As a self-care and wellness expert; I am consistently helping my clients get back their energy.  The fatigue leaves their body feeling heavier and their brain feeling unfocused. Furthermore, the technology of the 21^st century makes it difficult to turn off our minds and restore.

Women tend to ignore signals from their body such as hunger and pain and keep pushing through until their body says enough!  Yet, women have a lot on their plate and cleaning the plate clean is just not realistic.

What is a woman to do?  Since we are a society in chronic adrenal fatigue; I would suggest getting tested but in the meantime follow these 10 tips to increasing your energy:

1. Pay Attention:  As soon as you are hungry; eat and stop when you feel satisfied as opposed to stuffed.

2. Eat more dark leafy greens: Broccoli, Kale, Spinach and Collard Greens, improve circulation, purify blood, lift your spirits and reinforce immunity.

3. Eat According to the Rhythm of the Sun: Our metabolism mimics the movement of the sun.  Eat a wholesome breakfast, a big lunch and a smaller dinner.

4. Sleep: Our bodies are restored and repaired when we get our zzzz’s.  For quality sleep turn off the television and the lights along with your cell phones and ipad and make sure your mattress and pillows hug your body.

5. Take a break: Have you ever noticed that you lose some steam around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and as a result you grab the sugar or caffeine.  That slump is simply your body needing a break.  When you feel that slump sit and relax for 15 minutes.  Read something inspirational, close your eyes or just breathe.

6. Gently Reduce Caffeine: Caffeine is an addictive substance and going cold turkey will lead to withdrawals.  Instead cut your caffeine consumption slowly until you no longer need it.  Caffeine is deceptive because it increases your heart rate but it also dehydrates, and puts your blood sugar on a roller coaster.

7. Put those draining relationships in their place: see if you can transform these relationships by communicating and setting boundaries.

8. Get Moving: a brisk walk after lunch will increase your metabolism, your energy and your focus.

9. Break up with Sugar: sugar & artificial sweeteners is not only toxic and addicting; it also destroys your energy and your health.  Replace sugar with stevia, brown rice syrup or maple syrup.

10. Drink Your H20: Americans are chronically dehydrated. Instead of going to caffeine or sugar when you feel drained; drink a glass of water.

Tackling all 10 of these tips will overwhelm you which will leave you even more tired.  Instead, pick on and work on it for a week and then add another and work on it a week.  That way you are slowly creating new habits without having overhauling your whole lifestyle.

In addition to using these tips;  make sure you pick up the free audio and action packed guide; FEAST YOUR WAY TO THIN right here.  You will be jumping for joy immediately.

Tell me; which one of these 10 seems the most daunting and which one will you institute immediately?  Leave me a comment!

Have you ever played with those kettleballs?

They are so fun for a few reasons:

1. They are cute and come in lots of fun colors.

2. You don’t need a lot of room to use them or to store them.

3. They get your heart rate pumping

4. You can feel good about doing some physical self-care without having to lose sleep.

I make a game out of using them; I will do one exercise during commercials.

What if you DVR? Do one exercise per segment for 60 seconds.

You will be sweating like crazy and it will feel so good!

So, are you in sista? Ready to adminster some sweaty self-care? Let me know by leaving me a comment!

Hey YOU!

If you have a pet; you know that he/she thinks you are awesome and when people are shutting you out and your family is looking through you instead of at you, your pet will always love you!!

That is why, Pet stores are recession proof; when we receive that kind of unconditional love; we will move heaven and earth to make sure that we give it back.

That means that my dog goes to Valentines’ Party and gets spa treatments consistently.

Don’t judge!

What if we could love ourselves like our pets love us?

WOW!  How would that feel?

How to even start?   Small self-care steps would be awesome!

I have something that just may help.  I have created an audio and action guide just for you!

It is titled “FEAST YOUR WAY TO THIN” and it is all about taking those first steps towards falling in love; with you.

Loving  you as your pet loves you!

Go here to pick up your gift!

Alright lets have some fun; what would it feel like unconditionally and nonjudgementally love yourself?

Leave me a comment!

Whitney Houston Rest in Peace…..

I have always loved this song. The lyrics touched my heart.

“I believe our children are our future; teach them well and let them lead the way” As Whitney has struggled with addiction so has her beautiful daughter.

“Learning to Love Yourself is the greatest love of all.”     It doesn’t matter if the world adores you; if you don’t adore yourself there others love is harder to feel.

A few hours before Whitney passed I was conducting a workshop where I  refuted that our children are our future.

Of course they are our future; but what kind of future awaits them if they don’t know how to love themselves?

What kind of future awaits them if they are sick, exhausted and stressed?

We women are leaders; others are watching how we live and following our lead, especially our children.

We can’t help the next generation unless we help ourselves first.

“Do what I say not what I do” doesn’t work.

You are our future; to save our children we must first save ourselves.

Saving yourself doesn’t have to be  overwhelming or stressed filled (we have enough of that don’t we!)

I am going to spell out the whole process step by step tomorrow on my complimentary tele-experience “FEAST YOUR WAY TO THIN” Eat Dessert and Be a Couch Potato while wearing smaller clothes.

You can sign up here and if you can’t make it; don’t worry I will send you the recording and action guide.

This is so much more than losing weight.   This is the beginning of how to live and love ourselves because that is the greatest love of all.

Do you agree?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

” When we compare ourselves to others we are trying to match our weaknesses to their strengths.”

Not sure who said that but someone besides me did.  If you know the author; please leave him/her name in the comment section.

Comparing is a massive waste of precious energy because you just can’t compare apples to oranges.

You are the apple and that person that you are striving to be “like” or competing against is the orange.

The only result you will receive is stress.  You may win a battle or two; you may even win the war but at what cost?  YOU and creating excellent self care are too priceless and comparing yourself to others puts all the beautiful focus in jeopardy.

I am so passionate about dropping the comparing and despairing because I am the biggest offender.  I know how horrible it feels to always be focusing on how someone else is so successful in what I want.

The envy keeps me from letting my own light shine.

The envy also leads to resentment and examining every facet of that person to find  something wrong with them.

The intimidation was squashing my spirit and increasing my waistline instead of my bottom line.

This year I decided to wage a war; a war of self-love where I focus on myself and cheerlead the success of others.

I have outlined some tips that are helping me; maybe they will help you as well:

• I created this guideline: “Focus on continuous excellence while applauding others’ successes.”  This guideline pops in my head whenever I feel that twinge in my gut; along with this voice: ” How does she do that?  I could never do that!  What does she have that I don’t?” “Focus on continous excellence while applauding others’ successes.”    Then I applaud and place positive energy on the excitement of that happening for me too

• Time and Energy are precious and they are limited;  If I am going to waste time and energy feeling bad about myself; how can I possibly step into my greatness?  Therefore I protect my time and my energy and as soon as I feel myself going down the Comparison Superhighway of no good; I set a timer for 5 minutes I feel it and then I say enough!  I may even write about it and then shred the paper.  Allowing the flow of feelings is super healthy but we also need to be able to say times up!

• Do something nice for the object of your comparing. Send a card or give an anonymous donation in their name.  Giving to them may even set you free.

• Create a one person competition; you vs you.  Keep your head down and focus on your goals.  Measure, tweak and keep moving.  You just may find yourself past up your object of envy without even noticing! That is just a side benefit!  Don’t forget to reward yourself.  P.S.: if you are working towards releasing weight DO NOT MAKE YOUR WEIGHT THE GOAL; this kind of goal setting put the scale in control of your happiness.  Instead; strive for some consistent action that you desire, such as doing a pull up unassisted, being able to jog for 10 minutes, or trying a new recipe each week.

Am I alone here on comparing and despairing island?  Leave me a comment and let me know how you handle competition and measuring yourself against others.

I am on a video roll lately!

I have been talking about portion control and weighing your food.

Yes, I see your eyes rolling; watch the video and use the little trick that I demonstrate.

The reason to use the scale is for having a guideline for determining  your perfect portion control.

It is the first step in taking back your body and feeding  it the way it deserves with your perfect plan and your perfect portion.

Have your weighed your food in the past?

Are you willing to try now?

Let me know.  Leave me a comment; I love our chats!

Whether you lead families, co-workers, or major corporations you are a runway model.

You may not realize it; but you have lots of eyes watching what you are doing and then replicating your actions.

It is called lead by example and that leadership can be helpful or hurtful to others.

Most importantly, it can be helpful or  hurtful to you.

Most women are starving for self-care yet:

* They feel selfish putting themselves before others.

* They believe that taking care of themselves will take hours a day.

* They think that investing any money on themselves is just too indulgent.

What if I could show you HOW to take care of yourself without spending hundreds of dollars are abandoning your family, friends or career?

Guess what? I CAN and you only have to invest your ears!

Next Wednesday, February 15 I will be hosting a teleseminar titled: “FEAST YOUR WAY TO THIN: eat dessert and be  a couch potato while wearing smaller clothes.”

Go here to sign up and when you confirm your email address, a little gift will be waiting for you!

Ok, beautiful: move that body down the runway; I am sitting in the first row wildly cheering!    

When I went to Hilton Head Health Institute ( aka: my Disney World!) for a month in 2009; I knew that I would transform due to the good clean food, the exercising and the deep digging into how I happen to find the 200 pound mark.

However, H3 had a secret that they didn’t even know they were dispensing with the daily vitamins: Laughter.

I wasn’t only eating, learning and sweating with some gifted people; they were also so darn funny!

Almost every meal would end in tears from excessive laughter. I had not laughed so often since I was a kid.

Laughter shouldn’t be left in our childhood; rather a daily dose can help us get healthier, be happier, relieve stress and maybe lose a few LBS!

According to the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture:

1. Laughter can help your hormones because it helps to reduce cortisol a stress hormone that contributes to belly fat.

2. Laughter can help your immune system because it increases antibodies that will keep the infections at bay.

3.  Laughter helps your brain function because it utilizes both sides of the brain.

4. If you can’t seem to fit in a workout then laugh for a minute.  According to William Fry, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University laughing for 60 seconds is equal to 600 seconds on the rowing machine because it engages abdominals and back muscles and can provide cardiovascular benefits.

Finally; laughter connects you  to others.  We are meant to be connected and with all these modern conveniences: we are more disconnected than ever.

Laugh: It does a body good!

What makes your laugh?  Leave me a comment and lets lighten up together!

I used to not be a smoothie girl because my appetite would never be satisfied.

Then I realized that I wasn’t satisfied because I was neglecting the healthy fat!

Our brains need healthy fat to function.  When you treat yourself to this delicious smoothie full of protein, sweetness and some Omega 3s you will find yourself asking 3:00 pm slump?  Not today!

I will make a batch of these and portion them into mason jars and then I freeze them.

In the morning I pull one out and when I am ready to drink it; I just pour the contents into a shaker, shake it up and voila!

The recipe is below and remember that you I am sharing a process;  don’t be afraid to experiment with different nuts, seeds and non-dairy milks and fruits.

Let me know how it goes!

make ahead smoothie

A couple of weeks ago Charles Barkley was on Saturday Night Live.

During his opening monologue Sir Charles talks about his Weight Watchers’ success of releasing 38 pounds and then states that he is starving.  You can see the video here.

I am sure he was joking and I also think Weight Watchers‘ has great components that allow people to keep the weight off.

Yet, a vital part of self-care is making sure your body is fueled with high quality foods so you can have the energy to unleash your excellence!

Does portion control have its place?  ABSOLUTELY!

What I am asking:  make sure that your portions are controlled by you and for your body.

Maybe you need 2 fistfuls of protein.

Maybe a half a cup of grains bloats your tummy.

Maybe you can have a little of something but the recommended portion size makes you nauseous.  Kale: the superfood, makes me nauseous if I eat or drink more than a quarter cup.

My point is that our biology can be as unique as our personalities and as a result your portion control may be different as well.

So, let go of what others say IS the correct portion and instead you create YOUR best serving.

How do you determine YOUR best portion control?

Use the HATS Technique:

H =   HUNGER LEVEL: Assess  your level before each meal.  Think of your hunger level as a scale from 1 to 10.  If you are at a 1; you are starving and will eat cardboard and if you are at a 10 you are so stuffed that you have to unbutton your pants.  Ideally, eating when you are at a 3 and stopping when you are at a 7 will allow you to feel satisfied without the need for a nap!

A =  ASSIGN: assign  your plates into thirds with half the plate assigned to vegetables, 1/4 assigned to protein and 1/4 assigned to grains.  Remember this is merely a guideline.

T =   TAKE: Take 5 bites and chew thoroughly.

S =  SET:  Set down  your fork

Continue the HATS technique until your hunger level is at a 7.

Notice your true portion for today!

Yes, even your portions can change from day to day.

When you live in the 3 to 7 range:

your body will respond because you are providing some badly needed self-care.

your body will say thank you with energy and maybe a few pounds leaving town!

Would you like more tips like this?  Then be sure to sign up for my zero cost teleseminar:

FEAST YOUR WAY TO THIN: Eat dessert and be a couch potato while wearing smaller clothes on January 31!

Complete the form on this page and I will send you all the goodies!

So put your HATS on and let me know how it goes by leaving me a comment below!

P.S: I just place a smoothie recipe on this blog: to access it go here.