Cinnamon Banana Shake

This smoothie is completely raw, almost like ice cream, and absolutely delicious!

I got the recipe from the book Raw Food, Real Word: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow.

3 cups frozen diced banana
2 c. almond milk
2 tablespoonds agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of sea salt

Combine the ingredients in a blender and you have a delicious, frozen treat!

What Are You Doing To Move Closer To Your Goal?

Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." What he is essentially saying is that we can't expect our life to change if we don't change. What goes on inside of you affects your outer circumstances.


Let's take the example of weight loss, as this is a goal that many people have. If you are overweight and eating the same foods and engaging in the same behaviors, yet hoping to lose a few pounds, you will drive yourself crazy! In order for change to happen, you have to change. And it is amazing how fast change actually does occur when you take even a tiny step in the direction you want to go.


What does a tiny step look like? Perhaps you talk to someone who has lost a lot of weight and ask  how she did it. Maybe you buy a magazine that is health or fitness oriented. After you have done this, maybe you experiment with making a healthy meal or research 5K training plans on the internet. After you do this, you begin following the training plan, increasing your distance each week until you feel confident enough to actually sign up for the 5K! Within a year, you have completed a half marathon. It can seem absurd, but baby steps lead to more baby steps, and eventually you will have reached whatever goal you have set for yourself if you are persistent and create a plan.


Sometimes you may have no plan, and that is okay. Maybe you know that you want a change in your life, but you are unsure what it is. My suggestion is to do something, anything. You could research free seminars in your community- you never know when you attend something and meet just the right person that can catapult you into a new hobby or career. Maybe you try a yoga class and discover a new passion that you didn't know you had, which has a ripple effect on your life, creating greater peace in every situation you encounter.


Shake up your life! Get clear on what you desire and choose one small step you can take to move you closer to this desire.

Did You Get Your Greens Today?

So often, life gets busy, busy, busy and nutrition is the first thing to go! It is so easy to forfeit nutritious foods in favor of fast food when we feel like we can't even catch our breath, let alone take the time to prepare fresh, living meals!

Green smoothie to the rescue! Green smoothies are pretty fail-proof. Pack a banana or two into a blender with a bunch of greens of your choice, add a small amount of water, blend for a minute or so.....and voila! There are your greens for the day, packed into a drink you can take with you on the go. You can experiment with this to make it more palatable or according to your tastes- Spinach and Romaine are pretty mild. If you are feeling bold, go for kale or another more bitter green. Add some green apple or other fruit. If you want more of a frozen treat, use frozen bananas. The possibilities are endless. If you search for green smoothies on the internet, you could come up with a years' worth of recipes!

 Drink this in place of your morning coffee on the way to work for a month and see what happens. I guarantee that you will derive more energy and greater health benefits from the smoothie!

If you are further interested in the health benefits and the research behind green smoothies, a fascinating book to read is "Green For Life" by Victoria Boutenko.

Welcome to Wellness

“The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being. And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally but also physically and spiritually.” - George Anderson

Welcome to my blog! I am hoping that in it, you will find inspiration and tips for living a life of total wellness on all levels.

Our overall wellness is influenced by so many factors in our lives on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level. When we examine our health, finances, relationships, home life, recreation, and spirituality we may compartmentalize these things. But as we begin to delve more deeply into wellness and choose actions that support this, we realize how much each area affects the others, that having one area off-kilter affects the whole. Think of each of these areas as a spoke on a wheel. If one of the spokes were shorter than the rest or broken, the wheel would not turn very well and you would be hobbling along, struggling to get to your destination.

So wellness is about having a clear vision of what you want for your life, choosing thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors which support this vision, and watching as life unfolds into miracles before you, carrying you along to your destiny- being authentically you and fulfilling your purpose in your corner of the world, joyfully and peacefully. 

It is my hope that through this blog, you learn what it means to be well on all levels and find encouragement, inspiration, and support on your journey.

As a wellness coach, one of the first tasks that I approach with a client is defining what wellness means to her. This is often something that she has never thought about before- most people know that they want to be happy, and happiness is most certainly a by-product of wellness.

Merriam Webster defines wellness as "the quality or state of being in good health, especially as an actively sought goal." Sounds simple enough. But what is "health"? As I dig deeper and deeper with a client, challenging her to consider these questions and what they mean for her particular life path, it becomes evident how daunting of a task this can be, but one that leads to clarity, awareness, and clear, well-defined goals that guide our coaching journey.

Ask yourself where you feel out of balance. By identifying these imbalances, you can identify ways to restore equilibrium to your life, contributing to wellness. For example, maybe you feel exhausted all of the time. Try saying that to yourself. "I am experiencing exhaustion right now." Don't attach the feeling to yourself, just identify it and identify your experience of it. Use "I am experiencing" rather than "I am". This allows you to choose a different experience.

Create a list of things that may be contributing to your exhaustion. At first, maybe nothing comes. That is okay. Continue to sit with the feeling and allow ideas to come to you. As you consider why you may be having this experience, you start to contemplate how you fuel your body. You oftentimes