What have I noticed in all my years of counseling people with food and their bodies?
That everyone still follows the model out there: Learn the nutrition part; make the changes; lose weight; let go of disease; feel better.
OK, so how come so many come to me still not feeling better and feeling locked up inside with something deeper making them sad about all these changes?
I know so clearly that the new paradigm for our highest health is to go underneath the underneath, and deconstruct our early "relationship" with food and our bodies. Then we can create a new one that supports the nutritional changes we would like to make. How do we do this?

If you understand that food is your most intimate relationship; your life partner; the primary relationship from which all others develop, which of these expressions would describe your personal relationship with food and with your body:

Loving; Warm; Nurturing; Frustrating; Emotional; Ecstatic; Joyful; Weighty; Sad; Depressing; Anxious; Angry; Easy; Stressful


Would you like to have an intimate, blissful, loving, ecstatic, healthy and nurturing relationship with food and your body?

Please email me your thoughts on this....

Next week, I'll be starting my fall teleclasses, which are all about this conversation. If this speaks to you, then let me know and I can tell you more.
"Courageous Eating: Creating a Divine Relationship with Your Food, Your Body and Your Health."
This is my commitment to you.

"It's a New Day; It's a New Age": The Holistic Empire is stepping up and bringing you along! I want to thank my former partner Alan Berger for co-creating this Empire with me; everything in our intention was pure and full of love for humanity. I am so blessed to have shared that vision with another, in all its ecstasy, and now I bless Alan in all his present magical endeavors and commitments to the children of this world and to people of all cultures, as I know he blesses me in mine. We are all one. So, enjoy reading our earlier posts, as they came from high-level health and supreme love. Feel free to comment on those, too, as there's lots of "food for thought" in them.



So, as I look back on 3 years of being a raw foodist, and numerous years as a Health Counselor, what strikes me most in observing all humanity in our quest for health is really what brought me to this field all those years ago: People are suffering with their relationship to food! It's the emotional component that overrides everything else. Food, our most intimate partner, brings us pain and suffering. We can always talk about alkalizing our bodies, getting off of medications, eating raw or vegan or macro and on and on, but the piece that is most missing is a sense of freedom, peace and joy in our relationship with our food. Who loves their body???? I mean Really, Really loves their body and shows it??? Who only has a positive conversation running through their head when they pick up a piece of food that might not be on their daily food plan?? Please, please write me and let me know if you are one of those people, as my personal and professional experience has me put the number of you that might fall into that category in the single digits, if at all.

At a party last Saturday night, around the dessert table, I watched four women with a mixture of bodies, from slender to medium, all help themselves to the cakes while saying out loud, "I was positive I had decided I would not be eating dessert tonight. I really shouldn't be doing this." I want to ask you, readers, what message do you think we are offering our bodies, and ultimately our cells when we recite this mantra over food every single day? Give up? (please comment back)...I'll give you a hint: We not only digest our food, we digest the way in which we communicate our food to our bodies; "shouldn't, don't, bad, guilty, fat, wrong." This is the language with which we digest our food, and this is what get digested and assimilated into our cells.

Please comment back with your thoughts, as I am on a mission to teach you how to relate to your food like you would relate to and partner with your most intimate relationship. Imagine if food were your lover; your husband; your girlfriend, your spouse? How would you treat your relationship??

Uncooking Class This Weekend in Rockland County, NY

Hi Everyone,
Since our Retreat Weekend did not get filled, we are instead holding one of our infamous Raw Prep Uncooking Classes this Saturday.
It's 4 hours of "getting your hands in the food!" Together, we create a muti-course raw meal and learn about targeting our health with raw & living foods. Since it's so beautiful outside, our intention is to hold this class in nature; if it rains, of course we can move into the school as usual.
If you haven't ever been to one of our Uncooking Classes, they are a blast. We co-create, and then sit down and share the meal together as a community.
The class is this Saturday the 23rd from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM; cost is $75.00.
Registration will close at midnight this Wednesday, so please email back to: theholisticempire@yahoo.com.
Raw Love,
Hope

Dear Ones,

My thoughts last night:
Using Multiple Intelligences (thank you, Anasatsia!), developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, I tapped into my Spatial/Visual Intelligence last night to change my story:
Here was my story:
"Ohh, everyone stands at the local Dairy Queen waiting for their Summertime ice cream. It tastes so good. I want some, too! Maybe I should just go get some and forget this raw health stuff."
Now I picture myself belonging to a different club; the club of high health, unstoppable energy, clarity and focus; the club of abundant joy and confidence. I picture myself being really ME.
I visualize a dish with raw crunchy almond butter, goji berries, raw cacao (this is raw chocolate, without all the sugars, dairy, and fillers and with the high-end nutrients), agave for sweetener and mesquite powder for maple flavor. Yum I am eating it right now; I can picture how amazing I feel...and I am; right at this very moment! I step into my kitchen (for real) to make my luscious dessert. It is so good, I treat myself to two bowls!
I have transformed the story of who I am in relation to food, joy and being filled up emotionally into a whole new experience.
Peace & High-Health,
Hope

The Power of Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzVBQFx6Hjk

Anodea Judith speaks the truth for a new paradigm. I encourage you to check out this 1 minute UTube by going to the site above.
I studied Somatic Therapy with Anodea; it was she who taught me how to help people move trauma through and out of their bodies, and to finally give our bodies a voice.
Now, Anodea speaks to the planet and to each of us in living our divine truth.

I encourage you to read: "Waking the Global Heart; Humanity's Rite of Passage From the Love of Power to the Power of Love."

That is what Alan and I are trying to do here, on our brand new blog; build a global consciousness.
Raw & Living food is a catalyst to this end. When we clear out the clutter of years of metabolic waste in our bodies, we are left with clarity, focus, energy and love. It is Now that we can go out and change the world.
Try it; just for a day....
Co-Hearts,
Hope & Alan

Raw Truffles

I made Raw Truffles for Nina today. I used to make them all the time, but then I got into making raw ice cream :)
Raw Truffles:
Cacao Nibs, ground in a coffee grinder
Today, I added, ground Goji/Cacao Powder as well
1 heaping tablespoon of Raw Almond Butter
Agave
Vanilla extract (alchohol-free)
Mesquite Powder
Maca Powder
a little Water
Put it all in a food processor and process till smooth.
Form into round balls and place on a special plate that you love
Sprinkle or roll with coconut flakes
Refrigerate till cold and hard
PS - Don't forget to lick the batter!

Nina took the truffles to a new level by shaping a couple of them into the Hershey's Kiss shape!
You can get the Maca, Mesquite and Cacao at David Wolfe's
site:
http://www.sunfoodnutrition.com

Dancing Releases Toxins

We had our bi-monthly drum circle tonight, and the drumming was so powerful that the dancers were moving to the rhythm set by the drummers, especially our friend Mike.I was dripping with sweat and moving past the point where I didn't think I could. The more I sweated, the more I felt cleansed. Dancing is such a comprehensive form of movement, and set to live African drums, it connects us to our tribal heritage.
A tribal way of living was based on community, co-parenting, prayer and ritual for all the food we ate or killed to eat and a sense of being part of something greater than ourselves that would protect us and keep us safe.
Now we factory farm our animals without asking their permission, eat fast food and judge our worthiness by how much we get done each day and how little we connect with one another.
You can go on the greatest diet in the world; have you ever thought about how we digest our lives?
If you've never drummed before, no worries. Most drum circles are open to all levels; all you have to do is go on www.meetup.com and search for a drum circle in your area. It's a way to connect with people in a really healthy environment; drum and dance is the ultimate high. Hmmm, and we also served a seeded watermelon:)