Breathe as Deeply as Possible

Breakfast:
32 ounces of Raw elixir with water, banana, mango, psyllium seed powder and agave
Lunch:
salad with romaine, radish, carrot, sprouts with dulse and dressing of nutritional yeast, olive oil and sea salt

32 ounces lemon water
a couple handfuls of raw cashews
Raw Revolution chocolate raisin bar
Dinner:
2 small bowls of last night's chocolate avocado pudding - it only gets better when it sits in the frig for a day!
8 ounces raw cacao elixir with: coconut water, water, cacao powder, cacao nibs, banana, psyllium seed powder, agave, almond butter - this was rockin'!!! Who needs ice cream!
My food was light and wonderful.
Drumming and singing under the sky with good friends to pay homage to and welcome in the Spring Equinox. Wonderful roaring firepit. Just going to sleep now, and it's 1:30 AM. Keeping my food light gave me potent energy.


Today was my first seasonal run in shorts and a tank top! The golden sun was shining down and I was consciously breathing slow, long, deep breaths; kind of like Ujaya yoga breaths, as I ran. I could hear my breath making a gutteral sound as I ran past people at the beach. "Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know I am breathing out." Those are the words of Thich Nat Hahn; breath as a guide to meditation. Bringing in oxygen and chlorophyl are the major catalysts to healing the body. Stop and notice how shallow your breaths might be; now stand or sit comfortably and allow your breath to feel like it's coming up from the earth through the arches of your feet; now into your legs and then into your hips and groin; moving into your belly and solarplexis, expand your belly; now all through your back and up into your shoulders; down your arms and up into your head, face and scalp and out the crown. Expand your belly with each inhlae, let it fall back inward with each exhale. Take your breath to a new edge with each inhale and with each exhale. Exhaling, flow your breath back through your body while lightly raising your tongue in your mouth; you will hear the opening in your wind pipe and a whooshing sound. Full, deep breaths. Now, bring them into your body when you're doing the dishes. Let them enter you while you are making the bed. Consciously connect with the greatest healer of all; your breath as medicine to feed your body and awaken your cells.
Ahhh....

Spend time with good friends

What I ate today:
Breakfast:
Juicy Bosc pear

32 ounces lemon water
bites of fresh Thai coconut
tastes of raw chocolate pudding as I was making it for tonight. I licked the bowl clean, and it reminded me of being a child.

Lunch:
remaining teaspoon of sunflower seed sundried tomato pate
elixir of:
fresh Thai coconut
water
blueberries
banana
agave
cacao nibs

Dinner:
beautiful salad with greens and sliced daikon (thank you, Jane)
Sunshine cheese with celery and carrots (Liz and Michael); Yum!
Stuffed portobella mushrooms with walnut pate (Nick and Irina!!!) really elegant

pear juice and Pellegrino

Dessert:
My chocolate pudding:
avocados, fresh Thai coconut water and meat, cacao powder, agave, cacao nibs, rolled dates in coconut
Coconut Bliss ice cream (not totally raw but clean)

Tonight was our monthly Raw Food & Film gathering, which is held at the home of my dear friends Irina and Nicholas.
I know Irina will love me sharing this, as she always tells people that a year ago January (the 16th, to be exact), I held an Un-Cooking Class and she and Nick attended. We made so many dishes, and afterwards, Irina went raw! I didn't find this out until months later, when I ran into a mutual friend who said, 'You know Irina is raw, right?' Tonight, Irina was relaying this story and said, "We ate all these dishes, maybe nine of them, and I thought, if raw food tastes like this, what need is there to eat cooked food!" And so she went raw.
If you are trying to integrate more raw into your life, create opportunities to surround yourself with others who are doing the same. It keeps you accountable to your personal visions and supports having community around the process.
Plus, what could be better on a Friday night than eating, watching a film and having great conversation? Choose those with whom you feel wrapped in a blanket of love and stimulated in your conversation and passion. Friendship is the highest elixir of all.
Think about this:
Who sees you as magnificent?
With whom can you let down and be real?
With whom can you speak your truth?
Who spurs your creativity?
Who will hold you when you need holding?
Who will run with you through the sprinklers in Summertime?
Please share what friendship mean to you....
In Raw Bliss,
Hope

What way of eating makes your body sing?

Today's Raw Repasts:
32 ounces lemon water

Breakfast:
Manna bread with smears of raw crunchy almond butter

Lunch:
Sunflower seed pate with cut up celery

Snacks:
some raw cashews
some raw granola

Dinner:
Large salad with romaine, mixed greens, carrot, red pepper, cuke, sunflower seeds, sprouts; with dulse and dressing of olive oil, sea salt and nutritional yeast

Snack:
Raw Revolution Hazelnut & chocolate bar

24 ounces water

When I eat raw food, my mind is clear, my body feels elevated, my energy is high, my spirits are blissful.
I remember early on in my raw journey, noticing how present and grounded I felt; how calm and centered when I would speak to a group or teach a class; how ecstatic I felt as the food ignited my blood, my brain and my cells. I remember when I realized that no food lifestyle or "diet" ever touched me in that way. In all my years of counseling and studying the effects of food on the body, and all the way back to my personal journey with food, body image, emotions, energy and well being, hands down raw food does something no other food has ever touched. Put a different way for those of you who share my passion for quantum physics and metaphysics, my body is completely aligned with the raw food lifestyle, and the frequency of the food resonnates with my own personal vibration.
Whenever I get pulled into the appeal of something other than raw and have a day or two of foods that attract me, even in the enjoying of them, it's not the same experience vibrationally. I might be in an exquisite restaurant eating a beautiful meal and loving the presentation, colors and taste (after all, I confess I am a food snob and even when not eating raw I like eating food that excites me), I have noticed that since going raw 3 3/4 years ago, the experience is different. When I go back to 100% raw, my body sings and soars. It's a totally other dimension.

My question to you is: Do you know what food makes your body sing?
When do you feel in alignment?
When are your thoughts, feelings, spirit, energy and food all one?
Please write in and let me know...

What Truly Inspires You?

32 ounces of lemon water
Breakfast:
12 ounces Brazil nutmilk smoothie, with:
soaked Brazil nuts, water, banana, mango, psyllium seed powder, flax seeds, almond butter, lucuma powder, agave
Snack:
some raw cashews
Lunch:
cabbage and apple salad with olive oil, sea salt, lemon, apple cider vinegar, caraway seeds and stone ground mustard
mini collard wraps with sunflower seed pate: soaked sunflower seeds, soaked sundried tomatoes, water from tomatoes, olive oil, celery, sea salt, dulse, paprika, cayenne, Bragg's amino acids
wrapped with mini amounts of with sliced avocado and broccoli sprouts
small mixed salad with dressing of sprinkled nutritional yeast, sea salt and olive oil
small bowl of Organic nectars raw mint chocolate ice cream sprinkled with a couple of pecans

Snack:
Raw Revolution chocolate Hazelnut bar

Dinner:
12 ounces water
more mini collard wraps and cabbage salad

12 ounces water

This blog goes out in acknowledgement to my "sister" Stephanie, who asked me this question the other day: "If you won 12 million dollars, after you were done partying, what would you do? What truly inspires you?" I love this question!
I am inspired by people who want to make change with their health. I am inspired by the relationships I have with clients' hearts as they reveal their life stories to me. I am inspired by speaking my truth without shame; this is who I am. I am inspired by a Winter run at the beach in six degrees. I am inspired by a Spring morning, feeling the warm breeze blow across my bed and hearing the birds back singing. I am inspired by the energy my body feels when eating simply and eating raw. I am inspired when I connect in deep intimacy with someone. I am inspired when I can learn and grow in my life.
Only do what you are inspired to do. Let the rest go, because no matter how good at it your are or how much you produce, if you are not inspired, it is not why you are here. You get to choose to wake up with passion and purpose everyday.
Please write in and let me know what truly inspires you....

Playing Hookie is Advisable

Tomorrow will be 60 degrees and sunny. I want to take a moment to send my prayers and energies to all people who have gone through hardship as a result of the storm on Saturday. I know some homes are still without power in Westchester County, Rockland County and Connecticut. Trees are still down all over. People are displaced from their homes. Individuals and stores lost their goods that were refrigerated or frozen. Cars and sections of homes were demolished. Two people died from falling trees. Let's send a prayer out to all concerned; May you be showered with golden light.

In Gratitude for My Food:
Today:
28 ounces lemon water

28 ounces Brazil nutmilk smoothie with:
soaked Brazil nuts
water
flax seeds
psyllium seeds
banana
mango
lucuma powder
almond butter
agave

Lunch:
4 slices Manna carrot raisin bread with smear of almond butter

Dinner:
Large salad with Romaine, carrot, cuke, broccoli sprouts, sunflower seeds with avocado and dulse
dressing of olive oil, nutritional yeast, sea salt and nori shake

After Dinner:
bowl of Organic Nectars mint chocolate raw ice cream sprinkled with some pecans

12 ounces water

Tomorrow my friend Liz is coming over to play hookie with me and take a hike in the warmth of early Spring. Then we'll head over to the beach with lunch in hand.
Liz is a CPA and an Empowerment Coach and I am a Health Counselor.
I used to give myself a hard time about taking a day or half a day to play. What about this project or that upcoming workshop or starting this new thing on my list? Isn't it negligent to leave it all, take off and spread my wings? It is not; in fact, it is a vital component of our health. These times of play balance out our times when creative juices must flow to generate new creations in our livelihood.
"Listen...do you wanna know a secret...do you promise not to tell...?" It's not from the "doing" that we really create and soar to new heights in our "work". It's from our connection to nature; to our divine Source; to the soul spirit that lives within us and already knows it all; to the quiet space inside of us; to the passionate, playful being that we are.
Try this experiment: Go on a hike or to the beach; go to your most favorite place and hang out; take a run; do something that brings you immense joy.
Now, hold the intention that all the guidance for whatever "project" you are working on will just flow through you and you will receive it.
See what happens....
Let me know how it turns out.
With Blessings for the Beauty and Forces of Nature,
Hope

We've got to "Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative"

What I ate today
Today's Raw Rejuvenations:
Breakfast:
28 ounces Brazil nutmilk smoothie with:
soaked Brazil nuts and water; banana; mango; psyllium seeds; flax seeds; lucuma powder; raw crunchy almond butter; cacao nibs; agave
Lunch: at The Stand in Norwalk, CT: Thanks, Carissa!
large salad with tons of sprouts, spiralized beets, beautiful mix of greens, grape tomatoes and avocado with a cashew, garlic, lemon dressing and kelp shake and cayenne
1/2 Curried collard wrap with curried almond pate, red peppers, avocado and sprouts
Snack:
Way too much yummy raw goji berry granola from 'Two Moms in the Raw'
Dinner:
Salad with romaine, radish, carrot, purple cabbage, sunflower seeds with a dressing of nutritional yeast, olive oil, nori shake and sea salt
"Dessert":
4 rolled dates in coconut
12 ounces of water

OK, so someone's gotta talk about this. I always tell clients, when they bashfully ask me if its OK to get a little descriptive about their bathroom habits, "Go for it! This is the place to do it.I love talking about this subject." Then of course we get really graphic! So often, they assume that eliminating (that's #2, people) should be once a day, once every two or three days, and I've heard once a week as well. When I tell them that the rule of thumb is "meal in; meal out," and that could mean three, four or five times a day, they are completely shocked. Yes, that's true, and I'm already up to four healthy eliminations today! Makes sense with my food intake, right?
How to increase healthy elimination? Drink more water, but not during your meals, as it impedes digestion when added to a meal. Start your day with a 32 ounce mason jar of lemon water, and have some at night, too.
I know the psyllium seed powder in my morning smoothie this morning definitely helped, as psyllium is a colon cleanser and sweeps the colon clean. It also contributes to heart health.
Step up your greens: leafy greens, green superfoods (spirulina, chlorella, barley grass), anything green with chlorophyll
Salads are fabulous with all their fiber; so are fruits (unless you are dealing with an inflammatory issue in the body).
Exercise Exercise: Guess why we have legs??? No, not to sit in front of the TV; to move them and bring oxygen into your cells, joints and muscles. Do anything that "moves you," from dance to running to yoga to teaching your dog how to catch a Frisbee; if you love it, you will keep doing it with passion, and passion is the key to health.
See how your mood lifts when you are eliminating regularly. You are letting go of any debris and waste that shouldn't be hanging around, and that includes emotional bagage.
See how your energy lifts.
From what comes out in the bathroom to how we view our bodies in the bedroom, "We've got to...accentuate the positive; eliminate the negative."

Raw Rocks & Homage to the Spruce

What I ate today:
28 ounces of water with lemon
28 ounces of fresh nutmilk smoothie:
soaked Brazil nuts, water, banana, mango, cacao nibs, almond butter, agave - YUM!!!
large salad with lettuce, carrot, radish, purple cabbage, broccoli sprouts, sunflower seeds with dessing of nutritional yeast, olive oil, cayenne & sea salt
guacamole with avocado, tomato, purple onion, sea salt, lemon, cayenne, hot sauce, dulse shake, nori shake; with carrot and celery
manna carrot raisin bread with smears of raw crunchy almond butter (not totally raw at temp of baking, but close enough for this raw foodist today!)

Looked out my window this morning and saw the beautiful blue spruce at the end of the driveway uprooted and stretched across the driveway. The City of Stamford got slammed with the wind and rain storm yesterday. I saw this graceful tree swaying during the day. This morning I cried for him. One time, when I was in a writers' group, I wrote a poem about him and the other spruce, who we lost some years ago. Today, I went down to speak to the tree and offer him some healing touch. Nature really is the Divine Source; all else flows from there. I love you, tree; you made a difference in my life.
It's amazing how increasing my water again is just blasting my energy. Starting my day with a mason jar of lemon water both cleanses and detoxifies my liver daily as well as hydrating me. As a result, I feel energy surging through me and an emotional clarity; as if my brain is also functioning at a higher level.
I loved that the storm allowed me to slow down and stay inside all day yesterday. I purposely did nothing intensive; no cleaning; no Holistic Empire projects; only leisurely detailed journal writing; lots of eating, with special note to finishing off the final piece of raw berry cheesecake that Liz had made me for my birthday; juicy phone conversations with friends and time to connect with me.
As a result, I was so energized today that I went out to run in the rain. I took a great five miler this morning. At the beach, there were sections of the path that were no longer visible and filled with water from the Long Island Sound. I felt like I was running a Bushwack race, maneuvering over sand and grass to make my way around. Benches were sitting in large pools of water. The temperature was mild, and I had a mask on to keep my face dry. It was so exhilirating.
I feel the desire to do a Spring cleanse; it will probably come in the form of a juice feast. I anticipate doing a week-long cleanse this month and then a larger one in June. Gabriel Cousens is spearheading a month-long juice fast to combat global warming. One of the largest sources of global warming comes from the methane produced from factory farming. Coming together through juice fasting is a proactive way to take a stand on global warming and against the suffering created from the factory farming of animals. Who wants to join me?? Juice feasting (as the Raw Foodists have named it) creates so much energy in the body, as the digestive system is not being taxed; therefore no heavy digestion; no inflamation; alkalized body system.
One more day of rain? and then Tuesday Spring is back. Soon I'll start to add in warm weather fruits.