Pumpkin Seed Pate

Pumpkin Seed Pate is one of my new all-time favorites! It is a very versatile and nutrient-dense recipe you can use in so many ways. I love to add dollops on top of a large green leaf, like collards or romaine, with other veggies as a really delicious ‘wrap!’ I also recommend using it as a dip, or even filling a stalk of celery and topping with finely minced fresh herbs. Pumpkin seeds are loaded with magnesium, zinc, protein and heart healthy plant-based Omega 3s, with anti-inflammatory benefits! I promise you this, once you make this recipe, you will be hooked too!

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, soaked for 8 hours
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 scallion
• 1 large lemon, juiced
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or water)
• 2 teaspoons of fresh herbs, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano – choose your favorites! 
• Sea salt and Cracked Black Pepper to taste
• Crushed Red Pepper to taste, if you like spicy!

Suggested toppings: sliced avocado, sliced red pepper, sliced cucumber, shredded carrots, jalapeno peppers if you like spicy (and I do!), shredded carrots and sprouts of choice!

Optional — I LOVE to add a scoop of raw fermented sauerkraut to my lettuce wraps

Optional — And maybe a little organic mustard too!

Prepare the Pate: Add the pumpkin seeds, scallion, celery, garlic, thyme, sea salt, black pepper, lemon zest and juice, and extra virgin olive oil into a food processor. Blend until well incorporated.

Assemble a Wrap: Add 2 teaspoons of pate to a green leaf. Top with toppings of choice. Roll and serve immediately.

Buono Appetito!! 

Jim Rohn, one of the key voices from the personal development world, offers us an awesome ‘rags-to-riches’ story laced with commitment to goodness and excellence.

One of his quotes landed for me early on, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Rohn believed that by association, we adopt the thoughts, habits, actions and behaviors of the five people we spend most of our time with, which got me thinking about who I spent most of my time with and the ways they influenced my outlook and ideas of what is possible in life.

I would be telling a half-truth if I didn’t say how much this one idea shaped my life for the better.

But what I’ve seen over and over again among highly skilled execs is that instead of those top 5 inspiring them to the next level, they lose connection to themselves, their hopes, their dreams, and their vision of life because they are so driven by the lessons and successes of their mentors.

I’ve attended several events expecting to get to know a person better from their presentation and work, to only find yet another Tony Robbins ‘wanna-be.’ Events where original thoughts seemed missing, and replaced with filler-content, the no heart, no soul, no individuality, mass-produced regurgitation material and themes.

Admittedly, I got pulled into that mindset too, but I knew I was losing myself and my confidence in my voice and ideas.

So, I took these steps to free myself from the mindset of my top 5, to find my strongest voice, my unwavering conviction, my moral compass and my resolute confidence to deliver everyday. Read more here at Boston News Network

Did you ever have a dream-come-true-experience that you never even thought was possible? I had my dream-come-true-experience in the fall of 1995. My first semester at Mount Holyoke College.

It was a fall afternoon. Yes, my first semester as a full time student at our country’s first women’s college, an opportunity that never even existed on my radar. I was a young, single-mother, so such an opportunity did not even occur to me amidst my life of paying light and oil bills, Little League and “Monopoly,” mowing the lawn and buying groceries.

I sat in my usual chair at the mahogany table in her office. Sunlight poured through the two windows at the end of a room that felt more like a grandmother’s parlor, with two big-overstuffed, tapestry wing-chairs.

“Dear, don’t you know how to write with an active voice?” Read more here at Huffington Post 

The thing that stumps most of us about creating great health and energy is we don’t get that creating healthy eating and healthy lifestyle habits is really more about shifting our thoughts, shifting our mindset, than it is about the perfect recipe. The pursuit of the next best diet, the next best healthy eating program, and even the next best recipe stays front and center, like the proverbial gerbil on the ever-spinning-gerbil — wheel, without ever accessing the ginormous benefits that rise when vibrant health and soaring energy are achieved with approaches that produce results that last.

As a holistic health coach that’s studied health and wellness, personal development and human potential for 25 years, I’ve learned over and over again that I can guide clients to healthy eating practices all day long, but without implementing strategies that I learned from the success experts, the results are more often than not short-lived.

Success experts know the secrets to producing results that last — maybe not necessarily about health, but success is success, right?

I’ve discovered that the credos for success in any area of life can be applied to every area of life when we want to produce results.

Poor health and a lack of self-discipline led me to the world of health and self-discipline. Early in life I didn’t know the majesty of accomplishment self-discipline offered. It just didn’t exist on my radar.

But in 2006 I made the decision to own my health and my life in very new and meaningful ways and formed what I call “Save My Sass Incorporated.” I was very clear that I needed to own my life, my health and my word to myself in ways that empowered me, so I chose one goal. I was new to goal setting at the time and had heard that it was best if I started with one goal — nail it down, and grow my vision from there.

My one goal? I chose to juice fresh juice at least four mornings per week to see how it would impact my health and wellbeing. The success I created with that one goal set into motion a whole next-level life for me, from the whole next-level health I began to experience.

My daily commitment to juicing led to a whole-life transformation because of the enormous health benefits that one commitment triggered. Yes, that is when I began to notice a whole new horizon rising in front of me because I literally felt that much better. I now say to clients, it’s like the ‘stuff’ that bothers you will simply fall off your radar if you follow my lead with healing your body and training your mind. I began to feel so good that I no longer even saw the “stuff” that used to trigger me.

I apply the following four “secrets” I learned from success experts like a religion in all areas of life. As I’ve learned over and over, these four ‘success expert secrets’ will help you nail down results in your health and in every area of your life. Read here at Huffington Post

How many times have you kicked yourself for not achieving your full potential?

I’ve spent the past 25 years studying human potential and the challenges people experience everyday to better understand why some people produce such great success in their lives, and why some don’t.

My inquiry began many years back when I watched the lifestyle patterns of a very successful businessman who frequented a restaurant where I worked. Though I worked 50+ hours a week, I noted hard work alone was not the only necessary variable to achieving success. I learned that hard work matters, but I also learned that there are other important variables that contribute to achieving success, or not.

As I expanded my personal inquiry to gain a broader understanding of human potential and all that is possible, I identified five ways that will ensure you limit your success in life, that will ensure you stop reaching, growing and expanding if you don’t develop them.

Read more here at Boston News Network

Be true to you.

Be true to you. There is nothing worth having or doing in this one precious life, if it asks you to be anything less than your true you. Some will draw to you. Some will draw away. Let it all flow freely. We each have our own journey and flow is the natural process of life, so let go and flow with everything that comes and everything that goes, and always, always, always, Be true to You.

Strawberry Lemonade

There is nothing like fresh strawberries in New England, and we all look to find ways to use these ‘nature’s candy’ in all sorts of ways. This recipe, Strawberry Lemonade, is a healthy and refreshing drink to enjoy as the days begin to warm.

Nope, you don’t need to live in New England to enjoy this delicious drink!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb organic strawberries, trimmed and sliced hearty
6 lemons, juice
5 cups cold water
Fresh mint

Stevia or Raw honey to taste

PREPARATION

Purée a 1/2 of the strawberries.

Stir together strawberry purée, lemon juice, Honey to taste and water in a large pitcher until ingredients are well combined. Taste, then add more honey if desired. Stir in remaining strawberries and garnish with fresh mint  Serve over ice.

Cheers!

 

Never Quit.

Have you ever wanted something so bad, but it seemed to elude you?

You did your due diligence, you jumped through all the hoops, you ‘made all the marks,’ but still reaped no fruit.

You made all the proper connections, extended all the ‘correct’ overtures, you even extended “above-and-beyond-courtesies and kindnesses, all to no avail.

And then you decided to quit.

To give up.

Yes, you let go of what you most wanted because you thought ‘it’ wasn’t ‘meant to be.’

I so get it. I know that feeling very well.

It’s hard to stay the course, when doors of opportunity never seem to open.

I’ve often thought, “Let it go, Carol it’s not worth it.”

But sometimes it is worth the effort.

After 14-months of relentless persistence I was interviewed on WFSB, Channel 3, Better Connecticut on Tuesday.

Because I didn’t quit.

After 14-months of what seemed like a ‘closed door of opportunity,’ since all my outreach reaped zero interest, of course I felt I should just let the idea go.

Fourteen months of ‘valid excuses,’ ‘convincing reasons’ and ‘sound explanations’ for why ‘not now,’ was a long time to be told no.

But, I recently decided to express my interest again and the ‘win’ came in, the opportunity to be interviewed live on television.

Why did I persist?

Honestly, I don’t care about being on television as much as I don’t care about where you went to school, or what kind of house you live in.

What I do care about is, are you the 1 out of every 2 Americans who suffers with a chronic disease?

Are you the 1 out of every 4 Americans who suffers with 2 or more chronic diseases?

Will you be one of the 7 out of 10 who die from heart-disease or cancer?

Or, are you tracking to be one of these very high statistics?

And if you are one of these statistics, or tracking, I am mostly concerned with how this chronic disease is affecting who you think you are and how it impacts the quality of your life right now.

I experienced chronic disease. It impacted every area of my life and everything I thought about who I was, until I healed my body.

My commitment to share that you don’t have to live with chronic disease grew exponentially this past Tuesday – this is why I persisted.

That chronic disease is not normal, that chronic disease is not ‘genetically’ inevitable, that you can heal your body with lasting results, and that healing can make a profound impact on your whole sense of self and the whole quality of your life. This is why I persisted.

But with this post, my intention is to say, never quit.

Never let anyone take from you what you feel compelled to share.

In truth, if I did not persist, I would never have had the opportunity to reach and be of service to the very many who responded to my 4.5 minute clip on WFSB.

Never quit.

When we quit, when we suppress what we most want to do, when we hold back from sharing our unique gifts and contributions to the world, we not only hurt ourselves from being full self-expressed, we literally deny others the many gifts we have to offer. And in this case, my gifts are life-giving. Gifts

If you’re feeling pulled to give up on something in your life, check out my favorite quote on quitting below, and post it around your office, or you home for the inspiration to never quit.

Remember: it only takes one time to succeed … success is just on the other side of no.

Click on the image to watch my Better Connecticut segment:

 

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. ~John Maxwell

Last week we covered morning and afternoon – so today I want to tuck you in with one last Hack to structure your whole day for unstoppable success.

Who do you teach people you are in the way you treat them? In the things you do? In the ways you do the things you do? Who do you say you are, in your thoughts, with your words, in your actions?

I created a Mind-Hack to close your day that will slam-dunk everything you hope and want to be, if you do the exercise everyday. It is in a sense, a character building, in-action, feel-good exercise, because I found that simply saying I want to be more patient, I want to be more confident, I want to be more assertive was not enough. They are, in fact, just words, and when the rubber meets the road, “words are cheap,””actions speak louder than words,” as my Dad taught me.

Do you know that Benjamin Franklin had 13 daily virtues that he aspired to be everyday?

Whelp, this Hack is a fusion of my Dad’s encouragement to “let my actions speak louder than my words,” and Ben Franklin’s daily intention to be his best self.

OK, this is my “end of the day, but ‘in-action all day,’ Hack that I call, Who Do You Say You Are?

1. Create a list of attributes that you admire or revere, ways of being that you want to “feel,” but you know you are innately not… Yet. For example, if you complain a lot, you can create an attribute of complimentary, delighted, agreeable. Or if you are impatient, you can create an attribute of patience. Closed and rigid? Flexible, and so on. Create a list that you want to live by and include all your good feeling ways of being too, like happy, joyful, loving, grounded. You choose. Create a list of who you want to be and how you want to feel everyday.

2. But every night choose one word or one feeling. Choose ‘the’ one that you know you could benefit from empowering the most in your life. If you know you are chronically impatient, choose patience. If you know you could benefit from being light-hearted, choose light-heartedness.

3. Go to bed each night with the commitment that tomorrow you are going to be more patient. The magic of transformation begins actively during the night in you subconscious mind as soon as you declare your intention to “be patient.’

4. The next day let the word you chose define your steps. In active-mode you look for at least 3 opportunities to be patient, for example. By looking, plenty of opportunities to be patient will arise, which is where the magic of becoming who you want to be happens, though I heartily admit it might not feel so magical when you ‘asking’ to be patient. But it is in the act of conscious awareness, in the act of choosing your desired response, the act of flexing the weaker muscle of patience, that it will grow stronger just like when you go to the gym. AND… you’ve set up the ‘game’ of creating who you want to be at least t 3x a day, so creating a winning outcome is way more possible, than if you were not ‘playing.’ at all.

5. Final Step: When you get ready for bed, ready to choose your word for tomorrow, you assess your success for the day. You can do this as a mental exercise, though I recommend journaling initially. In this phase of the exercise, you celebrate your successes and your shortcomings, AND the impact on you, and the others in your life. Ask questions, like how did I feel? How did they feel? What were the benefits? What were the consequences?

Morning, noon, and night – these three Hacks will help you prime yourself mentally, physically and spiritually for unstoppable success.

Your next step? Register for my upcoming webinar below! This is a can’t-miss lesson that takes all the value of these three hacks from the past week, and quadruples them for a ripple effect across your life.

Sign up below to join me on Thursday! Are you in? Register here. 

Read Other Related Articles:

Mindset of Success: How to Structure Your Day for Unstoppable Success (Part 1 of a 3 Part Series)

Mindset of Success: Keep Your Mind on Track Throughout the Day (Part 2 of a 3 Part Series)

But how do you keep your mind on track throughout the day?

When many set out to create healthy lifestyle habits, they get discouraged when the 20-lanes of highway, the automatic and most often negative thoughts take over and thwart all their efforts.

So though I know that you will soon feel on fire and all charged up for your day from the benefits of a morning ritual, I also know that when you first start out, and even after you develop a solid morning ritual, you will sometimes lose your “fire,” you will lose your charge from your rituals … and you will feel discouraged. 

Yes, you’ll see you’ll start to develop great confidence in your new morning routine and all the ways it makes you feel empowered, and before you even leave your house for the day, one of your kids or your spouse will do something that sets you reeling off in ways that cause you to wonder if there is any substantive validity to what I am offering you.

How do I know? Because it’s happened to me and everyone else. Repeatedly. It’s human nature. It’s called conditioned thoughts and behaviors and you can change them. I have and so have scores of others. As Tony Robbins, a master of mindshift training says, “your past does not equal your future.”

This is why I created what I call ‘daily mind hacks.’

I saw the pattern of disempowerment roll me over faster than it took for me to empower myself and it felt very defeating.

Mind hacks are by design a fusion of “mindfulness bells,” from the Buddhist tradition, and affirmations and incantations from the personal development and success worlds.

And it occurred to me one day, that it would be a great idea to merge these two ideas together.

Hello Mind Hacks.

There are many ways I coach my clients to use mind hacks. One of the more powerful ways is to:

1. Identify 5 disempowering thoughts that “run your show,” like a reoccurring story in the background of all your thoughts. Thoughts that you know limit you, defeat you, stop you. The most common? I’m not good, or it’s “kissin’ cousins,” “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m not as good as.”

2. After you identify your top 5, and make sure they are the juiciest, most emotionally-potent negative thoughts because to step fully into your power, you’ve got to interrupt the cycle of stories that defeat you, turn them around. Create a polar opposite empowering thought for every disempowering thought. Then, say hello to your new Mind Hacks!

3. Now you’ve got a list of 5 empowering thoughts that will literally change your life, but you have to “think them” in order for them to have an impact. This is where Mind Hacks come in. Since disempowering thoughts run in the background like an old tape-recording, you’ve got to scratch them up with this list of new empowering thoughts.

Here is where personal development mantras meet old world Buddhist mindfulness bells, nouveau-style.

4. In your alarm clock on your smart phone, enter each empowering thought at timed intervals that you know would make a difference. For instance, my first bell off the day, my wake-up bell says “100% responsible — Co-Creator,” as a first day cue to remind me that I am 100% responsible for every detail of my life, so of course I am responsible for who I am and what I accomplish in my upcoming day, and … that as a co-Creator, that I must surrender and trust too, that there is a Force that has a say in what happens too. (I highly recommend you “steal” this one. Its a game changer!)

5. Spread your empowering thoughts throughout your day at times that you know would serve you best. If there is a time of day that you know you need a boost, add a Mind Hack then. If you want to close your day with gratefulness let’s say, or a kind thought, Hack that. Since “repetition is the mother of all skills,” your new empowering thoughts will soon begin to take hold and you will be pleasantly surprised how “they” save you from a triggered response that might have “taken you down” in the past.

Read Other Related Articles:

Mindset of Success: How to Structure Your Day for Unstoppable Success (Part 1 of a 3 Part Series)

Mindset of Success: 5 Steps to Finish Your Day Strong (Part 3 of a 3 Part Series)