“It’s only a word, Dad.”

“Its punctuates perfectly.”

“It’s effective.”

“It’s powerful.”

“It’s harmless, really.”

But no matter how confident I felt when walking away from debating my Dad on the harmlessness of using the f-bomb, I still wrestle the points he made to this day, though he passed over five years ago.

“The word is loaded with violence, Carol. Language like that diminishes you.”

He’d plead, even beg, “Please don’t use that word my daughter.”

Why does it matter?

I mean, near everyone I know drops the f-bomb.

It’s actually quite en vogue.

No big deal.

Lighten up, right?

Ah, but everything we take in, whether it be food or words, air or thought, all have the power to heal or poison.

And the f-bomb definitely does not feel healing when I say it. It might feel good, but it doesn’t feel healing, and healthy really matters to me.

Nor does it feel Sacred when I say it, and Sacred really matters to me too.

So with white-flag in hand, I reckon there’s been a hole in my reasoning.

Quantum physics shows that our thoughts are literal vibrations of energy that have an enormous influence on our lives.

Put simply, the frequency and the vibration of the words we choose can transform the frequency of every cell, tissue and organ in our body. That is, the language we choose can heal and rejuvenate, or constrict and block. 

Add to that, every spiritual community from every corner of the planet agrees on the importance of right speech to promote peace and happiness within ourselves and the world.

As I write this I shake my head. Connecting to self is the cornerstone of my healthy lifestyle practice and my 1:1 coaching programs… and I didn’t see how the f-bomb could be sabotaging my thoughts, energy and my relationship to me.

I was stuck in the mindset that the f-bomb is a power word. The perfect word to punctuate my passion.

I know from my own experience, and from working with 100s of clients, that to create a healthy lifestyle with results that last, the cornerstone is always connecting to Self.

To do this, my clients and I eat nutrient dense, healing foods and meditate, journal, create gratefulness and take walks in nature everyday to connect to our Highest and best Selves.

We say no to unhealthy foods every day, to create a healthy lifestyle.

We carve out time to connect to self every single day, so we can once and for all get to all the goals that matter most to us, beyond the distractions poor health causes!

And now I raise the question, could the f-bomb get in the way of true healing?

I don’t have a definitive answer on the f-bomb for you or anyone, beyond what I offer here. Nor would I want to. The language you choose to use is like every other choice, personal.

We all have different experiences that shape our choices and you may feel very differently than me on this matter. I expect it, actually.

But for me, with what I’m out to create and achieve, the f-bomb does not energetically line-up any longer. Perhaps never did, but judging by my initial days of trying to omit it, it’s going to take a few more to filter it out!

I guess my carrot-eating, healthy-minded, daily-running-devotee, Dad knew I’d figure it out eventually.

So, tell me…

What are your thoughts on the f-bomb?

Do you use the word?

Do you think it could be impacting your thoughts or connection to self negatively?

Leave a comment below! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this controversial word!

Did you make a New Year’s resolution for 2017?

Still holding steady, or did you throw in the towel and give up?

It’s kind of crazy, but statistics say that only 8% of resolution-makers achieve their goal.

When I heard that, I was like, “are you freaking kidding me?”

This factoid alone put my resolutions into overdrive because I’m out to win in 2017!

Or make me never want to start again…

Like those who already abandoned their resolution, I felt challenged to quit one of the resolutions I made this past week — to run one mile everyday for the month of January.

Reasons like “I’m way too busy,” “I don’t have enough time,” and “I’m too tired,” were doing their damnedest to stop me from going on my run… and oh yes, and more than once!

It’s like what the heck? A resolution can’t get much easier than running one short mile a day, except…. that it’s the month of January… with rain… and snow… and near zero temperatures = very valid reasons to stop me. Right?

(Hint: Reasons are in no short supply!)

So what can you do to energize your goals for 2017?

Read on to discover four practical steps and two crucial questions to energize your 2017 goals.

1. Prepare ahead of time. If you want to lose weight, increase your energy or improve your overall health, prepare your meals or meal ingredients ahead of time. If you want to workout more, pack your gym bag the night before.
2. Make your goal specific. By making your goal specific, you tell your brain what you are doing, it knows your commitment, like eating no sugar for 30 days, or running one mile everyday. Clear-cut goals are easier to achieve than the ambiguous “I want to lose weight,” or “I want to work out more.” With clear-cut goals you’re telling your brain exactly what you are doing, how you are doing it, and why you want to achieve it.
3. Create partnership. Join a group or enlist a friend to support you. With partnership, you feel accountable because you’re committing to someone beyond just yourself. Think about it, if you struggle with cravings or fatigue, without someone to help you create momentum, it’ll be a whole lot harder to resist that cookie or get to the gym because you had no one to help you move past the habituation of the bad habits.
4. Commit. Dig your heals in and commit. But you might be saying, “big deal, I was committed, but I still end up sitting in front of an empty sleeve of cookies and sunk into my couch, rather than going for my run! Commitment is a funny thing, it’s a whole lot like a muscle, the more you flex it, the stronger it gets. So you’ve got to work it, to grow it. That is, every time you say yes to your goal, and no to temptation, your commitment muscle will grow.
5. When all else fails there are two crucial questions to ask yourself, “Why do I want to achieve this goal?” and “Who am I?”

It is said that people will accomplish any “what” if they believe in the “why.”

Identify why you want to lose weight. Identify why you want to go to the gym? Identify why you want to develop a running routine?

Use vanity as your leverage. Use social status as your leverage. Use your competitive nature as your leverage. Heck, even use your anger as your leverage.

Use whatever it takes, because it is who you become in the process of saying no to the unhealthy and saying yes to the healthy that will loom far more meaningful at the finish line.

Now to ask the ultimate question, “who am I,’ I refer back to something I first heard author Byron Katie say, “you are not breathing, you are being breathed.

What?

Like the moon hanging in the sky, like the tide flowing in and out, like the weather changing with each season, without any effort on your part, your breath happens naturally, because a Life Force beyond you gives it to you.

Let me say it like this, what could you not do, IF you knew you carried the Force of the Universe within you?

What goal could you not achieve, what unhealthy habit could you not break, what pitiful, little reason could stop you, IF you knew you carried the Force of the Universe within you?

And the turn around? What goals could you achieve IF you knew you carried the Force of the Universe within you?

Now what?

Now that you know you carry the gifts of the Universe within you, or remember newly, it’s time to turn your resolutions back on.

Here are your action steps:

1. Prepare ahead of time. Choose two days a week to prepare to win. As Zig Ziglar says, “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.”
2. Make your goals specific.
3. Create partnership.
4. Commit.
5. Identify WHY you want to achieve your goal.
6. Center on WHO you are.

Have any questions? Leave a comment below. Or give me a call. I’m here to help!

Lemon Love is one of my favorite juices, because I make it with cleansing and rejuvenating ingredients like lemon, celery and cilantro. I love lemon, and this blend makes a great juice for keeping your whole body clean, healthy, and happy down to every itty-bitty cell! Drink Lemon Love to break your fast in the morning, or anytime you want to add cleansing and rejuvenating nutrition into your diet!

Ingredients:

• 4 lemons
• 1 head celery
• 1 cucumber
• ¼-inch piece of ginger
• 2 pears
• 1 bunch of cilantro

Juice all ingredients and enjoy!

Ready to uplevel your get-healthy game in 2017? Sign up here, to get on the list when I release the deets of my upcoming More Than A Detox: Winter Program!

I love Christmas time.

It fills my heart.

I don’t know how to write about the love I have for this season though, because it asks so much of us, and all not necessarily ‘good or easy!’

Perhaps you know what I mean…

The getting through holiday meals when someone is mad at someone else. Or the times when someone won’t come for holiday dinner, because someone else is coming.

Or, even fearing saying “I love Christmas,” because I would never, ever want to offend you. I would never, ever want you to think that Christmas is an exclusionary thing for me, ’cause it’s not.

In many ways, this is the magic of the season for me.

That in spite of all the highs and lows of life, my family and I ritualistically, like faithful clockwork, come together to share a meal, to celebrate the day, to laugh, and love, catch up with each other and honor our differences.

That no matter what the fleeting trivialities or momentary real life concerns in our personal lives or the world, it all gives way to our love for each other and all people in our world.

For me, Christmas is not simply a time when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, though that was a big deal in my home.

Christmas is the time for “Peace on earth, good will to all” in a real rubber-on-the-road kind of way.

Like living my childhood Christian lessons, especially “seeing the eyes of Christ in everyone I meet.”

Rather than exclusionary, that my way is right and your’s is wrong, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, my lessons of Christmas were to appreciate difference, rather than judge another. To choose forgiveness, rather than hold a grudge. To find understanding in my heart, rather than disagreement.

This is what Christmas means to me.

Beyond searching for the perfect gift, beyond the frustrations of untangling strands of lights, getting to holiday parties after a long day at work… and even the “I don’t believe’s,” Christmas really is a time when everything and anything becomes possible…

If you believe it is possible.

Norman Vincent Peale says it best for me, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”

What does Christmas mean to you?

Someone recently said to me, “Carol, you’re a self-actualizing machine,” with admiration for my commitment to my health goals.

But I heard a powerlessness in her comment, like she couldn’t consistently eat healthy or commit to her goals like I do, even though she might want to.

I said to her, “Bottom line, my effectiveness in life directly lines up with my commitment to me and the actions I take everyday, or not. I, like you, falter in my healthy commitments, IF I don’t stick with my daily personal care practices.”

Have you ever prepared your green juice or smoothie for the day, but you ate the croissant instead?

Or have you ever packed your gym bag ready-to-go for your morning class, but found yourself pressing the snooze button so many times that it was too late to go?

Or have you ever sat looking at the green apple you packed for your snack, as you licked the sugar off your finger tips from the donut you bought instead.

I’ve done it all and more. I know how it goes. Even still.

If I do not take care of me first.

So I began to study winners, like Olympic athletes, famous sports-figures and successful entrepreneurs.

I wanted to learn how to apply the very strategies they apply to achieving results, to my goal to restoring my health.

And one thing they all seem to share in common is a consistent morning routine, with journaling a cornerstone.

Journaling.

I resisted journaling for years. I couldn’t wrap my head around it’s benefits.

I couldn’t slow myself down long enough to do it.

But once I began to develop momentum in writing every day, I discovered why so many endorse it.

Over time, I’ve learned several ways to journal. Each way offers awesome, but different benefit. Each way serves different goals.

Here are 3 ways to journal that I know can help in your get healthy game, and in life, the one simple tool to get help you get the health results you most want. 

Morning Pages.

Julia Cameron, author of the book The Artist’s Way, recommends Morning Pages. This is hands-down my first and favorite journaling recommendation.

Morning Pages is the writing practice that feels like what I call prayer or psychotherapy on a page, because from the instruction to never stop writing until 3 pages of free-writing are filled, the most unexpected stuff comes up.

For example, some mornings my writing starts off with a Dear God letter where I pour my heart out about whatever I am feeling in that moment. Then my writing might turn to an ex-boyfriend, a current problem I’m experiencing in life, an idea I have for my business or just “talking” to my deceased Dad.

And that’s how the creative genius from journaling 3 free-writing pages happens. According to Cameron, releasing pent up thoughts, feelings and emotions makes way for the gold buried underneath the gunk.

But more than creative genius, Morning pages brings me back to me, to what’s important to me, to what I most want to accomplish. By journaling out all of the many thoughts that fill my mind that could impede me from staying focused on what really matters, I come home to me.

AKA creating myself as my client said, “a self-actualizing machine.”

Three Positive Things.

Journaling three positive things every night before bed is a perfect antidote to the burdens of the day. You will notice a marked improvement in your mood and overall attitude about life, even if you feel under pressure, by focusing on the good things that happened during the day.

Rather than a simple Polly-Anna, feel-good exercise, writing down three positive things that happened during your day has the power to transmute chronic negativity, because you’re focusing on the good.

Beyond that, you’ll begin to look for the good throughout your day, because you know you’ll want to record it later. It really heightens you mindful present to the goodness in every moment, yet another cut at the feel-good rewards of this journaling practice!

Ten Ideas a Day.

This is my new journaling practice recommended by best-selling author, podcaster and entrepreneur James Altucher. Altucher says it’s important to exercise our idea muscle everyday, so that we can come up with ideas when we need them. If we don’t flex the idea muscle, it will atrophy.

This journaling practice is hard work, at first. If like me, you’ll feel stuck and challenged, unimaginative and stagnant, at first.

Altucher recommends going to a local cafe, or reading an inspirational book for ten to twenty minutes to jar your idea bank. Then start writing down every idea that you can think of.

• Some ideas to spin off of:
• 10 things you can do to get healthy
• 10 things you can do to get fit and strong
• 10 adventures you want to plan
• 10 things you would invent
• 10 books you can write
• 10 business ideas for Google / Amazon / Twitter / you10 people you can send ideas to
• 10 podcast ideas, or 10 videos ideas

So, tell me…

Which journaling practice are you ready to try?

Which one resonates most with you, and why?

Leave a comment below!

Then get my guide to learn how to increase your energy, to add to your journaling practice, so you can feel vibrant and healthy every day. It’s going to change everything. Really.

Change before you have to. -Jack Welch

Change is inevitable, right? Seasons change. People change. Weather changes.

But is change really always inevitable?

If you look closely, you’ll see that what you choose to do, or not, pivots off what you believe to be true, and not.

For example, have you ever wondered why you want to lose weight and look radiant, but also want to indulge in foods that make that impossible?

Or you want to wake up energized and excited for the day, but also want to indulge in unhealthy habits that thwart that from happening?

The thoughts behind your choices may offer you a sense of connection and relationship with those you love, but might also keep you from achieving the health goals you most want.

Thoughts like, ”my family has eaten this way for generations,” or “people just don’t eat that way,” or “I love _____ and am not going to give it up.”

Overlooked, your thoughts become the “cherished” stories that can hold you back. They limit you from experiencing something you might not have ever fully experienced, like what it feels like to wake up energized and radiant, at your ideal weight and with no brain fog.

When I finally got that it was my most treasured stories that held me back when I was sick, like those I mention above, was I able to open up to all the other ways of doing things.

I offer you three “new health rules,” I learned along my healthy path that dramatically changed my life because they asked me to think beyond ways I thought before, 1) calm your mind and let go, 2) optimize gut health and 3) intermittent fasting.  They’re simple recommendations that will appeal to your basic common sense, and their doable!

Calm Your Mind and Let Go:

Far beyond the traditions of ancient spiritual communities, mindfulness and meditation are powerful tools used by people from all walks of life, like CEOs and athletes, corporations and prisons, to calm the mind, embrace the present moment and let go thoughts that cause attachment and worry.

• Mindfulness and meditation makes space for new ways of doing things, and make every healthy choice possible.
• Meditation is an intentional practice of being with the breath for 5 minutes or 5 days (or longer), to train your mind to slow down the zillions of thoughts that rise every minute.
• Mindfulness is a more extensive practice of viewing the world with an increased focus and awareness, to simply be with what is, as it unfolds and let everything be OK.

Optimize Gut Health:

The digestive system is the hub of vibrant health and vital energy, which is why it’s paramount to safeguard the state of your digestive health.

Really getting this is a game changer!

A healthy digestive system affects your weight, your skin, your hormones, your immune system and your emotional and mental wellbeing, which is why it’s critical to extend extra-special care when choosing what you eat.

You want to know the 5 top common toxic trigger foods and how they impact the state of your digestive health: gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

• Gluten abrades the villi on the digestive wall, causing undigested food and bacteria to pass into the body, which sets the stage for a host of chronic health problems, including common allergies.
• Dairy causes excess mucous production, inflammation and imbalance in the digestive tract, which interferes with the absorption and assimilation of nutrients in your food.
• Sugar is highly addictive and causes inflammation and imbalance in your gut microbiota, the good and bad bacteria, which sets the stage for pre-mature aging and disease.
• Caffeine dehydrates, irritates the digestive wall, causes imbalance in the gut microbiota and blocks the absorption of magnesium, which sets off a cascade of problems,
• Alcohol dehydrates the cells and tissues in the body, and is known to cause dysbiosis, an imbalance in the gut microbiota, suppress the immune system, tax the liver and cause emotional imbalance.

Intermittent Fasting:

Intermittent fasting is the hot new rage in the anti-aging circles today. But it is not a diet, it’s a pattern of eating that cycles between fasting and eating.

Intermittent fasting provides the body an increased opportunity to cleanse, heal and rejuvenate by restricting calorie intake for a set period of time.

While many use intermittent fasting today for anti-aging and weight loss benefits, the rewards far outweigh weight-loss and glowing skin. Intermittent fasting:

• Reduces oxidative stress and inflammation in the body
• Increases cellular repair
• Increases detoxification and rejuvenation processes
• Stronger resistance to stress
• Good for the brain and overall health
• Increases longevity
• Reduced brain fog and increased mental wellbeing and clarity
• Fasting is like a reset button. At the cellular level, it puts your body into repair mode and offers long and short term benefits that make it a worthy practice.
• Ready to fast? Start by omitting food for 12 hours and work your way up to 24 hours one to two times per week.

As Jack Welch says, “change before you have to… ”

YOUR TURN…

After you practice these 3 rules, I want to hear from you! Tell me…

What benefits do you notice from meditating and being more mindful, more present? How do you feel from omitting any one or all of the common toxic trigger foods from your diet? Which one made the most difference for you?

What benefits did you experience from fasting and how did that help you in your life?

Share your experiences in the comments below. I can’t wait to hear what you tried and how it helped!

Want more energy now? Grab my new guide that offers the 5 habits top-achievers use to increase their energy by 30%!

Do you suffer with digestion problems? Do you experience discomfort and/or chronic symptoms on a daily basis? If yes, then you want to join me and Gurds Hundal, founder of “Get Inspired With Gurds Podcast,” for this power-packed and fun interview from all the way “across the pond” in the UK!

Gurds and I had a fun time talking everything digestion, because she get’s my mission, she too suffered with digestive problems, as did I early on.

As I discussed, and as she brilliantly weaved in and out in conversation with me about this important topic, it doesn’t matter if it’s Irritable Bowel Syndrome, bloating, chronic constipation or some other digestive problem, most of us don’t know how to deal with these symptoms we experience.

Most of us don’t realize that we are not simply what we eat, but we are what we digest, assimilate, absorb and eliminate.

If you or someone you love is experiencing any type of digestion problem, this episode of “Get Inspired with Gurds” is a must listen.

And as Gurds said, even if you don’t suffer from digestive problems yourself – “Carol’s perspective on healing and intuition is important to hear. Especially, how sugar is the cause of many digestion issues.”

Do you suffer with digestive problems? Have you gone to visit a few different doctors but are still not feeling great? Have a listen in to see if you here something that resonates with you. Then post your questions in the comments section below, or send them off to me via email . I’d love to help!

Over these past few months, did you ever want to say something about all that is going on in our country, but held back?

Held back because you didn’t want to offend or hurt anyone. You didn’t want to engage the hostility. The anger.

So you remained silent.

I held back.

I said very little, to nothing at all. I pushed down my thoughts, ideas and feelings.

But the problem with saying nothing was, it looked like I didn’t care about all that was and continues to go on in our communities and country.

And while I believe their is great strength in silence, I also know silence can hurt.

So after much time to reflect, I break my silence to say,

I believe, with all my heart, in the goodness that lives insides each and everyone of us.

I believe that in spite of all the ways you might express your views differently from me, we wish each other only all the very best.

I believe that even though it doesn’t seem that way, you would be there for me, and I would be there for you no matter how ugly, bad or contentious ‘it’ may seem.

Like Viktor Frankl described in “Man’s Search for Meaning,” when those closest to death and in most need of sustenance in the concentration camps would give their one daily piece of bread to another who looked stronger and more likely to live.

That beyond race, class, sexual persuasion, vitriolic exchange and even man’s inhumanity to man, our very human essence rises up for each other.

Do you agree their is great strength in silence? Do you agree that there is great strength in breaking silence? Do you agree, that beyond all the personal and political preferences, we really would be there for each other? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below, especially if they are different than mine.

“It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” — Brother David Steindl-Rast

Has life asked you to look for the good in every experience—to bless it all, especially the moments that challenge you most? I’ve found that when I focus on being grateful, everything shifts. Everything feels lighter, clearer, better… even easier.

Gratefulness asks us to raise our bar. It asks us to be bigger than a moment of upset, anger, or jealousy. It’s gratitude in motion—a living, mindfulness sort of practice that invites us to see things differently.

Not surprisingly, research confirms what many of us sense intuitively: being grateful increases happiness, fulfillment, and our overall sense of well-being.

Who doesn’t want more of that?

To help you cultivate exactly that, here are 20 simple ways to bring gratefulness into your everyday life—not just during the holiday season, but far beyond it.

1. Begin your day with gratitude for 3 things.
2. Give thanks before every meal.
3. Shift from thoughts of lack to thoughts of abundance.
4. Transform the ordinary into extraordinary with thankfulness.
5. Take nothing for granted.
6. Remember the farmer when you eat your meals.
7. See the sacred in the simple and familiar.
8. Keep a gratitude journal.
9. Bless the people who have hurt you.
10. Thank someone who doesn’t expect it.
11. Extend “thank you” generously.
12. Notice one small beauty you’d normally overlook.
13. Send a gratitude letter to someone who matters.
14. Pause to appreciate it all.
15. Express silent thanks for strangers who make your day easier.
16. Appreciate challenges that asked you to grow.
17. Reframe one complaint as a hidden gift.
18. Look for the good in everything and everyone.
19. Find the one reason that can shift you from complaint to gratitude.
20. Close your day with gratitude for 3 things.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.