Why Green?

Why are green smoothies so popular for health coaches to recommend? First, greens are the most lacking food from the SAD and are full of essential micronutrients and phytochemicals with powerful ant-inflammatory and detoxifying agents that can help alleviate everything from acne to anxiety & depression and autoimmune disorders.  My mother is a case in point.  Having been diagnosed with another autoimmune disease, she will be having surgery for macular degeneration soon.  Thank God for modern medicine to return eyesight when our body can no longer handle the stressors we impart upon ourselves.  When we ignore our body’s signals, they do get louder.

But surgery is only one half of the equation.  Having surgery, without stopping the causative factors is like plugging up the sink without turning off the water.  You can stop the water from draining, but unless you turn the water off, you will eventually have a mess on your hands that you cannot control.  In the case of macular degeneration, the body will eventually give up and blindness will occur.  In the case of insulin resistance and diabetes, unless you change the diet, blindness, neuropathy and Alzheimer’s await you.   Unless we learn to lower inflammation and detoxify the body, heart disease and cancers await us.

So how do we turn off the faucet?  In the case of autoimmune disorders, we need to heal the gut.  Tomorrow I will be discussing this in more detail at Georgetown’s famous studio, Yoga Del Sol, Washington DC.  We first must learn how to discover what foods we are sensitive to and then we add in new foods to crowd out or eliminate the offending foods.  We learn how to turn off the water faucet that is negatively affecting our beautiful and unique bodies. 

This process gives us more energy and empowers us to be our own best Doctors.  This is why I’ve created a 6-week group program titled Energy & Empowerment.  I created this program for my mother, for my children, for my friends struggling with chronic disease, for my clients that I love who cannot afford individual coaching but could benefit from a group program.  Please call me for a Discovery Call session if you want to learn more.  Included in the program is a 90-minute assessment with a Naturopathic Physician and customized herbal tinctures to maximize the bodies healing process.

Basically the formula is the same for all chronic dis-ease.  1. Discover & eliminate the causes. 2. Heal & repair the gut. 3. Learn and practice new skills for life long change. 

The process is fun and empowering.

So back to Smoothies.  Now that we know the “why”, here’s the “how.”  To make smoothies healthy and delicious is as simple as 1, 2, 3!  Think Greens, Protein & Fat, and Fruit.

Choose between:
1. Greens, any kind will do. I like washed mixed greens, romaine lettuce, spinach, kale, & Swiss chard.  Be sure to rotate them in your diet.
2. Essential fat and extra protein for satiety and to make it smooth and creamy.  My favorite choices include: avocado, almond butter, handful of any kind of raw nuts, and or coconut oil
3. Fruit. I like ripe bananas and organic mixed berries, fresh or frozen.  Other choices include organic green apples, or kiwi, mangos, organic peaches, pears, pineapples, and prunes.

 Simply put something from each in the blender, add ice and or filtered water to achieve the consistency that you want and ENJOY! It only takes minutes, you can make a big batch and save some for an energizing afternoon pick me up instead of that cup of java.

Carpe Diem. Why? Because we only have this moment and this day to live life to its fullest!

Lisa

What Happens After "The Cleanse" and Why I Love my Job

I am a “self help junkie” but even I get into a slump.  Many who know me know that I can go into “geek mode”, hibernation… where I get obsessed with a project and sit on the computer researching and reading and typing to the point that I forget mundane things like getting dressed, showers, food, cleaning the house, etc. Can anyone else relate to this?  This is the beauty and downfall from working from home.  Thank God, that some of my clients still come to my home office, otherwise I would have little incentive to clean it…I kid you not!

So what happens after the cleanse?  What happens when you have all of this newfound energy?  When we've released that extra weight and heaviness that no longer serves us.  We are coming out of hibernation mode and are ready for the springtime and yes... spring-cleaning! When what at first appears impossible suddenly seems possible! 

Anything we ignore, mind you, builds up.  What we resist persists, proven by the mold in my refrigerator!  Everyone has been asking me, "When will you have another workshop, another cooking class, or another group in your home?"  Sounds fun and exciting to me until I look at the neglect I've caused and immediately feel overwhelmed.

This is where my cleanse and my job comes to play.  One of my clients came to pick up sprouts this weekend, I made her my green energy soup and suddenly she was daring enough and energized enough to look in my pantry….She happens to be a professional organizer and started giving me my own medicine right back at me!  We started to clear the clutter, which got me motivated to clean a little more on Sunday, a tiny bit more on Monday and this morning, before work, I tackled the almighty refrigerator!  She gave me the little push, a little coaching, a few tips to do little “digestible bites” at a time…sound familiar?  Exactly what I needed to clear the air so that I can complete my summer newsletter, which you will see before the end of the month!

The most miraculous part of this is that what seemed utterly painful to me, really wasn't that bad and was kind of meditative, just like my clients tell me food prep becomes.  Reminds me of the movie Karate Kid…”wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off”.  Will this be my new yoga?  My moving meditation?  LOL & Doubtful!  Still nothing is more fun than yoga dance!

What will you do today with your newfound energy?  What has been weighing you down? 

Please comment below then go to www.carpediemwellness.org to download my free App.

What do YOU want for Mother's Day?

My husband asked me what I want for Mother's Day.  This is always a tough question for me.  I’ve spent my life caring for others, my first career as a Registered Nurse and then a young mother raising four children.  As women, mothers and caretakers we are conditioned to put others needs first before our own.  Many of us come from puritan backgrounds and taught to always be selfless and accommodating to others needs.  We were taught to fit in, to play well together in the sandbox and to not compete.   But we also live in a competitive capitalistic society with high expectations, particularly if you are from Washington DC.  If you are like me, then you may have an innate competitive nature, maybe one of your strengths is ambition and competition.  If your learned belief is not to outshine others, to play well in the sandbox, you may work well collaboratively while internalizing that competitive spirit.  How many of us are more critical of ourselves than others?  How many of us hold higher expectations of ourselves than we do others?  Being born a twin, in a family of several generations of twins, competition was frowned upon.  If you want to fit in, you must be average; otherwise you risk being verbose and or vain, both shameful characteristics.  I learned to love competition on the tennis court and yet paradoxically noticed how if I started to win by too much of a margin, I would instinctively back off, let the other person win a few games so that we could both feel good and have fun together.  Also interesting to note is that I lost a couple of partners when I didn’t do this.  One friend said she wouldn’t play with me again until she got better, which so confused me.  Wasn’t that the point, to play with someone better so that you could improve your game? How do you get better if you don’t put yourself out there and play? Sports and competition teach us a lot about others and ourselves. 

Someone called me Super Woman yesterday.  I’ve been told before that I had the biggest case of “Super Woman Complex” ever seen.  You see as women, we often internalize that competitive spirit and strive for an unrealistic goal of perfection.  We have to look good, act good, our homes have to be spotless, we have to always be kind, loving, compassionate and giving, with a smile on our face.   We buy the perfect gifts and serve the perfect meals at family celebrations and then wonder why we have a migraine headache and our exhausted when we should be happy and grateful for all that we have.  Yet we ignore our own needs until the pain in the neck or the back or the head gets so big that we have to stop, usually with a cold pack and in bed. 

When asked, what do you want for Mother’s Day, I used to always say, I want everyone to be healthy and happy.   What I didn’t realize was that as a Mother, I had to set the example.  If I was healthy and happy then my children, family and friends were more likely to be healthy and happy.  In fact, I’ve had to learn that I can and must break the puritanical pattern if I want my children and grandchildren to thrive.  Sacrificing the self can not only cause “dis-ease” in the body (as the body tries to send us messages to stop, slow down and treat ourselves well), but it causes sadness, resentment and negative energy and pain to those around us too.   

The antidote, the secret sauce is that self-love and self-compassion allows for self-healing, not only for us but for others too!

It’s really taken me years to truly understand this.  It’s taken a road to recovery with my children and myself to learn this.  I now understand the profound difference between the words caretaker and caregiver.  I now understand that we either react out of fear or respond out of love.   Often my actions were fueled by fear of not being good enough or not fitting in, instead of motivated by what would make me feel better.   I now understand that self-care and self-compassion really is the most loving thing that you can do not only for yourself but also for your family and your friends.  That when you give to yourself first, when you are your best first, then you have more to give to others and you attract others to you.  You attract those who want what you have, which are ultimately more joy, more peace and more love. 

So I wish today for all Mothers a very Happy Mothers Day, one that is filled with celebration and acknowledgement of your love and your actions and the gifts that you have given to others.  Most importantly, I wish for all Mothers the ability to really answer, “What do YOU want for Mother's Day?"  Will we love ourselves today as we love our children?  Will we speak kindly and softly to ourselves and recognize and hush the harsh critic inside?

If you are challenged with this, will you schedule a Discovery Call with me so that we can discuss how coaching or yoga dance or the free Carpe Diem App might be a guide or support tool for you?   Go to my website, www.carpediemwellness.org and download my app and/ or join me on Monday morning in Vienna Virginia at 10am for a fun joyful Yoga Dance class.

Happy Mothers Day and Carpe Diem, seize the day because we only have this moment and this day to live life to its fullest.

With Love & Gratitude,

Lisa

Are you Ready?.... to Release?

We are in the middle of our 21 Day Cleanse and my friend Gretchen Hogg reminded me of something this morning which is that as we are releasing toxins and lowering inflammation, we are also releasing the weight and with that comes emotion and sometimes fear.  Yes, we are giving our bodies loving messages that it is safe to let go, we are learning that we have to get out of our “fight or flight” stress mode and activate our parasympathetic nervous system in order to both digest our food as well as rest and repair. 

What often arises during this time, is a release of emotions.  After all, we hold our issues in our tissues and often we put on our weight as a protective mechanism.   If we take time to journal, we might uncover what was going on in our lives the last time we were at this weight, or the target weight that we are hoping to accomplish.  Did something happen that evoked strong emotion?  Often our subconscious self is “ruling the roost” and is based on a fear that we embodied sometime in the past and often as a child or during a time when we were less empowered.   To overcome this, we need to look at the fear and then reassure our subconscious self that we are now safe to let go of the fear as well as the weight.   Having a safe and confidential sounding board can help you process some of these thoughts as well as make the choice to reprogram them into thoughts and beliefs that will better serve you now and your goals moving forward.  This is where a health coach can be invaluable.

In the same vein, are you allowing the ANTs to creep in?  The Automatic Negative Thoughts that come from our most primitive part of our brain, the amygdala?  The ones that say, “Who am I to want to be thin? Or I can never look like that? Or this is too hard….”  We all have self-limiting thoughts that lead to self-limiting behaviors, what are your thoughts that are starting to creep up?   Anytime, we are trying to change or move out of our comfort zone, we are prone to self-sabotage.  Our ego brain likes us to stay the same.  Often our friends and family want a status quo too, after all if you change too much, must they change too?  The only thing constant in life is change, so why are we so afraid of it and what can we do to embrace it?  Again, this is where health coaching can help to keep you on the road and help you get out of your own way when these human thoughts and tendencies arise.

The biggest way we self sabotage ourselves is to tell ourselves that we are too busy, that we don’t have enough time.  Deepak Chopra says the fastest way to a heart attack is to say, there isn’t enough time which has been my mantra for years (and why I suffered high blood pressure for years too!)  How do we stop, take a deep breath and say, There is enough time, I am worth the time to make my green juice and/ or smoothie and/ or healthy meal to nourish my mind, body and soul.  How do we learn to put ourselves back on our to do list and how do we celebrate our successes no matter how small?  Download my app so you can have daily self-care reminders and a place to prioritize YOU.  Please comment or contact me if you would like to discuss further.

Have a glorious day, Carpe Diem, because we only have this day and this moment to live life to its fullest!  What are you going to do today that is yummy and nourishing? 

With Love, Lisa

Why Cleanse?

Why Cleanse?

This morning I was reminded of something one of my friends and old neighbors told me when she saw me a year or so ago.  She said, “Lisa I read your blogs and if I ever get cancer you will be the first person I call”.  She missed the point.  I don't want you to wait until you GET Cancer, I want to show you how you can prevent cancer and chronic illness and if not, how to begin to heal yourself from within, hence the title of my blogspot Healing From Within.  My mission in life is to inspire wellness. To teach you how to THRIVE, not just survive! To do so is empowering.

For this reason, I am offering another FREE Webinar tomorrow night titled, “Why Cleanse?”  My cleanse will show you how to create an environment that is healthy for normal cells and inhabitable for cancer cells.  Just like the health of our plants is dependent on the health and nutrition of our soil; the same is true for our bodies.

My daughter Margo sent me the following link this morning to the following website that outlines a lot of what we will be discussing and that is in my cleanse program.  http://cancercompassalternateroute.com/cancer/cancer-cannot-survive-in-an-oxygenated-alkaline-environment/

And no, you don't have to have a chronic illness to join the call!  All you need is the desire to feel and look your best at any age.  Or maybe you just want to find your optimal weight or eliminate your seasonal allergies, or to have more energy and less stress...

I so hope that you will join me Thursday night, April 3rd at 5pm ET! 

Carpe Diem!  Why? Because we only have this day and this moment to live life to its fullest.

Click here to Register for Thursday night’s free webinar or to listen to the replay:

http://webinarjam.net/webinar/go/replay/7000/4e5aeaaad5/accessok/--

Lisa

The Gift is Often in the Struggle

When we are struggling with symptoms of dis-ease, instead of beating ourselves over about what is wrong with us, why not ask what is right? For the body wants to naturally heal and the only way it has to communicate with us is through signs and symptoms and the more we ignore them, the louder they get.  Cancer is a symptom and the good news is self-love and self-care is key to healing.

So where’s the gift?

My daughter Dana in her video does such a beautiful job describing the gift that cancer brought her… as odd, weird, counterculture or maybe even awful as that may sound to you.

The message is strong and clear: Stop the fear, the worry, the anger and the guilt and all that no longer serves us.

And more importantly, lets stop hiding, stop trying to fit in or just be average. Because Fear of not being accepted, is a powerfully strong fear, one that I’ve recognized my entire life. I’ve tried not to outshine or overshadow people, yet sometimes I naturally do.  And sometimes we must, if we want to shine light where there is darkness and illuminate and elevate energy and the joy in our lives.  Isn’t that what we are all looking for, more joy? Who doesn’t want this?

Dana’s video allowed her natural light and beauty to shine through! Dana wants to have a voice... Halleluah!  Dana’s tumors were around her throat, thyroid and thymus and her heart and according to Louise Hay, in You Can Heal Your Life, the throat and thyroid represent the ability to speak up for self, self-expression and the need to find one’s voice. The heart center represents joy.

Spending time in Arizona with Dana was a gift. I remember looking at the colors in a magazine and learning how color has positive energy that is healing and recognized how I ignored color all my life and how my whole closet is filled with black clothes that suck energy out of you.

As Dana so beautifully articulates, it takes courage to wear bold colors, to step out of your comfort zone to do something you’ve never done before, it takes courage and self-compassion when we fall down as we learn to do new things.  And I think courage, compassion and connection are all the lessons in my cultivating joy class that I had so much fun facilitating and Dana has shown that with her permission and compassion to take care of herself, that her cancer has required her to do and the connections she formed with her Thunder Stealer Blog. Now we all need to follow and connect everyone to her new blog, that shows the courage to follow her dreams and inspire us all to do the same!  Check out her newest site, as well as all three of her videos here!

What’s your passion and what is your gift to the world?

As one of my coaches, Fabienne Frederickson says, it’s selfish to hide our gifts.  If we made a batch of brownies and didn’t share them and ate them all ourselves what would that do?  Make us fat and sick and selfish and yet it's the same thing we do when we fail to take care of ourselves or to share our whole healthy self with the world.

Let’s support one another to find our gifts and connect to the world. 

Thank you Dana, for your beautiful gifts, we need you and I love you very much.