My recipe: 1 entire squeezed meyer lemon into 32 oz. or room temperature filtered water.

Starting your day with a healthy habit is a great way to set up the rest of the day. For years we’ve hear the advice about starting our day with a big healthy breakfast. Visions of toast, eggs, fruit, coffee, cereal, and waffles come to mind when I think of the standard recommended breakfast. The problem is that loading up on all those sugars and carbohydrates first thing in the morning will definitely give you a running start, but you will most likely come to a grinding halt a few hours later.

In some ways, this is just how we’ve become accustomed to feeling. We are used to feeling a bowling ball in our gut and eating our way right through that full feeling until our plate is empty. We’ve never truly learned to listen to our body and honor what we need in each moment and at each part of the day. Our needs will change based on season, activity level, sleep and many other factors that affect the type of food and nourishment we need.  Instead we hear the echoes of our parents and their parents telling us to clean our plates and not waste food and the fact that at the slightest feeling of hunger pangs we decide it’s time for a snack instead of a glass of water.

What if you started your day by hydrating each cell in your body and creating a starting point of balance. From this place, you can decide what type of nourishment you need for the day you have ahead of you. Here are just a few of the benefits of lemon water in the morning:

• It acts as a digestive cleanse (so best to drink on an empty stomach in the morning)
• Stimulates your digestive system and helps keep daily bowels regular
• Activates your gallbladder to help release previous days’ built up toxins
• lemon juice can help to destroy intestinal worms/parasites
• lemon juice acts as an anti-bacterial
• Lemons can help prevent the cold and flu

My recipe: 1 entire squeezed meyer lemon into 32 oz. or room temperature filtered water. I like mine with cayenne pepper to spice it up and to help increase blood flow and get my day started . Also, I like to use the Meyer lemon as it seems to be the juiciest of them all, and I love the taste.

*Lemon juice is cleansing for your kidneys and can help prevent or break up small calcium deposits, according to James Duke, Ph.D., author of “The Green Pharmacy Anti-Aging Prescriptions: Herbs, Foods, and Natural Formulas to Keep You Young.” Drink lemon water three to four times throughout the day to keep your liver strong and your body chemistry balanced; however, lemon juice could irritate certain conditions. Avoid lemon juice if you have advanced kidney disease or adrenal stress, as you will not tolerate lemon juice well with these conditions.

*http://www.livestrong.com/article/531241-what-are-the-benefits-of-warm-lemon-juice-in-the-morning/#ixzz1usXPhjrB

This day is not just for those who have given birth to a baby but to all women who are there to support their friends, family, other children in their life and Mama Earth. I cherish my tribe of women and hold them dear to my heart. I hope today and every day we can honor each other by listening…really listening to each other.

Take care of yourself this day and each day…eat well, be kind to yourself, smile…and enjoy plenty of hugs.

Light, love & gratitude

This burning question is asked by the amazing  “Fire Starter” Danielle LaPorte

This is such a great question to ask yourself anytime. For me, it is a very timely question to ponder. I am smack in the middle of envisioning and creating my Holistic Beauty Coaching business. Money is part of the process, but my goals are not simply to make gobs of money and drive a fancy car. My purpose and vision are greater than acquiring the mighty dollar. But to deny money and its power is to deny the very energy that runs through each of us and everything that we lay our hands upon and create. The exchanging of a valued service for money is a gift to both people involved. So, with no editing, with a flow of consciousness, here is my answer.

My purpose for money is to create a life of freedom for my family. My purpose for money is to be able to share my inner vision. My purpose for money is to support others who are sharing their gift and vision. To support artists who are creating beauty in the world.  My purpose for money is to create a home where friends and family can come to be nurtured by my space, the food we create the love and laughter we share in a safe, warm place that is open and supportive of our mutual dreams and vision.  My purpose for money is to create a space where I can show the world and its beauty to my son and to myself in an organic non-touristy way.

My purpose for money is to help support people who have taken on as their mission the righting of inequities in the world. My purpose for money is to give and receive freely. My purpose for money is to be able to support my mother who has given of herself in countless ways over her lifetime. My purpose for money is to create a cycle of giving and receiving that is fueled by gratitude and love.

My life is not money, but my money is helping me to create a life I love.

Love & Gratitude

Elena

Each day I incorporate as many whole foods and dark leafy greens as I can. Because my diet is high-raw and mostly vegan (I do eat raw honey), I make sure to round out my vitamin & mineral need through fresh organic foods. An easy way to get lots of greens in one sitting is to have a green smoothie. There are many amazing resources on the benefits of green smoothies. Here are a few of my favorites:

Green For Life

Incredible Smoothies

Tera Warner – Green Smoothie Queen

And last but not least, my FB page where I share daily green smoothie recipes with an amazing community of blending divas and dudes:

What’s In YOUR Green Smoothie Today?

Today, as we slide in to May and the Spring season, my body is craving the sun and all the wonderful bits of summer. So I decided to summon the sun by mixing this easy 4 ingredient smoothie that took me right to the shores of the Bahamas. I have an easy to remember 4 step smoothie plan: Greens, Fruits, Superfoods and Liquids. That’s it
Here’s what it looked like before:

The Greens

2 cups of spinach (organic)

The Fruits

2 cups of frozen mango

The Superfoods

2 tsp organic raw coconut oil

The Liquids

about 2 cups of water

That’s it!!!

What’s in YOUR Green Smoothie today?

I am so happy to finally sit down and talk about my 30 days of raw for April. My intention was to blog about my experience each day but life threw me a technical curve-ball, as it often does. My trusty lap-top decided to blue-screen, come back to life, then blue-screen again. Typing anything more than a FB post caused the thing to freeze up entirely. This made planning for my exciting new project a huge challenge. Because I believe things happen as they should (along with my own free will), I took it as a message to simply pause, be fully present and be IN the journey instead of trying to witness and document. So even though I don’t have a daily account of everything, I think I received much more from BEING there for each meal, each journal entry and anything else that came up. I had to go back to my ever-so-trusty pen and pencil for most of my writing.

The status now is that my laptop is working again, BUT I am definitely shopping for a new one .

Back to my raw-adventure. I’ve gone on a mostly raw-diet before, but never for a month and never during the Winter/Spring transition. The motivation for taking on the challenge of a raw cleanse is rooted in health issues that I have been unraveling for the last 3 years. I have traveled the path of both conventional and unconventional medicine to figure out the cause of an acute pain in my lower right abdomen. My path has included a gynecologist who said “oh honey, you’re too young to think about cancer or anything like that” (I was 32). Then a naturopath who said it was Epstein Barr (which I do have). Then another naturopath who actually listened to me and we began the work of piecing the puzzle together.

Now, before I continue, let me just say that I am not someone who likes to go to the doctor unless I really need to or for my yearly check-up. But a pain that wakes me up at night and lingers around during the day definitely got my attention. As I write this, I realize there are so many layers to my story. I will only touch on part of it in this post. I’ll have to dig deep into my heart and my journals to share the part of my story that includes emotional healing,  a deep five month yoga intensive, and an in-depth exploration of my internal landscape; which I believe is rooted to clearing physical pain and symptoms.

Back to my journey; The exploration of this mystery pain led to some new experiences such as: CT scan, sonogram and top it off with a colonoscopy (during which the doc found 2 pre-cancerous polyps in my colon  - caused by years of constipation from a gluten/dairy filled diet) UHHH! Sigh… What a journey it has been. I’ve decided to share even the personal messy bits with you in hopes that my journey can help someone else going through a similar situation.

I am a big believer  in the role of food and emotions in our overall health. We swallow words unspoken, fears held back, anger unresolved, hate mis-directed, along with blame, shame and guilt. And then we wonder why our internal landscape is suffering from seemingly random symptoms and pain. We can go and take a pill, find a band-aid or find some other form of external relief. But just like pushing a ball under water, all that emotion will pop up some place else in another form, commonly as sickness. I believe that our body is wise. I believe that we each have an internal wise navigation system and voice that will lead us to our own truth. We just need to find the courage, the guide, the quiet place to listen. Easier said then done. I know it. I’m still on the path of discovery myself. And I know that this is the journey for a lifetime.

I have had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows on this path. I am emerging with a passion for listening to my intuition,  sharing all that I have learned along the way (with those who are ready to listen – no pressure), and an immense gratitude and appreciation for my body and the food I choose to put into it.

I will be taking this blog into a new direction focused on holistic wellness and beauty created through diet, emotional awareness and physical cleansing. I will also share my favorite raw recipes of the cleanse and beyond, as well as answer any questions. Watch for the exciting changes and PLEASE feel free to ask questions, share your journey or just stop by & say hi. My e-mail is: TheEcoDiva@gmail.com. If you want to chat, just e-mail me and we can talk in person – YUP, bloggers can talk on the phone too ))

Love, light and gratitude.

Elena

I started the day with my lemon/cayenne water (32 oz) and 3 milk thistle tablets to help my liver with the increased detox.

Next, juicing!!! My kiddo & I juiced the following:

Carrots
Green Apple
Parsley
Spinach
Pear

It was the perfect combination of sweet and savory. I’d skip the parsley for kiddo next time, he thought it smelled like tires. ;P.

Late Breakfast was:
Hemp, Chia and sliced banana with homemade hazelnut/hemp milk. YUM!

Lunch was a big ol’ veggie salad from market followed by another chia/cacao nib heart snack. It was SOO good.
Dinner was lemon water and 2 collard/nori wraps filled with lots of greens, avocado, cucumber, ginger, coconut aminos, raw jungle peanuts and parsley. SO amazing, I can eat this every day.

I’ll probably finish the day with a green apple or some dried mango and maybe some warm tea and raw cashews.

I am full of energy and loving trying out my new and old favorite recipes. At some point in these 30 days I will work in a 3 day juice cleanse to help my system continue the detox.

Here’s what Day 1 looked like:

Started with:
* 32 oz of filtered water with 1 meyer lemon and dashes of cayenne

* Breakfast: Fruit seed bowl
1 orange
1 apple
chia
pepitas
sunflower seeds
avocado
cinnamon
squeezed OJ from said cut orange

*Snack
Chia/Date/Cacao Beans snack – in heart shape from local raw deli )
* Snack: banana

*Lunch: Avocado with basil, hummus and sea salt with nori sheets

*Green Smoothie (see below for ingredients)

*Dinner: Collard/nori wrap with Indian cauliflower “mash”, with kimchi and lots of mixed greens and chopped veggies.

The Smoothie today was purple-licious amazing-ness (made by vegan fabulous and raw journey buddy hubby):

The Greens:
Spinach

The Superfoods
Hemp Seeds
Chia Seeds

The Fruit
1 huge ripe banana
1 cup blueberries

The Liquid
1 cup homemade hazelnut & hemp milk
a bit of water about 1/2 or a bit more

Amazing!!!
What’s in Your Green Smoothie today?

Starting April 1st, I am going on a 30 day raw food detox. This will include plenty of leafy greens, smoothies, juices and some of my favorite raw dishes (check out the images below). Here is a great article I found this morning that talks about a few of the benefits of going raw. By the way, I am about 75% raw in my diet right now so going 100% will not cause any of the typical detox symptoms. If you are thinking about a detox, let me know and we can talk about some amazing options that will not shock your system, unless that is what you are looking for. 

The Guide to Raw Foods: Foods that Feed The Pineal Gland

Our pineal gland otherwise known as our master gland or the gland that governs over our third eye is the center of psychic awareness in the human mind. It is about the size of a pea and sits inside a cave located behind the pituitary gland. It naturally produces a hormone called melatonin which regulates human daily body rhythms that deal directly with the day and night cycles. Developing and expanding the function and the energy of your pineal gland is extremely important as it affects every system in your body physically and it has the potential to determine the expansion or the contraction of your psychic awareness, consciousness, and experience.

Sunlight is extremely important for the pineal gland and yes sunlight is a form of food as food is any substance that nourishes the body. Sunlight can be taken in and digested through the eyes, skin, hair, nose hairs, and ears and should be consumed for at least 30 minutes a day. To fully engage the pineal gland, sunlight should be taken in through the pupils.

Seaweed vegetables that are sun-dried by the sun contain high amounts of vitamin D, many vitamins in the B-vitamin family and iodine. Those vegetables include and are not limited to kombu, arame, wakame, dulse, nori, etc.

Dark leafy greens like our kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, bok choy, collard greens etc are
extremely nourishing for the pineal gland as this gland absorbs the properties of the green color of the vegetables and properly distributes them to the appropriate systems of the body so that the body is thoroughly nourished.

Consuming meats including fish that has high amounts of mercury, carbonated beverages, fluoride in our water and our toothpaste and access to smog negatively affect the pineal gland and can block its ability to function properly. When you consume meat from an animal, you are ingesting the DNA of that animal and therefore taking on the negative and positive experiences of an animal which could interrupt the ability of the pineal gland to take on its own psychic awareness blueprint of the individual.

The proper foods can positively affect your pineal gland but you can also activate your pineal gland by eating more of a raw foods, vegan, or vegetarian diet, running an ozone machine in your home to clean up the air in your home, and drinking filtered water. As much as the pineal gland needs sunlight, it also needs to produce enough serotonin to be activated so that it can increase its psychic awareness therefore serotonin is produced when the brain is asleep and therefore sleeping in a very dark room is extremely nourishing for the pineal gland as well.

Foods that produce serotonin are almonds, bananas, hot peppers, rice, potatoes, and black-eyed peas and when consumed can also nourish and feed the pineal gland as well.

This article came from:

Nwenna Kai is the author of The Goddess of Raw Foodsavailable for purchase at www.amazon.com and the upcoming children’s book, The MoreLove’s coming September 2010. You can get the FREE e-book Nwenna Kai’s Holiday Recipes at her website www.nwennakai.com by signing up for her weekly e-newsletter at her website. She is the previous owner of Taste of the Goddess Cafe, one of LA’s pioneering organic raw food cafes. She is the 2007 winner of the Elizabeth Dole Young Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for her work as a health and wellness entrepreneur. Visit her website at www.the-guide-to-raw-foods.com and her blog at www.theguidetorawfoods.com/blogspot.com.

I’ve been hearing so many amazing tidbits about the benefits of fermented for for healing any gut issues. Since my son was 2 years old we have been on a journey to figure out his allergies and heal the issues in his gut which are causing health issues including iron deficiency.

Cultured vegetables add valuable probiotics and enzymes to your digestive system, which can help get rid of Candida (which I suffer from), it can boost your immune system and

Raw cultured/fermented veggies are made by chopping cabbage or a combination of cabbage and other veggies, and then packing them tightly into an airtight jar (I used quart jars). You leave them in a cool dark place to ferment at room temperature for 5-7 days, longer is better.

During this time the fermentation process, grows friendly bacteria, which keeps multiplying in the jar. They convert the sugars and starches to lactic acid and partially digest the veggies,  ”pickling” them in the process. Then they are ready to eat straight from the jar or add to meals like quinoa, rice or salads for a burst of flavor. A bit every day is amazing for gut health, which is truly the indicator of overall health.

So when I saw the simple recipe from Tom at Whole Life Nutrition (including the video at NourishingMeals.com using just filtered water and salt I thought, “this will be a great thing to do with my friends”. So a few of us got together, brought bags full of fresh veggies and began chopping.

Here’s what the results were:

The best part is that the 3 six year old were totally into making their very own batch and created amazing, colorful and super-healthy creations of their very own. Now we just have to be patient and let them ferment for 7 days and have a taste testing party.

I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

Love, light & gratitude

Elena – Holistic Health Diva

Breakfast of vegan champions
Chia berry seed pudding by Elena :

2 Tbps Chia seeds
handful of raw almond and sunflower seeds
scoop of fresh organic blueberries
2 tsp flax seeds
1/2 ripe banana
dash of cinnamon
and some freshly made (this morning) hazelnut milk and a bit of water to thin it out

Let it sit for 5 minutes and YUM!!!

I’ll share the hazelnut recipe this week. It has seriously changed my life.

Love, light & gratitude

Elena