Say Yes!

No is so powerful and used or thought so often.  Yes, is so much more powerful to think and use.  Please consider it more.

Consider yes especially in the areas of disease and health.  Most are willing to die rather than say yes to be open to the possibility that another protocol, practice or natural way exists. Isn’t it funny how this way is called the alternative way when in reality the over medication, burn and cut is so much newer, in essence is the real alternative medicine? 

Mother Nature's Gifts

Following the rhythms of nature and the bounty of herbs and practices handed down for millennium have had and still have astounding results.  They were created to do so, as were our bodies to heal themselves. Those who have presented science to prove with data, that many more healing and healthful ways do exist; have been exonerated and called quacks.

The tide is starting to turn, a shift is happening towards a new openness as we see our health spending escalate dramatically yet our nation is one of the nations of the world at the bottom rather than at the top of the list regarding good health.  Functional medicine and solid nutrition geared to an individual not the masses are becoming more readily available.

As an individual like you and a health coach, I want all of the information, not only the propaganda or profits first cures, to make my daily decisions.

The healthcare industry makes tons of money, has received oodles of money over the last 40 – 50 years as donations from people and yet they are still chasing cures.  Did you ever wonder why there is still no cure?  Research is looking for the band aid.  Not the cause, where scientific data does exist.

Well my friends there are cures available right now.  I believe in unbiased, proven methods that allow us, our friends and families to live long happy lives.  Key words here are long, live and happy.  Live versus manage, long versus being cut short and happy versus pain ridden, fearful, depressed and more. 

I could go on here for hours. But that is far from the point of my writing this article today.  Life is too precious to lose it too early because you or your beliefs keep saying no. We have all lost many friends and loved ones who would be here today had it not been for a no or two on a deep level, and they said no.  They didn’t stretch towards the possibility of a new possibility.

My tip to you is to be open.  Sit and be still, to quiet your mind, or go for a walk, listen to your favorite music, your favorite way to be still and ask yourself if you think you are worthy of being happy, healthy and to live a long life.  If your answer is yes, and you have a debilitating, degenerative disease like Cancer, Diabetes, CHD, Crohn’s Dis-ease, MS, Autoimmune diseases no matter what the stage of the disease is, explore the web, Google alternative or holistic practices and healing, read books (do some research) and if you have any questions please connect with me. 

I offer free 50 minute discovery and breakthrough sessions where you talk, I ask a couple of questions and listen.  And please know that there are many success stories of folks who have been told, "I can’t help you anymore. You have 2 weeks, months (whatever the number is) to live."  And after 10, 20 years they are still alive because they said no to a life sentence and yes to life.

In health and joy,

Barbara

Barbara S. Greenhouse

Certified Health Coach

Member, International Association for Health Coaches

Member, American Association of Drugless Practitioners

Refresh Your Life Now
Bethel, CT 06801, 203 216 6889

www.BarbaraGreenhouse.com

RefreshYourLifeNow@gmail.com
http://RefreshYourLifeNow.blogspot.com
Like us on Facebook, facebook.com/refreshyourlifenow
Follow us on Twitter, @bgsuperfoods

Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, Ahimsa, the Nutrition and Health Connection, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She guides her clients through their journey to live their deepest dreams, simply and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods, fruits and vegetables.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®  -  © copyright Refresh Your Life Now - 2013 Connecticut, USA

Why Manage Life? Live It! ®  Refresh to the Good Life! ®

June's Herb of the Month

Cinnamon

Cinnamon Sticks

Did you know that cinnamon is tree bark?  Until recently I didn't know that two kinds of cinnamon existed. Where have I been!  Cinnamon commonly sold in the US is from the Cassia tree.  Our second choice for cinnamon is Ceylon cinnamon hailing from Sri Lanka by way of an evergreen tree of the laurel family.  While it is not as sweet as Cassia cinnamon it does provide a more delicate flavor for your favorite recipes.

Cinnamon is also medicinal and has been used since ancient Egyptian times for a variety of illnesses and dis-eases.  It can help insulin resistance and weight loss.

In one study reported by the Diabetes Care Journal, cinnamon reduced blood sugar levels and increased the natural production of insulin, while it lowered their blood cholesterol also.  Specifically, their blood cholesterol levels were lowered in the range of 10 to 26 percent, affecting overall cholesterol levels and reducing the LDL (known as the bad cholesterol) but not reducing levels of HDL, the good cholesterol. For more information and the data source - Thyroid-info.com.   

What are some of your favorite drink, and food recipes that you make using cinnamon? Head on down to the comments section below and please let us know. 

In Health and Joy,

Barbara

203-216-6889
www.BarbaraGreenhouse.com
RefreshYourLifeNow@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter, @bgsuperfoods
Facebook.com/RefreshYourLifeNow
http://RefreshYourLifeNow@blogspot.com


This post may be reprinted on your blog, website or in your e-zine with my blessing as long as you include the following in tact:  

Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, the Nutrition Health Connection and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world .  She teaches, guides and supports her clients along their journey to achieve their goals one step at a time, to live their dreams simply, holistically and with compassion. By recommending some delicious live raw whole foods their process to a healthier and happier life begins.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®    © copyright refreshyourlifenow, - 2012 Connecticut, USA

Wearing the Healthy Nutrtion Hat

My dad came home after "residing" in the hospital and rehab for the last 3 plus months swapping between the two three times.  Was he happy to hear he was finally going home!

I can't imagine the long lonely days and nights.  At times he was happy, he has a sense of humor when he remembers and a flirt.  I would visit and he wished I could've stayed longer sometimes.

I wore the meal planner hat to help him regain his strength and to encourage him to eat more again once he was back on solid food.  Makes me thankful to be able to eat and to eat what I want to eat even more.

Now home I was able to speak with the head of the dining room where he lives to plan healthy meals with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables (salads), dark green vegetables and sweet potatos. We are better able to keep him off of the white foods, bread, pasta and sugar now.  The director was very agreeable to it all.  He knew what quinoa is and says they do serve it at times, as some of the residents like it. Many however are not familiar with it and therefore won't eat it.  He'll make sure my dad has some and buckwheat and tabouleh too when they are on the menu.

The point of my dad's tale?   It was not always easy to provide healthy meals for my dad in these two institutions. Trays came up wrong or the doctor made changes I did not agree with (Ensure instead of real protein, Colace instead of prunes.) I won the battle for each. The Colace didn't work, boy did the prunes!  As someones healthcare advocate this is an area to really focus on because if you do not stand up for your loved ones nutritional needs while receiving institutional care, they only go so far, and at times as in my dads case, they give the standard food tray filled with all my dad is not supposed to eat due to his unique health issues.  

On a wonderful note the hospital dining services had a survey which I filled out very honestly and in a long detailed manner. Suggestions flowed and I added them.  The second hospitalization the menu had changes WHOLE MULTI GRAIN bread was added, more salad choices and more drink choices. More heart healthy choices. My dad needed these.

It pays to speak up and to also fill out surveys and be heard.  They took mine to "heart" and I was pleasantly surprised.  Every baby step leads to change. The ripple has started at the hospital and the rehab facility.

It's amazing as life normalizes in someone elses' life how your own becomes more normal too.  While I did make some green juices and smoothies, I did not every day. My body was ready for good food.  So I whipped up a naturally sweet sundried tomato red pepper sauce.  Taking my vegetable peeler in hand I made large ribbons of zucchini fettucini noodles, cut up a whole creamy avocado and generously spooned on the sauce.  My taste buds rejoiced.  

Simple and Quick Organic/Raw Red Sundried Tomato and Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 C + 1TB warm water

6-8 sundried tomatoes (unsalted variety)

1/2 1 large red pepper

1/4 C pine nuts

1 large clove garlic (smaller's ok)

1/4 C olive oil (may drizzle in) 

 2 large zucchini

Method:

Pour the water into the blender and add the sundried tomatos.

Let them soak in the warm water for 10  minutes

Create the zucchini fettucini noodles over a big bowl

Add a 1/4  tsp salt (or less) to the noodles

After the noodles sweat, drain out the water

Wash, cut and de-seed the red pepper

Peel the garlic

Peel and cut up a ripe avocado

Pulse and then blend the tomatos and water

Add some of the olive oil, blend by drizzling it in

Add the red pepper, blend

Add the garlic, blend

Add more olive oil, blend

Add pinenuts, blend

Add in more olive oil if desired

Optional a pinch of salt after you taste it

This sauce makes a delicious spread. I used it on a hummus and sprout sandwich and a sprouted tofu vegetable burger with spinach and sprouts on top. Both on Ezekiel Sesame Bread.   

Let me know how the recipe turns out for you and other ways you use it in the comments below. 

Barbara

203-216-6889
RefreshYourLifeNow@gmail.com
www.RefreshYourLifeNow@blogspot.com
www.BarbaraGreenhouse.com

Follow us on Twitter, @bgsuperfoods 

Like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/RefreshYourLifeNow

 
This post may be reprinted on your blog, website or in your e-zine with my blessing as long as you include the following:  Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She teaches and supports  her clients through their journey to live their dreams easily and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®    © copyright refreshyourlifenow, - 2012 Connecticut, USA

4 Elements to a Great Meal

What a beautiful Spring day to stroll from the train down to 12 Park Avenue in New York City the home of Franchia Vegan Cafe and Tea Room.   I met my friend Sarah for lunch.

Indulge Your Taste Buds

We started out with tea, I with juiced Carrot, Apple, and Ginger with Green tea, Sarah had iced Pomegranate tea.

So many delectable items on the menu we took our time to decide.  We began with Noodle soup with vegetables and Ramen Noodles in Soup with "lobster balls".

Our salads were ordered to arrive with the soups.  "Duck" in spicy sauce with chopped vegetables, more like a slaw, very good. The sauce had depth.  I savored every bite.

The pumpkin noodle salad with vegetables and large bits of beets was good, however the  pumpkin noodles themselves were a bit disappointing.

Mind you the soup and salad were very filling with large portions satisfying to the healthiest of appetites.  We really didn't need an entree, but the selections made it impossible to pass on so we decided on a rather interesting one.

We split the Tofu and Roasted Kabocha Pumpkin in sesame soy sauce for the entree. The pumpkin was very tender, it melted in your mouth and the sauce very flavorful.

If you are looking for " 'Teas and elegant light food', New York Times," take a stroll to 12 Park Avenue, sit beneath the beautifully tiled ceiling and become full on many levels.

If you've been to Franchia Vegan Cafe, let us know about your experiences in the comments below.

Next stop?  I'll share about this in another blog post soon. One hint, it's another fabulous place in NYC and mostly raw.

Barbara

203-216-6889
RefreshYourLifeNow@gmail.com
www.RefreshYourLifeNow@blogspot.com

Follow us on Twitter using @bgsuperfoods 

Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/refreshyourlifenow

 
This post may be reprinted on your blog, website or in your e-zine with my blessing as long as you include the following:  Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She teaches and supports  her clients through their journey to live their dreams easily and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®    © copyright refreshyourlifenow, - 2012 Connecticut, USA

Delicious Anytime Smoothie

Hit the books and notes last night studying into the wee hours.  I wanted a snack.  So happy I had all these ingredients to make the following smoothie:

9 oz Thai coconut juice

1/2 pound fresh organic strawberries

1 large ripe organic banana

3 TB raw organic coconut oil

2 TB Vega EFA oil

2 TB cinnamon

1/4 cup raw organic cacao powder

2 C organic baby spinach

Method:

· first add coconut juice and strawberries to blender

· next add in the following order:

· the oils

· cinnamon (slowly)

· cacao (slowly)

· pulse in the banana

· scrape sides of the blender

· pulse in spinach 1/2 or all at a time

Very Young Coconut

Options:

1.  cut back the fruits by 1/2. Increase the spinach to 3 C or more.

2.  add in a sweet apple or another 1/2 banana if the smoothie isn't sweet enough for you.    

However, late at night or in my case really very early in the morning, you don't want a

sugar rush.  

3.  use dandelion or other dark greens with or instead of spinach.

4. add real dehydrated organic wheat grass juice powder

If you are diabetic substitute an apple for the banana, the fiber in the apple and the fiber and protein in the spinach helps to keep the blood sugar more stable. The more greens you use the better.


Always flavor to your tastes and experimentation is good.  It's an adventure. 

So I'd love to have you tell me about your favorite smoothie or favorite late night (or into the wee hours of the morning) snack in the comments below.

Barbara

203-216-6889
RefreshYourLifeNow@gmail.com
www.RefreshYourLifeNow@blogspot.com

Follow us on Twitter using @bgsuperfoods 

Like our page on Facebook:  Refresh Your Life Now

 
This post may be reprinted on your blog, website or in your e-zine with my blessing as long as you include the following:  Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She teaches and supports  her clients through their journey to live their dreams easily and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®    © copyright refreshyourlifenow, - 2012 Connecticut, USA

A Refreshing Beet Juice for Breakfast

This morning I went down to the kitchen and saw the 3 large beautiful organic beets I purchased yesterday.  Without hesitation I knew I was making a fresh juice for breakfast of the non-green variety.

2 large organic beets

1 large organic Valencia orange

1 1/2 inch chunk of fresh organic ginger root

Wash, cut and juice the beets.

Quarter, peel, and juice the orange and ginger together.

If you like you can surely use two oranges.  Talk about

heaven.  This is a simple juice to make too!

This juice is packed with Vitamin C from the beets and the orange.  The beets also provide Iron and Magnesium, are a good source of Dietary Fiber, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.   

Please note, if you monitor your sugar levels, beets are very high in sugar and are now an 80% GMO product if not organically farmed. 

Beets have been proven in clinical studies to lower blood pressure which also equates to better blood flow bringing much needed oxygen to your brain.

Ginger is soothing to the stomach any time of day. It is a good source of Vitamin C, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

The color of this juice is beautiful. The ginger creates the very creamy top pictured below looking down into the glass jar and the image to the right looking directly at the glass jar where both layers are visible.

I lightly steamed the beet greens with a bit of fresh squeezed lemon and was pleasantly surprised.  They were buttery and delicious.  The few times I have steamed them before I got mouthfuls of unpalatable bitter greens that ended up in the garbage. I like nice surprises.

Have you juiced beets before? Please share your juicing experiences in the comments below.

Barbara

203-216-6889
BarbaraGreenhouse.com
RefreshYourLifeNow@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter, @bgsuperfoods 

www.Facebook.com/RefreshYourLifeNow
www.RefreshYourLifeNow@blogspot.com 

 
This post may be reprinted on your blog, website or in your e-zine with my blessing as long as you include the following:  Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She teaches and supports  her clients through their journey to live their dreams easily and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®    © copyright refreshyourlifenow, - 2012 Connecticut, USA

Hunger for Change Movie Premiere

Quite and eye opener.  Packed with information. A must see film for everyone to understand why the nation is sicker and obesity, diabetes and cancer is so prevalent these days.

Some peeks...

1. Most people are starving on a cellular level.

2. Sugar is a drug just like alcohol. Has an opiate affect you become habituated to it. You look 

     to comfort foods which release sugar, a virtual delivery system of sugar right into body fat.

     It isn't the fat that's making you fat. It's the sugar and it's cheaper to produce.

3. If you drink diet soda, within a year you will have gained weight.

4. The marketers are telling you this, and you're getting this. 

5. Walk down the grocery store aisle for kids breakfast foods, you may as well

     roll up their sleeves and inject sugar.

6. Read all food labels, chemicals that clean out automotive parts are in food as are a host of 

     other unapproved chemicals hidden under other names and under spices and/or 

     flavorings.

7.  When you are very ill and diagnosed with cancer you must look back on your life and

     figure out with your own research which foods and lifestyle components caused this, then 

     heal yourself.

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/online-premiere

Want to learn more?  Please contact me and we'll  schedule a time to talk about you, your dreams and explore how you want to start Refreshing Your Life Now, one simple step at a time.  To you.

Barbara

203-216-6889

RefreshYourLifeNow@gmail.com

www.RefreshYourLifeNow@blogspot.com
 
This post may be reprinted on your blog, website or in your e-zine with my blessing as long as you include the following:  Barbara Greenhouse shares her passions of Food, "Cooking", Cruelty-Free, and the Sharing of Unbiased Information for a healthy and informed world.  She teaches and supports  her clients through their journey to live their dreams easily and holistically, with compassion and by incorporating some delicious live raw whole foods.  She is currently authoring her first book, "Sacred You, The Delicious Journey"®    © copyright refreshyourlifenow, - 2012 Connecticut, USA