Vibrant Success Starting in your Belly!

Hara Hachi Bu.
Do you know what this Japanese phrase means?
It translates roughly to:  Eat until you are 80% full.
Since digestion uses up a tremendous amount of energy, you will find that when you eat until 80% full, you will feel remarkably energetic!  Try it and see how even your relationships transform when you feel lighter and brighter.
Leaving room in your body creates space for the unexpected! Expect to feel vibrant, calm and connected when you practice Hara Hachi Bu.

Leave room on your plate, and in your belly!

Picture a a Peaceful Thanksgiving

Do you know you can have less stress if you engage the part of your brain where you visualize?  Suppose your ideal Thanksgiving is one where your family and friends are gathered, there is great food that was prepared with ease, there is laughter and camaraderie.  Your guests are being true to themselves and you are feeling peace and gratitude. 

Make time to visualize your perfect Thanksgiving day, just as you would like it to be.  Be sure to include yourself in your visualization.  If you have time, cut a picture from one of the many catalogs coming in the mail that give you the feeling you want to have on Thanksgiving.  Hang this in a prominent place.

Now you have engaged the power of visualization and engaged the base of your brain called the Reticular Activating System.  Here’s to less stress and more success!

Looking at a picture engages your RAS and supports the manifestation of your vision!

Less Stress This Weekend before Thanksgiving

If you’re a parent, this weekend before the big Thanksgiving holiday is a great time to enlist the aid of your children. One of my mentors and trainers, Hal Runkel, shared this quote:

"It is amazing how quickly the kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawnmower, snow-blower, or vacuum cleaner."

-Ben Bergor, U.S. magician (1894-1981) 

Hal goes on to share, “Isn't it amazing that kids can create power point presentations about their Christmas lists and figure out how to fix your iPod without even blinking, yet they will spend a full 15 minutes complaining about how hard it is to vacuum the living room?”

Hal recommends giving equal parts of freedom and responsibility to your children.  He says, “If they are given too much freedom without responsibility, they become spoiled. If given too much responsibility without freedom, they are rebels waiting to happen.”

Thanksgiving weekend is a great time to engage your children in responsibility and play with this sliding scale concept.

Satisfying Plant Based Lunch

Where's the beef?  Where's the cheese? Well, it's not on my plate.  Yet, my meals are so satisfying.  Today I tossed some leftover brown rice and roasted cauliflower with elephant garlic into leftover black bean soup.  That is a lot of leftovers!

But the combination was both creamy (I blend my bean soup) and chunky, and so filling.  Eating in a low fat plant based style is not as challenging as some would think.