The Healthy Cookie: Unbaked

Courage and cheerfulness will not only carry you over the rough places in life, but will enable you to bring comfort and help to the weak-hearted and will console you in the sad hours

-William Osler

I found this quote at the very beginning of Meghan Telpner's newly released e-book, "The Healthy Cookie: Unbaked". The quote alone (alongside the adorable picture of Meghan serving up some soup in her kitchen) was enough for me to know that I was going to love this book.

They say that things happen for a reason and after living my crazy life for the last 25 years, I've really come to believe this statement to be true. I stumbled upon Meghan by accident. I was reading a blog one day and came across a comment she had written which alluded to the fact that she had suffered from Crohn's and achieved healing through natural treatments. Right away I was on her blog and emailing her to gather as much information as I could. At this point I was already in a good place (after diagnosis, seeing my naturopath and already starting to feel better) so I was really just looking for more information as well as guidance from someone who had shared a similar experience and had ventured down a similar path.

Meghan's blog led me to her site which led me to 4 weeks in her kitchen cooking yummy food with new friends. Since then Meghan and I have become friends, which makes me really happy. Not only do we share a commonality in our intestines but in many ways we are very similar, which is why I really enjoyed The Healthy Cookie: Unbaked.

The book tells the story of Meghan's journey through illness, diagnosis, treatment, healing and education between 2006 and 2008. During that time she kept a blog (of the same name) and the chapters in the book are blog entries from back in the day. While I've heard many pieces of the story, it was great to have insight into Meghan's thoughts and feelings during this time in her life.

While the book is based on her personal experiences, many of the themes are universal. In September 2006 she wrote,

"We must take our health into our own hands, do our own research and despite what is considered the norm in our society, we should consider our diet and lifestyle first, put natural remedies before chemical treatments and choose needles before knives."

Although I knew that this was Meghan's philosophy, it was so nice to read and remember that I am not alone in this journey. There are other people out there looking for and encouraging others to seek alternative answers to their health concerns. The book also touched down on things unrelated to my disease that I need to be reminded of from time to time like living without regrets, the pitfalls of perfectionism as well as taking my own advice. Meghan's story brought me comfort, laughs as well as tears and solidified my desire to study nutrition. It seems that everything is pointing me in that direction these days and this book was no exception. I cried when I read the chapter called "But You're So Good At It" because it resonated with the crossroads I am approaching right now.

"Just being good at something doesn't mean it is what we were meant to be doing for the rest of our life. It may be what we need to do right now to pay the bills, but ultimately, pursuing a passion, as scary as that may be, is where we will find fulfillment. We just have to be brave enough to take that leap".

I know what I should be doing in life, and I really just need to take the leap and go.

The Healthy Cookie: Unbaked is a great read. Meghan's writing is honest, funny and heart-warming (especially when she talks about sunshine and rainbows). Her passion for what she does really shines and once again, it was so helpful to read about her journey to healing through natural means. Her point of view is refreshing and the book touches down on so many aspects of life in on her way to becoming a healthy cookie. Meghan's passion for what she does couple with her cheerfulness and courage have been a huge inspiration to me and I'm so happy to have met her at this point in my life.