The Official Blog of Tara Marie Segundo, M.A.
Season 2 of my podcast, TARA MARIE LIVE, kicked off last week with a fantastic Facebook LIVE event! As we pre-recorded the episode, we simulcast it on Facebook LIVE. We will be doing this for most episodes, and I will notify you each time so you can be sure to take part in these fun and interactive events. For email notification of these and other events, sign up for my Mailing List.
My Season 2 Premier featured a guest who is a listener favorite, Dr. Patricia Pimentel Selassie. She is a Naturopathic Physician who is always on the cutting edge of natural medicine.
We talked about a topic that, in most circles, is considered new and perhaps even controversial: CBD oil, or cannabidiol oil.
The controversy and confusion stems from the fact that people think that anything that comes from the cannabis plant must be pot, weed, marijuana, Mary Jane, or whatever name you use.
Marijuana comes from the cannabis family, and it is grown to have high levels of THC, which is a chemical compound that has both medicinal and psychoactive properties and will get someone high. This is the source of both recreational and medicinal marijuana.
Conversely, CBD oil is sourced from hemp, which also comes from the cannabis family, but CBD is not psychoactive. CBD has medicinal properties. Farmers are now growing strains of cannabis plants with very high CBD and virtually no THC.
To summarize, THC has psychoactive properties, is pain-relieving, can stimulate the appetite, and can stop nausea. Its side effects are anxiety and paranoia.
CBD is not psychoactive. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a plant medicine like echinacea, goldenseal, dandelion, or olive leaf. It is pain-relieving, anticonvulsant, antipsychotic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and has immunomodulatory effects. It has no side effects.
The most fascinating thing that I learned on this show is that we humans have an endocannabinoid system. This system contains neurotransmitters that we make from fat that bind to cannabinoid receptors, just as we have estrogens that bind to estrogen receptors or serotonin that binds to serotonin receptors. This system plays a role in the health of your brain, and reproductive, endocrine, and immune systems.
I often get emails from well-meaning people who want to do the best thing for their families when it comes to buying nutritious food—but as is the case for so many of us, the best choice is often cost-prohibitive. When it comes to fruits and veggies, we know that eating fresh, organic fare is the optimal choice. Since buying organic can more than double your food bill, it helps to know if there are items for which buying conventionally grown (not organic) is safe, from the standpoint of not being laden with a high number of pesticide residues.
According to the Environmental Working Group, their Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce ranks pesticide contamination on 48 popular fruits and vegetables. EWG’s analysis is based on the results of more than 35,200 samples tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration. It’s important to know that these pesticide residues remain on produce even after items are washed and, in some cases, peeled. Recent studies of insecticides used on some fruits and vegetables found that children exposed to high levels were at a greater risk of impaired intelligence and ADHD.
Each year, the Environmental Working Group releases a list of fruits and vegetables called, “The Dirty Dozen.” The Dirty Dozen lists the fruits and veggies that have been contaminated by multiple pesticides and have higher concentrations of pesticides. This year, strawberries ranked at the top of the list for detectable pesticide residues.
We all set goals and we all want the best for our lives. Many of us fall prey to self-sabotage and become our own worst enemies. Why? What are the barriers that hold us back, and how can we break free? These barriers lie between your life right now and the life you want.
If you missed Barrier #1, click here to read Break Through the Barrier of Fear!
If you lack self-worth, at some point in your life someone taught you that you are not worthy. As a child, we believe that which we are told by others. Many of us were given messages that we are not worthy and have less value than others. We internalize the idea and buy into the lie. The good news is that anything that can be learned also can be unlearned.
You were put on this earth to be great and to make a contribution to the world. No one is here just taking up space. Bishop T.D. Jakes says that we have to step out of our HISTORY and into our DESTINY. You have a gift, and your duty is to identify your gift and do something good in the world with it.
Barrier #2: Feeling Unworthy
If the subconscious self-limiting belief that holds you back is lack of self-worth, only YOU can fix this. This is the tricky part. No one else can make you feel worthy or give you self-esteem, as both come from the self.
We all have goals and dreams for our lives. In order to live the life that you really want, you have to break through your self-imposed barriers. We each are where we are today because of what we believe about ourselves to be true and what we tell ourselves about ourselves and life. This is our STORY. We repeat it over and over and brain wash ourselves into believing that we can’t have better because of who we are or what has happened to us. The truth is that we can be whatever we decide to be, but in order to change our external environment, first we have to shift our internal environment. You were put on this earth to be great and to make a contribution to the world. No one is here just taking up space. You have a gift and your duty is to identify your gift and do something good in the world with it. The great Bishop T.D. Jakes says that we have to step out of our HISTORY and into our DESTINY.
We all set goals and we all want the best for our lives. Many of us fall prey to self-sabotage and become our own worst enemies. Why? What are the barriers that hold us back and how can we break through? What lies between your life now and the life you wish you had?
As someone who struggled greatly to mold myself into the person I wanted to become, I’ve had a life-long fascination with high-achievers and people who seem to effortlessly succeed. My fascination led me to study people I admire in an attempt to raise the bar in my own life. I do believe that we’re here to constantly learn, improve, and teach what we know to others. In this sense, we’re never done—we can never stop learning or striving to improve, as the point of being here is to do something with our lives that contributes to the world in a positive way.
As part of my study of people who achieve and attain the highest level success, I also had to focus my attention on those who don’t. In this category of people, I identified two distinct groups: those who try and fail and eventually give up, and those who never try in the first place. People in the latter group confound me, yet fascinate me, the most. What would make anyone choose to sit on the sidelines of life while the rest of us are out on the field playing the game?
I’ve had conversations with private clients recently that made me want to address this in greater detail.
As a food addict myself, I understand the knee-jerk reaction to reach for food when what you really need is to feed your soul. It’s when you use food to feed yourself in any way other than to satisfy a nutritional requirement that you go from “eating” food to “using” food. “Using” food can quickly become “abusing” food.
I had a conversation with a client that prompted me to focus this blog post on the importance of indulgence as you learn to control compulsive urges around food, and teach yourself to eat for nutrition rather than comfort.
One thing I know for sure is that we all want and need to indulge. After a long day of work or taking care of the needs of others, we feel like we deserve it. When stress levels are heightened or we face mounting problems, the desire to indulge is magnified.
Since what is happening in our external world is out of our control and stress and anxiety are going to be a part of our lives forever, my advice to my clients is the same advice I follow myself—indulge more to lose fat.
A big shift in my life occurred when I decided that I deserve to indulge, and rather than do so with self-destructive behaviors like binge-eating, I instead learned to indulge in ways that are good for my physical and mental health.
As someone who used to be an emotional eater, I’m always sensitive to my clients who struggle endlessly with this issue. It’s such a complicated matter that I could (and likely one day will) write an entire book about it. For this week, I wanted to at least make it the subject of my blog post, as it seems to be a recurring theme in my work with clients.
I recently hosted a guest on my radio show, TARA MARIE LIVE, named Jesse, age 64. He is suffering terribly and feels trapped in an endless cycle of binge eating and the self-loathing that goes with it. Consumed with despair, he feels like he’s fallen into a dark hole and can’t see the light.
For people who don’t struggle with this problem, it is impossible to explain how FOOD can CONTROL every thought, action, and desire in an otherwise normally-functioning person.
For people who do struggle, it is impossible to put into words how out-of-control they can feel around a gallon of ice cream, a package of cookies, or any other trigger food. I had a client once tell me that she would literally salivate if she walked by a vending machine.
I’m currently working with a private client whose whole life is about food—what he ate for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner; what he wanted to eat; what he should have eaten; what he will eat later, and what he misses eating (when he’s trying to be “good.”)
I remember those days well, but not fondly—when there was hardly room for fun in my life because all of my time was consumed with obsessing over food or being disgusted with myself for losing control around food. It was a horrible way to live and a terrible waste of time.
I always give my clients the same advice—it’s based on knowledge that I learned the hard way, as for years of my life I tried to solve my “food” problems by focusing on food.
We all have goals and we all have dreams. The difference between “achievers” and “dreamers” is that people who achieve are willing to apply themselves in ways that those who just dream of success are not.
Successful people have certain things in common. In my last blog, Conquering Fear, I talked about one of those things: the ability to distinguish between actual FEAR and SELF-DOUBT.
This week I want to share another critical element of success, and that is the importance of determining your MOTIVE.
One of the most common questions I get from people, only second to “how do I get rid of my big belly,” is, “how do I stay motivated to maintain a healthy lifestyle?” Motivation is one of the hardest things that we deal with, but I think it’s because we are looking at the situation incorrectly.
When people ask me about motivation, what they’re referring to is an intense feeling of commitment and an emotional attachment to carrying through on any given set of behaviors. The problem with feelings is that they are always fleeting.
Think about it: feelings come and go. When we feel badly, we are able to get through it because we know that ultimately the bad feelings will pass. When we feel sheer elation, part of the joy of the intense feeling is the inherent understanding that we will eventually come back down to earth.
Every married woman I’ve ever talked to would tell you that she can look at her husband one minute and feel her heart bursting with love for him—and on the same day, something will occur and she’ll fantasize about killing him in his sleep and putting his cold, dead body in a wood chipper to hide the evidence. Feelings come and feelings go, just as motivation will come and go. Such is the nature of life.
What is permanent and a solid basis for change and achievement is determining a motive.
A motive is the “why” of why we do what we do. A motive is a REASON.
I was recently asked to be a guest on the radio show of one of my mentors and friends, world-renowned physician, Dr. Leonard Coldwell. He’s had a hard life and I respect him less so for what he has accomplished professionally and more so for what he has overcome personally. On the show, he asked me to share some of the success principles by which I live and teach my own clients. While many elements factor into achievement and success, I was compelled to highlight the idea that most of us fail by way of never trying in the first place. We let fear rule our lives.
I was able to conquer fear in my own life when I learned to differentiate between actual fear and self-doubt. While it would be simple to tell someone that the path to success is to feel fear but proceed anyway, this is not my message.
Fear is a gift and it is often fear that keeps us safe and in some cases, alive. Fear is NOT to be ignored and I would never advise that you do so. Listening to fear is how I’ve lived in New York City for over 20 years without incident. If you are walking in Central Park in the dark and sense that you’re being trailed by a gang of teenagers, I would not only advise that you heed your fear, but also that you run swiftly.
