Lissa Rankin's Blog, page 33
April 25, 2011
Does The Pill Cause Gallbladder Disease?
For those of you who have chosen whether and when to have a family by taking birth control pills, I wanted to share with you my thoughts about a recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that concluded that certain birth control pills may increase your risk of gallbladder disease.
So what does that mean if you're one of the millions of women taking birth control pills? Do you have to choose between simple, highly effective contraception and gallstones? Must you resort to less effective condoms or a diaphragm if you want to avoid gallbladder surgery?
Take a deep breath, Pill fans. The Girlfriend MD is here to reassure you.
April 24, 2011
April 22, 2011
It Doesn't Have To Be Hard
I realized recently that I hold one powerful limiting belief -- that good things are always hard, and anything or anyone worth it will be difficult. A valuable relationship will challenge you and make you work for it. A killer creative project will suck the life out of you. Making it big in business will require you to work your ass off. You get the picture.
April 21, 2011
Career Or Family: How Do We Choose?
Saturday night, I returned home from New York City after a whirlwind week of 20 TV appearances, eight interviews with magazine editors at Glamour, Woman's Day, Health magazine, Shape and other hot-shot publications, a Get Out Of Your Own Way workshop, and meetings with agents. Sunday, I was busy packing with my family to go to Lake Tahoe for my daughter's spring break and to Big Sur to celebrate Easter (which happens to land on my birthday this year). Then the phone rang, and I found out that Good Morning America wanted me to hop back on a plane and fly out to New York to appear on their show.
I had been away from my hubby and 5-year-old daughter for a whole week, and we had been planning to spend this special week together for months. And I felt the familiar tearing between my ambition and my family.
April 20, 2011
15 Ways To Leave Your Lover (With Love)
I just reread Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat, Pray, Love, and I found myself tearing up when I read, "The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving."
You see, I remember that feeling. I'll never forget that feeling.
I Am Divorced
April 19, 2011
Get Your Mojo On: Retreat Into Your WHOLE Health
I'm so excited to be leading a workshop at Kripalu, a gorgeous retreat center in the Berkshires in Massachusetts in June, and for those who are considering signing up -- or even for those who will miss it, I wanted to share with you some snippets of what I'll be teaching.
Do you need a jump start in your life? Are you feeling disconnected, both spiritually and from other people? Are you ready to ramp up your mojo, find your life purpose, get healthy, light your creative spark, and hang with me in the flesh?
If so, GOOD NEWS! You can unite with other vital women, speak your truth, be UNAPOLOGETICALLY YOU, get personal coaching, and light your Inner Pilot Light in the gorgeous setting of Kripalu.
You could say that my workshop is a "health" workshop, but if you said that, you'd be putting this workshop in a box and making it way too small -- although I'm a physician, I don't think of health the way most doctors do. Which is exactly why I started OwningPink.com, because my definition of health includes not just the body, but also mental/emotional health, work/life purpose, relationships, creativity, spirituality, sexuality, and a whole lot more! I call it "whole health," aka "mojo." As in GET YOUR MOJO ON, baby!
So what are we going to be doing?
April 18, 2011
Risks & Benefits of Hormones in Menopause
If you're struggling with menopausal symptoms, you may be grasping for anything that will help you get your mojo back. And chances are, you'll at least consider taking hormones if your menopausal symptoms are severe enough.
I outlined my natural recommendations for treatment of menopausal symptoms here. But what about hormones? What's the real skinny?
Back when I was training, we were putting everybody and her great-grandmother on hormones. 90-year-old ladies who had just had a heart attack? Here, take Premarin! 80-year-olds with osteoporosis? How 'bout some estrogen, hon?! 55-year-olds who had sailed through menopause with ease? Why not take Prempro to protect yourself?
Now we know better. Not only are hormones not cardiac protective the way we once thought -- they can actually increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
So why would a woman take hormones?
April 15, 2011
Love Letter To Your Inner Child: An Exercise In Getting Out Of Your Own Way
Do you hear voices in your head that hold you back? Is The Gremlin of fear hissing, "You'll never amount to anything!" or, "When are you gonna learn that ugly girls can't do things like that?" or, "You're not smart/pretty/talented/sexy/rich/wise enough!" when you start dreaming big?
Or maybe The Gremlin is spewing "You'll never belong!" or, "What makes you think anybody would ever care about a book you would write?" or, "Get over yourself and know your place!" or, "Nobody will ever love you."
So often, those voices stem from childhood. The Gremlin is just repeating things we heard from our parents or things we told ourselves when we were very young and impressionable.
And yet, those voices are powerful forces in our lives, and we may mistake them as truth, when they're just bitter toxic lies spitting out of our minds like ammunition aimed at the jugular.
April 14, 2011
How To Talk To Your Tween Girl - And Be Heard
(If you hear music with this post, scroll down and pause the video until you're ready to watch!)
When I think back to being 13, which my mother calls my “door slamming year,” I shake a bit in my pink patent leather go-go boots because I know one day my 5-year-old will be a tween, and paybacks can be sweet, eh?
This past year, I spent five months traveling the country, answering the anonymous questions of teen girls at universities on my book tour for What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend. Afterwards, dozens of them came up to say they wished they could have talked to their mothers about body stuff the way they felt they could talk to me. (Aw, shucks.)
As a mother myself, it reminds me of the importance of making our daughters feel safe to talk to us about anything. If she can’t come to us, who will she go to? Her best friend? An internet chat room? Sheesh!
April 13, 2011
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