We all want to live a fulfilling life, but the first step is finding out what drives you! Once we know what makes us come alive, we can truly start pursuing our dreams.
I am honored to share the story of discovering my passion in Overcoming Mediocrity, a book that came out earlier this year. Overcoming Mediocrity is a collection of stories from influential women who have overcome great odds to create their own lives of significance.
The book is designed to inspire you to find what brings you life and help you step into a life driven by your passion. Sometimes the road to living a fulfilling life is straightforward, but more often than not it is filled with bumps and turns along the way.
My story begins as a child when my family struggled with insulin issues. The series of events that followed eventually led me to find my passion in life.
Here is a little excerpt from my story…
“Growing up my grandpa was one of my favorite people. He was quite the jokester and was always trying to pull a fast one on me. My family went to his house on weekends, and he always made me feel like the most special girl in the world (other than my sister who I’d like to think was a close second).
One evening, as we were preparing dinner my grandfather started acting funny. He was pale and seemed shaky. His words were slurred and didn’t seem to make sense. I didn’t know why my grandpa, who was always so strong, was acting so strange. It was scary!
My grandma ran over to the refrigerator, grabbed the orange juice, and poured him a cup. A few minutes later, grandpa was back to his normal self.
“What happened?” I asked. I knew my grandpa was a type one diabetic, but I had never known what that meant.”
From here the universe led me to discover my passion. I hope you’ll enjoy reading the rest of my story, but even more than that, I hope you’ll let our stories inspire you to find your passion and live your best life!
Dr. Jamie
P.S. If you are interested in getting your own copy of Overcoming Mediocrity send me a quick message asking me to set one aside for you. We can schedule a time for you to pick it up in the office.
According to the dictionary to fail is to be unsuccessful in achieving one's goal. It implies a weakness, shortcoming, and lack of success.
Failure can be a painful experience, leading to embarrassment and shame. But what if we could reframe this type of experience by looking at the bigger picture. Is it possible that failing is simply a footstep on the path to greatness?
Let’s explore this topic and see why many leaders deem failure necessary!
The Growth of Failure
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
Think about one of your greatest achievements. Did you accomplish it easily without any challenges? Probably not! The fact of the matter is that we learn because we mess up.
Making a mistake gives us valuable information. When we embrace our mistakes, we can take what we’ve learned and apply it to achieving our goals.
The Limits of Playing it Safe
"Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough" - Elon Musk
Understanding the importance of failing, it frees us up to risk, try, fail, and learn more. If you never fail your goals may be too small. This might keep us from failure, but it will also limit our growth. Achieving greatness inherently comes with risk of failure.
If we can embrace our mistakes as a part of learning, we will not need to play it safe. We will be free to try innovative ideas which have the potential for huge success. No one is good at something the first time they try, but there are benefits in taking a risk!
Failing Forward
“We are all failures - at least the best of us are.” - J.M. Barrie
Stanford professor, psychologist, and author Carol Dweck writes extensively about having a growth mindset in her book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success". A growth mindset recognizes that your intelligence and abilities are not fixed - that you are able to learn and grow.
It is a growth mindset that will enable us to "fail forward." We fail forward when we keep persevering in spite of failure, knowing that failing is a part of the learning process. Embracing this truth really frees you up to be (and accomplish) all you can be!
Keep in mind that many of those considered the most successful were often considered failures at one point. Did you know that Howard Schultz was rejected for a loan 242 times before he secured the funds to start Starbucks?
How do you need to embrace failure in your life? What would you try if you knew you wouldn't fail? Could you give yourself permission to try, knowing that sometimes failing is part of the process? And that is why I want you to fail!
Dr. Jamie
Hello, my name is Carolyn. Many of you have seen me in the office at the front desk. Let me take a moment to introduce myself and tell you a bit of my story.
I have been working for Dr. Jamie since the beginning of the year assisting her in the office, with the blog, and at cooking demos. I love working at DuPage Family Wellness. It is a job where I can use my strengths for things that I am passionate about, while learning and growing in the process.
My Passion
Before working at DuPage Family Wellness my focus was largely homeschooling my three children and running them to their activities (dance team, band, etc.) This was a great experience for a number of years, and we have found the local schools to be wonderful as well.
In addition to family, I enjoy (in no particular order) the fall, art, time with friends, coffee, a good therapist, reading, my dogs, plants that actually grow in my garden, aerial yoga, Thai food, hot tea, and natural living.
My Health Journey
My interest in natural living did not come easily. When I was a mom with young kids my health started to fail pretty dramatically. I had debilitating wandering pain in my body, chronic folliculitis, and recurrent ulcers of the cornea. My labs showed inflammation in my body, but a diagnosis eluded us.
Read more ...
This coming Monday, (Sept 11), TWO Wellness Warrior online bootcamps are starting: Sign up now and be part of our Wellness Warriors Community.
1) Nutrition Bootcamp:
Back by popular demand, Dr. Jamie will run another round of Nutrition Bootcamp! Click here for the description of 7 Week Online Nutrition Bootcamp.
Here's what 2 students that just finished session at the end of August had to say:
"I have lost 16.8 LBS and I found it easy to stay compliant to the program. I feel better and I feel better about myself. My Blood pressure has dropped and some days did not take BP meds because readings were very low." -RZ
"
The biggest thing that has happened is my arthritic joints in my hands, knees and ankles has lessened tremendously. It is not completely gone but I would say at least 80 to 90 % better. This makes me want to continually eat this way. But a side note, I have lost 20 pounds. I do not concentrate on this but it is great because no matter what I did I could never lose more than 5 pounds. I have alot more to lose and I plateau off and on but then I slowly go down." MS
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Karrie participated in the January Wellness Warriors Group. During the 6 weeks of the food changes, she lost a whopping 20 pounds. She has stuck with most of her changes, with a few reintroductions, and is officially down 34 pounds since the program began! The picture shown here on the left was taken December 23, and on the Right was taken on February 21. What a difference! Here is what she had to say!
How are you feeling after participating in Nutrition Bootcamp?
"Where do I begin? My hair, skin and nails are amazing! I wake up feeling well rested and ready to start my day! Whereas before I felt exhausted all the time and used copious amounts of coffee as a crutch. Now, I have maybe one cup a day. I have less brain fog and feel more focused on things. Also, I don't feel bloated or weighed down and sleepy after I eat. Furthermore, I don't crave sweets after meals and my taste buds have changed. Over the course of 7 weeks, I have tried so many new foods and have found a love for cooking again. I could go on and on! I will leave you with the fact that I feel so good and so energized that I started going back to the gym again."
I went to see my internist in August of 2016. I was gaining weight (183#, 5' 8 1/2”), fatigued and constipated for quite a while. She did a full work-up with an array of labs, and referred me to a GI specialist for a colonoscopy. Everything came back normal!
I have arthritis in my spine and feet that causes me discomfort and pain at times. I had a total knee replacement 2 years ago, which I continue to have mild swelling and joint stiffness.
Here's the advice I received from my medical doctors:
- Primary Care: At my age my metabolism has slowed way down so I just have cut down my portions and calories
- GI doctor: Take Miralax for the rest of your life. He said that there is nothing wrong with that.
- Ortho: We can give you cortisone injections for pain.
Taking this program has been the most important thing I have ever done for MYSELF! This new way of eating real and whole foods is amazing. By subscribing to the Online Wellness Warriors, I felt that I wasn't on my own.
How do you feel now, compared to when you started this program 7 weeks ago?
There are improvements in many areas, most importantly, I have more energy. In addition:
- I have lost weight so my clothes fit me better. I was 175# when I started seven weeks ago and this morning I am 161#!!!I have lost 14 pounds!
- My skin feels more hydrated (less dry)
- The arthritis, in my feet and spine, doesn't bother me, as it used to.
- My knee joint doesn't feel stiff anymore.
- I have seasonal allergies and I haven't needed to take any medication this spring.
- I was able to stop taking Miralax
How did you feel about the educational content presented during this program?
Excellent! I see food so differently now and how it affects every part of my body! The daily education via email was so beneficial. The information was so eye-opening! Having that daily communication, really helped to keep me on track and was such a great support (I enjoyed the Dr. Jamie and Joelle video clips).
What long term changes will you make as a result of what you learned during these 7 weeks?
Eating well is part of me now, and I WILL NOT GO BACK!!! I will continue to be gluten free. Though I do eat Ezekiel sprouted bread, toasted, once in a while, just one slice. I have noticed no problem with it. I will remain dairy free, at least for now. I would like to try Wallaby, whole milk plain yogurt again in my smoothies, sometime for the probiotics. I don't crave sugar like I use to.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
This has been an amazing journey, and it has changed my life! I have learned so much about the foods that I put into my body, the good and the bad and how my body works well when I eat real whole foods and how my body declines with poor food choices that I may make (and I did make some). I feel so much better when I'm eating real whole foods! This is not a diet but a lifestyle of eating well.
It was a big help having the green, yellow and red food lists and many recipes to try.
I never felt as though I was doing this on my own. I was always encouraged to succeed, and to keep going even when I made some poor choices along the way.
Dr. Jamie was always there to answer my many, many questions. I will be continuing on this journey for the rest of my life!
Thank You, Dr. Jamie and Joelle!
Jared is my husband. I am SO proud of him, and SO excited that he's improved his health by losing 67 pounds!
After several years of "gentle convincing," Jared finally decided that he wanted to lose weight, and he agreed to follow my advice about what he should eat. I am going to let him tell his own story, so keep reading.
As I helped Jared make these changes, I realized that there are SO MANY people that want to FEEL BETTER and LOOK BETTER. There was no way I could stop with Jared. I decided to create an online wellness program to guide people like you to improve your weight and health too!
If you are interested in looking and feeling your best in 2017, come join me! I will share what you should eat, what you shouldn't eat, and daily tips to help you successfully do what Jared did! Sign up now for Dr. Jamie's 7 Week Nutrition Boot Camp: Real Food, Real Results
- Dr. Jamie Thomure
Jared's Story
January 1: 269 pounds - December 12: 202 pounds
I know it sounds too good to be true. I don’t know if I’d be able to believe it if it wasn’t what I actually did. No, I didn’t have lap band surgery or anything close to that. Get this, I changed the way I ate, and that’s about it!
What Motivated Me to Make Changes?
The story starts with a new health insurance company. They were charging us an extra 80 dollars a month as long as my weight was over 211 pounds. My wife (Dr. Jamie) had been trying to get me to change my diet for years, but this finally motivated me to listen to her and try to lose some weight. I can think of lots of things I would rather do with 80 dollars each month than give it to an insurance company.
Read more ...
2017 Status
When I started changing my eating habits in 2012, my biggest fear was yo-yo dieting, makine me reluctant to start a "diet". However I had gradually gaining a couple pounds per year, and it was adding up. It was time to do something different. Now it is 5 years later, and am happy to report that I have maintained the rusults; it is not a yo-yo diet. After 5 years:
- My weight has stayed steady, still below my original goal
- The thyroid medicine was discontinued a couple years ago (I can't remember when)
- At my last yearly checkup, the doctor said my cholesterol was great - no more threats to give me statins
- It has been fun discovering new foods, and learning to cook and garden (lots more to learn)
- I feel great - I told my financial planner to base projections on living to 100
From what I have learned, the Standard American Diet, promoted by the big food industry and its marketers. is not doing Americans any favors. I encourage everyone to take Dr. Jamie's 7 Week online bootcamp. It will change your life. Once you learn, you too will become a Wellness Warrior, eager to help your friends, families, and community become healthier with you. Together we can build healthier communities. Learn more about the Bootcamp.
Sue Tripp
p.s. I got all the emails for the last 7 week nutrition bootcamp. I was impressed with the amount of information and how it was presented in an easy to understand way. The format, an email every day, helps you stay on board, and absorb the ideas without getting overwhelmed with everything at once. Dr. Jamie's enthusiasm and energy is impressive and inspiring.
Here is What I Wrote in August, 2012
I am so excited about my results, both weight loss and improved health, that I want to share it with you. I have lost weight without feeling like I'm on a diet. If you had told me on January 1, that before summer was over I'd lose 25 pounds, I would not have believed you. I now know, it is possible. If I did it, you can too.
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