If we start with only one area of concern today in our aim to get physically healthy again, that would be with diet and nutrition. It is a key issue in surviving and overcoming many health problems.

However, there’s one real bug-a-boo in all this if you already have a specific illness like Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It’s not enough to tailor your approach to merit the average and accepted dietary recommendations for a balanced diet. Average and accepted may never have been enough for your body and may actually be two factors that contributed to you getting sick. You need more nutrition, not less!

That’s because…

A “balanced diet” (as is recommended by the government today) is totally inadequate as a guideline, if you’re already sick. Example: the guidelines on a bottle of vitamins reflect only the minimum amount of nutrients needed to keep a healthy (e.g. not sick) person barely well. That means someone who is consuming a healthy diet and gets everything else they need from it. In other words, if you were eating all the foods you need packed with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Hardly anyone gets that much nourishment because in today’s world it’s nearly impossible to do.

Plus, there’s another factor in how the “recommended” diet is composed: high in breads (full of sugar and often white flour unless you change to whole grain), causing the rest of the equation to be skewed against you. If you pack your diet full of empty or harmful foods, then again you’re in trouble.

The website My Pyramid lists the following:

• Make half your grains whole
• Vary your veggies
• Focus on fruit
• Get your calcium rich foods
• Go lean with protein
• Find your balance between food and physical activity
• Keep food safe to eat

Some of these recommendations are valid, but they are still only generic and offer only the “accepted” government-sponsored media-speak. You, dear one, need more than this because you’re not the average healthy person when you’re already sick! It’s time that we woke up to the whole truth:

1. Our soils are depleted,
2. Our bodies are struggling to get rid of pesiticides, chemicals and plastics at every turn,
3. We’re being subjected to too many hormones, antibiotics, vaccines and -and worst of all-
4. A high percentage of our diets are now composed of the new genetically modified food products that are flying onto our grocery store shelves every hour of the day!

So I ask you, “What are you doing to yourself?”

The point is, for our purposes today of talking about diet and nutrition, the information on a food label doesn’t tell you what you need to know.

What you do need is the specific nutritional information that is key to your condition as well as general recommendations for good health. Diet and overall nutrition are big keys in your ability to get physically healthy again.

This is a huge subject and I could certainly suggest that you get back to nature with making your own whole grain bread from freshly ground wheat flour- or growing your own vegetables out in the back yard (that you can keep free of pesticides). You could look around and probably find a way to purchase part of grass-fed, antibiotic-free cow. Then you’d have access to good, fresh, clean and healthy meat. These are helpful recommendations.

But how do you do all this if you’re sick, tired and incapacitated?

You have a right to feel confused, as if all of this is above your head right now. I’ve found a wonderful source of information to start your research and it’s Mary Moeller’s book, Fibromyalgia Cookbook: A Daily Guide to Becoming Healthy Again (revised).

Mary offers a lot of practical and down-to-earth advice for getting well from Fibromyalgia and it applies equally well to those folks with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, too. I like a guide that can clear up a problem and show me the light. Mary does just that.

PS- Now… be sure to check in with the Friday edition of the Health Matters Show where we’ll talk more about this issue. Also on Friday I want plenty of your comments, thoughts and questions about all of topics in this series. There’s a reason for that and I’ll explain Friday. So plan to be here Friday at 3 pm EDT or catch the podcast via the RSS feed or on i-Tunes.

I hope you enjoy Mary Moeller’s Fibromyalgia cookbook and guide. I did!
Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

Hold on to your hat, dear one, because undoubtedly, this interview with Mary Moeller, the author of Fibromyalgia Cookbook: A Daily Guide to Becoming Healthy Again (revised) is one of the most powerful, thought-provoking interviews I’ve ever done for the Health Matters Show! Mary really shares some truly great information.

(Note: This is actually the second part of our longer, extended interview. You can catch the first part from last week’s interview by accessing the link here, but please do it later. I don’t want you to miss what’s coming up next.)

(This audio file is 29 minutes and 44 seconds long, and it contains dynamite stuff! Either listen here or download for later. Just be sure to catch it all.)

No one can or should try to answer these questions for you. The right answers must come from you and you alone. Simply know, dear one, that you don’t have to go 20 years before you find them out and end up saying… if I’d only realized this -or- if I’d only done that!

Learn about what it will take for you to get well.

Learn about how you can be a different person.

Learn how taking responsibility for your health is the magic pill that you’ve been waiting for!

Pick up your copy of Mary Moeller’s fantastic book here at this Amazon.com link:

And if you want to check out more of what she’s doing now that she is enjoying life as a healthy person, see her newest website, Health Book Report.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Health Matters Show today. I am your host,

Cinda Crawford

PS- I would love it if you would share this post and podcast with your Fibro and CFS friends who really need some answers and help about how to get well. It just might be exactly what they need to hear. And that would make your action a very loving thing to do.

For today’s show I am interviewing Mary Moeller, author of Fibromyalgia Cookbook, A Daily Guide to Becoming Healthy Again (revised). I am impressed with this marvelous lady. She has lived in the deepest trenches of Fibromyalgia, not only fighting for herself but for her young daughter to get well, too.

As a Licensed Clinical Nurse, Mary worked in a doctor’s office at the time she grew more and more ill. No traditional medicines helped her. But Mary found her way out of the long, deep “illness” ditch and walked out a winner.

Through the aid of a caring doctor and her own intensive, investigative work, Mary uncovered many secrets of what it takes to get well from an illness like Fibromyalgia. Both this week and at least one more week, I am featuring my interview of Mary Moeller on the Friday podcast edition of the Health Matters Show. Access the audio below by clicking the right-facing arrow or feel free to download the file.

(18 minutes 5 seconds)

I encourage you to not only listen to what this knowledgeable lady has to say, but to order her book, Fibromyalgia Cookbook, A Daily Guide to Becoming Healthy Again (revised). too. It is listed here for your buying convenience on Amazon.com.

Mary revised her book in 2009. This is the new and improved version. It contains very useable and up-to-date information. Plus, Mary has laid out in detail exactly what you should do in the book to get well.

In my opinion, Mary’s book is awesome. I learned a lot of information from it, information that I didn’t already know. I carried it around with me for weeks, taking any free moment I had to read and devour every useful tidbit. The day I spilt an entire glass of water inside the book, I nearly ruined it. I tried to dry it out with a hair dryer, but too many pages were damaged and stuck together. So, I’m ordering myself a new one. Just for me! I consider the book to be that good.

Also, you can check out Mary’s new website which should offers great information on new health books. The website is called Health Book Report.

Thank you for joining me today on the Health Matters Show. Be sure to come back to the blog any day of the week to see if there’s an update -or- make it easy on yourself and receive it automatically by signing up in the “Get New Post Alerts” in the right hand column. Plus, each Friday at 3 pm there is an audio or video podcast about various topics having to do with getting well from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Do yourself a favor and be right here next Friday!

Cinda Crawford, host of the Health Matters Show

I heard Joan Borysenko speak again recently. She is a fascinating lady and author. Her book and DVD, the Power of the Mind to Heal, will surely be required information for all those folks who want to have me work with them one-on-one in the healing process.

She talks about how the power of the mind is an incredible tool in life. Your mind has the capacity to keep you stuck in your current reality or move you forward!

I’ve decided to put this book on the “suggested” reading list for the Learn How to Healyourself membership series that’s coming up shortly. (The whole course is almost ready!)

I encourage you to go ahead and pick up your copy of Joan Borysenko’s book or DVD. The DVD is listed below. Find the book in my Amazon store in the tab above or to the right under Cinda Recommends.

As you contemplate how to heal, please don’t let fear of the unknown stop you. Instead, be brave and know that all things are possible. Like beauty, health can be in the eye of the beholder, so to speak.

Okay, now answer this question and the ones that follow: How brave are you when it comes to stepping out into the future?

• How brave are you?
• What would you do today if so many of your symptoms went away that you suddenly felt well again?
• Are you brave enough to step out of your illness role and embrace good health and a happy life again?

Please do not answer that question glibly. Many people become entrenched in life as a chronically ill person. They may not be healthy, but they’re safe where they are. Dug in, so to speak. So that begs three final questions:

• How certain are you in your heart of hearts that you want to really get well?
• If today were the day, could you step out into the unknown knowing that it may be the best thing you ever did?
• Can you step out of your current “truth”- even if it’s painful and harmful- but still “safer” because you’ve found that you can live with the reality you have now? (The devil you know, as opposed to the scary devil you don’t know: a new life?)

Dear One, I know these are tough questions, but I don’t mean to leave you alone in answering them. For everyone suffering with Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, be sure to check back here at the Health Matters Show tomorrow for our Friday 3 pm EST podcast, when I interview Mary Moeller, author of Fibromyalgia Cookbook, A Daily Guide to Becoming Health Again (revised edition).

Interviewing Mary Moeller makes for a lively good time full of smiles and information that has the potential to really help you. Be assured that Mary walks the walk and talks the talk!

You and I will be the beneficiaries as she tells her life story of how she survived several illnesses (among them Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) to enjoy a healthy life again. Don’t miss the Friday edition of this show. Plus, see the newly revised edition of her book. She improved it and packed a lot more information and helping tool inside!

I invite you to share your thoughts and comments about Joan Borysenko, Mary Moeller or how to heal in general. All thoughts welcomed; all questions encouraged.

Thanks, Cinda Crawford
Host of the Health Matters Show