Get NAKED in NATURE

Here we are in MID-summer. Peaches, paddle boarding, piggybacking and outdoor play. It is a great time to get outside to savor and celebrate the sunshine. I just returned from a visit with my Vancouver family, hiking through the temperate rain forest and playing in the tall pine trees. It was fabulous to be in a return to the type of forest I grew up playing in, hiking in and exploring.

Back here in Colorado, I am enjoying the forests bursting with life, the rivers flowing, the trails blooming. Nature is peaking all around us!

Being in nature is a very big part of my personal recipe for peace, centering, and energy.

So when I say 'GET NAKED' in nature, what I really mean (other than spontaneous skinny dipping and irresistible forest streaking) is that we can go into nature and shed all that is not serving us. We can reveal our truth, and nature will guide us. We can let go of what is blocking us, and nature will lead us into the light. Nature is a powerful place to come back to ourselves and find our center.

When I go outside with an intention, it is with a body prayer, or with a calling for guidance and clarity. I often sit on a rock and contemplate, write in my journal, or simply cleanse through my sweat, my tears or my sorrows.

Whether it is the ocean or the mountains – being in nature keeps me attuned to my intuition and inner wisdom.

According to a recent article published in the New York Times, citing a study from the National Academy of Science, those people who had strolled along the quiet, tree-lined paths regularly showed meaningful improvements in their mental health.

A little shy to get naked? No worries... Here are my "Get Naked in Nature" nuggets.

• Find your spot

It doesn't matter where you live or whether you have mountains near by. What matters is that you take yourself outside in the expansiveness of nature, and explore yourself. Any place that feels sacred to you will work. Sit near a little stream, under a tree, or in the wide open park. Bundle up and walk freely in the snow, feeling the flakes melt on your cheeks. When we have a sacred spot or a power spot that we can go to outside, it is like a sanctuary for our soul.

• Leave it

It’s hard I know, but try to leave all of your technology at home. This is for the specific purpose of finding some peace of mind. When you are going on an intentional pilgrimage to cleanse your mind, your ringing cell phone will distract your from your connection to nature and to self. The more peace and quiet you can be, the better for inner listening.

• State your intention and desire

As you walk focus on your intention and your desire, ask for guidance, wisdom or clarity. I have done this on long walks in nature and it is soul medicine for me.

• Infuse a sacred item

Often I bring a sacred item with me on ritual hikes for the purpose of infusing them with the restorative and insightful qualites of my experience. This sacred item will then act as a reminder for me to remember what was revealed to me, what I am intending or what will anchor me in my day-to-day life. A crystal from home, or even find an natural item from your time outside such as a rock, a leaf or a feather will work just fine. Bring your item home and place somewhere that you can be reminded often.

• Move from your inner rhythm A certain grace occurs when we move in nature hooring our inner rhythm. It is as if we synch up from the inside out. Because we are truly part of nature ¬¬- every cell, every breath and every intuition – when we are honoring our inner rhythm things flow organically. This means on days when you are energetic - sweat it out, hike it out, move your body with fierceness. When you are more tired, restful, melancholic – enjoy sitting by a river, walking with a slow and relaxing pace, or even laying in the tall grass.

Remember... we ARE nature.

Also, if you need a little time this summer immersed in nature – time to find your personal rhythm, shed the old, and restore in the Colorado Sangre de Cristo mountains and hot springs – be sure to check out the Eat.Pray.Yoga Colorado retreat coming up this August.

Breakfast Bliss and Blood Sugar

As most of us know, there is a lot of potency and power in starting off our day on the right foot.  Morning ritual is something I personally live and enjoy everyday to set the stage for the day I envision and intend to manifest. Mediation, journalling, gratitude and, of course...breakfast are some of my favorite morning rituals. Summertime is special with it's early morning sunshine, the heartbeat of expansion, and the season's satiating and soulful foods peaking all around us.    I thought I would share with you some of my favorite summertime soul satiating secrets so you too can find some bliss in your breakfast. Not only will a healthy breakfast taste good and fuel us up, but one that is blood sugar balanced will also keep our energy consistent throughout the day, decrease inflammation in our bodies and best of all get those crazy cravings under control. According to the New York Times: "Sugary breakfasts full of  processed carbohydrates are known to cause abrupt spikes and falls in blood sugar appear to stimulate parts of the brain involved in hunger, craving and reward, the new research shows. The findings, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest that these so-called high-glycemic foods influence the brain in a way that might drive some people to overeat."   It's time to SASS up summertime with some yummy breakfast bliss and blood sugar balancing ideas.  These breakfasts are designed to keep us synched with the season, keep us efficient with our mornings and fuel us up with a nice smooth, even and energetic plateau so we can continue to rock our summertime days...

4 Summertime Breakfasts to Satiate your Soul

Breakfast doesn't have to be boring, drab, or dull.  With just a few new ideas you too can have yummy seasonal breakfasts and a high energy YOU.

• 4 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/4 cup seasonal berries
• Handful of nuts
• Optional essential oil - 1 drop of French Lavender

Soak the chia seeds for 20 minutes in the morning (or overnight) in coconut milk.  Stir in the remaining ingredients and enjoy.

Health Nugget:  

The chia seed is highly nutritious, medicinal seed that has been used for centuries for its beneficial properties. Chia seeds are high in essential fatty acids alpha-linolenic and linoleic acid, made up of 30% protein,  and a wide array of trace minerals. Chia seeds are filling,  and are a great way to increase your omega’s and your protein with a plant based source of omega 3.

• 2 Tbsp of butter or coconut oil
• Large handful farm fresh spinach (or swiss chard)
• 1 small onion
• 1 garden fresh tomato  (medium sized) sliced
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 6 organic eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter or coconut in a heavy pan.  Saute up your onion until transparent.  Toss in your farm fresh veggies over medium heat until wilted.  Lightly beat eggs in a bowl with a pinch of sea salt and/or pepper.  Pour the egg mixture over greens into the now well oiled pan.  Place tomato slices on top.  Sprinkle goat cheese on top.  Place into the preheated oven (350 degrees) and cook until the top of the egg is solid and golden.

Health Nugget:

Organic eggs are chock full of the amino acid, tryptophan, which is a key player in a good mood and inner calm.  The protein in eggs is one that will not only satiate your blood sugar due to its delicate balance of protein and fat, but will also keep you feeling brighter and cheerier all day long.

• 4 avocados (halved and pitted)
• 1/2 cup raw cacao
• 1/2 cup dates (pitted and soaked for two hours)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 tsp stevia (Truvia is recommended)
• 1 handful slivered almonds

Blend all ingredients (accept the slivered almonds) in a blender or food processor until creamy and top with some slivered almonds or nuts of you choice.

 Health Nugget:  

With avocado's delightful voluptuous shape, it has been known for centuries as an aphrodisiac.  Avocados were considered so sexy that the Spanish priests at one point prohibited their consumption.  This creamy goddess fruit is power packed with nutrients and good fat keeping blood sugar and hormones in balance and your energy ready for summer fun.

• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
• 1 handful strawberries
• 1 handful spinach
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 12 ounces coconut milk

Health Nugget:  

Coconut oil is a great way to balance your blood sugar, nourish your thyroid, and create sustainable energy throughout the day.  Just one teaspoon can make all the difference.  Coconut oil is said to lower bad cholesterol, aid in digestion and regulate metabolism.

Selectively Numb

Time to nurture, listen, love and BE is time that is well spent when we are on a path to inner freedom. The quiet of nature, inner connection, and rest allows us to notice what is arising, listen to the messages from our bodies and choose how to navigate through them wisely. When we get to busy in our day-to-day life, overwhelmed by our to-do's piling up, stressed that things aren't going as planned, we often resort to our habitual numbing – ways of coping.  We tend to move away from the uncomfortable feelings in order to avoid them.

Sometimes these feelings do not have enough space to be felt, listened to, or even healed.

Shooting for SELECTIVELY NUMB is a coping skill many of us buy into - often without even realizing it. You know... choosing to feel the good stuff, while ignoring the bad.

It is temping isn't it?

It IS tempting, because who wants to feel those old negative or traumatic or stressful feelings that seem to weigh us down?  The ones that curl us up in the fetal position in our beds, make us nauseous, or even trigger our past trauma.

As we adventure down the pathway to freedom, it is often found that those old icky beliefs and feelings from the past can come up for a couple of reasons:

First, to be felt and listened to in a way that they were possibly never honored before.  

Second, so they can be released, cleared, dumped from our energy bodies altogether.

The truth is SELECTIVELY NUMB does not exist.

When we turn away from suffering, ignore our pain, or just simply numb ourselves out with our usual vices – food, alcohol, busyness, or a variety of other addictions – we actually numb ourselves completely.

Our level of pain and suffering may feel numbed in the moment, but so is our joy, bliss, and happiness.

The path to freedom teaches us to embrace it all.  To sit in the uncomfortable and to also expand into our pleasure and bliss (both of which can be challenging).

Here are my favorite personal strategies (the ones I use regularly) for more FEELING, FREEING, and FINDING my power so that I can expand into my FULLEST.  Perhaps some of these will work for you as well...

Breath

When we build our life force or prana, in any awareness practice, we enliven whatever is already happening. Prana is non-discriminating.

Strong feelings of stress, anxiety, overwhelm, sadness, or fear can be daunting and we surely do not want to exaserbate what already exists in the mind-body if it is unpleasant of challenging.

When you give yourself time to sit, center, breath and calm your system, you are in fact strengthening the calm.

Balancing our your breathing so that the inhale and the exhale mirror each other in length and quality will in fact calm your entire system, engage your parasympathetic nervous system, slow down your brain waves and tame your strong emotional feelings.

Breathing is often thought of as the vehicle into the subtle body in the yoga practice. The ancient yogis believed that if you can regulate your breath, you can regulate your mind.

**I find a quiet space to sit for 10-15 min and practice balanced breathing. I focus on the quality and rhythm of your breathing.

Somatic Serenity

One of the most effective tools I use when strong emotions arise for me is doing a body check in. Once I can see where my body is holding the emotion I place my hand over this area.

Often when we experience strong emotion our bodies experience physical sensations such as tingling, clenching, or heat. There is wisdom here.

When we tap into the bodies physical sensation, we are able to get out of the mind spin and drop into the body. This practice is calming, nourishing, and helpful in our inner listening.

*I find a quiet place and do a body check in or body scan, searching for strong sensations associated with the emotion at hand. I then place my hand over that part of my body in a gentle and nourishing way. I return to the breath and ask for any information that my body is ready to reveal regarding this emotion. I ask for healing, peace and calm.

Become a Flower Fairy

Flower remedies are used to work on the emotions of the body bringing back balance and taking us out of a fight or flight stress response.

There are a wide array of flower remedies available in your local health food store. Each remedy is designed to support a different emotional imbalance restoring equilibrium and balance back into the body and soul.

**I venture to the flower remedy section of the wellness area of the health food store or natural pharmacy and I ask for the best remedy for my current emotion. I hold the bottle and ask myself if this is a good remedy for me. I may try a few before I decide. I keep the remedy in my purse and I use whenever the emotion arises. I also use it in my daily meditation practice.

Take a Ritual Bath

Aside from the warming and relaxing qualities there are also deeper support from certain types of baths.  Just like you make yourself that intentional cup of herbal tea, you can soak away your sorrows in a intentional ritual bath with herbs and tonics that will fine tune your energy and emotional bodies.

You can always resort to the simple Epson salts bath if you like, but here I am going to provide you with some specific and unique baths to use to cleanse your energy and emotions – mind, body and soul.

*Sweeten up your mood with a “sweet like honey” bath.  Add a cup of raw honey to your bath and watch your sweetness return.  Honey baths remind us of the sweetness of life.

*Purify your energy body with lemon juice in your bath.  Add one cup of lemon juice to your bath for a gentle clearing and supportive shift of old beliefs and emotions.

Get Naked with Nature

One of the quickest ways I know to clear my mind and reset my thoughts is taking myself right into the foothills of Boulder.

For 20 years now, I have lived here in Boulder CO, and I have to tell you I will always be in awe of these mountains. Over the years, nature has held my sorrow, my pain, my trauma, my confusion, my self hatred, my heartbreaks and everything else that I have gone through.

These mountains truly hold a blueprint of my life.

So, when I say 'GET NAKED' with nature, what I really mean is to shed all that is not serving you, and SHE will hold it for you.  Reveal your truth, and SHE will guide you. Let go of what is blocking you, and SHE will lead you into the light.

 *I go into the woods and hike with the intention of nature holding a healing space for me.  I give myself time and permission to heal, and I let go into the great mother earth.  This is a time of surrender, release, trust, and clearing for me.

Turn IT around...

5 steps to quiet your mind and return to your TRUE self.

 The light of the moon tends to shine into my bedroom through my bamboo shades quite often. The moonlight can bother me occasionally, I stir, rustle, and move about to try to settle into sleep again. Do you ever notice that your mind can challenge you in the deep dark night?

I hear this all the time.  Things always seem worse in the middle of the night.

Once mine starts, it is hard for me to rein her in.

My mind chatter, like most of us, can be my biggest source of stress, my biggest obstacle and my biggest teacher.

In these common human moments where our minds and our internal dialogue can get the best of us, it is helpful to have some strategies to anchor inward and “turn it around”.  Knowing how to reign in the mind is a game changer.

Your thoughts influence the quality of your inner world, and the nature of your outer world.
 
Our internal dialogue can be a positive force, guiding us into our power, our presence and tending to bring about positive results in the moment and in our future.  Our internal dialogue also has the ability to be negative, critical, and even ugly, often leading to strengthening negative attitudes and behaviors.

The path of the yogi(ni) is stock full of practices, tools, postures, sutras, kriyas, and meditations that all have the possibility of quieting the mind.  You would think with all of these in our back pocket we would be able to rein in the negative internal dialogue and turn it around no problem.

The truth is, the mind is a tricky part of our psyche, and holding to our truest power with our mind takes a lot of practice.

Be sure to check out these 5 steps to try to ease your mind (and the rest of you) so you can live in your most authentic self with grace and ease.

Watch and Witness

Becoming the witness in our own lives is the first step to recognizing both what quality of thought we experience, and where we can begin to upgrade. The pause, as Valerie DiAmbrosio mentions in her article in this months issue of SYJ, is a very powerful place with which to familiarize ourselves.

The more we can create space between our original thought, and our next action, the more intentional and aware we can be of what thought pattern to enforce or let go, and which action we wish to take next.

*Try to  practicing the pause. Witness, watch, and listen.

Breathe

Breathing is often thought of as the vehicle into the subtle body in the yoga practice. Slowing down the breath will automatically slow down your brain waves and give you more time to improve your internal dialogue and make your thoughts more intentional.

The ancient yogis believed that if you can regulate your breath, you can regulate your mind.

 * Try some pranayama, or specifically alternate nostril breathing (nadi shodhana) to practice slowing down your thoughts.

Remember you are NOT your thoughts

Once you pause and slow down, you will begin to notice the quality of your thoughts. Often when we get swooped into a familiar or habitual thought patterns and we don’t realize we have a choice.

Some of our most common thoughts may be judgmental, critical, and can very easily sneak up on us. These thoughts may bring us down, leave us feeling unlovable, not good enough or even inadequate.

*Try asking the question “Is this really TRUE?” The thoughts we believe are optional.

“Don’t believe everything you think”

Believe in Miracles

A Course in Miracles, defines a miracle as the shift from FEAR to LOVE. Here is a place where we have the power to shift our thinking, our internal dialogue and our habitual thoughts moment by moment.

The real miracle is the love that inspires the new thought. In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle.

*Next time you notice having a fear based thought, try replacing it with love. Believe in miracles.

“Through prayer, love is received,

and through miracles love is expressed.”

Create a Positive Mantra

A mantra, or an affirmation, is one way to practice changing fearful thoughts, self-sabotaging thoughts, or plain old icky thoughts into LOVE.  Mantra has been used in many spiritual traditions to begin to condition and sculpt the mind chatter into a positive supportive instrument.

The best mantra to practice is one that will take your most common negative or fear based thought and turn it into love. Keep it in the positive, keep it simple, and keep it relevant.

 *Try pulling out your smart phone and set the timer for mantra moments. I would suggest every hour to start.  Whenever you hear the chime, say your MANTRA.

Or 

*Write your MANTRA on a post-it note and put it on your computer, your desk your bathroom mirror or somewhere you will be seeing it often.  

Or

 *Place your MANTRA in your sacred space, on your alter, or somewhere close, so when you practice each day you will have it there to bring into your meditation

I cried at the airport...

I am known to cry quite frequently, some say I am a deep feeler.  We were pulling up in the taxi departing from the magical island of Bali, and I felt my tears beginning to well up.

As I got out of the car and walked into the airport, it was clearly one of those uncontrollable cries, and I thought I should probably wait to go through security. I had to sit down on a bench and wait it out.

It's not that I didn't want to come home, I love my Boulder life. The tears were more about my Bail experience having had an impact on me that was so profound it was hard to let go.  Bali's vibration had so gracefully met me exactly where I needed to be, in order to SEE and EXPAND.

Upon returning to Boulder after my 2-week inner pilgrimage,  amidst the excitement of spring, seeing my kids, friends, and those I love, there has been an uncomfortable feeling of being stuck, stagnant and outdated with how things used to be done in my life.  In the past we have called this a retreat hangover or re-integration process.  This one kicked my yogini butt.

Something HAS to change for my inner and outer alignment to occur.  Anything that isn't feeling aligned energetically seems be giving me a terrible headache.

Since being back, I have been sitting with this... waiting, listening, hoping for what needs to shift to become obvious - and if you know me, you know this waiting is not my favorite pastime.

I crave for this beautiful multidimensional insight that came to me in Bali to now emerge and apply to how I live each day, personally and professionally.

I have tried to sit down to write about it so many times...but nothing was coming...until today.

All my personal inquiry, hours of meditation, powerful kundalini sessions, and time with myself, has finally moved some energy and created some clarity.  I have been recalibrating my Bali bliss into my new Boulder buzz.

It turns out … something in me has expired.

It is perspective, and the old ways of approaching life, business and health.  It is the muscling through life to make things work, burning myself out in a desperate attempt to keep all the balls in the air, and still be able to smile as I pass you by in the grocery store.

I am so passionate about what I do every day, and how I live this blessed life, but it is time for the feminine to guide me, to take over, and to provide a flow and a grace that eases my system so that I get filled back up instead of drained by my day-to-day.

I live at one with my mind, body and spirit connection.  I have to listen to my wisdom, and the ever present goddess guiding me.  Any place where I am not LISTENING has become so loud I can barely stand it.

I see how my outdated and limiting beliefs can keep me stuck, and that nothing can change without the power of my thoughts and the divine feminine supporting me.

I see how it is time for a new paradigm that outdates SO many of the myths about food, women, and pleasure so that we can individually find our pathway to THRIVE in a mind-body-spirit approach to both health and living.  It can be felt as subtle yet profound and magnificent.

Over the coming weeks, you will notice some changes with the way I do business, what I am putting forth, and what I really hope to bring into the world.  It is energetic and gentle...I am still in the process of unfolding how this will look to the outside world.

I know for my work to be as potent and as powerful as I need it to be for my own fulfillment, my clarity of heart and grace has to be 100%.

Thankfully, I have some amazing people coaching and guiding me on this incredible journey of discovering what is coming next.  I promise to keep you posted.

With spring in full force, expansion happening all around us, I feel more than ready to step forward into my own creative potential and stay in synch with what is blooming all around us.

Care to step into the current with me? Let's expand, widen, create and live our best lives together!

The best is yet to come.

Calling Aphrodite

5 Springtime Aphrodisiacs to Master your MOJO

Aphrodite, known as the Greek Goddess of love, pleasure, sensuality and beauty, is one of my favorite of the Goddesses to invoke. Can you see why?

In the stories of Aphrodite, she has the magical ability to compel anyone to desire her.

Aphrodite is said to be born from the foam of the sea. She is revered, cherished, and known for her sensual allure, her delicate beauty and her ability to activate the sensuality of her lovers. This spring you too can invoke her into your pleasure practices, and into the art of sensual eating so that you can explore a more mystical in your body and your bliss.

The sensual art of eating is a journey deep into your relationship with your own sensuality, pleasure stimuli through the senses, and a celebration of food and sensuality that has been present in cultures far and wide throughout history. Sensuality happens with cooking, preparing, presenting and opening are hearts through our meals, just as it does when we prepare, adorn ourselves and wake up our senses to make love to our beloved. This art is as delicate, smooth, succulent and artistic as a love poem or as crazy and free as an artist’s eccentric expression.

The sensual art of eating combines our love for ourselves and those we cook for along with our inseparable senses, especially smell and taste.

Let’s start with the olfactory orgasm…

It is said the olfactory sense, our sense of smell is our oldest sense from the viewpoint of evolution. Our sense of smell creates strong memories with its powerful, swift and precise presence. The sense of smell is more developed in a woman than it is in a man. Our sense of smell is deeply connected to our sensual relationship to food, to a woman's eroticism, and to our intuition. Just as we can be enticed by the smell of our lover, we can be excited by the lure of fresh prepared foods, conscious cooking and the throb of desire and erotism that food can evoke in us as woman and as Goddess. It is not unusual for a mouth watering dish to evoke nostalgia and pleasure waking up our emotions and creating a spiritual + sensual experience with our food.

On to our TANTALIZING taste buds…

It is said in the world of senses, taste is the QUEEN. It is a pleasure, but also a protection that can tell the difference between what's good to eat and what could be harmful. The taste buds activate relating to 5 different flavors, according to Chinese Medicine: Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour and Pungent. Each flavor represents a different quality of emotion and energy that we can use to balance ourselves out and heighten our experience around taste. UMAMI is the ultimate taste sensation that brings us the most tantalizing taste experience in just one bite. It is most like a food orgasm that activates all 5 tastes and increases pleasure exponentially. APHRODISIACS

An aphrodisiac is a substance known to increase sexual desire and sexual pleasure. The word APHRODISIAC throughout history has pertained to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, passion and pleasure. There have been many foods considered aphrodisiacs throughout time, and the thing that they all have in common is that they ALL fully engage the senses. Aphrodisiacs are sensual foods create a heightened pleasure experience related both to eating and to our own sensuality. We can make love to ourselves through our food, and we can use food as foreplay for ourselves or with our beloved, a practice written about for centuries in almost every culture known to humankind. 5 SPRINGTIME Aphrodisiacs For you to EXPLORE

Asparagus

This lily plant derivative is known to stir up lust for both woman and man. They are known to boost histamine production known to boost orgasm in both male and female.

Watermelon

Known as natures VIAGRA due to 2 compounds. First watermelon has high levels of citrulline (found in highest concentration in the white of the melon rind) has the power to dilate blood vessels and support erection in a man. Second, the high amounts of lycopene are known to balance and support a healthy prostate. This may be the perfect sensual fruit to entice your lover

Maca

This peruvian wonder has proven to have a number of health benefits. Some of these include increasing energy and stamina, balancing hormones for both PMS and menopause, repairing adrenal function and enhancing sexual function and libido. Ooh la la! Maca is available in a powdered form and can be added to smoothies or yogurt, or you can buy maca in a capsule to take a more concentrated dosage.

Artichoke

The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that artichokes had such a strong aphrodisiac effect that women were prohibited from eating them as they were said to make women more desirable.

Chocolate

The aphrodisiac quality of chocolate is nothing new…but rather something that is embedded in history of the western civilization. The great Aztec ruler Montezuma, one of the first red hot lovers to tap into chocolate’s strengths, was said to have consumed as much as fifty cups of chocolate elixir before heading off to his harem. In the late 20th century it was proven that the phenylethylamine (PEA) in chocolate releases the same hormone as does sexual intercourse. The compounds in chocolate are also known to raise dopamine and seratonin levels offering energy, mood enhancement and pleasure to the body.

Eat for the SEASON not the DAY

Is WINTER faking you out? This morning I was driving my son to school on the icy roads and he said:

"Sheesh, really Boulder? "

These crazy weather patterns we experience here in Boulder are a little hard on the system and hard to predict at this time of year.

One day it is springy and warm and I feel my spring fever bubbling up, and the next we are shoveling 2 feet of snow off of our driveway and I am back in hibernation mode.

Even though my son was born and raised here in Colorado, it still boggles his mind to witness the Colorado weather patterns.  

It is a confusing time of year for the body and immune system and so many people have been struggling with cold and flu this year.

There is a saying in Chinese Medicine that says:

"Dress for the season, not the day."

I have adopted this moto and added my own little spin:

"Eat for the season, not the day."

It is still winter for most of us, and although I am excited about the upcoming spring season and enjoying the occasional warmer day, it is still helpful to stay warm and well nourished for the remaining days of winter.

February and March are often the months with the most irratic weather.  Our bodies are going through a lot to keep ourselves strong and healthy.

We have to be sure to stay AHEAD of the weather.

How you may ask?

When we stay in the season with our eating, our self care, body care, we will naturally be more attuned to the season, and strengthen our immune systems for this final push of winter.

Want a few immune boosting tips?

Keep reading...

Just tired of Winter?  

Come with us on a goddess journey to Bali.  We have a few spots left. Click here for details.

Winter Immunity Insights

1.  Stay warm.

Keep your kidneys and bladder warm (and the rest of your body as well).  You can use warming foods, teas, topical essential oils, sesame oil, and warm clothing to insulate and nourish the your core.  Scarves are a nice addition to protect the windgate – the space at the back of your neck – where pathogens can enter.

Even if the weather is warmer than an average winter day, which often happens in my home state COLORADO, be sure to “DRESS FOR THE SEASON, NOT THE DAY”.   Stay insulated to keep the immunity strong.

2.  Oil of Oregano

Are you fighting the common winter cold, or flu this winter?  Oil of Oregano is one of my favorite treatments for both immune boosting and anti-bacterial and anti-viral support.

Did you know just a few drops of Oregano Oil in the diffuser or vaporizer can give you some relief?

Even better – add a few drops to your cooking and enjoy the delicious flavor and immune boosting qualities with your dinner.

Because this potent oil is so strong, make sure you dilute it substantially or take it in a protective capsule.  With my big pot of homemade chicken soup I only use 2 drops…3 is too many, and too strong.  (See recipe below)

(avoid if you are pregnant, or breastfeeding or an infant)

3.  Ritual Baths

There are many many benefits to baths at this time of year.  Aside from the warming and relaxing qualities there are also deeper support from certain types of baths.  You can always resort to the simple Epson salts bath if you like, but here I am going to provide you with some specific and unique baths to use to synch up with winter – mind, body and soul.

• Add a teaspoon of coconut oil for a warm and insulating
• Add some chunks of fresh ginger.  Ginger is a natural immune booster and when you soak in a ginger tea bath you absorb the ginger and allow the body to purify and release the pathogens.  Stay warm and get right in bed after.
• Feeling a little down in the cold days of winter?  Sweeten up your mood with a "sweet like honey" bath.  Add a cup of raw honey to your bath and watch your seasonal funk slip away.  Honey baths remind us of the sweetness of life.

This $hit Works

For me, everything starts with a vision.  That moment when my thoughts create an inspiring idea and I feel the ZAZAZOO (yes, I just used a Carrie Bradshaw word) that lights me up. I know you know what I mean.  It could be planning for a trip, buying a house, designing a new piece of art, or uplifting your business.

The picture above is the very first day when Eat.Pray.Yoga made it onto paper over 1 1/2 years ago now.  I remember the day so well...

I cleared my schedule, went and bought that big blank pad of paper + those colorful sharpies, made a big pot of tea, and put on some great music.

It was the most delicious afternoon of creating, mapping out, and pouring my heart and soul into this exciting vision.

I am sharing this with you today, because you to can turn your visions into reality also.  Even if you feel uninspired, stuck, or a bit hopeless I know you have some kind of little spark in there.  Something that lights you up.

We all get stuck, delayed, or sometimes life happens and puts a big obstacle in our progress - that absolutely happened to me in writing Eat.Pray.Yoga - but if we keep moving towards our vision, one day at a time,  sometime soon it manifests.

Today I am going to share with you my top 3 creation/ manifestation/ make your vision a reality TIPS, so that we can all move towards a fulfilling life that is steeped in heart, creativity, and success in whatever it is we are seeking.  You can find the top 3 turn your vision into reality TIPS below.

Also, the fully manifested EAT.PRAY.YOGA 40 DAY on line program for women begins MONDAY January 19th!

If you are planning to register, let me know.

Join me in this exciting quest into a deeper relationship with self, nourishment and self love that both transform your relationship with food and body + last a lifetime.   I promise to get your ZAZAZOO going.

3 TIPS to make your VISION into a REALTY:

 1.  What LIGHTS you up?  

Once you feel into your vision it is helpful to connect with the spark that is desire, that is your passion, that is YOU.  Every vision becomes more potent with more potential energy that is behind it.  When your idea/vision/dream becomes clear, stoke it up with some serious inner fire, some strong empowered thoughts or affirmations, and some SHAKTI.  Soon it will have a life of it's own.

2.  Stay TRUE to the VISION.  

What was the original vision?  Sometimes life guides us on a pathway to enhance our vision and other times the obstacles and self doubt can detour us in unnecessary ways.  Clear your old inhibiting and limiting beliefs about you achieving what you want as best you can - alert yourself to these self-sabotaging thought patterns and negative internal dialogue trajectories.

Your TRUE self is guided, wise, and intuitive.  Come back to your pure vision, and remember WHY you created it to begin with.  Don't let the monkey-mind water it down, procrastinate or avoid your true potential.

3.  Think it, feel it, trust it.

You are ENOUGH.  The UNIVERSE has your back.  Once you align your thoughts, your feelings and your inner faith into being guided on the perfect wanderlust, you can just simply surrender to what is and embrace all that you are in your strong, powerful self.    You are a deliberate, soulful being with plenty of high vibration and love to go around.

When you trust that you can vibrate as high as your vision - you will see it manifest along with everything you need to make your vision a realty.

Eat.Pray.Yoga. — my 40-day on line mind-body eating program for women who are seeking to improve emotional eating habits, relationship with food, overeating, and body image issues —  or just simply need some support in the body/health/self-love realm.

In this program you’ll discover how to attune your body to become your barometer, understand your best approach for eating with pleasure and soul, and find your power in your relationship to food and health.

I’m so excited to share this with you, and if it's the right fit, I would be honored to support you in taking charge of your health.

So, if you know 2015 is your year to make your relationship to food and your power a priority, now is the best time to sign up for Eat.Pray.Yoga.

Let's make 2015 your best year yet!!

Questions?  Shoot me an email.

With love, Sue

Winter's Wanderlust

Each season in the Chinese Medicine System is correlated to an element.

Winter's element is WATER.

Feeling stagnant, stuck, anxious?

When the water element is out of balance there is a fear or anxiety that can arise creating the feeling of being stuck.  

The organ systems associated with water are the kidneys and urinary bladder, which rule water metabolism and maintain homeostasis, a dynamic continual rebalancing, most prevalent in the winter.  

Many times we may find fear in the form of a mental obstacle, which we break through with various practices: Yoga, Qi Gong, Meditation, Nutrition, Prayer.

REPLENISH:

With effective seasonal eating, winter-wise self-care and awareness practices, winter can be the most effective time for restoration, rejuvenation and consolidation of our QI or Prana (life force).  Winter can strengthen our YIN and keep the water element flowing so we can feel at ease, flexible and harmonious.

Winter eating often entails preparing seasonal whole foods that can be stored, canned, or kept for the colder days of winter.

Winter is known as the best time to ROOT DOWN and get grounded in our lives and health practices.

Foods such as root vegetables and hearty greens are best at this time of year.

Canadian scientists recently compared the nutrient density of 33 vegetables and found that the most powerful winter veggies are brussel sprouts, leeks, beets, and kale.  These are important foods to land on your plate this season for optimal strength and nutrient density.  

Avoid eating too many raw foods during the winter, as they tend to cool the body (digestion) too much.  Emphasize warming foods that stimulate digestion, circulation, and immunity:

•  Soups and stews
• Root vegetables
• Beans (especially adzuki and mung beans)
• Miso broth and seaweed
• Garlic and ginger
• Cayenne and Tumeric are warming
• Coriander is a Kidney and Urinary Bladder cleanser

REFLECT:

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, winter is time to find a sense of inner peace and solace.    The sound of winter is silence.  The silence of the snow falling and the silence of our own journey inward.  It’s a great time to visit our intentions for a new year, meditate by candlelight, and become crystal clear on what we are calling forth upon new light returning.

Allow yourself to practice the art listening to your body, how it wants to be fed and how it wants to move in its wisdom and inner knowing.

REVERE:

Create a mindfulness practice around mealtime.  Because the body is moving slower in the wintertime, we are more sensitive to rushing through meals and higher levels of stress.

To listen to what our bodies really want, we need to SLOW down.  Plan to sit down at mealtime in a calm environment for each nourishing meal.  Eat slowly and soulfully so that you can focus on chewing your food, listening to when your body is full, and absorbing and digesting optimally.

Eating can become a practice or a ritual just like anything else we do.  When we bring mindfulness and magic to our eating it raises the SHAKTI in our eating experience bringing to life and brilliance.

We can bring intention, love, consciousness and awareness to our food practices just as if they were a divine body prayer, a deep connection to your beloved self or another platform in which to practice consciousness in our lives.

As you explore your deepest self this winter, find celebration in the marriage of your body and mind.  

"The body and mind ALWAYS reflect each other."

Open to more light from within, so that you can share your light with more gusto and brilliance than ever before.

My BODY is my ALLY

I know this may sound SIMPLE, but I am a firm believer.  

I practice LISTENING every single day.  

After many years striving to live this commitment, my body, and it's sensations, speak pretty loud and clear to me all day long.

Do I always manage to listen?

NO, that would be impossible.



Am I constantly honing the practice of using my body as my barometer?

YES.  This is my commitment to myself.

This is my process, this is my practice.  

Every morning when I wake up in the dark, kids asleep, and the house as quiet as can be, I make my way to my alter with my warm cup of tea, sit on down on the purple meditation cushion I love so much and light a candle.  

I sit and PRACTICE listening.

  Something about the early morning speaks to me.  A moment to myself, a moment to be in the magic of the day break, listening to my body and setting intention for the day.

We all hold our wisdom and intuition in different parts of our bodies.  I hold mine right in my stomach.  When something doesn’t feel good it almost always goes right to my GUT.  

I feel a bit ol’ knot, or even nausea right in my belly.  Hard to miss right? 

Funny, somehow I spent most of my life ignoring this bodily wisdom.

YOUR body is YOUR ally too!

You can deepen the mind-body connection in everything you do, and it will always be there for you.  This is a journey inward into the subtle body, the senses, and your visceral experience.


How does this relate to your eating you may ask?



What we eat and who we are as eaters also creates an experience in our bodies.

Did you RUSH through lunch barely coming up for air?

Overeat?

Binge on junk food because you are overwhelmed at work?

Stuff your feelings with a couple of cupcakes?

Skip breakfast this morning?

You get the drift.

  How do these types of choices FEEL in your body?  Can you listen just a bit more closely to your body's cues?

Are you HUNGRY?

Are you SATIATED?

What are you REALLY HUNGRY for?

The art of LISTENING inward will tell you exactly what you need to know.  Your body is like a wise teacher always pointing you in a direction of higher good.  Your body is a guidance system that you can always count on!

We are divinely designed to be strong and vital, to heal ourselves and to refine our inner listening skills.  

Our bodies are ALWAYS talking to us. Your body's wisdom is about food, intuition, protection, emotion and spirit.

The point is YOU ARE A WISE BEING just like me.

If you want to get OUT of automatic behaviors around food and in your life that are bringing you down, remember:

And my favorite line..."THE WAY OUT IS ALWAYS IN..."

Here are my favorite simple daily practices to REFINE the MIND-BODY connection:

1.  Get Present 

Eckhart Tolle says:

“Always say YES to the present moment. Surrender to what is.  Say YES to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you.”
 


When we are living in the present moment, we become aware and open to the possibilities that surround us. Our physical sensations are occurring in the present moment and present moment ALONE.

If we are focused on past or future we MISS the cues our bodies are showing us.

  Even basic sensations like hunger, satiation, and the wise cravings our bodies know are happening in the present moment and the present moment alone.

Get present, TUNE IN and see how magical YOUR BODY can be.

2.  
Open your Heart 

Just as you can practice heart opening in your thoughts and emotions, you can also experience opening the heart space in your physical body.  
 
When the rib cage is constricted, we lose the ability to take a full diaphragmatic breath, limiting our range of motion and ability to extend and expand.  We shut down - physically and emotionally.

As we gently stretch the thoracic soft tissues we begin to open the heart space.

Energy, emotion, and life force can move freely again.

To truly feel the body, we must open it up and resolve the blocks: physical, energetic, emotional and spiritual.

Opening up the physical heart opens the emotional heart.

Just when we think you need FOOD to feel satiated in your life, maybe we really need a break, a hug, or a nice long nap.

 3.  Journal 

Journaling is a wonderful tool to connect the conscious mind to the subconscious mind; to connect body to soul.  What comes out on the paper when we allow ourselves to write freely is most often very insightful.

Studies show no matter the quality of your writing, the act of writing itself leads to strong physical and mental health benefits, like long-term improvements in mood, stress levels and depressive symptoms. In a 2005 study on the emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing, researchers found that just 15 to 20 minutes of writing three to five times over the course of the four-month study was enough to make a difference.

Sometimes as I write, I unravel a question or confusion I am harboring.  I allow it to be messy, sloppy, free form or any way I see fit. 
 
I listen.  Journaling is like listening OUT LOUD.  Journaling gives your inner voice a beautiful and safe container to express HERself.

"Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down."

Give these a try.  They are simple yet profound.  When working with the mind-body connection and honing in on the art of listening there are many tools and practices that take us inward.

How does your body speak?

Where do you FEEL it?

Share you comments below  : )

Cozy Comfort Food

Ahh, I love FRIDAYS After a long week of work, carpooling, early mornings, and having to be on my game, I am always a fan of FRIDAYS.  There is something about chilling, relaxing, reading, and lounging in my bathrobe for a little longer than usual on the weekends that comforts me.

I pretty much give life my ALL during the week, and that is ONLY possible if I allow myself to RECHARGE on the weekends.

Things have been busy over here this fall.  I have a BRAND NEW DIGITAL program launching in January.  This has been months of writing, planning and strategizing to get ready and soon I will be telling you all about it!

In the midst, I sent out a survey to all of you (thanks to those of you who took the time to answer) because I want to make sure I am covering my bases and giving you what you all want and need to make life a bit better, easier, and more fulfilling.

So, here goes...

It was almost UNANIMOUS that many of you get overwhelmed by cooking and food preparation.  Many of you mentioned that you are tired, busy and overwhelmed so comfort eating can become an issue.

Well, here is the thing:  Comfort eating is ONE way of getting comfort. It is a totally normal urge on which to feel and act.  What I want to share with you today is two-fold.

Firstly, there are many ways to get comfort.

Lately, after super intense busy days I get right into the bath and soak it out.

Sometimes, I take long walks at the end of the day around my neighborhood, and other times I visit with a friend to talk it out.

Home spa treatments and early nights in bed are another of my favorites.

Secondly, if we want to choose food as comfort, how about upgrading the quality and wisdom we use to get the comfort out of eating, so that it is a WIN-WIN situation.

Make no mistake, eating is pleasurable and comforting so how can we REORIENT around eating for comfort, so that it is not SOOOO bad?

So HERE we GO:

How to create a WIN-WIN situation with eating for COMFORT

1.  SUBSTITUTE

There is a huge difference between a bag of crappy microwave popcorn and some yummy homemade organic popcorn smothered in cultured butter, nutritional yeast, and nori flakes.  The first version has nothing much to offer other than instant gratification, and the second - practically a superfood.  Both may taste good but the second option creates comfort + sustainable pleasure + direct health benefits.

Let try another example. ...

Let's pretend you are a chocolate gal!  Chocolate is what you crave when you are tired, and what you want when you are sad, stressed and overwhelmed.  Option one is the left over halloween candy that you "bought" from your kid 6 months ago in exchange for a toy (you know what I mean) that is stashed in your closet while option 2 is the high quality organic fair-trade chocolate that you bought at the local health food store that is FULL of antioxidants , phyto-chemicals and is coined a superfood across cultures far and wide.    The first version is nothing but refined sugar while the second version is a potent nutrient dense tonic.

WHERE CAN YOU UPGRADE/SUBSTITUTE IN YOUR LIFE???

2.  SAVOR

There are many aspects to pleasure.  Unfortunately so many us are MISSING THEM and rushing though pleasurable experiences in our lives because we are conditioned to CHECK OUT around comfort food.

What if with your new and improved comfort food you were able to CHECK IN to yourself while you enjoyed its delight.

What does CHECKING IN really mean?

Presence, slow, aware, intuitive, engaged, mindful, intentional, soulful.

When I get deeply relaxing nourishing comfort, I don't want to miss it.  Check IN.  Tune IN.  Listen IN.  Enjoy the pleasure to it's fullest potential.

Check out the CHOCOLATE MEDITATION video here for a detailed example.

3.  SENSUALIZE

The ART of SENSUAL eating is one of my favorite new topics to write about.  How would APHRODITE enjoy her food? How can eating become an act of MAKING LOVE to ourselves to enhance the fulfillment and comfort in the experience.

For me it is all about RITUAL.  When I draw my bath each night I take the extra 5 minutes to light candles, add some essential oil and coconut oil, and give myself a little extra TLC.

How can you do this with your eating?

First off you can create a sacred environment to enjoy you super nutrient dense yummy comfort food.  Second you can make it into a spiritual experience so to speak.  If an act such as eating is to be truly comforting, engage your senses fully, make it sensual and make it memorable.  What would APHRODITE do?

HOMEWORK:

In the comments below, share with us your biggest challenge around comfort eating AND which of these 3 practices you are going to try this week.  We WANT to here from you!!

PS.  My newest article about MIND-BODY eating went live this week on Elephant Journal.   It really speaks to the biggest food issue of our time.  I think you will enjoy.

Click here to check it out.

Creating a life you LOVE has to start SOMEWHERE

If you are anything like me, you probably have some pretty big hopes and dreams for how your time is going to play out here on earth. You likely want to feel good so you can give back to your great circle of life + you probably want to be able to look back and feel like you lived out your purpose, love, and passions as much as you could have.

Living a fulfilling life not only feels good in the moment but it can have a HUGE impact on our health, happiness and our relationship with food.

One of my favorite questions to ask my clients is:

 "What are you REALLY hungry for?"

Why?  Because so often when we are lacking fulfillment in our day-to-day lives we are then trying to eat our way to comfort and pleasure.

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately this approach to fulfillment (i.e. food) doesn't work.  I have tried it, and I have witnessed hundreds of women who keep turning to food for pleasure, love, and comfort and it doesn't work for them either.

So, if you were to work on creating the life that would fulfill you, what would that look like?

What are YOU hungry for?

We are going to start with #1  (you can read the original blog post here).

For me, one of the biggest tools to finding fulfillment in my life begins with how I spend my time.  What do I do with my schedule to support what I WANT in my life?

For example... If I want more yoga in my week, I have to SCHEDULE it!  If I want more time to write for my business, I have to SCHEDULE it.

 "If it isn't scheduled it isn't real."

So this week I am giving you a BLANK IDEAL CALENDAR template to create your IDEAL week, and include everything you can to make your life exciting, fulfilling and balanced.

Bonus:  I am also attaching MY IDEAL CALENDAR in case you missed it last time.

I just finished mine for the fall a few weeks ago, and I have to say, life DID get more fulfilling.  I love my new schedule.

{Do I always make it happen just right?  Absolutely not.  But it is a great template with which to work towards my fulfillment and it includes almost every single thing I want in my life..}

Here are your Ideal Calendar Instructions: 

1.    Write a list of all the things you want to include in your ideal week.  Be sure you are being reasonable!  It is important to be realistic here.  What are your priorities? Make sure you include work, free time, and downtime.

2.  Prioritize the list with the most time consuming stuff at the top and the least time consuming at the bottom.

3.   Download the template.  You can do that above on the link.  It is customizable, meaning you can change colors, the font, the size of the time modules.  If you do not know excel, you can just click each box and type in your event.  You can also create your own calendar if you want to use your artistic side.

4. Start with the largest time events first.  This is the part that is like putting together a puzzle.  This is the puzzle that = your fulfillment so take your time.  Be patient.  Stay with it.  Believe in possibility and happiness.

5.  Share it with us!  We can all use some fresh perspective.  If you save this as a PDF or take a picture you can post it to our FaceBook page.

Tired, Stressed, Overwhelmed?

 5 Simple Steps to Bringing Back YOUR  Balance.

Yes, it is true.  Yes to all of the above.  I know these feelings inside and out.

It can happen so easily with just one little thing that throws me off balance, or it can just BE the way I see everything about life sometimes.

Busy, Stressed, Overwhelmed used to be my middle name.

I feel it, I know it well and boy does it know me.

Back in the day, when my kids wee little tikes, I was still figuring out single parenting and my business was just launching (2003) - I was ALWAYS overwhelmed.

Not only was I overwhelmed in my life, but I am pretty sure I talked about, complained about, and lived OVERWHELM in every part of my being.

Looking back, I was complaining about this, crying about this, and wishing things were different for quite some time.  I was a mess.

I was constantly juggling 2 small kids, child care, logistics, making food, cleaning up the constant mess, and trying desperately to take care of myself while still giving everything else I had to my business and my vision.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, the one thing I know is that if I can find balance, so can you.

It is not always easy, and sometimes I had to truly dig deep, cry it out and ask for help (not easy for me), but taking care of ourselves, feeding ourselves (and our families) and fitting in the things that make life flow a little smoother are totally possible, even if you can't imagine how.

Today I am going to share with you just a few things I learned (the hard way) so that you can find your own balance, radiance, health and ease in this life - with maybe less bumps in the road then I had.

In fact, what I truly want for you is GRACE, HARMONY and JOY in your life especially in your relationship with food and your body so that you have the energy and passion to share all the gifts you have in all aspects of your life.

I am going to spend my next 5 posts diving into each one of these in depth, BUT for now a little sneak preview of what is coming and what works.  If you need more info, just simply stay tuned and by the end of the next 5 weeks, you will be feeling inspired and ready to conquer your life with a fresh perspective.

 

1.  Create your DREAM calendar.  Now this is NOT a calendar that will SOMEDAY be yours - like a dream house. This IS a calendar that reflects what you want RIGHT NOW.  Include your intentions, your work schedule, your self care, all into your ideal week.

I do this every season.  I change some things based on the weather, my kids schedule and what I am currently working on.

THIS is the NUMBER 1 thing that took me out of everyday OVERWHELM.  I am attaching my Ideal calendar - Fall 2014 here (I just finished it last week for the fall quarter) and I hope you sit with what yours might look like.  We will dig in to this more next week so get ready to create the life you love.

2. Get some SLEEP.  So often we are exhausted.   Fatigue contributes to the overwhelm like nothing else.  Sleep is the one things that raises our tolerance for life and all the tasks at hand.  Shoot for 8 hours minimum - no I am not kidding.  Even if you think that is impossible, you will find that you can get WAY more done during the day and handle all the curve balls that come your way when you are well rested.

**There is one exception.  If you are a new mom, and you cannot get anywhere close to that amount of sleep, know that you are not alone.  I honestly did not sleep through the night for almost 6 years.  I know fatigue well.  I also know that we have to get the most sleep we can and that this phase passes. I highly encourage NAPPING, asking for support, and giving yourself a break in the first year of mothering (or fathering) any chance you get.  (I just didn't want to trigger you if you who have no control over your sleep.)

3.  Eat HIGH VIBRATIONAL FOODS - Quick, easy and HEALTHY meals are totally possible.  As I said above, we are going to dive into this one full on in 3 weeks, BUT It is so important to know that YOU can eat healthily EVEN if you are busy.  If you want to live a high vibrational life, you need to feed your body just that.  High vibrational food.  In fact, it is how you are going to get through the business like a superstar.  If BUSY is your primary excuse, get ready to let it go.

Food can be prepared in big batches, used as left overs for lunches, frozen in the freezer for those long days when you don't have time to cook, and can still TOTALLY fit into your budget.  I will show you how I PROMISE.

4.  SIMPLIFY.  Are lives are so full of STUFF, EMAILS, PHONE CALLS. and CLUTTER.  It is WAY over the top.  There are so many wonderful ways to have BOUNDARIES around this, while still getting things done, keeping things tidy (less overwhelm) and deciding when we are available to our electronic communications.

Try cleaning up your space, getting rid of the old, and making room for the new.  FALL is a great time for a fresh start so clean our the pantry, give away some old clothes, or de-clutter your living room.  Then take a big EXHALE.  Clutter is a HUGE contributor to overwhelm.

One of my favorite practices is turning off electronics for a one or two hours every evening.  Take an official BREAK.  Turn OFF your phone, SHUT down your computer, and simply live in the spaciousness of your freedom to relax your nervous system.   Pick your times and then close up shop for just a bit.

5.  Find some STILLNESS - Daily meditation for me is like my daily shower.  I cleanse my body in the shower, and I cleanse my mind in my morning meditation.  I shoot for 15 minutes each morning.  Sometimes I can do 30, but other days I squeeze in just 5-10 minutes.  I am so committed to this practice.  Every morning I wake up (30 min at least before my children), take a shower, make some tea, and head to the cushion for a few minutes to find the inner stillness and connection that fuels me through the day.

This one often intimidates people, especially if you have not practiced mediation before, but I know you can find 5 minutes in the morning to begin this practice.  In the upcoming weeks I will share with your some brilliant meditation tips to get you started, and a starter guided meditation.  For now, just sit, turn on your timer, and breath.  That is it.  5 minutes a day will change your life.

This is what I did, and that does not mean it is going to work 100% for you, so if you get an absolute "NO" when you read this, it's okay, we all have our own path to health and happiness.

AND...

there ARE also some universal truths to gain from this.  You can distill what sounds like the right place for you to start.  I will be cheering you on.

I will be sending you major kudos and knowing that you can find the eye of your hurricane, the inner peace even amongst the chaos and most of all the ability to take care of YOU first and foremost.

We live super busy lives these days, and it takes practice figuring out how to navigate the overwhelm.  In just a few short steps and a few extra minutes per day you can create the life you LOVE and find some peace in the process.

Also, if you have any challenges to acknowledge, stories to share, and of course success to celebrate please post them here, share the wealth of your knowledge and wisdom with us.

The Boulder Nutrition Community

Rock your RHYTHM

Early fall is one of the most colorful and abundant seasons of the year.  The heat of the summer has ceased, and we see the yellow hue in the sky as the sun hits the pumpkin fields and tall grass each afternoon. There is a new rhythm that emerges for many of us.  Back to school, letting go of the long summer nights and a chance to begin anew for another year.

This year, I am super heightened and aware of my rhythm with nature, the beginnings of drawing in, and the presence of more structure than I have had all summer.  It feels like a new beginning.

This is a great time to create your new flow and to make your rhythm one that ROCKS YOUR WORLD so you can live a life you love.

The air cools, the cooking creativity begins as we celebrate the harvest.  There are many ways to connect with the season of Autumn.

Children love to run through the corn maize and carve their pumpkins.  Adults often find themselves wanting to cook delicious fall soups and apple pies and take long luscious hikes in the trees.

For thousands of years we have come together over delicious fall feasts connecting with our families and communities as we prepare ourselves for a winter ahead.

Here are a few fall tips you can play with this year to sync up with the nature and ROCK your RHYTHM this fall season. The more we connect to both the universal and individual rhythms the more we can heighten our mind-body connection and our intuition.

1.  Gather

The wealth of gorgeous foods in there fullest expression is something to notice this fall.  The colors are bright and warming to the soul.  Our natural tendency is to gather the goods for the cold and dark winter to come.

Saving seeds for the following spring, storing root vegetables to make into yummy crock-pot meals, and canning some of falls delights make for fun family projects.

2.  Transform

As the leaves fall to the ground in their bright orange and reds, there is a sense of letting go to acknowledge.  Autumn is the time of transformation between the growth of summer and the dormancy of winter. Things are winding down, and once the harvest is complete, there is an opportunity to follow the inward flow to self-inquiry and discovery.  If you have something to let go of, autumn is a perfect time to initiate this process.  Break up with what is not working in your life and allow the season to carry it to it’s full release.

3.  Breathe

Fall is known as the season associated with the lungs in Chinese medicine.  Often a time when children come home from school with upper respiratory coughs and weakness as the weather changes.  It is important to strengthen the lungs in the fall.  This can be done is a variety of ways but here are a few of my favorites:

• Make sure you exercise regularly. Pump the lungs often so they are strong and cleansed with rigorous life giving breath.  Getting as much fresh air in nature while the sun is still warm is a wonderful place to practice breathing deep and full.

• Many foods in the fall are known to support the lungs.  Root vegetables such as onions, leeks, and ginger are supportive to the lungs.  Fruits such as apples and pears care for the lung tissue as well.  Eating with the season is perfect to create healthy lungs.

• Keep warm.  As the cooler nights come rolling in, make sure you are dressed for the season NOT the day.  Keep those lungs warm and cozy and you will naturally boost your immune system.

4.  Ground

As you watch the leaves begin to turn and fall from the trees and becoming the earth‘s nutrients for next years planting, it is more obvious that fall has the energetics that flow downward and inward (as opposed the upward and outward energetics in the spring).  What are the aspects of your life that ground you?  Make a list and practice these grounding activities regularly in the fall.

It is a nice time to take long walks in the colorful forest with feel the leaves crunching under your feet.

These small autumn rituals and habits help us harmonize ourselves with Autumn.  It is natural to sleep more, rest more, and begin to tune more inward towards introspection and healing.

5.  Celebrate

Lush sunflowers, tucked in with the plump orange pumpkins is an abundance to celebrate.  The colors, foods, and celebrations of fall are in full abundance.  There is much gratitude to be observed in the beauty of the harvest.

Set a seasonal outdoor table rich with a cornucopia of color and natures gifts to warm the heart of any celebration.  Share a gratitude blessing before your meals, as it promotes health and happiness.

Light a bonfire to take away the chill of the evening and join in a circle of friends celebrating fall in its glory.

Take it in!  The abundance is around your and within you.  Your only job is to notice and appreciate its radiance.

What's in your LUNCH BOX?

The stores are shouting back to school, the air starts to have a slight nip in its evening breeze and the yearning for a life with some sense of structure and rhythm is before us. Summer is fleeting.  The long days at the pool and late night BBQ’s drift into our memories and come to an end for another year.  We feel the little twinge of letting go as we settle back into another school year.

I always think of the new school year as a new beginning.  Many people consider this a time to revamp, recharge and get in gear for a great year with their families, and themselves.  Upping the anti in the area of health is a big focus for many families as we start anew.

One of the biggest challenges I hear from parents as we settle back into the fall is:  How do I create the every day SCHOOL LUNCH keeping kids happy, healthy and strong?

Don’t fret.  It is possible to make lunch box ingredients enticing, nutrient dense and yummy for your kids.  You can find your groove; it just might take a little shift in your thinking and a little preparation in your life for the ease to flow this fall.

Your school lunches are never going to be easier, tastier, and more efficient than if you follow these tips below, and, you will also see some great lunch ideas to get you started.  You are off to a GREAT start.

1.  GO CONTAINER SHOPPING:  I know it sounds simple, but having the appropriate carrier makes all the difference in your ease and efficiency.

• The BENTO LUNCH BOX is the perfect set up.  It has all the compartments and containers you could want, plus an insulated chiller bag to keep your munchkins lunch fresh.
• OR Buy a variety of small containers that have good lids and fit together well.  Those little fingers will be so excited and amazed at what they find inside.

• A WIDE MOUTH THERMOS will save the day.  We use it almost daily for leftovers, soups and stews that will nourish the little buddies when they need something warm.  They make little mini versions perfect for a young one and easy to manage.

2.  CREATE YOUR MENU: I always think in terms of having some easy default plans.  You know, the ones where you have to think very little.  Find 3 top lunches (check out the list below) that work for you and your kiddo and try to keep as much of that around for a quick and stress free assembly.  It does not have to be gourmet, complicated or require a lot of time to be healthy and for your kids to love lunching.

 3.  THINK IN TERMS OF FOOD GROUPS: A balanced meal is made of 4 building blocks.  A protein, a fat, a carbohydrate (in its whole form is best – includes fruit) and a veggie of some kind.    If you can think in this formula you will be golden.  Need an example?  No problem.

• A hard boiled egg of dish of egg salad = protein + fat

(Feel free to include some flax crackers or carrot sticks for dipping)

• A container of strawberries = Carbohydrate
• Left over steamed broccoli = veggie
• BONUS – some nuts and dried fruit for a snack.

4.  MAKE A LIST:  Being prepared is ALWAYS the best road to success.  This is also true in the world of school lunches. Once you get your GO-TO lunches down it is easy breezy, you’ve just got to be prepared.  Go to the store EVERY SUNDAY to gather what you need for the week.  Then it is a SURE THING.  Make your list for the week and don’t forget to include enough ingredients for dinner leftovers – they make the best school lunches.

5.  LOVE YOUR LITTLE GUY/GAL:  This year, amidst a cold winter dark morning when I had just about had it with school lunches all together, I stood in my kitchen in my cozy bathrobe with my hot cup of morning tea.  I stood there blank, empty, and done.  “I can’t make another lunch.  I am fried.”  It took a few mystical moments but soon after my first thought I was flooded with love.  Love for my kids, and love and passion for health.

Every school lunch is like a daily practice for me, loving my kids through food and nourishment.  So when I totally dry up in the world of creativity, I can dig deep into that well of love, and there it is.

I have made thousands of school lunches at this point.  My kids are 17 and 13.  They have never eaten lunch from the cafeteria regularly, always homemade. You can do it.  Do it for love.

6.  TAKE CARE OF SELF:  I know we hear it all the time, but sometimes we NEVER REALLY hear it!  You have to take care of yourself first.  Parenting will drain you.  It is joyful and magical, and it is challenging and hard.   The only way out of this is to feed yourself, love yourself, and give as much attention to your lunch as you do to theirs.

Keep your cup filled up and you will have more to give.  Food is such a primary way we show love to others, and food is such an important way we nourish ourselves.

I have many ideas to share with you.  Some have been my go-to’s for years:

• Beef and veggie stew – we pre-make in the crock pot all day on Sundays.  Grass fed beef, red potato (or various root veggies), celery, carrot, onion, with beef broth for flavor and spiced + salted to taste. We top it off with kale at the end. Ari takes this in his thermos for days.

• Organic chicken sausage pan-fried with rice, a small container of sauerkraut, and seaweed.

Some favorite lunches are gathered from a potpourri of the other health practitioners in this community.  When asked what their kids favorite lunches are here is what they said:

• Black beans and brown rice with chopped veggies simmered in with the beans. Organic corn chips with goat cheese wedges, baby tomatoes and sliced apples! Always a winner w Jackson :)  – Erika Anderson, Licensed Acupuncturist, Boulder Sports Acupuncture

• Avocado and tomato salad with olive oil and sea salt. Chicken salad with dried cherries and cashews with flax crackers. Squash fries with dipping sauce. Sofie eats it up every time.– Jessica Emich, Executive chef and co-owner of Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place

• For Sam- a thermos of beans & rice, seaweed, organic apple, a raw red peppers. – Kim Millison, Licensed Acupuncturist.

• Tess loves quinoa, broccoli and crumbled goat cheese. I add cashews, a side of avocado slices and seaweed. – Deb Rubin, Licensed Social Worker (Couples and Parenting specialist)

• Nora's favorite lunches are California rolls- we pre-make rice for the week, add carrots and cucumbers and lots of gomasio, and wrap it up in nori- she loves them. – Kristin Savory, Licensed Acupuncturist, Grow Vibrant.

 “The practice of doing more than necessary works best when packing lunch boxes” ― Josh Stern

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHES?  SHARE WITH US BELOW AND LET'S MAKE LUNCH TIME LOVABLE...

Tips from a Travelling Yogini

Yoga mat in toe, organic plane snacks along side...uplift your health and happiness this summer while you hit the road for some final adventures before the back to school, fall routine, and change of weather creeps in.

Weather you are the classic ROAD TRIPPER or more of the INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURER you will find these tips help you fine tune your travel.

Personally, I get so full and inspired in my day-to-day life, that sometimes the thought of a vacation intimidates me.  Because I love my HOME life so much, infused with daily practice, good food, and SUE time each and every week, sometimes I forget about how great a vacation can be for the soul.

Loving life is a wonderful gift, but taking a break is still a great health prescription.  Walking away from the computer, the daily pulls of life and officially unplugging, and exploring my more adventurous side is one essential ingredient to my health plan.

I sent my retreat team a little bon voyage text this morning, my international travel buddies, as most often they sit next to me on these big trips to our annual women’s health + yoga retreat.  We have our routine down.  Who brings the avocado, the dark chocolate, the almond butter packets, green drinks, and the nori?

This time, it’s just me.   Some may think I go over board with the super food lunches I pack for ski trips, or the elaborate snacks I take on the plane, but I am always thankful I did.  The truth is, I enjoy the ability to make trips easeful, pleasurable and healthy.

Yes, I am bringing my yoga mat, my own personal stash of melatonin to help with the jet lag (it is a winner), some soothing essential oils, and some raw whey protein shakes incase I get hungry later.

What do you do when you travel? I have some great YOGINI travel tips for you below.  These TRAVEL EASY tips that will enhance the rest of your summer and beyond.

This is my personal variation of a famous John Kabat Zinn quote:

Wherever you go ...there you are, so make the WHERE YOU ARE part great.  It’s the only place you will ever be!! 

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SUMMER'S Travel Easy tips for Health and Happiness

FOODIE SNACKS

Fueling yourself in a satiating and grounding way when you travel will not only enhance your health, but it will also keep your energy good and keep the cranky traveler at bay.

• Bring Food. Take a special trip to the store for travel snacks.  Stock up on easy, portable and nutrient dense foods that you enjoy.  Food such as nuts, dried fruit, avocado, nori, and Justin’s almond butter packs are foodie fuel and an asset for your travels.

• Do a little research.  If you are travelling to a new city or a new country, there is plenty of info online.  Eating more locally and healthful in a new place can be very exciting!  Talk to the fisherman, the restaurant owners, and the local farmers and get the SCOOP.  Tantalize your taste buds with new combinations and ideas with what is available in the area.

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DIGESTION DELIGHTS

 Worried about your digestion?  Many complain about their digestion when on the road, or traveling about.  Don’t despair.  Your digestion CAN adjust.  Try this:

• Hydrating is the number 1 travel tip.   If there is anything that does not agree with you, drinking plenty of water will help flush it out, while also keeping your body hydrated.  Many airports now have purified water refill stations so you do not have to keep using the plastic bottles.  Bring an empty water bottle and fill it up after you cross security.

• Try some flax seed, probiotics, or chia seeds .  Each of these supports your digestion in a different way.  The flax and chia keep you from being constipated, while the probiotics protect your from foreign flora and boost your immunity.  These can all be mixed with water, and taken easily on the road.

• Many essential oils really help with indigestion, and IBS symptoms.  I use the DigestZen from DOTERRA.  DOTERRA makes therapeutic grade oil that is both safe for topical and internal use.  It is soothing and comforting for your traveling belly.

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TENSION TAMERS

Many folks experience plenty of travel tension.  From planning logistics, to leaving home, to lifting off land for air travel, tension unfortunately can create some dis-ease in your travels.  Many of us are uncomfortable getting out of our comfort zones.  Here are a few of my favorite tension tamers for your travel.

• Load up your IPOD with some good relaxing music, chanting, or even guided meditations.  Watch your nervous system unwind as you connect mind and body.

• If you often get nervous or anxious on any particular leg of your trip, pick up some GABA at the local health food store.  GABA is a natural amino acid that feed the GABA neurotransmitter, turning down the stressful anxious part of your nervous system.  For faster relief, purchase the sublingual type.  GABA can be used to help with sleep, stress and even a panic or anxiety attack.  It works within about 20 minutes of taking and is totally safe with any medications.

• Writing about your tension can offer a deeper relationship to “what it is really about”.  So often the first emotion we feel is disguising the deeper emotion.  Journaling can start to unravel the situation and support you in a more fulfilling inquiry into yourself and your stress.

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ADVENTURE ADVOCATES

 “When in Rome…” Going somewhere brings adventure, new ways of being and doing.  Often we are pushed out of our comfort zone and into something that can open our minds into seeing new possibilities.  We may never be the same again.

• Take time each day to pause and check in.  What are you learning from being in this new place.  How can you absorb your surrounding, culture, people through the witness mind?

• Stay centered.  Being centered while on the move is not easy.  Set aside a few minutes a day to focus on your breath and body.  TUNE IN.  A simple practice can go a long way.

• Remember to LET GO.  Travel adventures are unpredictable, spontaneous, and exciting.  The beauty is in the mystery.  The more you can LET GO of expectation, the more you can roll with the adventures completely and have a blast.

Sweet like HONEY

Ahhh, the sweetness of summer… The warm sun waking us up to frolic outside in the early morning warmth, the expansiveness we find in our hearts as we enjoy the outdoors, the community and fun in the sun.

 There are many ways to sweeten things up in both our lives and in our foods.  Sweet is the flavor of the heart and reminds us of the sweetness of life.

During the summer the sweeter fruits ripen, and the sweetness of summer is all around. Here are some tips to keep your sweetening in balance while still expanding into the flavor of summer.

 5 Health Tips to Sweetening Things Up:

 1.     Avoid Artificial Sweeteners

Due to the many health risks associated with too much sugar, many folks have tried to take short cuts using artificial sweeteners in place of the natural sweet.  The media has enforced this gives the taste buds and the body the message that we are enjoying the sweet flavor without the cost.  Unfortunately this is a short cut NOT worth taking.  Many artificial sweeteners create addictive patterns, cravings, and serious withdrawal symptoms.

Avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague. While the mechanisms of harm may differ, they’re ALL harmful in one way or another. This includes aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal), sucralose (Splenda) and any other artificial sweeteners.

• Aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal) contains high amounts of phenylalanine and aspartic acid.  While these amino acids are found naturally in the body when they are combined out of there natural ratio they can cause many side effects such as headaches, mental confusion, dizziness and seizures.  As these amino acids break down in this out of balance combination, they can literally break down into a form of formaldehyde which is toxic to the body.

• Splenda is the artificial sweetener other wise known as sucralose.  This sweetener has received a ton of press in the past few years, leading us down the road to discovering not only is this sweetener made up of a high percentage of chlorine, but now recent studies show that sucralose may raise bloods sugar insulin levels, kill of good bacteria in the GI tract, and in long term exposure damage DNA permanently.

2.     Get Back to Basics

Eat a whole food diet to reset your taste buds.  The body thrives when we eat our foods close to nature, whole, simple, clean and alive.  These ancient principles of eating are great guidelines to how to grocery shop, cook and feed our bodies nourishing foods.  The palate can transform back to its original and intended tasting organ as we purify our diets.

When we are competing with really strong enhanced flavors found in mainstream processed foods, such as super salty foods or overly sweet sodas, we become so over stimulated by our taste buds that something like an apple or a carrot looses it appeal.

Coming back to the basics with whole food eating will recalibrate your taste buds and a lot of those strong flavors (especially sugar) will vanish from your cravings.

3.     Use Natural Sweeteners

Sweetening your food is something many of us seek in our day-to-day meals, healthy deserts and snacks.  With the whole food eating in mind, you will notice that your palate adjusts and what used to taste pleasantly sweet (like a soda) may now be too sweet to drink.

Finding natural sweeteners to use in your baking, sauces and creations in the kitchen is a great option to enhance your flavors while still keeping your flavors in balance.  Here are some of my favorites.

• Raw honey is known for its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.  It is a pure source of sweet and even though it is fairly high on the glycemic index scale, a little goes a very long way.  The health benefits of local raw honey include naturally suppressing the common cough, aiding in a good nights sleep (by facilitating typtophan), and boosting immunity to name a few.

• Coconut sugar, made from the sap of the coconut palm, doesn't put stress on your blood sugar levels the same way that white sugar does. Because coconut sugar is unrefined, it retains all of its natural minerals and vitamins so it has a higher nutrient density.  Coconut sugar is easy to cook with and can be substituted 1:1 in recipes.

• Maple syrup, made by boiling sap from the maple tree, contains compounds that could help manage Type 2 diabetes, as well as acting as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agents.  Maple is full of many anti-oxidants, full of a wide range of vitamins and minerals especially zinc and manganese.  Many health experts are now calling pure maple syrup a champion food.

• Xylitol is pure, natural with essentially no blood sugar response. Xylitol also comes with some benefits such as fighting tooth decay. Xylitol is safe, and a beneficial sweetener.

4.     Eat a Low Glycemic Diet.

If you an stick to a low glycemic diet you will not only see benefits in almost every area of your health, energy, sleep and metabolism, but you will also see your sugar cravings diminish before your eyes.    

The glycemic index of a particular food rates the food on how quickly it turns to sugar in your blood stream.  Processed carbohydrates and refined sugars are always going to rate very high on the spectrum where as proteins, fats, whole grains and some fruits will be low or moderate.

There are some added tricks to lowering the glycemic index of your meal.

• First, you can add more protein – have some nuts with our dried fruit.
• Second, you can add high quality fat – put a little olive oil on that piece of bread.
• Third, you can add fiber or choose a high fiber version of the food – cook brown rice instead of white.

Eating a low glycemic diet is one of the quickest way to see your health and vitality turn around.  It is fairly simple and incredibly effective

5.     Sweeten Up Your Life

The sweet flavor has often been linked to love, pleasure, comfort and many other soothing qualities we all yearn for in our humanness.  Often, when we are not getting enough of these in our lives, we crave more sugar and overly self- soothe with the sweetness in food.

Try enhancing your life with the sweetness you can find in your daily down time, in the way that you exercise, the practices you do that activate your senses in a positive way, and especially the way you love yourself.  This is where the true sweetness is found.

The ONE and ONLY YOU

  One of the most frustrating, confusing, and most common health situations is when we can't find evidence or cause for our imbalances, symptoms or health complaints. Have you ever been there before?

In the world of natural health and wellness, we are so often looking for root causes to understand the big WHY.

Many of us can even get a little obsessive or extreme with this intent. We want to understand whats up and feel better. I have surely been there. Have you?

Have you ever gone from one healer to another looking for answers no one seems to have?

Sometimes, we are even told after various testing, multiple opinions, and even our own research that it must be "in our heads".

We so often are robbed of our power in the understanding and trusting of our intuition that there really is something out of alignment, not working, or simply imbalanced.

How often are our unexplained ailments and health issues real, and how often are they figments of our imagination?

If the scientific testing fails to pick up the problem, does that mean it does not exist?

I know, so many questions...

The good news is that natural medicine, and specifically Metabolic Typing, is designed to understand the subtleties and nutritional status to effectively see where we are in balance and where we are out.

As most of you know, I love science, medicine, scientific testing and diagnostics AND I also love understanding the body's messages that are of a more subtle nature.

Sometimes, with the right diet, we can fix the imbalances without even knowing exactly where they lie.

"One of the fundamental benefits of metabolic typing is that it provides a context or frame of reference through which nutrient deficiencies or excesses can be accurately understood and identified." Dr. William Wolcott

Welcome to this profound and revolutionary approach to feeding your body EXACTLY what you need to be at your best.

Customized for the ONE AND ONLY YOU...

Do we all have an EATING DISORDER?

Years ago, when I was lonely and stressed (which was very often), I used to eat popcorn. When I was home alone, I would sit on my couch with a good romantic comedy and munch on a a lot of salty popcorn (with nutritional yeast) until some kind of food coma happened.

Often that is all I would eat.  I felt completely unable to cook for myself when I was alone.

On a recent Friday evening, I realized I had the whole house to myself (this rarely happens anymore).  I came home from my 5 pm yoga class, put on my bath robe and made a big bowl of popcorn.

Hmm, a side of kale would be nice.  I put on my favorite TV show and nestled in.  It was heavenly.  I ate until I was just pleasantly full.

I thought back to the days when that was all I would eat when I was alone.  My automatic behavior was to over eat popcorn to calm down and deal with my loneliness and to avoid nourishing myself in a healthful way. I felt paralyzed in the areas of self-love and self-care.

This time was different.  I didn't feel lonely, but rather balanced...even a little euphoric after my yoga class and a full and inspiring week.

I was thrilled to have the night to myself.

I consciously made the choice to treat myself to a night of R & R.

Eating popcorn in my AUTOMATIC mode to self soothe and numb out was so different than a personal treat to my favorite food and a night to ENJOY time to myself.

Some of us are obsessed with food, some of us are restrictive.

Many of us over indulge to self soothe, some of us binge to numb the pain of life.

We are often confused about what eating healthy means. Some of us are purists, some of us are addicted to fast food.

We over eat, we under eat, we act out our life stressors and overwhelm through food.

Our issues with food are not the real problem, but the SYMPTOM of something else being out of balance.

Can you relate?

Mindful eating is a practice.  Mindful eating is an art.

I see it every day.  I watch myself in a delicate dance with food, pleasure and health.  I coach my clients on this very same inner quest.

As Michael Pollen so eloquently says...

"We are the only species on the planet who have forgotten how to eat".

Are we all emotional eaters?

YES.  This is our humanness.  We don't have to push this away, but rather we can work towards awareness in our relationship to food.

Where we bring awareness, we can shift-transform-grow.

When we bring health and balance to the other areas in our lives we see it ripple out to our food psychology and vitality.

When we enjoy life and pleasure and live in our fulfillment we begin to feel satiated in a deeper way.

Embodying what we are truly HUNGRY FOR in our lives can lead us on a wanderlust to becoming more attuned mind-body eater.

We CAN learn to trust ourselves in the face of pleasure.  We CAN allow ourselves to enjoy food.  We CAN create healthy rituals around food and self nourishment.

I invite you to START from where you ARE.

The only way to change something we are doing in AUTOMATIC is to take a good look at what is REALLY going on.

The nugget here is to open ourselves to seeing what is happening, to be in truth with ourselves, to bring forth AWARENESS.

I was totally present with my popcorn last week.  It was almost like a milestone as to where I have been (down in the trenches of life) and how I have learned to honor myself more and more enjoying the art of awareness in myself and my life.

No guilt, no shame, just a little popcorn + kale.

After you read this, let me ask you this:

How do you see yourself in your relationship to food? How can you apply these ideas to you as a MIND-BODY EATER?

Leave a comment below...

Our health is our GREATEST wealth.  Here's to living in your RADIANCE.

Yes! I Am A Supplement QUEEN

To supplement or not to supplement?  This is the question.  I hear it each day.  It is controversial, confusing and overwhelming.  This information will help!

• Some of you tell me "I don't like taking anything."

• Some of you bring me your big huge bags of supplements and say "HELP.  What should I be taking?" (you know who you are!)

• ...and some of you are the most organized folks I have ever seen with our vitamin boxes, your scheduled doses of everything I recommend each day to STAY HEALTHY...you blow me away!

Today, I am going to share with you my love of supplements and what I do to stay balanced.  First some science, and then you get to peak inside my personal supplement QUEENDOM for just a minute.Supplements are defined here as any nutritional, herbal, or homeopathic support taken by the individual.

The PROS

• Our food today is surely lacking in vital nutrients. Methods of storing, processing and preserving food often severely strip the food of its nutritional value. Supplements can fill the GAP so to speak.

• Many of the modern techniques used to grow food faster, larger and on nutritionally depleted soils has destroyed the original, natural quality of our food supply.  Supplements can enhance your quality of life.

•  Supplements supply a therapeutic dose of nutrients which can easily compensate for the lacks in our food supply.  Like little nuggets of health, supplements may also provide many additional advantages supporting specific deficiencies, imbalances and health issues.

The CONS

• Quality Control:  Supplements vary in quality.  Most supplements are food grade, meaning they are regulated the same way food is.  Enough said?  They could be as high quality as an organic apple or as low as the historic Twinkie.  What to do?  Do your research, or have me do it for you.  You can read the Comparative Guide to Supplements or you can take only pharmaceutical grade supplements.  This will guarantee you the best purity, potency and absorbability possible.

• Welcome to the Jungle - It is a jungle in the world of wall to wall supplements, sports drinks, shakes and metabolic enhancers.  OVERWHELMED may be the most common feeling consumers have in the supplement aisle.  Ask for help!  That is what WE, your health care practitioners are here for.  We get trained in this stuff.  We can guide you through the jungle.

• Supplements CANNOT take the place of a well balanced diet.  Eat your greens!   You cannot replace one with the other.  They work like a charm together so eat your whole foods, and take your high quality supplements EVERY DAY.

SUE-TRITION

• Daily - My supplements come in a handy little health pack.  They are customized so they do change based on what I am going through etc.  You can always bet that there will be a pharmaceutical grade multi-vitamin and mineral, a potent and purified omega 3 (2-3/day) and some hefty antioxidants.  I get them from USANA health sciences.  (of course it is rated #1, that is why I get them).

• Seasonally - In the spring I take extra quercitin, proflavanol (grape seed extract + vitamin C), I add in more ionic minerals to gently cleanse my body and some Product B (from Isagenix) to slow the aging process naturally by lengthening this telomeres. Special tricks: Sometimes I add extra calcium, and some calming formulas such as passion flower, GABA, and L-Theanine. (to help with my busy mind)

MY FAVORITE SPRING SUPPLEMENTS

• Quercitin - Quercitin is a natural anti-histamine and is fantastic for any spring allergies.  It does not inhibit the allergies, but while you are adjusting your diet and cleansing for the spring, quercitin will calm down those symptoms.

• Nettles - One of my favorite herbs for almost EVERYTHING.  Nettles is delicious made into some tea and used to help with hay fever, boosting immunity, supporting the adrenals, and helping to alleviate allergy induced asthma.  

• Spring Cleanse Program - Get your Spring Fever ON!  Cleansin in the Spring is the best thing you can do to clear up any stagnant energy in your body, shed excess body weight and get energized for the spring.  Come join our SPRING FEVER CLEANSE PROGRAM.