It’s funny to see my 7-year-old trying to decide should she have sorbet or ice cream or a cookie.

So I ask her, “Which one should you have?”

She thinks for a moment. “Well, I should have an apple.”

“That’s a good decision,” I say.

And then she adds, “But can I have a slice of an apple instead and then a cookie with it?”

I don’t talk to my daughter about calories… instead I talk to her about what her body wants and needs. I talk to her about how our body comes alive when you eat a bunch of live foods like veggies, fruits and nuts prepared in a certain way…Organic is always best if it’s an option. I feel mothers who are aware of how important our food is, the quality of our food especially, we risk going overboard regarding food relationships with our children. By no means do I want my daughter to be afraid of fats, sweets or any other food, but at the same time, I want her to have limited amounts for health’s sake. What can result is an fear for food or an opposite affect of over indulgence of the food the child is told to stay away from. Such a balancing act for our little ones who are not mature enough to understand the difference of nutrient dense food that pack long lasting energy vs. empty calories marketed with emotional value for purely capitalistic gain and not the health of their bodies, designed for them to crave more and more. In my opinion, food should not be animated or have an economic/status value attached to it’s advertising. It crosses the boundary of seeing food for what It really is: energy to sustain us.

For instance, with the candy bar, the first sensation is really sweet and full of crunch. But very soon after that, your energy crashes, and you can’t get yourself up. With something as simple as a carrot, you’ve got a little bit of sweet and a wonderful crunch, but after you eat it, your body is satisfied and happy and holds the energy it gives you. But to a kid who sees animated rabbit characters offering amusement park family sweepstakes under every lid, which one would you choose at 7 year old, especially if “everyone” at school is talking about the big prize? She may bring in the wholesome organic yogurt with a laughing cow on the cup, but her heart is with the sweepstakes bunny her friends are enjoying. I know this resonates with a lot of moms out there. Really hard bringing up a healthy kid in an unhealthy world that throws billions into it’s advertising.

In the US especially, infants are trained early to expect overly sweet food…we may need to rethink what goes in to baby formula, baby food and so on to help break this awful cycle. I know of one organic juice company, firstjuice.com doing just that along with a dedicated army of smaller food companies tired of giving in to the “big guys”.

I’m so looking forward to Robin O’Brian’s new book, The Unhealthy Truth. This book will help parents understand some of the problems with the foods their kids eat. I think this book needs to be required reading for school administrators, and schools should offer parent and student classes around it. Parents and kids could really use some help understanding what’s happening in the food industry and what they can do to change it.

One of the greatest benefits of living through cancer was my deeper understanding of eating well and eating more green. A friend introduced me to the idea of juicing green – true blends of the best of green foods with nutritional benefits that go through the roof. One of my favorite juices became a 42 oz organic mixture of: celery, kale, spinach, garlic (yes garlic). From time to time I would add Swiss chard and if I was daring dandilion greens due to their aweful taste but powerful antioxidant punch.

It did take a few tries to get this all down but once I changed my mindset and thought of how much I was helping my struggling body to win over cancer, I had no problem with it. In fact, I still green juice during the summer almost every other day and during the winter I switch off week to week with either a red cabbage or kale shitake mushroom soup. My daughter prefers the cabbage as I love the kale shitake…

Green juicing really helps invigorate you and helps you put yourself together, too. In fact, though this may sound strange, my oncologist was a little worried when I started chemo that my new healthy diet would almost make me too strong for the chemo. But he let me try it, and I really learned a lot about nutrition with the experience. Even during the chemo, my skin was glowing. My elimination was great. I felt strong. I felt like I finally received the message that everyone had been trying to tell me for years when they said, “Eat your fruits and vegetables.” I realized in my own fridge, in the fresh foods drawer, I had a whole world of antioxidants. I had a whole world of nutrients. And my body had been telling me to PLEASE STOP eating that other stuff. PLEASE give me what I crave.

So now in my own life I do travel with my raw carrot sticks, my celery sticks, my apples, my bananas, my bottles of water in the stainless steel containers. And almonds – I love my raw almonds. I have them in the car, in my purse, at home, not as a diet (I never diet) but as a way of living… Yes I have a candy bar on a rare occasion and enjoy every bite, but that usually holds me for quite some time.

All in all, I’ve learned that if I can eat nutrient-dense foods, I feel better. I know if I am giving my body wants it wants and what it needs, I can maintain my weight better and have the energy to enjoy the life I set out to live.

When I hit my 40s, I was happy, healthy and very, very busy. I was a caretaker for someone I loved. I was writing books. I took up golf, learned about scuba diving and participated in my first triathlon, doing lots of TV work, creating my clothing lines… I was really living life, taking care of myself, eating well and getting regular massages was a part of my regimen.

But I started feeling tired after spin classes, my breathing was becoming an issue and I had to stack 5 pillows under my head when I slept, and a cough made voice overs problematic…last but not least, I had developed an uncontrollable itch. At first I blamed my gluten filled diet, and three days before I was to appear on the Montel Williams Show, I recall standing at Whole Foods grocery store and deciding then and there that I needed to be gluten free. I had been feeling so terrible, I really had to dig deep to rethink how I was taking care of myself.

So I started buying rice cakes. I bought all these wonderful flours: tapioca and buckwheat and others. I made the cookies I craved with the new ingredients, and (although they were a little drier), the new cookies… and my new diet… were just fine. I started feeling better, less itchy, less puffy.

But my energy still wasn’t right, and I had a pressure in my chest that made it hard to sleep. My chiropractor would touch my neck in a certain place, and I’d cough every time. Having a past history as a massage therapist, I knew my body was trying to tell me something.

But I was having trouble getting doctors to listen. Some of them mentioned hormones. One doctor started a conversation with, “I know you’re in the media, and you’re used to having a lot of attention, but…” I actually walked out of his office.

When I sat down with the fifth doctor, I said, “Pardon me… I don’t want to seem overly pushy or stubborn or anything, but I want to have a full set of blood tests, and I’m not going to leave your office until you give me a complete chest x-ray.”

I’m not sure if she agreed with me, but she said she could tell I was very serious. “I feel there’s something in my chest,” I said. And I had to find out what it was despite her additional prescription of Nexium for acid reflux (just in case).

The diagnosis was stage 2 Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma —a form of lymphatic cancer that is thankfully often curable with chemotherapy (and radiation). What I had felt in my chest was a quite a few tumors and one about the size of a banana. When the doctor called, she said, “Thank God you were persistent.”

What is the lesson I learned here?

It took a few months for me to ask this question, and the answer didn’t come immediately. A little time and distance has given me the ability to think about what this diagnosis told me.

1. I realized that I was going too fast, that I needed to make some changes in my life. I was trying to rush through treatment, and I had to rest. I took a step back one day when I realized that I looked forward to my PET scan because I’d have the opportunity to take a 90-minute nap. This was really an eye opener, and I had to train myself to slow down.
2. I recognized that I needed to ask for help. I never ask for help… Rarely do I say to a friend, “Oh, please come with me.” But during treatment, I asked 14 of my best girlfriends to be my cancer buddies, and all of them are dear to my heart because they were there for me when I needed them most.
3. I understood the power of persistence. If I had listened to the first doctor, or had given up after the third, my situation might have gotten a lot worse before it got better. Thus, even though my persistence was sometimes frustrating, I listened to what my body was telling me and used my voice to tell others.

I hope you can take my lessons and apply them to your own lives, to learn how to slow down, ask for help and speak up. You alone have the power to make your life what you want it to be, and I wish you all the strength to do so.

When was the last time that you had a therapeutic, hands-on massage? Do you ever give yourself a birthday gift? Or a special treat for no other reason than that you deserve it?

One of the messages I like to share with people I meet, especially other moms, is about filling your vessel. In order to feel good about yourself you need to fill your vessel – you need to give yourself the energy you need to share yourself with others. And one of the best energy sources I can think of is therapeutic massage…right up there with meditation.

Even though my TV and modeling career has taken me in different directions in my life, I’m still a practicing massage therapist for a very selective clientele (my friends and family!) I’ve always been a hands-on healer, probably starting at age 11 or 12. It started when I did a gymnastics class where everyone paired up for an exercise. I was the only one left out, so my partner was the instructor, who was from India. He used an unusual massage technique on my back to loosen my shoulders – it’s a technique I still use today.

The perfect therapeutic massage actually benefits both the giver and the receiver. For the receiver, having a great massage therapist work out the kinks in your neck, body and help you release blocked energy – giving you the benefit of hands-on touch in a safe and open environment – is really important.

I went through massage school before I got into modeling. When I give a massage is a feeling of being grounded in a very deep and real and meaningful way. My goal always is to alleviate stress and help release blockages from the body. In my opinion, there is nothing better than helping someone feel better and see it happen in an hour or hour and half.

A lot of energy moves through me and the individual getting a massage. The connection of the person’s energy with the light I visualize flowing in above my head, is magnificent, even if the individual doesn’t know it’s happening. Your therapist is not there to take your energy. If you feel this may be so, kindly get off the table. I visualize white light coming in from the top of my head flowing through me to the individual on the table. It’s an hour and a half of being at one and being fully and totally present.

For me, as I am sure for other massage therapists, giving a massage is very close to meditation. I have to concentrate on my breath, on the pressure, and on the intent, at the same time offering great boundaries so the client can feel completely secure and completely at ease, allowing them to relax completely.

I don’t know why moms classically put themselves close to the bottom of the priority list. Everyone should be offering mom as much assistance is possible inside and out of the household. If the CEO of the household is too busy to take care of herself, she’s not really going to have the energy to help her family to the fullest.

It’s all about the supply and demand of energy. You need her especially to have as much available to her as possible so she can share her gifts as a good mother with her children, husband, partner, and friends. When I get a massage, I’m giving myself such a gift, one that pays it forward ten fold. And when I’m massaging a woman, I know she is giving herself a great gift. It really is a true act of self care.

If massage is not your thing, try yoga or Pilates or even meditation at home. All these are gifts to yourself, and ones I highly, highly recommend because with the world is so crazy right now, It’ll shine a more positive light on whatever you may be going through leading you to more a life of more abundance.