When you want to reach for a snack, be sure it is an energy enhancing snack rather than a snack that will perk you up a bit and then send you crashing (sugary or white flour foods). Think of snacks such as fresh or dried fruit, almonds (raw), veggies, or maybe some cubed flavored tofu (good even eaten cold). Remember to drink plenty of good water because often you are actually thirsty rather than hungry.

Colon cleansing is a very worthwhile but difficult endeavor. It’s cheap to do and well worth it. You can take some psyllium seed husk powder and shake it up in apple juice and drink! It is a good idea to follow it up with a big glass of water because the psyllium seed husks expand in your stomach.

If you can stand it, it is helpful to do enemas because when the impacted fecal matter is released, toxins go into your bloodstream and can give you headaches. The quicker you can get that gunk out the better!

John Wayne had 40 lbs of impacted fecal matter in his colon when he died!

Colon cleansing is difficult on you emotionally. It can bring up past emotional issues that need to be cleansed as well, so you won’t just be cleansing physically but emotionally and mentally as well.

Everyone was impacted fecal matter in their colons–the degree varies depending on the person. Everyone would benefit from doing some colon cleansing occasionally to keep your colon as free from excess debris as possible.

There is absolutely no reason not to buy organic bananas. The price difference in some organic foods vs non-organic is pretty major, however, organic bananas at regular grocery stores are only about 10 cents more per pound than non-organic. Even kind of regularly, they are the exact same price. Organic produce is going down in price and so it is really worth it to purchase some produce organic. Buy as much organic produce as possible. It’s a whole lot more nutritious than non-organic produce.

Healthful living is more that just diet. It’s important for people to get outside, exercise, listen to uplifting, calming music and do things they enjoy. Stop watching televsion. Television is very conducive to bad eating habits. The commercials entice people to want to eat more of the wrong foods. A person’s home should be clean and uncluttered.  The living environment should be condusive to health, healing happiness and vitality! As a family something we loved to do is sit outside, listen to the birds and eat fruit in the yard together! That is such a peaceful, yet simple and very fulfilling activity.

Are you getting ready for the holidays? I hope you remember to do some things to take the stress off of yourself for the holidays. Take the time to exercise, relax, spend time with your family. Make sure you continue to eat right and take good care of yourself.

It’s really important that you don’t let yourself go over the holidays and find yourself fatter and more broke than before. Don’t overspend or overeat. You will have a more enjoyable time before, during and after if you don’t get way off track for the month, so with December approaching, be dilligent in staying on a healthy path. You’ll be happier and feel better in the long run.

The world is very demanding especially for women and even more so for single moms. It’s very difficult to juggle all your responsibilities and take care of yourself in the process. It is important to take care of and nurture yourself. I’ve put together information on 10 ways to nurture yourself so that you can be a healthy, happy woman. 

Two of the main things are eating breakfast and eating right. So many women skip eating in the morning because they don’t have time. In my opinion, you need to plan better and make the time no matter what. It will help your energy level all day and help you to not overeat later in the day. In the morning, eating “breakfast” is breaking the fasting you have been doing all night so it is critical that you replenish your body with some nourishment to keep up your stamina and vitality throughout the day. 

Healthy habits need to take priority in your life because without your health, you have nothing else. If you don’t voluntarily make time for your health now, you will be forced to make time for sickness later. It’s your choice. Once you get used to healthy habits, your quality of life will skyrocket and implementing healthy habits is actually becomes fun! 

Ten great ways to nurture yourself are:  1) Eat vegetarian at least three times per week—more is better so if you want to do it 100%, that is even better but do it at a minimum of three dinners per week, 2) Exercise 30 minutes per day—get a pedometer and then just walk, park further away, take the stairs, walk while blow drying your hair and brushing your teeth, 3) Meditate 20 minutes per day—find 20 minutes in everyday for quiet time completely without interruptions to go within and get inner guidance on what you need to do to reach your full potential, 4) Hydrate yourself—drink plenty of water, this doesn’t mean pop, tea, coffee or lemonade but actual water. Green tea actually counts but the iced tea you get is black tea and that doesn’t count as water. 5) Increase your intake of fruits and veggies by adding spinach and cooked chopped broccoli to everything, keep frozen fruit on hand to add to cereal and smoothies, add dried cranberries and raisins to cereal and oatmeal, 6) Spend 30-60 minutes per day doing something you love—you should make time each day to do something enjoyable, it could be playing in the park with your kids, watching a movie or reading an uplifting book, no one knows how much time they have so spend your time doing things you love, 7) Take a bath once per week—baths are very nurturing and pampering, get some nice bath stuff (special soaps, scrubs , body wash and so on) and treat yourself to a relaxing, exhilarating bath once a week at a time when you aren’t in a hurry to get somewhere, Cultivate Your Friendships and Support System—make time for friends and family and develop those connections and then when you need someone to talk to or help you , you will have a bunch of people to turn to , 9) Music, Incense, candles and aromatherapy—these four items can be used throughout the day in a myriad of ways and they will uplift your soul and nourish your spirit and 10) Pets—pets are very healing and a great way to unwind and de-stress, pets are great companions if they are part of the family,. Pets are forgiving, kind and loving while the humans you encounter, might not always be

You want to cut down on meat consumption but don’t know how. All your life, you have been conditioned to have meat as the center of your meals so how do you go about finding some delicious vegetarian food to cook? 

I will give you some tips and recipes to get you started and maybe it will get you thinking about other nifty ways to add vegetarian food to your diet. 

First of all, the absolutely easiest thing to do in the beginning is to make the food you are used to and substitute soy based alternatives for the traditional meat currently in your recipes. For example, in spaghetti use fake ground beef; Morningstar Farms and Boca put out a great alternative that can be purchased in a regular grocery store. You can also use the fake ground beef in your tacos, beef stroganoff, pizza, lasagna or anything else you put hamburger in. 

There are a plethora of fake hamburgers to substitute for regular hamburgers. Boca and Morningstar Farms both put out a fantastic variety of them but there are many other brands too. If you don’t like one kind, try another. You are bound to find at least one that you find acceptable, even good. 

If you want to venture out a little more, you can make some great recipes with tofu, Morningstar farms “chicken” and Morningstar Farms “beef strips”.  

My mom is Hungarian. Europeans are very meat oriented. I have adapted several of her meat, fat laden recipes to healthier vegetarian versions. One really great recipe I adapted was her recipe for “Paprikash Chicken”. 

Paprikash Chicken1 pkg. Morningstar Farms “Chicken:2 packets of vegetarian chicken gravy1 can cream of mushroom soupsour cream, 4-8 ozpaprikaolive oilfresh or canned mushrooms, optional 

Put a very small amount of olive oil in a fry pay and cook the vegetarian chicken until slightly crispy. Blend up the gravy and add to the pan with the chicken. Then add the can of mushroom soup. Stir in some paprika. After it’s all warmed through and through, add the 4-8 oz of sour cream (I only use about 4 oz. because I think it’s enough). You can cook up some additional mushrooms (I prefer fresh over canned) to add on top before serving if you’d like. 

“You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car. ~Harvey Daimond

We are not meant to eat animals. We do not instinctively want to kill animals with our bare hands. We are not anatomically disposed toward meat eating. We have a long digestive tract whereas true carnivores such as lions have very short digestive tracts. The reason for this is meat putrefies quickly and needs to be utilized and removed quickly. We are much better designed to eat fruit and vegetables. Since, for most people, it is unrealistic to eat only fruits and veggies, the next best thing to include in your diet are other vegetable based foods such as rice, soy products and potatoes.

Even if you don’t want to be vegetarian 100% of the time, cutting back on meat consumption is good for everyone including the animals and the planet.

Meat is an acquired taste and most people need to cook it and doctor it up for it to be palatable that is a good clue that it’s not really meant for human consumption. Carnivores eat freshly killed meat, we try to pretend it’s not a dead animal i.e. butterfly chops.Merely eating vegetarian doesn’t automatically mean you are eating healthy. You still need to be sure you are eating low-fat, healthy vegetarian food. Meat is difficult to digest and is highly toxic to humans, so cutting back on it will help increase your health, vitality and energy level.

What does your day look like? Today, my son is with his dad so I can actually veg out a little.  The great part about that is that this is the perfect time to nurture myself. I can spend time doing things I love, going places or just relaxing…I’m not a big nap taker but if I feel exceptionally tired, I could even nap!!!

Sunday Oct 28, 2007

I will spend the morning relaxing, writing and taking a bath and then alittle later, I will go shopping for some groceries. Later, my son will be home and then things will get really busy!

I will write what my whole week looks like as a single mom and maybe some of you could share yours…

Even if you don’t want to become a vegetarian 100%, it is helpful to cut down on meat consumption. You will improve your diet considerably if you eat a vegetarian meal three times per week.

 There are so many terrific vegetarian options out on the market today. It isn’t like it used to be in the 70’s where it was all bland tofu! Tofu can be really great if made properly but it can be really bad if made poorly. There are many great options besides tofu: vegeburgers (one million great brands), vege chicken, vege ribs, vege beef, vege chicken strips, vege beef strips. The list really goes on and on.  I’m really into pretty normal food, food that the ingredients can be purchased at a regular grocery store.  A lot of the cookbooks out there can be really wierd. One thing you can do is make your normal meals and substitute “fake meat” for the real thing. For example, make spaghetti and put fake ground beef or fake meatballs in place of the real thing. Experiment but I would really recommend having several vegetarian meals a week, it will be good for you and your family as well as the planet and the animals.