7 Lessons From Making Love In The Kitchen
Article By Jeannie Stokowski-Bisanti
Five years ago Meghan Telpner was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a condition that is commonly believed to have no cure.
She was given the options of surgery and medication for the rest of her life, still without the potential of a cure. Her doctor told her that diet would have no effect and that she would have to learn to live with it.
Not one to play by the rules, she decided to create her own. She chose a natural route that included meditation, acupuncture, rest, and a diet comprised of whole, unprocessed foods.
Within one month she was symptom free and remains so five years on. She has since become certified as a nutritionist and runs a cooking school in downtown Toronto, Canada.
Here are seven things (in her own words), that Telpner learned healing from an ‘incurable’ disease:
1. “Take other opinions with a grain of salt. It is just an opinion and only our own opinions of ourselves and our current situation really matter. I received the opinion that I had an incurable disease and nothing I ate or did regarding my lifestyle would have an effect. I chose to trust my own opinion that this was not true. That has made all the difference.”
2. “Learn how to cook… really well. Prior to this experience I owned one cookbook called “Help! My Apartment Has A Kitchen.” Four years later, I own and operate a cooking school. I believed strongly, despite my doctor’s contradictory opinion, that a disease of the digestive tract would obviously be affected by what passed through it. It therefore became my mission to know exactly what I was eating and so I learned to cook from 100 percent whole ingredients. With all the processing happening in my own kitchen.”
3. “A cute outfit doesn’t mean much when you feel like total crappola. Great health makes you look (and feel) great—way more than high heels or manicured nails can.”
4. “Always, always, always trust your intuition. If you can’t hear it, that means your life is too noisy. Be still a little bit every day and you will start to hear the voice, and over time you will learn to listen. And over even more time, you will learn that it is always right.”
5. “When you do something in your life that other people deem impossible in their life, you suddenly become labeled “an inspiration.” I like that I inspire people but I don’t wake up every morning with the thought, I am going to inspire today! I just do what I do, because it feels right for me. Likewise, the people I find inspiring are just doing what seems right to them. I think this means that we all inspire others in our own way, just by being true to ourselves.”
6. “When something goes wrong in our body or in our mind – whether it be a disease, an injury, or a broken heart – “fighting” it doesn’t help us heal. It creates more resistance. When we can learn to feed and nourish and give ourselves what is needed to work with the challenge rather than against it, that is how we heal.”
7. “Things can change in an instant, with a diagnosis, a disaster … anything! The greatest gift we can offer ourselves is to wake up happy, excited about the day ahead, and go to bed pleased with the job that we did, accepting that the process itself is the outcome, and that we did our very best at every given moment.”
Telpner creates simple, healthy, and creative recipes for her Toronto cooking school guests and for her well-loved blog, Making Love In The Kitchen. She spends the colder months in sunny locales leading the most nourishing and inspiring retreats ever. Most recently, Meghan founded Canada’s first Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert Program and has just launched a vibrant living line of signature products. Discover the goodness she’s cooking up at www.meghantelpner.com.
Jeannie Stokowski-Bisanti is 32-years-old and was educated in the U.S. and in the Philippines. She is currently the stay-at-home mother of two preschoolers and one toddler, a contributing writer for the Monza News (the official publication of the Benvenuto International Women’s Club of Monza) and is the volunteer social media manager and marketing specialist of her husband’s busy chiropractic practice.