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.