The holiday season is here.

And there’s one thing I know you’ll see at every,

In-office Yankee grab-bag exchange,

Saturday night dinner party, and

After work cocktail party…

The Spirit of the season,

which often looks like,

overflowing plates of cookies,

festive froufrou mixed-drinks, and

tables laden with traditional family favorites,

that you don’t want to eat, and… you so do.

Add to all this festivity, the end-of-the-year deadline-stress,

Hours preparing for your family and friend get-togethers, and

Late-night shopping excursions,

And rather than feel festive, all you feel is exhausted and stressed.

Add in one cocktail to a tired body, and

Bam! Your resistance is double-downed!

Which is why you end up eating, drinking and indulging more than you ever want.

Looking to understand why you feel lousy and gained excess weight after the holidays?

Look no further than stress, lack of sleep and hormonal imbalance.

Yes, when you’re stressed-out and tired, your body produces higher levels of the hormone grehlin, which is also known as the hunger hormone.

When your body releases higher levels of grehlin, you want to eat more, which naturally lowers the hormone leptin, the hormone that tells you to stop eating, that you’re satisfied, that you’ve had enough.

This is one of the biggest reasons why you feel hungry, even when you know you’re not.

This is a likely reason you crave sugary foods and carbs mid-day — you’re body is looking for a quick energy pick-me-up, and carbs does just that — they give you the quick and immediate energy fix you’re looking for.

Plus, you “feel happy” when you eat sugary, carb-y things. Do you know why? Ti’s true, your body releases serotonin, the feel-good hormone with every bite you take!

Add to this cascade of hormonal responses, the energy blast your body gets from the cortisol your adrenal glands start pumping, because it deems you’re in a “fight or flight” situation from all the stress and exhaustion AND sugar and carbs!

This blast of excess cortisol (continuously pumping if you’re continuously eating sugar and carbs) is the likely culprit for excess weight gain.

To add insult to injury, excess cortisol can lead you to screaming for more serotonin, which leads to the never-ending hamster wheel of craving sugar AND fatty, processed foods!

So… IF you don’t want to fall down the legendary, holiday rabbit hole of gaining excess weight and feeling sick and unhealthy this year, you’ve got to get a good nights sleep and reduce stress (I’ve got 1000 tips for this!), and you’ve got to balance out the indulgence of the season with a few smart ideas. Want mine?

Your Turn:

Can I help you healthfully navigate the holidays this year with more suggestions, tips and ideas?

What always seems to pull you out, but you want to change that this year?

Post your questions and comments below. I’d love to help.

Ready to take control of your health in 2018? Lets’s schedule a call to talk about your goals. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com

My Dad LOVED Creamed Peas and Pearl Onions, so I made this recipe in his honor, for YOU! He would have LOVED this recipe, because every ingredient is so clean, fresh and… plus the recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo-friendly AND super delicious. When you look over the ingredients, you’ll feel confident that everyone will love the fresh spin of this holiday classic… It’s a total crowd-pleaser, because even those with food sensitives can indulge — Booyah!

Yes, I always recommend organic as your first choice for all ingredients, when available.

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups of fresh or frozen peas
• 10 ounce bag of fresh pearl onions
• 1 parsnip, chopped in food processor
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1 cup almond milk
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Sauce: 

Saute onion and parsnip until cooked and tender. Add to Vitamin or high-speed blender with almond milk, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Puree until well-combined and creamy.

Pearl Onions: Immerse in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Remove. Let cool. Cut the root end and pinch out of onion skin.

In saute pan: Add peas, onions and sauce and simmer on a low heat until vegetables and flavors come together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Buono Appetito! Happy Holidays!

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear how you liked it in the comments below!

Forager’s Pie is said to be the “hot cousin” of Shepard’s pie. I like that, in the spirt of ‘out with the old, in with the new.’ This recipe then is, yet again, a fresh spin on another classic, with a lighter, cleaner line-up of ingredients!

The idea of foraging conjures up hunting and gathering — I love this idea of spending hours hunting for the perfect mushrooms in the ‘wild,’ but that I don’t know much about which ones are safe, and which ones aren’t, I went to Whole Foods and filled a bag with shiitakes and baby portobellos!

The mushrooms, with the marsala wine and fresh thyme and rosemary, add a rich savoriness that says Fall through and through.

You’ll love this recipe! It’s so good, that a crust would only get in the way!

Ingredients

• 1 large Vidalia onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 pounds shiitake mushrooms (or personal favorite), cleaned and sliced
• 2 pounds sweet potato (2 medium sized, 1 extra large), pureed
• 3/4 cup marsala wine
• 1 1/2 cup Kite Hill, ricotta cheese
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
• 1/2 cup, fresh parsley, minced
• 1 cup almond milk
• sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Preparation

Puree sweet potatoes in food processor, with 3/4 cup of ricotta, sea salt and black pepper until creamy and well-combined. Set aside.

Saute onion, garlic, carrots, coconut oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper on medium-low, until translucent. Add marsala wine and simmer for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, fresh thyme and rosemary, and simmer until tender. Add almond milk and 3/4 cup ricotta — Stir until well-combined.

Scoop vegetable/mushroom sauté into a glass baking dish. Layer half the fresh parsley. Top with pureed sweet potato. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Top with remaining parsley and serve!

Buono Appetito! 

If you make this recipe, I’d LOVE to hear how you like it in the comments section below!

Most everyone loves pumpkin pie around the holidays… and like everything I make, I say fresh is best!

While I have used fresh pumpkin, I LOVE the ease of substituting sweet potatoes too, because they’re easier to handle. So in this recipe, Fresh Pumpkin Pie I offer you the choice to use either pumpkin, or sweet potatoes. Whatever you choose, they taste very similar. Heck, even Betty Crocker said to feel free to use them interchangeably back in the 1950s!

This gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free and paleo-friendly recipe is the best I’ve come up with to date for a fresh pumpkin pie! The almond milk ricotta beautifully takes the place of cornstarch and cream, to hold the filling together and add to the pie’s overall custard-like creaminess — think pumpkin cheesecake! The stevia can be used liberally, without fear of slipping into a a sugar-coma after dinner, and all the ingredients come together for a delicious and healthy dessert for you and your family!

I challenge you to find a REAL pumpkin pie (you will have to spend hours on that alone) that is as fresh and delicious as this recipe!

Crust: 

• 3/4 cup walnuts
• 3/4 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup dates, or dried apricots
• Vanilla powder or extract
• Pinch sea salt

Place the nuts, dates (and/or apricots), vanilla and sea salt in a food processor and process until a fine crumble forms and sticks together. Press the mixture into a glass pie dish using fingertips lightly dampened with water to prevent sticking. Feel for highs and lows in the mixture, and press it evenly into the baking dish. Refrigerate until ready.

Filling: 

• 3 cups mashed pumpkin or sweet potatoes (process in food processor until smooth)
• 1 cup Kite Hill almond-milk ricotta
• 1/2+ cup almond milk (add accordingly, to maintain a thick texture)
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Stevia to taste

Instructions: 

In Vitamix, process all ingredients, until well-combined (add the almond milk slowly, to maintain thick creamy blend of ingredients).

Preheat oven to 350°.

Pour sweet potatoes mixture into pie-shell and bake for 30 minutes (watch carefully, to not burn crust).

Let cool for 30 minutes or more.

* For a dairy-free whipped topping, beat with hand-held beaters, full-fat coconut milk, vanilla and stevia to taste!

Serve and enjoy!

Buono Appetito! 

 

For a gorgeous blend of seasonal color and flavor, this hearty roasted root vegetable side dish is sure to be a healthy star at your seasonal celebrations!

Ingredients: 

• 3 medium red beets, washed and sliced thickly in 1 inch rounds
• 3 medium sweet potatoes or yams, washed and sliced thickly in 1 inch rounds
• 3 carrots, washed and cut in 3 inch pieces
• 3 parsnips, washed and cut in 3 inch pieces
• 1 -2 sweet onion, sliced thickly
• 1 head of garlic, peeled and separated cloves
• Fine sea salt to taste
• Cracked black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil

*  If you want to spin this recipe to be sweeter and still healthy, as an alternative to the overly-sweet version of holiday sweet potatoes, toss the cut vegetables in a stevia infused olive oil, before you place them in the baking dish. Drizzle the remaining sweetened oil over top, per the directions below.

Assemble:

Preheat oven to 375.

Cover the bottom of a large glass baking dish with coconut oil. Place red beet slices and sweet potato slices flat in the baking dish. Add carrots and parsnips. Cover with onion slices and whole garlic cloves. Sprinkle with sea salt, cracked black pepper and fresh rosemary. Roast for about 1 hour, or until tender.

Arrange all roasted vegetables on a serving platter. Serve and enjoy!

Buono Appetito! 

Fresh cranberries are available for only a short season each year, so I say put the traditional canned, or overly processed cranberry sauce aside this year and try my Fresh Cranberry & Fruit Relish for your holiday festivities.

Every ingredient is fresh, healthy and distinct to the season, with their bright, tart and sweet flavors blending in perfect balance.  Since this recipe is not cooked, I recommend you make it the day before, so all the flavors marinated and meld together.

Ingredients: 

• 1 bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over
• 1 medium apple, peeled, cored and deseeded
• 1 large orange, peeled and deseeded 
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup orange juice (only to achieve desired texture)
• Stevia to taste
• Pinch of Sea Salt
• Reserve a few whole cranberries and thin orange skin curls for garnish

Optional:

• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Pulse each ingredient separately in a food processor. Add to bowl on the side. When done pulsing, add orange juice (to achieve desired texture), stevia and sea salt. Pulse fresh ginger if desired, and add with cinnamon. Mix to thoroughly combine.  

Garnish with whole cranberries and/or orange skin curls.*

* To Make the Orange Curls: Make a slice through one side of the peel and the pulp, all the way up to the rind on the other side. Cut the pulp off of the peel so that you have one long thin strip of peel. Twist the peel into a curly-q shape. The peel will naturally hold its shape.

Buono Apetito! 

After you make this recipe, I’d love to hear how you and your family liked it in the comments below! Happy Holidays!

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I love to spin healthy recipes from classic, , unhealthy favorites! With the holidays’s approaching, I couldn’t resist creating an uber healthy and delicious spin on “Green Bean Casserole.”

Whole foods. Nothing processed. Vegan. Paleo. Nut-free. Clean. Fresh and delicious. This is a total crowd-pleaser!

Indeed, everyone around your holiday table this year will be saying, “OMG, WHO made the Green Bean Casserole this year? This recipe is to-die-for!”

Healthy Green Bean Casserole is super delicious, super healthy and with every flavor that you’re used to tasting in this classic holiday dish, sans the processed, nutrient-devoid and inflammatory ingredients of the of days gone by recipe!

Ingredients: 

• 1 – 1/2 pounds green beans, clipped and cleaned
• 1 pound parsnips, diced
• 1 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 1 Vidalia onion, sliced thin
• 1 1/2 small onion, diced and sautéed
• 1 clove garlic, minced and sautéed
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
• Water
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper

Crispy Caramelized Onions:

• 1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thin
• Sauté slowly over medium low heat until caramelized and crispy, a tablespoon of coconut oil, sliced Vidalia onion, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Set aside.

Sautéed Onion & Garlic:

• 1/2 small onion
• garlic
• Saute until clear and translucent over medium-low heat

Mushrooms:

• Saute until tender, mushrooms, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Set Aside.

Parsnips:

• Steam al dente — firm but slightly tender

Green Beans:

• Steam lightly to a firm texture

Sauce:

In a Vitamix or high-speed blender, puree parsnips, 1/4 of sautéed mushrooms, sautéed 1/2 small onion and garlic, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Add water slowly to achieve a smooth, creamy texture.

Combine & Cook: 

In a large bowl, toss green beans, remaining mushrooms and sauce until well combined. Pour into a glass baking dish and bake at 375° until browning and bubbly. Top with caramelized onions and serve!

Buono Appetito!

The other day, Courtney, my client, said, “Carol, you should make a list of your favorite healthy on-the-go treats, or things you eat in a pinch. Sometimes, when I’m on the run, I don’t know what to get.”

This list of my top six favorite healthy on-the-go snacks was created for Courtney and you! I hope these ideas help you choose your healthiest choices when you’re on the run, but want keep it all clean!

Please note, my first recommendation is and always will be water-rich, fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables! Always. And in the spirit of ‘treat,’ try biting into an organic red pepper with a side of olives, or split an avocado and fill it with fermented sauerkraut, or a container of Mini-Kiwis or figs! Each offers a different flavor and texture to satisfy your craving. And I totally get that there might be days that you just want something more indulgent, while keeping it healthy!

Here are 6 of my go-to’s, when I want something more than just salad and green juice:

 

Kite Hill Almond Milk Yogurt might be one of the best processed healthy foods ever made! Master vegan-chef Tal Ronnen, founder of Kite Hill, offers the freshest tasting almond milk yogurt I’ve ever had. It’s smooth, creamy, slightly tart and serves up 11g of almond protein, live active cultures and ZERO added sugar in every cup (you know I LOVE this!).

When I’m in the need of a sweet and satiating fix, I grab a container of Kite Hill plain, unsweetened yogurt, and pair it with a container of organic berries… It’s a perfect and lightly sweet treat!  (Do note, Kite Hill offers many amazing dairy-free products!) 

 

Health-Ade Kombucha = Healthy Soda, though it’s NOTHING like soda at all!

Kombucha is an effervescent, fermented tea that offers many health benefits — it supports healthy gut flora and improves digestion, it destroys bad bacteria and provides B Vitamins.

Though, I’ve been a loyal devotee to another brand of kombucha for years, Health-Ade Kombucha came to market and quickly replaced my other favorite.

Health-Ade Kombucha is the only commercial kombucha fermented 100% in glass to prevent plastic and metal leaching. It’s hand-crafted in super-small 2.5 gallon batches for premium quality, and it’s the BEST TASTING and HIGHEST QUALITY kombucha you can buy! 

 

But on this particular day, for gosh-knows what reason, you say “I. MUST. HAVE. CHIPS!” NO fear. I’ve got you covered. Salty. Crunchy. And still FAR more healthy than “chips,”… Hello Sprouted Watermelon Seeds!

Easy to pack in your car, handbag or briefcase, Watermelon seeds offer a whopping TEN grams of protein in a ONE ounce serving, plus they’re high in Magnesium and Zinc! (Do note, Go Raw offers many amazing products!) 

 

 

Some days I want something meaty, so I’ll buy a package of Monterey Grilled Artichokes. I LOVE them! They are grown on a small farm in California, with a proprietary process that retains the health benefits of fresh artichokes that far exceeds any canned or jarred product!

They come in 4 flavors, Natural, Herb, Grilled and Buffalo, but my favorite is the Grilled. That I don’t eat meat any longer, these artichokes satisfy my need for something a little more dense and ‘meaty.’ I eat them alone, with a green juice, or with a salad, but one thing is sure, once you open them, you’ll want to eat them all. They are that good!

 

 

BudhiBars are wheat free, certified kosher, baked fresh without preservatives and kept frozen until they ship! The Almond Dark, the only one I buy (on rare occasion) is certified vegan, dairy free, low in sugar, high in fiber and a mixture of Swiss Cacao and Vegan Callebaut Chocolate! One bar (of this flavor — they have others) is ONLY 4 grams of sugar, which makes this an appealing choice, when nothing less than chocolate will do!

 

 

In the spirit of “saving the best for last,” New York Natural Cheese Kale Krackers are as good as any raw cracker I’ve ever made, which of course would be the only reason I would buy them — in a pinch, when I don’t have time to make them myself! They are the only cracker with kale as the main ingredient, with other ingredients like golden flax seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews, and a perfect touch of seasoning! They maintain the life-force energy of the ingredients because they’re dehydrated, so they’re a great option on the day you want something a little more satiating with your salad… or just as a snack with your kombucha!

If you try any of my on-the-go favorites, or you have one you’d love to recommend to me, tell me in the comments below! I’d love to here from you!

Want even more delicious substitution suggestions? Click below to download my FREE “Close Enough Seconds” guide to provide you with additional ideas for your toughest cravings!

Download Your Free Substitutions Guide!

I worked two years for free.

My business was failing.

Then I drove 20 hours a day for Uber.

And slept in my car.

I had two degrees from two prestigious schools, three certifications from highly-accredited programs, and a lifetime seeped in studying health, healing and human potential.

I thought about the corporate route.

Instead, I chose work that I know makes a difference, 20-hour days, and the entrepreneurial life.

I had to give up my home, move in with my Mom and miss out on every social event for 3 years.

It didn’t matter.

Health matters.

I put myself behind the wheel.

Three years later, clients started lining up.

The hardest part is Faith.

And tenacity.

My first client knew I could make a difference for her.

She said that my “glowing skin” and “upbeat energy” reflected how she wanted to look and feel.

I did everything I could to show her she made the right decision.

That she too could look and feel her best.

Since then, I’ve served 100s of clients.

They’ve established my reputation.

Auto-immune disease in remission.

Ulcerative colitis in healing.

Insulin reduced by 70%.

Weight down 50 pounds.

I’m no longer a one-woman business, but a team who helps me serve my clients.

It takes time.

This year, I added more clients than the first three combined.

We all start somewhere.

And I never started at the finish line.

I failed more times than I succeeded in growing my business.

The only way I’ve grown is by solving one problem at a time.

I succeed because I fail.

The night sky is filled with millions of stars.

Every snowflake looks different from another.

The sun rises in the east every morning.

Life is but an endless series of experiences, with many extraordinary, seemingly disconnected, little details.

And the sum is breathtaking.

Your Turn

Would you work for free?

Would you leave a steady income and take any work to bring your dream to life?

Do you succeed now, because you failed?

Or, do you still fail, to succeed?

Post your comments below. I’d love to hear your story.

What are your health goals? Do you want to simply lose weight to slip into that favorite little black dress, or do you want to look and feel gorgeous and confident, emotionally balanced, mentally clear and in control of healthy habits everyday?

Do you want to simply burn excess fat so you look leaner, or do you want to turn back the hands of time in ways that the notch in your belt, the texture of your skin, the clarity of your mind and the contours of your muscles bespeak the seemingly elusive Fountain of Youth’s secrets?

Along the historical path to optimizing health and vitality, counting calories was introduced as “the” method to look and feel your best, even more than vital nutrition.

If you follow this protocol, yes, oh yes, you will lose weight, simply because the counting-calorie philosophy recommends you reduce the amount of food you eat everyday.

But the downside is, calorie-reduction programs across-the-board allow you to eat whatever you want, as long as you stay within the caloric-range recommended for your weight… even if it is not necessarily a healthy choice. This is a huge appeal for many.

You can eat chocolate cake. You can eat pizza. You can eat doughnuts, as long you don’t exceed your caloric-intake for the day.

Now add in the fitness-trainers who tell you you can eat whatever you want, if you “burn more calories” in their classes, and you’re going to end up at the bottom of the rabbit-hole in unhealthy-land chasing calories, while consuming foods that keep you in a state of cravings, imbalance and poor health.

The most important thing that the calorie-restriction diet companies, like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and Nutri-Systems is missing is, calories have NOTHING to do with the state of your health.

Think about it, HOW can nutrient-devoid foods that the body can’t eliminate, like chocolate cake, pizza and doughnuts, promote the vitality and energy you need to look and feel your best when your body is incapable of healthfully eliminating them, and all the problems that causes?

Counting calories is a joke, if your goal is more than just weight loss, if your goal is to look and feel radiant, inside and out! 

Want to slip into that little black dress, buy a new wardrobe full of clothes you love, or simply look and feel as gloriously healthy as you are successful?

Stop counting calories. Stop listening to those who tell you to count calories as a viable approach to looking and feeling your best, and start counting the ways you bring oxygen into your body.

Start by eating foods high in oxygen.

Oxygen is the primary nutrition you need, it’s your lifeline.

Foods highest in oxygen were just picked, so they carry the highest amount of “life force energy,” because they were just picked.

Plus, foods like raw fruits and vegetables are low in calories, so there’s the release-excess-weight appeal, and they’ll deliver the maximum levels of oxygen and electricity your body needs for more energy, more vitality, more mental strength and clarity, more focus and feelings of creativity, more glowing skin… and less stress, less accumulated waste and less chronic symptoms.

Do you know that diseases like cancer, autoimmunity and heart-disease thrive in a low-oxygenated environment?

Yes, a body deprived of oxygen becomes dirty, obstructed and toxic. And the crux of this matter, that is politely not talked about nearly enough is, yeast, mold, fungus and bacteria thrive and grow on the stagnant waste, inside the body. Hello common, acute and chronic symptoms.

So how on earth can a calorie-reduction program, that includes, chocolate cake, pizza and doughnuts, all that process like sugar in the body, choices that offer zero nutritional value, not be considered a joke?

Sugar causes imbalance in the body, which leads to chronic disease, because it feeds the growth of unfriendly pathogen (on stagnant waste matter in the body), which is hardly the foundation for optimal health and vitality.

Stop counting calories. It’s like shooting yourself in the foot. Instead, count all the ways you can bring oxygen into your body, to look and feel every bit as healthy as you are successful!

Your Turn

Have you tried calorie-reduction programs? Had success, but fell back off?

Does removing foods like chocolate cake, pizza and doughnuts make sense to you?

Post your take on this blog in the comments below. I’d love to hear your take on this post.

Do you struggle with staying in the get-healthy game? Download Eliminate Excuses today. It will help. It’s an awesome mini-program that will help you deal with the endless reasons and excuses that typically get in the way!