Hiring a Vegan Lifestyle Consultant

Most of us learned how to eat from our parents.  They may have been well meaning but if you were raised on the Standard American Diet (SAD) then their best intentions boiled down to poor dietary choices.  The body takes whatever 'food/fuel' you provide it and does its level best.  But most Americans are calorie dense and nutrient bereft, leaving the body always hungry and chronically dehydrated.

If you want to lose unnecessary weight (or gain healthy weight such as body building) you want to minimize your risks of heart disease and diabetes or reverse these issues, then a PBL (Plant Based Lifestyle) is for you!

Now comes the freak out, if you are like me.  I had been vegetarian years ago but I sort of panicked.  Now what do I do for food, what do I fix and how do I get creative with it (because I am married to an executive chef)?  I had the great benefit of training at Hippocrates Health Institute who stepped me through everything from enemas to juicing to the importance of organic clothing.  I had been a project manager with long hours before my Hipp training.  I knew that most Americans were over worked and short on time.  And this creates a very negative cycle.  Rather than fix our own food, even growing a lot of it, as our grandparents did, we have allowed ourselves to become dependent upon big business to provide fast foods.

Not one thing you buy fast, a pre-made and bottled green juice, or a mas produced sandwich, is ever going to be as quality controlled and fresh as it would be if YOU shopped all ingredients and put it together yourself. Sometimes, we want to just buy a pre-made vegan mayonnaise rather than making it from scratch and I totally get that and yes, I sometimes do that too.  But what I am calling you to take note of here, is when you make that choice, you are trading convenience for some nutrition loss and loss of ingredient and freshness control.  This may be ok if you are very familiar with the brand you are buying or are temporarily out of time.

Straight up, this lifestyle takes planning and it may make sense for you to hire someone like me to help you get started and stay the course.

With busy-ness in mind, during this year long study, I took a lot of time to ramp up on researching the best tools, from juicers to cook books to best ways to sprout, in order to offer help to others going down my same path who are short on time but really want to take control of their health, weight and happiness.

I either physically or virtually take folks down the shopping aisles at grocery stores, helping them with re-learning how to shop, what to look for, how to read labels.  I help folks get started growing their own sprouts!  Sunflower sprouts are delightful!  And, if you are lucky enough to have them where you live, I am jealous because until I grew my own, I had never ever even heard of them!

This lifestyle is about planning ahead a bit, soaking your seeds over night, and planning ahead for meals so that you are truly taking care of you and not putting yourself in a compromising position of being hungry and not having something nutritious on hand.

From growing your own garden or mini garden to natural home cleaners to organic skincare and air purification, I can help with my knowledge share and support.

Hippocrates Health Institute Online Life Transformation Program - Get Your Free Syllabus Here!

I want to share the Hippocrates Health Institute's Online Program with you, but below is my personal story.

I worked at Sprint 28 years.  Last year, they did a massive reduction of their  Implementation Project Managers and I found myself with the gift of time.  I called it gainfully unemployed as I had a severance to live off of which has sadly expired now.

I spent the entire year of 2016 on Hippocrates and alternative studies.  I watched documentaries like Earthlings, Eating You Alive, Genetic Roulette and spent countless hours involved in various petitions to save various animals and people from cruelty.   I had considered myself fairly enlightened prior to this significant knowledge download.  I shunned pesticides, did all organic gardening, ate primarily organic food, ate meat not more than 2x week, read my labels, shunned sugar, particularly high fructose corn syrup, did yoga, walked the dog and thought I was doing alright.

My hip-flexors were in near constant pain between all the sitting (12+ hour days at Sprint) and the yoga and walks  I squeezed in between work.  Anytime I did any heavy lifting with my hands, I ended up with pain in my hands for a few days afterwards.  My blood pressure was higher than it should be and I was heavier than I should be too.  was mostly vegetarian, taking the Hipp

With my gift of time, I took the Hippocrates Life Transformation course because finally it was offered online.  For decades, I had wanted to visit the location for a 3 week detox stay, in gorgeous West Palm Beach.  Well, now I had the time even if I really couldn't justify the cost of actually staying there.  was mostly vegetarian, taking the Hipp

Taking this self-paced course was brilliant and it changed my life.  I look younger, dropped unnecessary weight and no longer have the joint/tendon pain I once did.  People comment all the time about my skin tone and weight loss.

Anyone can lose weight, I think we all know how to diet and drop a few pounds, which typically find us again when we go back to eating again.  This course is about a lifestyle, a way of vibrant health, a way of knowing how to shop at the grocery store, what to eat, a full on education on vitamins, minerals, the state of our food supply, the planet and how to live your most resilient and healthy life and become the change necessary.

When I say this course changed my life, I think the only other thing I have ever said that about is when I met my husband.  I encourage you to respect and love yourself enough to check out the free syllabus.

Plant Based Diet - Dipping a Toe In (and saving our planet one toe at a time)

How many of you woke up today and poured sugar in your gas tank? I think of your body like you do your car where to get the best life and performance out of

Think of your body like you do your car, where to get the best life and performance out of it,  you have to feed it with clean fuel at the right octane levels,  and perform ongoing maintenance.

Few folks are going to do a 180 in their diet, but I am here to help if you are.  Most folks will want to dip a toe in, test the waters and, over time, incorporate a healthier lifestyle, from home and skincare products to vitamins and food.  I am here for those people too!  We can work together to assess your goals and how best to reduce toxic exposures and add nutrition to your life.

Living a plant-based lifestyle becomes like peeling the layers of an onion.   When you begin to care deeply about your health, you end up carving out time to learn about it.  Then you begin to care more about your family's health and your friends, your pets and finally the state of our planet.

Learning this lifestyle may very well take you down the rabbit hole, as it did me.  But the truth is always far more refreshing than living a lie, particularly when it is quietly killing you or making you chronically sick.

Whether you eat meat today with every meal as many of my friends do, or you have already reduced dairy and meat consumption, or have gone completely vegan, there are so many surprising things to learn that can shift your health even further to the best that it can be.

The body is an amazing healer, but whatever you feel in the moments, know that it takes the body a full 7 years to completely regenerate.  This means that if you go clean with your diet, your  household cleaners, eschew garden chemicals and put only food grade organic products in your bath and on your skin, you will have a long period of detoxing that takes place in waves, as you become healthier and made brand new again.  The outcome is worth the effort.  :)

The Tipping Point - Creating Global Change; It Just Requires You

In one of the final lectures at Hippocrates, we discussed the Tipping Point (http://thetippingpointnetwork.com/) where awareness is created, in this case, about GMOs and Organics, allowing consumers the opportunity to learn the dangers. Jeffrey Smith lead the lecture.  He also has an engaging movie out, Genetic Roulette, very worth watching and sharing.




When a mother is concerned about what she is feeding her child, when there are health concerns or there are folks who simply want to know what is in their food and make better choices, that becomes the tipping point, where the game changes; The Tipping Point is created when more of us realize there are serious problems with our food and we begin asking questions and boycotting the food with bad or questionable ingredients. In short, we vote with our dollars. When enough of us do this, in mass, we create global change. Already there are many companies that have now pulled ingredients containing Genetically Modified Organisms out of their product. Companies like Nestle, Cheerios, Ben & Jerry's. The reasons are not always altruistic. While a wise corporation at the very least pretends to care about its' consumers, the one thing all of them, without exception care about, is profits. When we band together for change, when we vote with our wallet, our voice overshadows everything else.

Vegan Junk Food? Learning How To Eat In A Polluted World

The bible talks quite a bit about what to eat.  In Genesis, (1:29) we learn about the garden of Eden and are advised to eat the plants and herbs, nd the fruit of the trees and bushes;  "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.  They will be your food.  And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that hs the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food." Then the fall happened and there were thorns, thistles, chaos and meat eating.

People have all different faiths, but the common threads are kindness, compassion and our maker pointing us to a plant-based diet, to live kindly and in harmony.

The very first thing I want to do is turn you on to this book by Dr Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, who has lectured throughout my latest Hippocrates Health Institute training.  The book is Conscious Eating, by Gabriel Cousens.   For ease, I have included a link, so just click on the coloured ink to get more info or purchase.  Hearing his lectures has been one of the things I greatly look forward to in my Hipp studies.  I find him engaging, charming, approachable, enlightening, coming from a place of great kindness and so educational.  I was vegetarian for several years in my youth and began 2015 getting back to that and now being primarily vegan.

You can eat junk food and still be vegan.  The point of eating this way, other than being kind to animals and the planet that is far over-taxed, is to get the nutritional, the vitamin, enzyme and mineral deficit most of us have mitigated. We want to be filled up with things that bring us abundant health and resilience.  

In my studies this week, it suddenly hit me how deep this goes and it was right after another lecture from Gabriel noting Genesis as a baseline for how we are directed to eat.  Today we live in a very polluted world.  Back when the bible was writ, everything had just been newly formed, pristine.  We Humans hadn't had any time yet to screw it all up with greed, corruption, factory farming, with Monsanto and Big Farma and Big Business controlling the Government that We The People voted in to take care of US.  Go back in your mind to the beginning, envision everything pure, newly minted.  Think just how powerful a statement this is, to be told by our maker to eat a plant-based diet!

This week I had someone exclaim 'I am NOT subsisting on twigs and berries!  I must have nutrition and protein!'   So I want to talk about this.  Other than the fact Gods original plan was that we dine in this manner (and who else would know better than God?)  the fact is that today's food supply is treacherous.  Wheat is vastly weakened, no longer the 'Staff of Life'.  Our farm animals are over-crowded and living miserable lives in miserable conditions.  What do you think that does to the milk, the cheese, the meat?  Who wants to eat unhappiness?  I don't.  And I learned recently that many processed snack foods contain opiates to further addict us to the product!

Ownership to take control of your lifestyle, your menu, falls upon you.  The way the world runs today, the focus is on profit above all else.  The FDA, the USDA, do not care one jot about the public at large.  The government doesn't care if you live or die, just please pay your taxes first. ☺

We are continuously being controlled and conditioned to live fast, eat fast, look for the quick fix and over-work ourselves to an earlier grave and be just too busy to think about all of this too much. I got laid off last February as a Project Manager where I was in a great time famine. Suddenly I have time to think about things more.  And so I share.

 In creating juices for a small seminar on juicing, someone asked 'Are you going to create a juice and bottle it?  This could be a great product and business opportunity for you!'  I explained that, while there are bottled juices out there and that, yes, they are convenient, the issue is that 1) product that sits for anything longer than 15 minutes oxidises and loses vast nutrition.  2) Unless you have another access point, the grocery store shelves are stocked with product that has been pasteurised, which uses high heat to neuter all natural enzymes and vitamins.  This is why so many products are labeled with 'Added Vitamins'.

If you are just starting out, start small.  Read my blog posts, because I have done the research on best practices for sprouting, making nut milks, there are some recipes and, after my latest school work is completed, I will be adding a lot more content!  What helped me is books like this one.  I have several vegan books (and you can find some groovy recipes online too) that helped me figure out what to make now that I am not eating meat and what do I use to replace such things as milk or cheese or butter.

Begin by taking baby steps.  And I am here if you need help with this, it's what I do as a consultant.  In a pinch, of course you can buy the already prepared stuff at the store, but let me tell you, the difference between making your own nut milk (almond, Brazil) are lightyears tastier and healthier than anything you buy pre-made.

Because we've been conditioned to 'fast' food, fast ways, know that there is a process of re-learning and acceptance of some pre-planning as well as time consumption needed for this lifestyle.  For example, I grow my own greens in the spring/summer.  It takes me extra time to work my garden.

If you forgo a garden, but want to sprout, the products I recommend will absolutely save you time, but there will still be a bit of time and preparation involved to soak your seeds the night before, to check water levels and harvest.  I find all this calming and meditative now.  And I am now in a groove with all of it.  At first, like anything you are new too, it took extra time as I tried to figure all of it out.  This is exactly what hit me on the idea to be a Plant-Based Lifestyle Consultant.  I believe a lot of folks need a 2 hour session with me to not only perhaps learn about why sprouts are vital to this diet, but how to set up their kitchens for success and time savings.

It's a new year.  Your body has carried you all this way.  Give yourself the gift of love, respect, abundant health and resilience!

Peace.

Stress & Kindness

Stress - While it cannot be avoided, please do all that you can to minimise it in your life. I am learning how stress literally kills right now. Sometimes we encounter people who really need to step out of their own way, they confuse the issues, make resolution harder than it has to be, perhaps they not always mindful before acting, speaking or typing. Maybe sometimes that is us, because sometimes, we all just lose it. These are all self-sabotaging behaviours, which typically manifest during stress. I cannot over-emphasise yoga for stress management. Even going once a week will provide you great benefits over time. You will learn breathwork, breathing techniques that increase lung capacity but also will aid as a cue for you when needed. You will also learn amazing self control! My PM work was very enjoyable for me, overall. But, there were times when the typical length of the day was too much or a person or situation was. Let calm rule you. It's perfectly ok to step inside and shut the door of a break-out room and primal scream if you must. I needed to do this just the once in 26 years at Sprint and over a completely unrealistic situation I had been placed in, that I could not get myself out of. But I never lost my cool in front of the group. To share this story a bit further, in case is resonates with and helps you, I had been placed on a new team of people who, while I had been there, fully vetted and known to be an excellent PM, these particular people never had worked with me before. The work-load, and the folks on this project made the situation untenable. There were layoffs and stress was exceedingly high. I resolved to be kind. It was all that I could do. When insults flew, I was kind. Someone actually asked if I was stupid. In meetings with the folks I supported, they would ask me to provide status and proceed to talk over me. Team-mates came in unshowered, there was no time for cleanliness. Some folks did not keep working as hard on their personal time as I did and were let go; it was considered their fault. It was never that there was far too much work on everyone's plate. People in the situation causing unnecessary chaos weren't managed down. A team-mate lost 4 of their molars, due to stress, grinding the teeth. Molars are forever gone once gone. There were divorces born of this time and illness. My mother was going through Chemo and Radiation. I could not be there for her during the daily commutes to radiation so I found rides for her to treatment by way of the Cancer Society volunteers. And I worked 7 days a week, all holidays and 12+ hour days for over a year being kind. It was bloody hard being kind, but I maintained kindness in every email, every sentence out of my mouth. This act was the only one, other than of course getting my work done, that I had any control over. In an effort to help spread kindness and minimise the onslaught of completely unnecessary emails (I was getting 400-800 a day) I placed the query: Is it helpful, is it necessary, is it kind into my signature line. In an effort to manage down my hours, I also noted my hours too (7a-4p). In all my years there, I had never taken 2 weeks off together at once before, but I was breaking apart and knew I needed to go on holiday. An individual who was hostile, took over my base while I went out for 1 full week of training followed directly by 2 weeks of vacation. I was hoping for a friendly to take on my base but hostile spoke right up demanding my base. I didn't know what was going to hit me when I returned, but I had to have the break. This was in 2007 and I was laid off in 2016. This was the epicentre of unbearable pain, unbearable odds. When I returned to work, there was a new level of respect given, eyes opened to exactly what was going on in my base. Every product was ordered correctly. Every communication accurate and current. My work was found to be flawless and on track. I assumed I would be laid off, but suddenly things got immensely better for me. Whether it is work, family or personality driven, all of us experience stressful times. Know that if managed correctly, these times should be temporary. IF they are longer in term, there is a management issue somewhere. My takeaway from this time of fire is twofold: 1) always act in kindness, never lose your cool in front of people. Right or wrong, folks will always remember your wig out if you have a double geared hissy fit in front of them. You don't want that visual following you around later. You also don't want to be known as cruel, snarky, or unstable, so be kind. This doesn't mean you don't protect yourself and stand up for yourself, where you can, but do so in a way that is 'professional' offered in kindness. 2) Document Everything - I have been a documentation specialist for decades now, but this situation really brought home the need for managing by fact not emotion and retaining a documentation trail on everything. At the end of the day, it will be kindness, composure and a level head, followed by all the back up docs you've culled, that wins the day. And It will ultimately shine the light of truth on anyone intentionally doing you harm.

Veganism & Protein etc.

There are some things I hear repeatedly by people when I tell them I am mostly vegan, a bit vegetarian (no milk but some cheese) and focused on raw food. Because we've all been taught that for protein, we need dairy and meat, and most of us were brought up primarily on cooked and processed foods, we don't think about the bioavailability of the vitamins, the minerals, the protein or that cooking anything above 118 Fahrenheit, cooks the enzymes out as well as much of the vitamins. This doesn't always mean for you, that you must never eat cooked food again, or ever touch meat. What I am encouraging is for you to try segueing into a more plant-centric diet, and reduce the cooked foods so that at least 1/2 of your meals are raw. Buy only organic or wild produce, grow your own wherever possible and grow a variety of sprouts and eat them daily. Below is a link with great information and links to purchase some tested and reviewed by me sprouting options. Now, about protein - typical 4oz chicken breast has 28 grams of protein. Sprouted Lentils (4oz) have 25g. We are not living in the same world we had in the 1950's. Our world is entirely polluted. It needs our help to reduce meat consumption because the land used causes soil erosion and the water used is wasteful. The feces, chemicals and all else utilised by factory farming methods is destroying our planet. Even if you do not care that the animals are mistreated, abused, sick, and very unhappy living unnaturally in cramped quarters, not allowed to be themselves at all, think about the unhappiness you are ingesting along with the chemicals and other crap given to the poor creature. It is not a healthy way for any and all concerned. So if you eat meat, go organic, do your level best to buy meat from more humane sources and reduce consumption to 2 days per week or one day. My husband and I had 'meat friday' a few years back where that was our one day each week to enjoy a nice steak etc. Now I let him eat the steak knowing I am causing less harm to others and myself. I have been on this track since February, reducing/eliminating sugars, meat, dairy, growing my own sprouts and I fit far better in my clothes and people keep telling me my skin tone is fabulous and that I have lost weight. But I can tell you that I have gotten healthier, stronger, more resilient.