Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/217566
T:3.6 in our in box LETTERS Lisa Donato replies: Through media and social peer pressure, we have been raised in a society where we are never enough—not pretty enough, not smart enough, not thin enough. Hopefully, as adults, we make decisions where being perfect does not equate to happiness. We become content with who we are in the moment without needing to change something in order to be accepted. Before we get there, most of us travel a road full of mistakes, extreme behavior, destructive thinking, etc. I have spent my entire life hating my body because I wasn't built like the rock-hard athletes I grew up with on the basketball court. I have also suffered a lifetime of chronic depression, a side effect of PTSD. My extreme thoughts led me down a path of extreme behaviors, and everything I did was never enough. After I did the controversial hCG + detox diet, I found awareness. I discovered a correlation between clean foods and my moods. I felt relief for the first time. After the detox, I made a commitment to clean foods—not to be thin, but to have a healthy mind. After decades of yo-yo dieting, I have not even uttered the word diet. My awareness was that clean foods brought me abundance—not deprivation. This criticism around how I found my road to whole living breeds the same expectation of perfection. We have to have perfect bodies, and we have to diet the perfect way T:9.75 in The PC Path to Perfection I recently was awaiting a yoga class at a studio I both practice and teach at and picked up their copy of Whole Life. I read "Eating the Blues Away: Change your diet, change your mood" (October/ November 2013) expecting to find information on perhaps foods that support healthy functioning of mind, body and spirit. However, I was horrified as the article unfolded to learn about depriving diets, associating thinness with happiness, and outright discouraging foods that don't fall into whatever perception of health Lisa Donato has. What's more, this is all equated to her overall well-being and happiness. This article is incredibly irresponsible and while I do feel strongly that each reader is responsible for gathering proper information to make the best decisions about his or her life, this article has absolutely no right being published in a magazine called Whole Living (sic). Based on this article alone (I know this is quite a leap) I will certainly never trust, let alone pick up, another publication of Whole Living. It's really a shame to come across articles like this that support the myth that losing weight and depriving ourselves of true nourishment are the answers to our "blues." —Maegen Rzasa (via email) KUWANA HAULSEY in conversation with MICHAEL BERNARD BECKWITH Discussion / Book Signing Thursday, January 16th, 7PM Third Street Promenade 1201 Third Street Santa Monica (310) 260-9110 The acclaimed author of The Red Moon sits down with the founder of Culver City's Agape International Spiritual Center to discuss her memoir—a poignant reflection on the lessons she learned from her infant son and the personal growth that accompanies parenthood. Get more info and get to know your favorite writers at BN.COM/events All events subject to change, so please contact the store to confirm. december/january 2013 -'14 WLT-DEC-JAN-11-24-10pm.indd 7 7 11/24/13 10:34 PM