Ariane Resnick - How To Be Well When You’re Not: Practices And Recipes To Maximize Health In Illness

Practices and Recipes to
Maximize Health in Illness

Ariane Resnick, CNC

Foreword by P!nk

All of us have special ones who have loved us into being.

Fred Rogers

This book is dedicated to all my special ones.

Im basing the suggestions in this book solely on my own experience with serious illness, and on my consultations with others in the years since. Even so, I do want to put some basic guidelines out there:

Although Western medicine practitioners turned out to be of very little help to me (and, worse, doctors told me I would never get better), I consulted a large number of them before I turned to other sources of healing, and you should, too. For one thing, you may have better success with them than I did, and for another, they are useful for diagnoses via blood work and other tests.

Before you embark on any new exercise program, including yoga, check with your healthcare professional to make sure there are no risks for you that you dont know about, and when you do the exercises, make sure you have a thorough understanding of what you are doing. Even stretching can cause injury if its done incorrectly.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking prescription medication, or suffering from any medical condition, please check with your healthcare professional before making dietary changes. Some foods (including herbs and spices) carry serious risks for some people.

If you use one of the books suggested ingredients in the form of a supplement powder instead of a whole food, check the ingredients to make sure it doesnt contain anything to which you are allergic and wont interfere with any prescription or over-the-counter medication you may be taking. Also, check for any known side effects! Some supplements can cause very serious reactions, including, in rare cases, paralysis and death.

Food to me is an emotional topic: It is life and I love it. Its an equally emotional topic for Ariane Resnick, the chef and nutritionist who I tasked with feeding me in a way that would get me the body I wanted and needed for my 2018 tour. She was so confident in our first conversation that she could help me achieve my goals, I put myself fully in her hands and we took off on a successful, delicious journey. I didnt think it would be possible for a diet or cleanse to leave me feeling more comforted and satisfied than normal food does, but that is Arianes gift. She has brought comfort to my soul and deliciousness to my life with her cuisine, while also helping me achieve important health goals. Her approach to cooking, nutrition, and wellness is that you should never have to suffer in order to feel better, and that logic has served me in every possible way.

With Arianes cooking, I never felt restricted, no matter how strong of a plan we were sticking to. She accommodated my array of restrictions, yet every meal was satisfying and nourishing. The first thing I tasted of hers (an Italian wedding soup made with shirataki noodles) immediately became my favorite food. Simple dishes that tasted complex, like her turkey-stuffed peppers and her marinara, made me happy in my heart. Her food had my energy levels soaring even without adequate sleep, and when out of the country and unable to have her cook for me, I followed her nutrition guidelines to keep myself on track as I continued working toward my goals. When I came back, I wasted no time jumping back on her wagon. If I ate just a few of her dishes for the rest of my life, Id be a very lucky girl.

In addition to her food, which never stopped amazing me throughout our eight months together, the experience of working with Ariane was a joyful one. She made me laugh with her excitement for my meals and the various ways she could make my food world more fun. She even made me cryin a good waywhen she shared how I had positively affected her. Its clear to me that she not only knows her way around a kitchen, but also around getting into a mind-set that will help you be well. She has so much to offer beyond just her yummy food: Ariane is obviously on this planet to help others feel better, and she does it seamlessly. I think its a perfect fit that she decided to write a book about her journey through illnesses and the tools she uses with clients to help them achieve the same level of wellness that she did. Im excited not only for the healing recipes in this book, but for how much Ariane sharing her well-earned wisdom will help peoples lives. Just as she improved my life, I trust that this book will leave you as a reader feeling better, too.

P!nk (Alecia Beth Moore)
February 2018

What a grandiose statement, right? I initially came up with the concept for this book and titled it in my head when I was sick in 2012. It was the book I was going to write someday, when I was a well person, so that my story could benefit the most people with the least amount of effort on their parts. My thought was that by sharing my experience, I could spare others some of the emotional turmoil Id experienced in illness.

At the time, I just wanted to feel less alone. I wanted to put something out in the world that other people who werent feeling well could pick up and read on their couches or in their beds, and that would make them, in turn, feel less alone. Illness is so solitary. No matter how many people surround you, it is difficult to feel deeply understood when youre sick. Its also a struggle to maintain the positive emotions were told we should feel for those around us functioning in perfect health, and that inability can make us feel lonely.

When I got better in 2013, the universe decided pretty quickly that I was going to start consulting others on wellness. Without even looking to move in that direction career-wise, inquiries came in regularly about what I had done and how it could work for others. As I began sharing the tips and techniques that had helped me recover, my desire to put down these modalities in bookform deepened. The more I worked with illness sufferers and the more my suggestions contributed to their wellness, the more I felt this knowledge should be as accessible as possible.

The opportunity to write How to Be Well When Youre Not didnt manifest until the end of 2017, but I didnt lose faith during those in-between years that it would someday exist. Because this book is the most purposeful, and by far the most personal, work of mine, writing it has been a serious undertaking. I gave myself a couple of weeks over the usual six-weeks-or-less time frame that my previous three books took for me to write, but even with a relaxed approach, the process has been an emotional one. In terms of my own path to recovery, outside of the times that are hard to remember, some of the ones that I recall well are painful to recount, and in places my story feels heavy, especially when I consider pitting these stories on people who are dealing with their own troubles.