the corporate world 11 years ago to venture into the world of entrepreneurship and opened my consulting company, I had no idea that my mixed up, and very dysfunctional money beliefs, would show up so big and bold, after all, I have a master’s degree in Finance. I know this stuff. HA!

32 | Good Fat Life

While money is a complicated topic, it doesn’t have to be. In many ways, it is no different than any other subject that we choose to learn. The uniqueness with money is we develop so many underlying beliefs when we are small that we are not usually aware of them. These have a significant influence on how we behave with our money. One example of this is, “it’s not polite to talk about money”. Seriously, if you were at a dinner party, and the guest next to you turned to you and asked you how much money you made, you would look at them and gasp at their rudeness! In my experience, after working with hundreds of clients, most people just don’t want to know. They say things like, I am not good with numbers.

Therein lies the problem. When we don’t know, we make up stories. These stories often lead to anxiety, worry, and living from a place of reacting vs. creating the money story and life we want to live.

My journey into first understanding my current money story, then creating a new one, started when I had to establish pricing for my new consulting service. I literally froze when someone asked me my rates! What the heck was going on? I went in search of understanding this new fear and found Barbara Stanny, (now Barbara Huson).

Barbara has an amazing story and an enlightening course on, “Overcoming Underearning”. I immediately signed up to not only take it but to be trained to teach it. One of the first things I learned was that money is simply a metaphor for our personal power. In fact, after reading dozens of money books, including The Secret Language of Money, by David Krueger, M.D, NeuroWisdom, The New Brain Science of Money, Happiness and Success by Mark Robert Waldman & Chris Manning, Ph.D., and Money, A Love Story by Kate Northrup, I found they all started with the same focus on creating awareness around your money beliefs, and money mindfulness. When I was in college and learning about finance from textbooks, there was never any discussion about neuroscience, emotions, and subconscious beliefs. It was all numbers and ratios. This was a huge AHHA moment for me, and the hundreds of people who went through my Overcoming Underearning workshops.

One of the most illuminating exercises from Barbara’s “Overcoming Underearning course”, was called Digging Down to the Roots. In this exercise, you may see where some of your underlying limiting beliefs might come from.

Complete the sentences below with the first words that pop into your mind. This is a great thing to do with your partner. Take the quiz separately, then compare notes.

1. My biggest fear about money is ________________________________________.

2. My father felt money was ________________________________________.

3. My mother felt money was ________________________________________.

4. In my family, money caused ________________________________________.

5. My early experience with money was ________________________________________.

6. Money equals ________________________________________.

7. I’m afraid if I had more money, I would ________________________________________.

8. In order to have more money I need to ________________________________________.

9. When I have money, I usually ________________________________________.

10. If I could afford it, I would ________________________________________.

11. People with money are ________________________________________.

12. I’d have more money if ________________________________________.

What did you learn?

How did your early experiences effect you?

What would you like to change?

Remember you won’t earn more if your belief is that money equals conflict, or people with money are greedy.

A number of my clients uncovered the belief that if they had more money, they would blow it. This held them back from earning more, and once they became aware of this limitation, they consciously changed their belief to, “If I had more money I would invest it wisely”. This created a big difference in their earnings.

In the Art of Money, by Bari Tessler, she says, “Deep money work isn’t magic, It’s conscious transformation: tiny step after tiny step, day by day, breath by breath.

We always start where we are, and that’s OK.

October 2019 | 33

THE READING ROOM Books You Won’t Want to Put Down

Are You on an Infertility Detour?

Anthologist and co-author, Sue Johnston

Are you—or is someone you love— feeling derailed by the unfair twists and turns of infertility? Do the words “just relax” drive you crazy? Are you afraid that you may never be able to have a baby?

We get it! You are not alone. In Detours you will meet a group of friends who have collectively experienced practically every infertility setback and form of reproductive technology available. We share our journeys and lessons learned, which may help you: • navigate the infertility maze; • cope with the stress of treatment; • balance your career and infertility; • gain support when you need it most; •

view your challenges through a different lens;

• hold on to hope against all odds; • find your resolution and regain happiness.

Detours will inspire you and help make a dierence in the lives of all those struggling with infertility. A portion of the proceeds from our book will be donated to RESOLVE National Infertility Association.

34 | Good Fat Life

Love Your Life to Death

The Compassion Code

By Yvonne Heath

By Laura Jack

Yvonne delivers her message with heart and humour— because it’s already serious enough!

Plan your life, plan your death, then just… Love Your Life to Death.

And always, bring your own tambourine to the party!

Inspiring, Energetic, Authentic!

Empowering Professionals, Educators, Influencers and Communities. Her expertise will impact you in ways you never thought possible!

What if you knew that compassion was the antidote to healing our hurt, hate-filled world?

If you’re like many people, your heart desires to be compassionate, yet your head may simply not possess the blueprint for saying those right words at the right time, or for seeing things from a compassionate perspective rather than a judgmental one.

Yvonne is also excited to share: The I Just Showed Up Movement: She teaches people of all ages to show up for themselves and others, so they are empowered and resilient when grief arrives.

With heartfelt, relatable stories, compassion coaching tips, and abundant loving action steps, The Compassion Code is an invaluable guide for how to shift our mindset, diminish hurtful viewpoints, and embrace the humanity in each of us.

Yvonne’s new purpose: To empower compassionate professionals and communities to JUST SHOW UP- to live life to the fullest, learn to grieve and support others and to have “The Talk” about end of life...long before it arrives, and diffuse the fear!

Read The Compassion Code by Laura Jack if you want to grow your compassionate communication skills, as well as your ability to relate to others (and yourself) more effectively during the challenging moments in life.

Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season from the Good Fat Life family.

October 2019 | 35

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