While I recommend eating a diet of 70-80% raw foods every day to heal and energize your body, lose weight, maximize nutrition and reduce inflammation to increase your productivity, clarity, creativity and performance …  when it’s cold out, we all want a bowl of warm soup! And my Bombay Lentil Soup is a perfect choice for you to add in for the other 20-30% whole cooked foods!

I’ve fiddled with this recipe a bit,  since cooking with Indian spices is fairly new for me. After experimenting a few times, I feel very confident in sharing with you this over-the-top, delicious, protein-rich, plant-based soup that will feed you for days!

Ingredients

• 1 onion large finely chopped
• 6 garlic clove minced
• 1, 2 inch nob of ginger, minced
• 1-2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 cup red lentils
• Tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 can garbanzo beans, mashed
• Red chile pepper, or crushed red pepper, to taste (optional)
• 1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 6 cups water
• 4 cups baby spinach chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 jalapeño, chopped finely

Instructions:

Warm coconut oil and add cumin, mustard and fennel seeds. Heat for a few minutes to release the essential oils from the seeds. Add onion, garlic and ginger. Saute until transparent to release flavors. Add the turmeric, garam masala and red chili pepper and and heat through for a few minutes. Add tomatoes, water, chickpeas and lentils and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, or until lentils are cooked. Add spinach and half of the cilantro. Do not cook longer. The hot soup will wilt the greens.

Top with fresh, cilantro and chopped jalapeño and … Enjoy! 

After you try this recipe, please come back and let me know how you like it in the comments section below. And … while I know you love healthy and delicious recipes, what I offer you as coach blows the game of 'best-recipes' out of the water! When we set out to help you lose weight, increase your energy or look and feel your very best, the coolest thing happens, your mind begins to think more clearly, your productivity blows through every creative barrier, and your confidence skyrockets … because you've learned how to use food as your smartest tool to achieve success!

Perhaps you are ready to up level your health in all the ways you know matter. I can help you do that.

Email me: carol@carol-egan.com

 

Did you join the smoothie revolution yet? Everyone is smoothie-ing these days because they are so healthy and so fun, and the possibilities for pure-clean-decadence are endless!

 

Think your best fast-food option.

Think rejuvenating.

Think glowing from the inside out … with every single ingredient only the very best live, vital nutrition!

 

Coolest thing? You will not just look alive and glowing, you will feel alive and energized too! 

Try my “Instant Glow Green Smoothie,” it’s but one of the many delicious recipe’s in the recipe guide, GLOW, from my signature program 10-Years Younger in 6-Weeks. This smoothie is loaded with ingredients to bring your cells to life, so you radiate pure heath from the inside out!

This recipe makes about 64 ounces — a full Vitamix pitcher!

Ingredients:

• 1 heart of romaine
• 3 cups spinach
• 1 cucumber
• 4 stalks celery
• small handful cilantro
• 1 green apple
• 1, 12-ounce bag strawberries
• 1 avocado
• 2 cups water
• 5 drops stevia, or to taste (optional)

Instructions: Blend all ingredients, except avocado, together in a high powered blender. When well combined, add the avocado and serve.

Cheers! 

5 Best GLOWING Reasons All in One Glass:

1. SPINACH is loaded with Vitamin C = cell regeneration, and Phytonutrients =  anti-aging antioxidants, is anti-inflammatory, loaded with Vitamin K, and with other dark leafy greens known to offer pound for pound, more nutrition than any other food.
2. CILANTRO is known as a heavy metal detoxifier or “chelation agent” because it removes heavy metals from the body, which are byproducts of the modern lifestyle. Cilantro also stimulates digestion and promotes healthy liver function to promote clearer, brighter skin.
3. CELERY is loaded with minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants
4. STRAWBERRIES, with all berries, rank in the top 25 anti-aging foods for the antioxidants they offer known as flavonoids, which help protect the body against damage caused by free radicals.
5. AVOCADO offers all B-Vitamins and Vitamin E to promote healthy skin and defend against premature aging.

If you try  this recipe, I'd love to hear what you think about it in the comments section below. And … if you want a whole guide full of new smoothies recipes, grab my, "9-Glow Boosting Smoothies to Hydrate, Brighten and Bring the Glow Back to Your Skin" here. 

Meditate to Reconnect.

Mediation is a game changer. Meditation guides us back to our calmest, clearest, wisest selves. Meditation clears away the noise that causes us stress and toxicity in our body. Meditation empowers us in ways nothing else can.

I’ve found that when I am connected to me, through my meditation practice and through journaling, every choice I make emanates from a place of deep connectedness. When I don’t journal or mediate, the same thing happens with the likely twist, every choice I make emanates from a place of disconnectedness.

I encourage you to consider the ways you spend time connecting to you, and what matters most to you, and how you spend time connecting to that source of power that is you.

You connected to you has everything to do with everything, including your health and wellbeing, including your success and happiness.

Meditate to reconnect to you.

To begin:

Sit in a position that you feel both comfortable and alert, with your back straight and erect, yet not rigid. Close your eyes, or slightly close your eyes to block out distraction.

For your breathwork, you can inhale and exhale through your nose, or you can inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth. Whichever you choose, stick with it through your meditation practice.

I love the 100 breaths technique. It’ easy, and unobtrusive. You simply count from 1 to 100 with each breath you take. That’s it. Easy-Peasy.

I also love adding a word to the in-breath and a word to the out-breath when I meditate, like love and fear, or calm and let go. For example, when you breath in, breath in saying the word love silently to yourself, and when you breath out, say the word fear silently to yourself.

If you don’t have any experience mediating, I recommend using guided meditations to help you get started. Meditation teacher, Tara Brach offers a wonderful of free meditations and meditation resources at her site . Author, speaker and Mind-Body Healer, Deepak Chopra offers several wonderful free guided mediations at his site too.  And even though I have experience meditating, when I feel harried by the busyness of life, I return to guided meditations. They are so helpful.

If you already meditate and would like a support that guides you with breath, not words, I love Do As One. It offers several online breathing ‘rooms’ to suit your needs or style. My favorite is the “Calm Breathing Room.” It really slows me down when I need it.

Do As One uses technology to offer the sweet, subtle pull to inner silence that we all so desperately need at times — the times we need a little reminder — a reminder that we’re good, that we’ve got this, that we are so powerful beyond measure and that nothing else matters, but this moment.

Perhaps you are ready to reconnect to you in all the healthy ways you know matter. I can help you do that. Let's explore all the ways we can make that happen. Email me: carol@carol-egan.com

Are you paleo? Are you raw vegan? Are you just a health enthusiast who loves to include delicious, healthy and aesthetically beautiful looking food in your diet everyday? No matter who you are, even if you don’t give a hoot about being healthy, but you must because you’re here at my website (wink!), you will love my delicious Lemony Zucchini Hummus, in these beautiful, fresh, Zucchini Humus, Zucchini Rolls!

Easy-Peasy. 

Lemony Zucchini Hummus

• 1 zucchini, chopped
• ½ cup tahini
• 1/4 cup lemon juice, fresh only
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/8 cup+ Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Put the zucchini, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and cumin into a food processor and pulse until smooth. With the processor running, slowly pour the oil in a steady stream until you achieve desired consistency. Add the salt and pepper and puree until smooth. If the mixture is still too thick, add a little water (or more lemon juice) very slowly.

Zucchini Rolls

• 1 zucchini, sliced thinly
• 1 red pepper, sliced thinly
• 1 small handful fresh herbs, cilantro, parsley and microgreens

Preparation

Cut zucchini thinly on a Mandolin and lay each piece out. Place a dollop of hummus on each zucchini strip and spread out. Add red pepper slices with a pinch of each herb and microgreens at 1/3 of the length, and roll tightly. Be sure to leave the vegetables and herbs poking out, for aesthetic value. That is what makes these rolls not only delicious, but beautiful to present to your guests, or just sweet you!

Buono Appetito! 

Let me know how you like these recipes below … and if you want more healthy and delicious recipes like this, grab my 5-Day Raw-Food Primer Guide! It's loaded up with lots of really healthy and really delicious recipes, PLUS it comes with the 411 on all the healing and healthy benefits of raw food!

Where do I begin? Spicy Citrus Juice offers you a blast of Vitamins A & C with magnesium, potassium, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients like lycopene and carotene. This drink will alkalize your body, boost your immune system, cleanse your liver, support kidney function … and youthify your skin! Need I say more?

Ingredients:

• 2 grapefruit
• 1 orange
• 1 lemon
• 1 lime
• 2 inch nob of ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne

You can juice this recipe or blend it up!

You choose.

Salute! 

________________

If you try the recipe, let me know how you like it in the comments below. And, if you want a few more recipes, grab my Free Recipe Guide: 9 Glow-Boosting Smoothies to Hydrate, Brighten and Bring the Glow Back to Your Skin 

Is it alkaline, or is it good ol’ common sense?

There’s a buzz growing about the alkaline diet these days.

Victoria Beckham popularized the the alkaline diet in 2013 on Twitter.

At this year’s Golden Globes, Kate Hudson attributed her ‘abs of steel’ to the alkaline diet.

Actor Gwyneth Paltrow, model Elle McPherson and talk-show personality Kelly Ripa are all showing up in news feeds singing the benefits of the alkaline diet.

Tony Robbins promotes the alkaline diet at his Unleash the Power Within event, and Dr. Robert Young wrote about the benefits of the alkaline Diet in his book, “The pH Miracle.”

So what’s up with this Alkaline Diet?

The alkaline diet says to maintain ideal health, you must maintain a healthy body pH of 7.35 – 7.45.

You do this by hydrating, exercising and eating a diet of 80% alkaline foods, such as fresh, raw vegetables and low-glycemic fruits; while limiting acid-forming foods to 20%, such as processed foods, gluten, sugar, meat and dairy, and beverages like caffeine and alcohol.

Because your body is 80% alkaline and 20% acidic, your diet should match these same ratios to maintain optimal health.

But in the grand scheme of life, why does this really matter? Why does Tony Robbins and other celebrities subscribe to this diet?

The belief is, an acidic diet demands your body work harder to normalize it’s pH and this demand stresses your body to continually pursue homeostasis.

And look no further than the rhythm and patterns of the modern lifestyle for this stress. Cravings, excess weight, poor sleep patterns, poor quality of life, chronic symptoms and chronic disease and even hormonal imbalance all find root in the modern lifestyle.

An acidic diet and lifestyle causes your body to work overtime to buffer the increase of acid in the body and rebalance the pH. Your body then seeks out the essential minerals it needs to buffer the increase of acid and pulls calcium from your bones and magnesium from your muscles. This causes mineral depletion, inflammation and the whole host of problems caused by low mineral reserves.

To boot, excess acid wreaks havoc on your kidneys and floods your body with stress hormones causing adrenal fatigue.

I love the popularity of the alkaline diet, but for me, it’s ‘the pure and simple common sense diet.’ 

The alkaline diet recommends that you simply include fresh, live fruits and vegetables as  70-80% of your diet everyday. Why? Live vegetables and fruits are high in the nutrition our bodies need to function optimally, but especially the minerals needed to counter the acidic, modern lifestyle.

Leafy greens are very high in minerals.

I recommend the same diet to all my clients, and the results are nothing short of astounding. When my clients increase their live-food intake, and decrease acidic and inflammatory foods, I’ve seen them achieve wildly successful results, like going off anti-depression medications, reduce insulin from 40 units 2x per day to 6 units 2x per day, put autoimmune conditions in remission, go off high-blood pressure medications, heal digestive disorders, improve sleep patterns, reduce stress … plus the favored results of losing weight and glowing skin!

The alkaline diet simply suggests eating a healthy balance between alkalizing foods and acidifying foods to promote vitality and health. Sounds like good ol’ common sense to me! 

Fortunately, with rates of chronic disease skyrocketing, I am thrilled to see more people getting in the nutrient-dense-food-game, and talking about it publicly!

But surely ‘eating healthy’ has got to mean something more than simply eating healthy. Eating healthy is really more about what becomes possible from reducing chronic cravings, or after going off anti-depression medications to live a chronic-symptom-free-life that once defined who you thought you were.

To sound redundant, because it surely is worth repeating, foods from the earth are a whole lot healthier and make a whole lotta’ more sense to fuel the body than processed, nutrient-devoid foods from boxes. 

Are you curious about what the Alkaline diet could do for you, and would love support in implementing this change?

I now have one rare spot in my Inner Circle Best Health Project Program. Let's explore whether that spot might be right for you. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com.

What is your body saying?

From a diagnosis of so many cancerous tumors on her liver to earn the description of “swiss cheese” by one of her doctors, author Kris Carr chose to chronicle her healing journey in the highly acclaimed documentary, “ Crazy Sexy Cancer. ”

Crazy Sexy Cancer is an inspiring story of defying a critical diagnosis with holistic modalities. Carr’s story is compelling, especially for those with cancer.

But there is a potent lesson in Carr’s experience for you, even if you don’t have cancer.

If you take charge of your health like Kris Carr did, you can heal yourself too… of chronic disease, of chronic symptoms, of any of the common problems many experience today, but are dismissed as ‘hereditary,’ or ‘normal,’ or simply not ‘serious.’

I love Carr’s healing story, but I never heard the potency of her story for me when I first heard it, though I was taking charge of my health too.

Cancer was not my experience, but I was diagnosed with a full menu of health problems like IBS, chronic digestive problems, auto-immunity, among a long list of many others that defined my life by the constraints and limitations they caused.

As compelling as Carr’s story is, there are thousands who suffer everyday from symptoms that fall under the ‘danger’ detector like I experienced … and the ways those symptoms impact the whole quality of life are no less grave.

I know.

Indeed, the less ‘dangerous’ diagnosis like I experienced bear an insidious quality because no one takes them as serious as something like cancer. There is no loud wake-up call like cancer exacts.

My work focuses on you who suffer everyday with disruptive symptoms, but not disruptive enough to halt you in your tracks like cancer did Kris Carr, but disruptive enough to constrain and limit you, like they did me. 

Cancer was a teacher, a guide for Carr. Cancer told her she was off track and she needed to get back on track. And that she did. Cancer and other critical diagnosis have that sort of power.

But every symptom works the same way — symptoms are your body’s way of speaking to you, to tell you something is off kilter, not quite right, like a nudge … or a big red flare!

Autoimmunity.

Acne.

Allergies.

Anxiety.

Constipation.

Seemingly benign everyday sorts of problems are actually signposts to heed, not ignore.

Every symptom tells you there is a problem.

But you can heal your body and shift the whole quality of your life like Kris Carr did.

Like I did.

With nutrition and healthy lifestyle changes.

One of the most powerful things you can do for yourself is to learn to listen to your body and heed it’s callings. It talks to you with every symptom it expresses.

Do you experience symptoms that nudge at you, that you know are best not to ignore? Symptoms that are not threatening, but you sense you better do something to up level your health game now?

Leave a comment below, or better yet, let's talk. I just opened up 2 spots in my Inner Circle Best Health Project Program.  Let's explore whether one of those spots might be right for you. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com

 

Today you turn on the TV, sign into social media, join in a conversation at work … everyone is talking about their ideas for you to achieve your best in 2016.

Focus more. Eat healthy. Reduces stress. Lose weight and so on …

I love all of these ideas and more like them. They are worthy, awesome suggestions, smart and doable. I take them all in just like you and create New Year resolutions too.

But what I’ve discovered is their ideas lead you away from your ideas.

Their ideas emanate from their experiences, not yours. And while success does leave clues, and studying the steps of someone who inspires you is smart, it is not nearly as smart as you going within to tap into what is awesome, smart and logical for you.

Think about it. Someone recommends eating healthy to you, and because you know it makes sense, you include eating healthy as one of your New Year’s goals. It feels exciting, like you could lose weight, you could increase your energy and heck, maybe you could even look better too.

But you love fried food. You love chips and pizza and beer. You love all the homemade traditional foods your family makes … so back to unhealthy eating you go.

The problem is, you opted into eating healthy because someone else, for that matter, everyone else said it would be good for you. The suggestion came from outside of you, not from within you, not from your smartest and deepest instinctual knowing.

Quite frankly, I don’t care how esteemed the ‘thought leader’ is, how successful they may be, how well liked anyone is, no one knows better than you what you need to do in 2016.

You are your wisest teacher.

When you reconnect to you and what matters most to you, every resolution you make, every decision you commit to will flow from you, not from someone else.

It’s a seemingly very small tweak in what you are doing now, a ‘slight turn in the dial,’ but it’s the only action that will reap you the success you hope to achieve in any area of life.

In 2016, simplify. Slow down. Breathe deeply. Go within. Tap your smartest inner knowing to guide you.

Ironically, you may discover within that following one thought leader is precisely what you need to do to gain speed and headway in your life, health, career and relationships.

But your choice will flow from you, rather than a frenetic seeking and grasping.

Do you agree, that you are your wisest teacher? Are you ready to go within to create your greatest success in 2016?

Let me know in the comments below …

And if you’d love a tool to create a solid foundation to set goals and for success building that has helped hundreds of people, grab my 7-Days to Success Mini-Course!

Macaroons.

Everyone, or near everyone loves macaroons, and this recipe is a sure crowd pleaser! Plus, you get to show off your healthy acumen, by sharing with all your friends and family a recipe that is so reminiscent to the traditional favorite, but … this one is healthy every step of the way! Look … the only sugar is the stevia, which is really just an non glycemic, non caloric herb! Hello sweetness!

Cookies:

• 2 cups dried, unsweetened coconut
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1/3 cup softened coconut butter
• vanilla stevia to taste
• 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp vanilla extract, or to taste

Mix all ingredients until well combined.

To shape, I used a round measuring spoon to create these cookies

Dehydrate on screen until dry, but tender (I dehydrated these for 5 hours and they are perfect!)

IF you do not have a dehydrator, bake the cookies at the lowest setting until cooked, but tender.

Frosting:

• 1/4 cup coconut butter
• 2 tbs of raw cacao
• vanilla stevia to taste
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or to taste

Dip your macaroons in the frosting and refrigerate or freeze until chocolate frosting hardens.

Enjoy! 

Good old fashioned Thumbprint Cookies.

My grandmother made Thumbprint Cookies when I was young. They were one of my all-time favorites, but I don’t eat gluten or sugar anymore! Bummer? Nope. I created a healthy version of this childhood favorite that will totally delight and satisfy your ‘wooly’ for this all-time favorite cookie! Really, it’s better than ‘a close-enough-second!’

Cookies:

• 2 cups almonds
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (maybe a pinch more)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Stevia to taste

Filling:

• 8 strawberries, puréed

For the cookies, place the almond flour in food processor with the coconut flour and chia seeds. Pulse to combine. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until well combined. Pinch a small amount off to make 1.5 inch balls. Flatten the ball and create an indent with your finger (place each cookie on a dehydrator screen, or a cookie sheet as you create them). Fill each ‘thumbprint’ with strawberry puree. Dehydrate cookies for 8 hours at 115 degrees, or bake at the lowest setting on your oven and cook until done.
*Each recipe yields 2 dozen cookies, but they are so good you might want to double up the ingredients!

Enjoy!