Confidence is not something we are born with or inherit. Confidence is something we grow, we develop.

When I am in my zone, when I am fully in my power, it’s like MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” is blaring and my winning energy explodes. My coaching is strong. My insights are clear. My actions are focused. My posture is assured. Unstoppable. Kind. Patient. Generous. When I am in my zone all cylinders are on high volume.

Even if you think others are smarter than me, more accomplished than me, more skilled, more qualified, even more beautiful than me, my energy magnetizes you. My eagerness grabs you. My spirit captures you. My confidence bewitches you.

Yes, confidence bewitches.

I remember when I attended my first Anthony Robbins “Unleash The Power Within” event and he asked, “Which story is yours: you’re not good, you’re not good enough or you’re not as good as?”

Before I even thought about which story was mine, I laughed and thought about all the others that I thought were so assured, so confident, so powerful and queried, “How could they too carry a limiting story? Impossible,” I thought. But Robbins assured me and the 7000 other participants that each of us carry a version of “I am not good” and sadly for many, that story cripples them.

Imagine, even the brilliantly talented Meryl Streep writing in her book, “I have varying degrees of confidence and self-loathing… ”

And even award winning author Maya Angelou said, “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.”

Who’da thunk it possible? Meryl Streep? Maya Angelou?

Confidence was not mine for many years of my life.

My focus was on being the best Mom I could be for my son. But inside my commitment to be the best Mom I could be, I sought out opportunities to be the best me for me and I learned many things along the way about confidence. Each of these lessons came to me in the school of hard knocks,” so I feel solid in the four “slam-dunk” strategies I offer you.

Click here to read the rest of the article on Huffington Post

Faith is that thing that motivates us to drop the sadness when it waves through us. Faith is that thing that empowers us when guilt rises up and we feel like we might’ve dropped the ball. Faith is that thing that assures us to hold steady when the drama of an experience seems to latch on and not let go. With Faith, we surrender. With Faith we know that all is perfect right now. We choose empowering thoughts and actions, rather than indulge the limiting, the negative.

With Faith, we simply trust and let go. We trust that there is a Universal power that’s “got it all covered,” and that it knows what it is doing.

Without Faith we spend time swimming up stream, trying to fix, cajole and control people, circumstances and events that we can not fix, cajole and control. We spend time trying to fix, cajole and control things that we are likely way better letting go.

Faith is flat-out non-negotiable. I know, and I suspect you do too. To varying degrees, I bet life has also offered you many opportunities to rekindle your relationship with Faith.

With Faith, we simply trust and let go.

Why Chronic Disease Is Killing You And What You Can Do About It

Everyone, including “health enthusiasts,” is loving the big buzz words like anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and of course, detoxing.

Bah!

I mean, who do you know that is not talking up the latest recipes and ingredients that promote anti-inflammation? How about “get-your-glow-on?” Dieting? Good grief, what campaign sells more?

But, while we pursue anti-inflammatory foods and recipes, at-home juice-deliveries and healing superfood ingredients as the next best diet-fix, 47.7% of Americans are suffering from a chronic disease.

Yes, according to the private research of the Rand Corporation, “The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease,” nearly half of all Americans are suffering with a chronic condition.

Half.

And, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are causing 7 out of 10 deaths. Chronic disease is the No. 1 cause of disability and death in the country.

With statistics like these, don’t you think it is high time we start asking the question, “why is everyone so sick?”

For example, when overrun with many symptoms associated with all the chronic conditions I experienced earlier in life, I never even had a vision for life beyond my immediate circumstances. I was busy. Care-taking. Me. As I moved from illness to wellness over the course of the past 25 years, I’ve learned a few solid things about transforming the quality of my life that I hope will resonate for you on a basic, common sense level.

I distill everything I do down to the “lowest common denominator,” to create a baseline context to both heal the body and train the mind, so “we” transform the health of our body and our ideas about health and healing simultaneously, to move beyond the conversation of illness to the wide-open spaces of new possibilities. When we shift our thoughts and when we shift our health and wellbeing simultaneously, the horizon rises in ways we never even imagined, never mind even thought possible.

I offer you a few simple, but not necessarily easy foundational rules to implement:

Breathe. Oxygen is literally the breath of life! Do you know that your breath provides 99 percent of your energy? Do you know that science has proven that cancer will not survive in a highly oxygenated environment? Do you know that cardiovascular disease is directly linked to shortness of breath—your heart literally spasms without oxygen? Do you know that proper breathing directly impacts your nervous system, and correlative problems like anxiety and depression? Proper breathing balances and calms the nervous system. Oxygen even burns fat and calories, so directly impacts chronic weight issues. 

Through exercise, proper nutrition and stress management we bring oxygen into our body to oxygenate our cells. Each component is essential to maintain optimal health and ward off chronic disease. The oxygen you bring into your body with exercise, clean, whole foods and breath work produces ATP and without ATP, your body would immediately shut down. Think of ATP as a battery in your cells that gets charged by oxygen, which then produces the vital energy your body needs to thrive and run optimally.

Hydrate. As you likely know, but may not think about often, you can live for quite a long time without food, but you won’t last but minutes without oxygen and only days without water. Your body is roughly 60 percent water, with percentages as high as 83 percent in your lungs, and 73 percent in your heart and brain. With your body at such a high water content, it’s easy to understand how dehydration can cause serious problems. Many experts agree that many of us are chronically dehydrated today. Water literally is the vital nutrient you need for every function in your body. Every life-giving and healing process that happens inside our body happens with water. Most experts insist that the majority of Americans are chronically under-hydrated and should drink more water, and the reasons behind their insistence are solid.

Begin your day by drinking water when you first wake up. Think of your cells as droopy flowers in a vase without water. When you refill the vase with water, the flowers come back to life. You are most dehydrated upon arising, because you haven’t had water for about eight hours. I recommend 2, 8 ounce glasses of water firs thing in the morning.

Drink 8 ounces of water 30 minutes before a meal, and 8 ounces 1 hour after a meal. Drinking water with your meals dilutes the gastric juice (enzymes) and slows down the process of digestion in the stomach and intestines. Even if you need to drink water just sip water kept at room temperature. Cold water during a meal can greatly inhibit digestive enzyme power.

To optimize the digestive process, I recommend drinking your daily recommended amount of water 30 minutes before a meal, 60 minutes after a meal, throughout the day and 1 hour before bedtime. The last glass of the day will aid in the cell renewal process while you sleep,

Eating clean, whole foods is paramount to healing your body. Paramount. Consider this model like a math equation; you add in clean, whole foods and you eliminate nutrient-devoid, processed foods.

Nutrient devoid foods do not offer building blocks of nutrition to fuel your body, including oxygen. Do you know that oxygen quells inflammation? Do you know that yeasts, mold and fungus cannot live in a highly oxygenated body? Live, nutrient-dense, enzyme-rich, oxygen-rich foods are vital to maintain a healthy body, a healthy weight, to look and feel your best, to quell inflammation and to reduce the risk of developing yeasts, mold and fungus that promote disease. Live foods are the premium gas for your premium tank and the key to creating optimal health. Key parameters and reasons for why I set a very clean eating, healing diet for my clients are:

• Add diet high in live, raw vegetables and low-sugared fruits. You need the essential component of water in live vegetables and fruits for proper digestion, circulation, elimination, healing and rejuvenation.
• You don’t need the high sugar present in many fruits when you set out to heal your body. Limit your fruits to grapefruits, lemons, limes, and berries. This suggestion alone will help quell your sugar and carb addiction.
• Your diet should consist of 70-80 percent vitamin/mineral-rich water foods. You support your body in performing every vital function when you eat a diet high in raw vegetables and fruits.
• Raw fruits and vegetables offer you a rich source of live-enzymes, which naturally decrease as we get older. Enzymes are the spark of life and responsible for every biochemical reaction that occurs in your body. Sadly, many today take digestive enzymes in supplement form to support digestion, but supplement can never stand in for wide-spectrum benefits we get from vegetables and fruits in their natural state. Digestive-enzyme supplements do offer benefit, but do not replace the benefits of live food.

Know your purpose. Know your why, and don’t let “I don’t know my purpose” reasons stop you. Your first purpose statement does not need to be revolutionary or lofty, yet. Just create a purpose. Just create a why. Just create a compelling “thing” that excites you, that pulls you out of bed in the morning — you can always change it as you grow clearer about what you most want, but ‘we’ all need something to pull us forward. A few ideas:

• What is something that you love?
• What is something that you really want, or want to do?
• What does your family and friends always compliment you on = think you are an expert of?
• Conversely, what is something that makes you really mad that you’d love to fix, to solve? For example, let’s say you’ve experienced illness, and the most marked moment on your journey to wellness was the impact of the many kindnesses others showed you – your purpose could be simply a commitment to extending kindness to every single person you meet throughout your days, or as grand as becoming a spokesperson to enlighten others of all that you learned. If from your experience you feel convicted to be kind to everyone you meet from what you learned, or you feel convicted to share with everyone you meet preventive measures against the illness you experienced, you found your purpose. You found a compelling reason to inspire you to new actions.

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”
~ Oprah Winfrey

As a self-professed, juice enthusiast committed to supporting clients in healing their bodies and training their mind to look and feel their very best, those deeper questions get lost in the marketing campaigns and “fun business pursuits” of smoothie this and juicing that. I continue to guide my clients to getting off the proverbial gerbil weight-loss wheel, and to dive deeper into the questions that will support them in creating greater health and energy with results that last.

I’d love to hear what you thought about this post. Please do … in the comment box below.

Many often say to me, vegan? that’s way too much work! I could never do it! And I just laugh and say 2 things, 1) TRY this recipe and 2) Just start adding more vegetables into your diet, and soon you will be eating more vegetables. That is, of course, if you are committed to looking and feeling your very best self! Tis’ true, animal protein is acidic in our body and requires way more energy for us to digest than plant proteins, so by incorporating more vegan recipes, your body can much more readily begin to heal. And that IS the magic bullet in my world and with the work that I do. This recipe alone can start to pull you over to a healthier way of eating, of this I am very sure!

Mediterranean Kale Stew

• 2 large bunches kale, deveined and chopped
• 2 large cans organic whole tomatoes (Muir Glen are my favorite)
• 2 large sweet Vidalia onions, chopped hearty
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 15 ounce cans garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 – 2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
• Himalayan salt and Crushed Black Pepper to taste
• Crushed red pepper to taste (optional)
• Fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup white wine (optional)

Prepare: Pulse the tomatoes in food processor just once or twice to create a chunky, hearty texture. Set aside. Mince rosemary (Oh, my new addiction! LOVE fresh rosemary!) by hand or pulse in a coffee mill (I don’t drink coffee, I use a coffee mill to finely process fresh herbs)

Saute: In a very large soup or stew pot, garlic an onion until translucent. Add garbanzo beans, minced rosemary, salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth and wine. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add chopped kale and simmer until tender, but still “al dente.”

Garnish with crushed red pepper and coarsely chopped parsley and serve!

Buono Appetito! Prometto eccellente delizioso!

What is EWG and why should you care?

I never even heard of EWG = The Environmental Working Group when I first started choosing organic, but when I learned of who they are, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, and there commitment to helping people live healthier lives in healthier environments, I became very interested. For two decades, EWG has dedicated it’s efforts to supporting consumers like you and me with game-changing investigations and research on toxics and environmental health, food and agriculture, and water and energy to empower us as consumers to choose in ways that support us and our world.

I so get it though, many people can’t afford to buy all organic all the time. When I first started buying organic I can remember struggling with some of the prices of the produce I wanted to buy. And though my consciousness has evolved since those earlier days, I’ve learned that we don’t have to buy all organic produce all the time to reduce the risk of chemical contamination.  Though I now do buy all organic whenever possible simply because my consciousness about caring for our planet has evolved beyond just my initial impetus to care for me, my body and my health!

EWG offers us these two great lists, the Dirty Dozen Plus and Clean 15, which tell us which fruits and vegetables contain the most chemicals and which ones are the least contaminated. Use these lists when shopping to help make the best choices for you and your family – even if you can’t buy entirely organic foods. Cool offering? EWG offers an app you can download for FREE right onto your smart phone for easy access while at the market, so you never have to worry if you are buying something that is highly sprayed with higher risks. Check out EWG

Seriously, gotta’ love a company whose mission is to empower us to take better care of ourselves and our planet!

Want to know the foundational credo I teach my clients to produce results and create massive success in all areas of their lives?

Gratitude.

Yes, gratitude is the foundation upon which we build everything. It really is that simple.

Gratitude Rocks.

For me, Willie Nelson sums up the force of gratitude perfectly in just a few short words,

”When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”

Gratitude turns not enough into abundance.
Gratitude turns adversity into possibility.
Gratitude turns fear into courage.
Gratitude turns anger into powerful lessons.
Gratitude turns doubt into confidence.

Gratitude is power in motion. Gratitude shifts perspective. Gratitude creates powerful contexts for us to flex the muscles of courage and confidence that we might feel reluctant to flex. Gratitude creates the powerful context of surrender and openness when life circumstances want to “take us down.” Indeed, during my first year as solopreneur, I found myself many a morning with my head up against the wall of my shower crying, creating gratefulness for the challenges entrepreneurship offered me. Oh yes, life offered me many an opportunity to flex my muscles of courage, confidence and surrender. Ha! No doubt.

And as a result, gratitude offers the opportunity to grow. When we feel uncertain, when we feel doubtful, when we feel challenged, gratefulness asks us to count our blessings and to dig deep into what really matters most to us, and … to tap a level of strength we never even knew we possessed.

I always say to my clients, when we focus on our blessings, when we focus on what is good and right in our lives, the ‘stuff’ that used to bother us literally falls off our radar … and then the magic of life begins to unfold. When we live inside the context of gratitude, our focus shifts, our perspective changes. What really matters most to us moves to front and center stage.

How to rock gratitude?

When you first open your eyes in the morning, pause and reflect on 3 things you are grateful for, it can be simply for the birds chirping, or the rain falling, or your family, friends and job. But the areas that gratefulness works magical results is the areas that we most feel stopped around. Oh yes, exactly, create gratefulness for that “contrary” co-worker, or “nagging” family member and watch gratitude works it’s transformative magic! 

Don’t believe me? Try it. For 30 days. Everyday. Consecutive. 

Gratitude is a powerful, powerful transformative tool.

I offer you 15 gratitude quotes that I just love — you can even use these as affirmations, or simply powerful reminders of the force gratefulness offers.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,
but the parent of all the others. ~ Cicero

Gratitude is an opener of locked-up blessings. ~Marianne Williamson

Appreciation is the purest vibration that exists on the planet today. ~Abraham–Hicks

If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation,
you will discover that your life will
suddenly be filled with gratitude,
a feeling that nurtures the soul.
~ Rabbi Harold Kushner

Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.
~ Zig Ziglar

It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed
in the same moment. ~Naomi Williams

 Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  ~ Marcel Proust

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
~ Oprah Winfrey

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. ~ Albert Schweitzer

Let us rise up and be thankful,
for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, 
and if we didn’t learn a little, 
at least we didn’t get sick,
and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; 
so, let us all be thankful. ~The Buddha

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. ~ Melody Beattie

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. ~Chinese Proverb

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins. ~Neale Donald Walsch

How does gratitude work for you in your life? I’d love to hear in the comments section below.

When I make recipes like this, seriously, all I do is laugh and think I’ve so got to share this healthy ‘stuff’ with everyone who will listen! Recipes like this are the foundational steps to taking our lives to the whole next level because they are so nutrient-dense and healing! Easy to make. Easy to clean up. And best part … very easy to eat, because they are so darn healthy, deeeelcious  and personalizable! Yup, you can add anything and everything you want, once you get the basic recipe down, and you can even modify that too, but of course I offer you a few suggestions. Think old skool hoagie meets new world wrap and you’ve got the gist of this healthy recipe down pat!

The Recipe:

Mediterranean Sesame Seed Pate Wraps

• 1 cup of sunflower seeds, sprouted
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh rosemary
• Kalamata olives, or high quality olives of choice
• 1 Tablespoon Zatar
• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Himalayan Sea Salt to taste
• Ground Black Pepper to taste
• Large Collard Greens – deveined (cut in half)

Additional Suggestions: 

• Carrot, shredded
• Cucumber, sliced lengthwise
• Red, orange or yellow bell peppers, sliced thinly
• Italian Long Hot Peppers, sliced or diced
• Sprouts of choice
• Avocado

Prepare the sunflower seed pate. Drain the sunflower seeds of excess water. Add the sunflower seeds, celery, garlic, rosemary, Zatar, sea salt, black pepper, lemon juice with the zest, and extra virgin olive oil to your food processor. Blend until well incorporated. The pate should be smooth but still have some texture to it.

Assemble the wrap. Wash your collard leaf and pat dry. Lay the leaf flat on a cutting board. Take a small knife and remove the thick rib of the stem (devein) so you have two halves that lie flat. Scoop the pate on your collard leaf. Add any of the suggested toppings. Roll the collard leaf like a burrito.

Buono Appetito!

Beets are a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals, fiber and photonutrients. But the phytonutrients in beets give us blast of what is called betalains, which is in the rich gorgeous colors they offer. What does this really mean for us?  Beets give us a huge blast of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory and cleansing, detoxification benefits.

Beet and Apple Salad

The Recipe:

• 2 cups of baby arugula
• 2 medium apples, peeled and sliced
• 2 medium chiogga beets
• ¹/₄ teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
• 1 lemon, juiced
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil to taste
• Himalayan Sea Salt to taste
• Ground Black Oepper to taste

Slice apples and toss with fresh lemon juice in a large bowl. Add beets, arugula, fresh rosemary, pumpkin seeds, EVOO, salt and pepper. Toss to blend all ingredients thoroughly. You want to makes sure to coat the arugula and serve.

Buono Appetito!