Ugh. I am experiencing thoughts that are making me feel BAD.

Here are some of them in a dump so I can see what’s what.

- No one has time for me.

- I am a burden.

- I need help.

- I feel funky.

- This is bad.

- I am a mess.

- Nobody loves me.

- I am worthless (Getting to the bottom of the barrel of these yucky thoughts here…)

- I don’t deserve help.

- I may as well just shrivel up in a corner and die. (Okay. I’m at the bottom.)

The point of getting to the bottom of the Yucky Barrel is to make sure that everything that wants and is ready to be expressed CAN be expressed and DOES get expressed. Otherwise, it stays inside unsaid and that just creates more problems.

So the next part of this method that I learned from my friends Steph & Todd is to work my way up the list from the bottom and creates New Choices for each of the yucky things I dumped out. So I ask myself:

Instead of experiencing “thing from the Yucky Barrel list”, what would I rather experience? What’s my new choice?

So instead of: “May as well just shrivel up in a corner and die..”

My new choice is: I am grateful to be alive and I love my life.

It’s basically a version of a turnaround or opposite or something positive about ME that feels better and is more empowering. The reason I’m making this new choice is for my subconscious (who doesn’t know the difference between real and imaginary) so I’m giving it a new positive message which is at least as true (if not more true) than the yucky one that I wrote down…and it definitely feels better.

So here’s my rewritten list of new choices. (I’m going to keep them in the same order as the list above, but I’m going to work my way up from the bottom so that the last one I write a new choice for, is the first one that I dumped in my Yucky Barrel list.)

My New Choices Are…

I am fully supported and have everything I require.

I am a blessing and I belong.

I have everything I require and I am cared for.

I feel clear and happy and at ease.

I experience goodness in everything I do.

I am beautiful and I have a wonderful life.

I am loved.

I am worthy and I am good.

I deserve to receive help and it feels good.

I am grateful to be alive and I love my life.

– Wow that sure feels nice to read.

And Now That All This Is True…

Now it’s time to crank up my Imagination to level 11 and imagine my life 3 years from now.

I’m going to imagine that all those new choices are true…and have been for the last 3 years. So I’m going to re-read the list of new choices and read them out loud and say:

“Now that 3 whole years have passed and all these things are true…(Read each item from the list out loud so that I can hear them and feel them)…and I’ve been experiencing those things the entire 3 years…

What day of the week is it?

Sunday

What time of the day?

6pm

Where am I? Inside? Outside?

Inside a restaurant with friends. There are nice table cloths and candles and a beautiful ambiance in the restaurant. It’s pretty busy, but it’s not super loud. Somehow it’s easy to have conversation and also enjoy being around people. I am with 3 of my girlfriends.

What am I doing there?

We are dressed up to celebrate one of our friends’ birthdays. We have presents on the table and we’re all wearing fancy blouses/dresses.

What am I wearing?

I’m wearing a satin-like type of emerald green loose spaghetti strap top with some sexy black dress pants and awesome cute sandal heels. It’s warm enough that I don’t need a jacket or anything. My hair is down and I have on some dangling earrings that I really like too.

What part of the meal are you guys having? (Here I can just ask questions to get more details. The more details the better because it makes things more vivid in my imagination.)

We’re having the dessert part and she’s about to open all her presents. I had like a berry sorbet type of thing with a little chocolate ball truffle type of thing on top. It is super refreshing and I love the tall dish that it came in. We are all having so much fun and we’re all great friends.

How are you feeling at this dinner party for your friend’s birthday?

I’m so happy and grateful for my life. I love my friends and I’m so glad we could all get together tonight for the celebration. We have great balanced friendships between all of us and we love each other very much. We’re like family.

Just as your friend is about to open the gift that you gave her, your server comes over and has a little envelope decorated with flowers on it and it has your name on it. She gives it to you and said that someone dropped it off for you. Who is it from?

I know right away from looking at the handwriting that it’s from Jessica – the young girl who lives near me that I’ve been mentoring and taking care of. I’ve been helping her for the last 3 years (she’s 13 now). She’s such a great person and I love her so much. She knew I was going to be out to dinner with my friends for the birthday party so she must have ridden her bike to the little place we’re at to drop this off for me. How sweet. All my friends think it’s super sweet too because they all know Jessica and love her too.

What does the letter say?

Well, I am tempted to save it and read it later after the presents were opened, but my friends encourage me to open it then. So I open it up and it reads:

Dear Mona -

Hope you’re having fun at Sara’s birthday party and aren’t eating too much chocolate. If you have extra, just put it in a to go bag for me. haha

I just wanted you to know that I love you and I appreciate everything that you’ve done for me. You’re such an amazing person and I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for me. Really. I know I’m not good at expressing myself sometimes with words, but tonight I felt like trying. You have made such a difference in my life and I love you.

Thank you for believing me!

Love,

Jessica

P.S. I’m so excited to go to the beach with our bikes this weekend. That’s going to be awesome.

How do you feel reading the note?

I read it out loud to my friends and they all go Awwww and add confirmation that it’s really great what I’ve done with Jessica and how I’ve been able to support her and make a difference in her life and what a great girl she’s become. They are so supportive me and love Jessica also. I feel blessed. I feel a little choked up. I feel warm inside and I feel so happy. My life is beautiful and I’m surrounded by so much love. I smile and tuck the note away in my purse and then text Jessica a quick note: Thank you for the sweet note! I love you too. xoxo

Then what happens?

Then Sara opens all her presents and it’s so much fun. One of our friends is an artist and made a little porcelain gift that is beautiful.

What happens when Sara opens your gift?

Her eyes get bright and wide and she’s so happy to open the little purple box. Inside are some silver bangles I brought back from my trip to Thailand. They have beautiful designs pressed into them and she LOVES them. She puts them on and starts modeling her hand and I love seeing her enjoy them. I smile big and clasp my hands together in joy that she likes them so much.

(As Sara is opening the last friend’s gift, you start thinking about how great all this is…and how 3 years previously you were going through a totally different experience. You start reflecting on what changed.)

What did you LET GO OF that allowed you to be at this place in your life with your friends at this birthday party?

I let go of being a burden and thinking I’m a mistake.

What did you LET IN that allowed all this to happen?

I let in: I deserve a good life and I am a good person.

(Now I say it aloud 3 times: I deserve a good life and I am a good person.)

I feel a lot better now. Ahhh.

So everyone thinks that juicing takes FOREVER which is a big reason that a lot of folks stay away from it.

But I just made 1.25 gallons (5 quarts) of juice in less than 50 minutes…

1.25 Gallons (5 Quarts) of Fresh Juice Made In Less Than 50 Minutes.

And that included set up and clean up time.

(Yes, I totally rock!)

Here’s what’s involved:

Juicer Set Up

This is easy if you have the juicer cleaned from the time before when you used it. Never let your juicer sit over night with pulp and food in it. That will be bad for your machine and also make it way less enjoyable to clean later on. The more it sits there, the more caked on the stuff gets. So always clean your machine so that it’s ready for your to put together in a jiffy when you’re ready.

Food Prep

I put a cutting board across the non-disposal side of my sink. That’s where you’ll do all your chopping. You will rinse things on the side with the disposal in case things fall down and off your foods.

Food Storage

Keep similar foods grouped together in your fridge. This makes it easy when you go to get things out.

• Spinach: all in one bag. The bag I have in the fridge has like 5 huge batches of it in there now.
• Romaine: Shove 3 or 4 heads in one huge plastic bag. Make sure you keep them in a bag or they will wilt like crazy.
• Celery: This will also wilt a lot if you don’t keep it in a bag. (I am all for using sustainable bags, but when I go to the produce store and they give me big sturdy plastic bags I reuse them for my storage for a long time.)
• Cilantro, kale, chard, red bell pepper: I keep these things in the same bag since I don’t buy tons at a time.
• Carrots: Do not require being in a bag immediately
• Apples, lemons, oranges, limes, tomatoes, bananas: I leave these on the counter top
• Strawberries: Rinse after buying and put them in ziplock bags. Use fairly quickly. They will go bad and get soggy even when in the bags. You can freeze them for smoothies, but frozen strawberries don’t go through most juicers very well. (Champion juicer is an exception. You can put frozen fruit in there and make sorbet.)

Recipes

Using recipes is going to make your job easier and go faster because you won’t be looking at all your produce thinking, “Okay, what the hell should I put in next?”

Here are some of my simple favorites:

Bugs Bunny:
5 Carrots
1 Head of Romaine

Green Monkey:
1 lb spinach
2 apples
2 bananas
Float ice cubes

Sweet Morning Juice
1 big orange (peeled)
1 apple
3 carrots
1 stalk celery
1 inch ginger (always put ginger in first so that it can be pushed through the juicer by the other ingredients)

Crisp Veggie Juice
1/2 head romaine
2 stalks of kale
2 stalks of celery
5 inches of cuke
4 carrots

Green Bloody Mary
2 big tomatoes
3 stalks celery
1/4 red bell pepper
2 stalks chard
2 cups green cabbage
handful cilantro
fresh baby garlic
salt/pepper/cayenne afterward

Pineapple Delight
1/2 of a pineapple
1/2 head romaine
3 stalks celery
1/2 cuke

(Some of these recipes are adapted from www.ChoosingRaw.com. Thanks for the inspiration!)

Storage

Mason jars are a beautiful invention. I got like 12 of them at Albertson’s for about $1 a piece…if that. It was awesome. Juice is best to drink right after you make it, but when you’re Juice Feasting and drinking THIS much juice, it’s totally impractical to make each batch right before you go to drink it. So store them in these jars, put them in the fridge and then enjoy them all day.

Clean up.

Clean up as you go and the mess won’t be so bad afterwards. Take the garbage can out from under the sink if that’s where you usually keep it and have it handy for scrap things that fall on the floor and extra pulp that pops out of different places. You’ll also need it for bags that are no longer usuable, rubber bands that were around your produce, stickers that were on your apples, banana peels, and wires that were wrapped around celery stalks and things like that.

A note on bananas:

Not all juicers like having bananas put through them. My JackLaLanne doesn’t seem to mind. I push them slowly and then push other hard fruit down to get the Essence of Banana flavor to come through. That’s all I’m looking for in mine. If your juicer does not like bananas, make your juice in your juicer then put it in your blender and add a whole banana or a half of one. You’ll get some fiber and if you’re okay with that, then go for it!

Timing

The way I timed myself this morning was by playing a CD while I juiced. (Actually it was my Erasure playlist on iTunes.) When I was done setting up, making the juice and cleaning up, I looked at how many songs had played and added them all up for the length of each song. It came out to 49 minutes and 57 seconds. Just under 50 minutes and I had ALL this delicious juice to last me all day long.

The more you do your juicing the more you’ll find your flow with it. I’ve been doing this for 20 days now, so I’m getting pretty good at chopping, prepping, juicing and cleaning my machine. You’ll get great at it to. I believe in you and you can do it!

I am Juice Feasting: Meaning that the aim is to drink at least a Gallon of fresh juice a day.

At first I thought it was going to be hard. Like that’s A LOT of juice!

But just yesterday I realized that my quart sized mason jars make it SO easy!

Drink 4 of my mason jars filled with goodness and that = a Gallon!

So simple.

So I have been drinking a Gallon of juice easily for at least the last week.

What this means?

I am getting stronger and my insides are healing.

Sa-weet!

When I first came out of the hospital on Jan. 31, I could barely drink 3-5 CUPS of water in a day.

20 days later, I am drinking at least a gallon of juice and at least 2 quarts of water. (I choose to upgrade the number of quarts of water I’m drinking as well.)

So it’s Amazing!

Some other things that are helping:

- Making juices that I love.

I am not getting fancy right now with exotic greens. I am sticking with spinach, romaine, kale, and chard. (Dandelion greens, stinging nettles, all these other interesting things from the farmer’s market can wait. They wind up going bad and I make juices that I don’t like the taste of, so they are off the list right now. And I love them for later.)

- Prepping all of my juice for the day at once.

It takes about an hour maybe? I haven’t actually timed it, but it’s all fine because I consider it major self-care time. It’s fun. I hum I love you I love you I love you to my veggies as I push them through the juicer. Such amazing colors come out of the juicer. And I like to stir the bowl I catch the juice in with a spoon like I’m a little chef making cool potions to taste.

- Using recipes.

Yes, I could just look in the fridge and grab what’s there, but I don’t always have the right proportions of things. By going online and looking for recipes to try and tweak to my liking it takes the brain work out of making the juices and I can trust that what I create is going to turn out to be something that I ENJOY drinking. Here’s one I made up:

Green Pineapple Juice:

- 1/2 pineapple
- 1/2 head of romaine lettuce
- 2 full sticks of celery

Juice and enjoy! Super refreshing.

- Straining

Some of my juices are coming out more pulpy than I would like with my JackLaLanne juicer. So I have a paint bag/nutmilk bag that I strain them with. That helps everything. Because of my intestinal issues in the past, I am really choosing to give them a break and not have them require breaking down food.

- Emotional Work

It’s essential that I continue to do my inner clearing and work as I’m doing this. Stuff comes up and if I don’t have tools and approaches for working with it, it would be a serious bummer. If you’re considering doing a serious juice feast/cleanse, make sure you have emotional support of someone who knows the road.

I do The Work every morning on the same thought: “This shouldn’t be happening.” Anything in my life that I don’t like, I apply to that inquiry and I question it. I learn something new about myself and my world every time.

I do 15 minutes of “square breathing” as some people call it. 7 counts in. 7 counts hold. 7 counts out. 7 counts hold. I count as fast as I need to do it comfortably without hurting myself or feeling stressed about running out of air. Each time I do it I’m able to do it better and better in terms of increasing lung capacity. I have different mantras that have 7 sayings in them too (sometimes all the same like “i love you” and I say those during this sometimes too instead of just counting.)

- Enemas.

I am doing these nearly every day and they help me feel fresh and clear. I am pooing on my own as well and it’s important to me to get everything I can out as I’m doing this juicing. I am planning on starting to do to Aloe Enemas also because aloe is very healing and I have had intestinal/color sores in the past.

- Imagination

I am doing a lot of inner child work (talking to parts of me) during my emotional work. This has proven especially helpful when the thought comes in like Ooo I want some french fries. Something i would never eat right now, but have an interst and thought focus on eating for a while anyway. So I pretend that I am eating french fries…and it totally does the trick. I imagine eating a big hot basket of them with ketchup and salt and having friends around. I put my fingers to my mouth and pretend I’m nibbling on them like a squirrel and I imagine how good they are. This takes about 30 seconds max. And then I’m done with it. As a result, I am not struggling with cravings of any kind.

If I think of a food that smells/tastes good, I give it to myself in my imagination and it is perfect. Most hunger is in the imagination anyway. We tend to be ruled by our tongues and what they want to taste. That’s it. My tongue isn’t in control of everything I eat anymore. I love you tongue.

- Oils

During the first week, I craved oils big time. I got a jar of Flax Oil. I drink 2 big spoonsfuls a day straight from the jar. I’m going to start upping that to 4 TBPS (2 of them 2x a day) and then also add in some Hemp Oil if I enjoy the taste of it. I am still taking oils.

- Watering My Insides

Giving my body fresh juice like this has really helped change the relationship I have with my insides. I often think about all the pink fleshy parts of my mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, intestines, colon, liver, etc.

I imagine that when I’m drinking the juice it’s coating all of the lovely pink parts and they are so happy to absorb the goodness like sponge. So much happier than if I were to throw a chomped up triscuit down there with some cheese on it or something. Or even so much happier than if I were to throw some raw food lasagna down there since I have been a raw vegan for a year.

My body is so happy to be receiving these liquid nutrients and to be “watered” with love like this.

Juice Feasting has been awesome. I love it. I am feeling good. I am healing. I feel good and I am healthy. I take great care of myself and give my body everything it requires. I dance and I walk around the block. I went on my first bike ride last night since being out of the hospital too. One of my goals is to be able to ride my bike to the beach. 15 minutes with some slight hills. I can do it! I will get there.

I love you and thank you for your support and kindness. My life is so beautiful. I am surrounded by support. And I love and respect my life path.

Okay…

Heard from Larry Winget on Twitter about this commercial:

larrywinget TV commercial: Coach to girls hockey team, “You played like Olympians, now let’s go eat like Olympians.” Then they go to McDonalds. Right.

GRRR!

I wrote back to him:

@larrywinget Ugh. Knowing that commercial exists pisses me off right now. Thanks for giving me something to work on. Stuff’s gotta change.

THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING!

1. Is that true?

2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true? (What’s the reality?)

3. How do you react when all that stuff is happening and you believe the thought: It shouldn’t be happening?

4. Who would you be, knowing that all this is going on, if you didn’t have the thought: This shouldn’t be happening?

Taking a deep breath. I would get back in touch with myself. I didn’t even see the commercial that was mentioned on Twitter. I have no idea if it was really on. But that’s besides the point. Even if it was on…it is not my business who decides to go to McDonald’s after watching it.


People are going to go to McDonald’s today like they have since the 1950’s or whenever it opened. It is part of this culture. It’s like some people are going to ride bikes today. Some will fall. Some will drive cars. Some will crash. Some will eat at McDonald’s, others will eat other things. Everything is in perfect order like that as it has been forever.


I would be more in my business again. I would go get my fresh juice this morning and appreciate it. I would take care of me. I would not worry about what others are doing with their bodies right now. I have enough to look at with my own body and bringing it back to vital health after my recent health issues. I would feel loving again.

I would be glad that whoever went to McDonald’s was getting something to eat that they wanted. That they could afford. That made them happy. That helped McDonald’s make money so they could do their McDonald’s house charity for cancer or whatever it focuses on. I would be grateful again.


I would be glad for the Olympics that they have a big name sponsor who can help them get more attention. That makes me happy for the athletes who have worked their whole lives to get to where they are and by McDonald’s partnering with them, more people around the world will tune into the Olympics possibly to see these great athletes and celebrate their lives and their hard work. This is a beautiful thing. That commercial is great in that way.

TA> This should not be happening (in my thinking.)

How can I be in relationship with my work with ease and kindness toward myself and my business?

This is the question I’ve been asking myself this week…when I remember to…because in the past, I’ve sometimes had a crappy relationship with my business that made me want to ignore it, hate it, and pretend it was dead.

But last night, after talking with Giovanni, I discovered the perfect answer to this question.

How can I be in relationship with my work with ease and kindness toward myself and my business???

(It has to do with the movie Zoolander and the 80’s song Ben Stiller got programmed to…)

It’s all about RELAXING.

Being tense, and tensing up is the only reason I’ve ever *not* liked working and being in relationship with my business…

So…

Take the lyrics from Frankie Goes To Hollywood:

Relax don’t do it
When you want to go to it
Relax don’t do it

If ever I don’t know what to do…relaxing is a good place to start.

Before I start working on something…relaxing is a good idea.

When I’m planning things for the business…doing it while I’m relaxed is better than doing it when I’m tense.

(As Jack Black would say, “See? It’s feckin’ simple.”)

What’s the point in doing something if I’m tense and not relaxed?

And I’m not talking about relaxing like falling into a deep meditation or anything…

But relaxing into what’s in front of me.

Getting present by relaxing into the now – into the moment.

I’ve been practicing this since last night…

Woke up this morning focusing on being relaxed about what I’m doing…

And no matter what I’m doing, even if I’m excitedly saying hello to the dog in the morning…I can do it while being relaxed.

Because the relaxation I’m talking about and experiencing is about being present with myself.

It’s about actually *being* in my moment. Relaxing into me.

It’s really quite nice.

And I love how it’s just a simple instruction to myself: Relax.

That’s really all I have to do to. And everything else is going to flow out of that.

So get ready, Business. I am relaxed and ready to spend some time with you.

—> What difference could it make in your business if you focused on being relaxed instead of tensing up?

For the last several days, I’ve woken up, gone outside with my green smoothie and a notebook and questioned one of my thoughts.

I’ve been working with the same thought every morning – though I apply it to different situations where it has fit in my life.

It’s this thought:

This shouldn’t be happening.

It covers a lot of territory. Pretty much any time I’m upset – about anything – in anyway – it’s because I’m believing some kind of version of this thought.

And each time I’ve questioned it over the last several days, I’ve learned something new (and beautiful) about myself and my life.

Tomorrow morning, if things go as they’ve been going, I’ll question the belief again while squatting outside in the sun with my water and smoothie. I write my inquiry in a pink spiral notebook that I got from Staples and I write slowly and deliberately with a ball point pen.

Tonight, before I go to sleep I’d like to question the thought also:

—> This shouldn’t be happening.

1. Is it true?

Yes.

2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true?

No.

3. How do you react when you believe the thought: This shouldn’t be happening?

I feel left out. I compare myself. I see myself as alone and on the outside. I feel like I’m missing out. I create pictures in my mind of all the things I’m missing out on. I am afraid to show up and participate. I let my stories about other people scare me into not taking action. I go into their business and imagine them telling themselves bad stories about me. And not wanting me. And hoping I will go away and never come back. I make me into a monster in their mind, and then they become monsters to me. It’s very sad to be believing this. I don’t trust what’s going on. I think I know better. I wish I could go back in time and do things differently. I get afraid of what’s going to happen in the future.

4. Who would you be without the thought: This shouldn’t be happening?

Grateful that it is happening. And so much of it without me. I have had other things to tend to. I have been quite busy in fact. I am actually so happy that it is happening as it is and I have not had to do anything to make that happen. What a gift that is. Really. I did not have to think about it or be creative or come up with ideas or troubleshoot or give feedback or any of it. It has happened like magic and it’s so good that it did. I was free to do all the things that I was doing and continue to do. It is so good! And I continue to be spared because I have other things I require tending to still. I would bless what’s happening and open my heart to it. Love it. Appreciate it. Admire it. That’s a big change.

TA> This should be happening.

a) Yes – it’s actually so cool that it did because it’s supporting me in taking care of me. It happened the way it did so that I could do what I did.

b) It’s so good that it’s happening. I’m in an amazing place in my life. And if all this had not been happening the way it did, I can’t know that I would be in this same place – which I am really loving and enjoying. My life is so good and I’m so happy and appreciative.

c) It is happening. There it is. Right in my face. I see it. It’s real. It’s happening. It should be. I get it. Thank you for being there.

TA> This should not be happening (in my thinking.)

The only *problem* here is that my thinking is telling a story about what shouldn’t be going on, when it actually is going on. It’s just a little glitch. Reality happening the way it is is totally good and okay. I love that I found the gratitude for it in question 4.

So the thing happening in my thinking could be seen as the thing that shouldn’t be happening. I’m supporting myself in having a cleaner, clearer mind by questioning it and making space for new possibilities. Being less rigid about claiming to know what should or shouldn’t be going on in the world. I can be more of a witness. And this thing should definitely be happening – because it is. And it is good.

What is the thing you think shouldn’t be happening in your life or in the world right now?

How might it be better for you that that thing actually *is* happening?

Today at the beach there was a couple who sat in a hole that had been dug by some previous beach goers.

They had a plastic grocery bag with them.

He had on swim trunks and no shirt.

She had on shorts and a t-shirt with some silver writing on it.

They sat in the hole and ate chocolate covered ice cream pops out of the plastic grocery bag.

He ate at least 4 of them while they were sitting in the hole.

He fed some to her sometimes, and mostly he just ate ice cream bar after ice cream bar.

One after the other as he looked out over the ocean and snuggled with his sweetheart in the sandy hole.

I loved watching him.

He was so happy.

Yes, he was overweight.

Yes, she was overweight.

So what?

It was the beach. It was ice cream. It was them sitting in a hole in the sand.

And I got to watch. I got to see this sweet moment with them.

I blessed them and their ice cream bars.

Instead of judgment for how many ice cream bars he was eating…

I felt so much love.

Love that he had the money to go to the store and buy the box of ice cream bars.

Love that he and his sweetheart thought to come to the beach and eat them.

Love that they decided to sit in the sandy hole next to me and eat them.

Love that he didn’t have to feel bad about spending money on them and then having them all melt.

Love that he ate them without his shirt on without any apparent shame…one after the other.

Love that he gave himself what he wanted for Valentine’s Day with his sweetheart.

It was an instance that, in the past, may not have been so loved filled for me.

An instance that may have been more judgment filled.

Today it was filled with love – and it really stood out to me.

I’m glad I was paying attention.

I’m glad I chose love.

It’s Valentine’s Day…do you have plans already?

I was wondering if you’d like to get together and question some of our stressful stories about love and relationships…

So I’m holding two free Valentine’s Day Inquiry calls today…

One in the morning and one in the evening.

(You’re welcome to come to one or both.)

We’ll be questioning stories like:

• I shouldn’t be alone.
• My partner shouldn’t have done/said that.
• Relationships are hard.
• Valentine’s Day is stupid.
• I need a boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife.
• My partner is annoying because…
• I’m not lovable.

Basically it’s a BYOST party…

“Bring Your Own Stressful Thoughts” party…

So jot down some of those yucky, sad, depressing thoughts about love and relationships and we’ll question them and get some feel-good-clarity instead.

Sound good?

Details for the free Valentine’s Day Inquiry calls are below…

I love you -

Free Valentine’s Day Inquiry Calls

Date: Sunday, Feb. 14th

- Morning Call: 10 am Pacific (11
Mountain, 12 Central, 1 Eastern)

- Evening Call: 6 pm Pacific (7 Mountain,
8 Central, 9 Eastern)

Phone: (605) 475-4825

Access code: 1064758#

No need to RSVP…just bring your lovely self and maybe some warm tea.

P.S. I went to the dollar store last week and bought a stick with a red sparkly styrofoam heart on the end of it. It makes me smile and I’m going to be holding it during our calls today.

It’s a huge question that comes up when people find out that you have a 100% raw veggie based diet…

Where do you get your protein?

Sadly, we have been raised with very little education about where protein comes from and generally assume that you can only get it from animal products like meat, chicken, fish, or dairy products.

This is not true.

Protein is actually everywhere in nature – and there are tons of animals on the planet who benefit from protein without having to eat their own kind or other little living critters.

As I’m into raw food juicing right now, look at all the sources I have for getting amazing amounts of protein:

spinach–49% protein
broccoli–45% protein
lettuce–34% protein
cauliflower–40% protein
kale–45% protein
zucchini–28% protein
cabbage–22% protein
Chinese cabbage–34% protein
Mung beansprouts–43% protein
mushrooms–38% protein
lemons–16% protein
honeydew melon–10%
strawberries, oranges, cherries, apricots, watermelon, and grapes–8% protein

Source: Nutritive Value of American Foods in Common
Units, USDA Handbook No. 456

Any of the items on this list can be juiced or blended along with other fruits and veggies and turned into delicious drinks that will give me all the protein I require.

On a chart here with levels of proteins for cow steak, the one with the most protein is a boiled steak and it only has 32 % protein. Not too shabby, but fresh spinach has 49%!

Plus, when you blend your spinach and your protein-rich greens, you get to absorb the protein much better than if your body has to digest it out of a big hunk of cow muscle that you just swallowed.

Protein is EASY to get through fresh raw food if you’re leading a raw-food lifestyle (or vegan or vegetarian for that matter…)

You just have to know the truth about where it comes from so that you can give yourself plenty of these fresh green leafy veggies.

Here’s a quick fun recipe to get some protein in ya:

Fruity Green Smoothie (With Natural Protein!)

• 2 C water
• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1 frozen banana
• 1.5 C frz blueberries
• 1 orange (peeled)
• Dab of agave to taste for sweetness

Blend and get ready to smile!

I often tell myself that I want to feel good and better…

And yet on another hand, I’m afraid of feeling well.

It’s weird.

But definitely something I’m aware of.

So I’m going to get some of this stuff out there so I can be *more* aware of it.

Why I don’t want to feel good. Why I’m sometimes afraid of feeling good:

• If I feel good, people will expect too much from me.
• If I feel good, people will judge me as being too happy.
• If I feel good, I’ll just get sick again.
• If I feel good, bad things will happen.
• If I feel good, people will want stuff from me.
• If I feel good, I’ll have to change.
• If I feel good, life will be scarier.
• If I feel good, I’ll be unsafe.
• If I feel good, I’ll be vulnerable.
• If I feel good, people will take advantage of me.

No wonder I haven’t always felt good in the past.

These kinds of concepts stop me from being totally aligned with what I say I want. I *think* I want to feel good, but underneath there are these things that make me go, “Well, maybe not….”

Have you ever noticed a fear of feeling good?

I mean, logically it makes sense that you want to feel good…

But underneath it, what have some of the things been that kinda keep you from feeling totally free to feel your best?