Delicious Detox: A Guest Post by Caroline at Elevate Your Wellness

 Yesterday my friend Dana's facebook status started off ..."And the hectic pace continues." 
Can you relate?  I can, and most days around 2:00 I could update my status to read "I am SO stinkin' tired!"  Can you relate to that one too?  Today's  guest post by my dear friend Caroline offers wonderful insight into healthy eating to help us tired and overwhelmed mommas.  I will be joining Caroline's program starting April 10th - I'd love for you to join me too! I hope you'll take the time to hop over to Caroline's blog and explore, she and her husband have an amazing personal story and Caroline has an amazing selection of recipes and ideas.  

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I’m so honored to be sharing a post on The Celebrated Family. I LOVE reading Wendy’s blog because her passion for helping parents to grow in and pass on their Christian faith to their kids is so powerful. It shines though everything she does and she makes it seem easy and approachable.

My passion is healthy eating! I love to help YOU make time for self-care and fall in love with healthy cooking and eating. I think that self-care starts in the kitchen and having more energy starts with what you eat. If you are feeling exhausted and sick all the time, it might be as simple as changing what’s on your fork. For real.

Right about now, some of you might be thinking... see you later, I hate to cook and I don’t want to hear this but stick with me...OK? If you want to have more energy so you can show up 100% for your life and the people you love, this is for you! If you are a Momma, this is especially important for you...

I don’t have space here to share my whole story today but I’ll summarize it like this... in 2009, my very healthy husband got diagnosed with colon cancer. It turned our life upside down. You can read more about it here.

During our journey to health, we realized the power of eating whole, mostly plant-based foods. We shifted our diet because we were terrified of cancer but we stayed with it because we started experiencing amazing results. Increased energy, no more brain-fog, faster recovery after working out, clearer skin and rarely getting sick became our new normal.

Here’s what I realized... by tuning into your body and making simple changes to your diet, you can feel better from your head to your toes. You can have more energy, reach your ideal weight and most importantly stay disease-free.

I also discovered that some foods are literally were making us sick with every bite. Foods like sugar, dairy and gluten might be sending your body into a state of inflammation every single day and causing everything from anxiety to constipation to cancer.

Now, I know making changes to your diet and lifestyle can be daunting. I love to help clients ease into it. So much of it is tuning into your own body and starting to listen to the signals it’s giving you. Do you feel congested every time you eat dairy? Do you crash everyday at 2pm and desperately need a nap?  Do you get bloated and gassy when you have bread with dinner?

 

Your body is brilliant and it’s telling you everything you need to know. It’s time to tune in!

A great strategy is to ease into it or test the waters so to speak.  Try doing a 10 day whole foods detox and see how you feel. You can do anything for 10 days, right?

If you want to see how good you can feel-- create your own whole foods detox by doing the following for 7-10 days:

1.    Ditch the processed foods and eat mostly (or only) plant-based foods. This means eats lots of veggies, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Eliminate (or greatly reduce) meat, dairy, eggs and fish. Plant-based foods are easier to digest which equals more energy. Plus they are rich in fiber which helps “clean you out” so to speak.

2.    Eliminate the 3 foods that are known to cause inflammation. Sugar, gluten (wheat), and dairy. These foods may be wreaking havoc in your body and causing symptoms like migraines, GI issues, fatigue, joint pain, allergies, and skin issues. I found this in myself and see it all the time with my clients.

3.    Have 1 blended meal a day-- this can be a smoothie, a freshly-pressed juice, or a blended soup. This gives your GI tracts a break and lets your liver get to work detoxing your body. Plus you can pack a ton of nutrition into your blender!

Committing to a detox or cleanse is empowering. It’s your chance to SAY YES to ourself and find out how good you can feel.

If you are interested in getting support doing a detox, I offer a program called Delicious Detox that starts on April 10th. As you can guess from the title, I designed it to be full of delicious foods and easy to follow.

You’ll be achieving the 3 things I mentioned above without having to do a bunch of research or pour over cookbooks because I’ve done all the work for you with meals plans and a shopping guide.

And as a special offer to Wendy’s tribe, if you sign up...you’ll get a special bonus gift! A copy of Crazy, Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. Kris is one of my teachers and her book is full of inspiration and fantastic recipes. Just leave a comment on Wendy’s blog about signing up or email me to let me know and  I’ll drop the book in the mail to you.

The early bird investment ends on Wednesday so if you are interested, check it out at:

http://www.elevateyourwellness.com/GetEnergized/

I’d love to have you join me!

Shine Bright,

Caroline

Caroline is a full-time health coach and yoga teacher. She blogs at www.elevateyourwellness.com

Good Friday was for you

"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

Tomorrow we will remember the day our Savior went to the cross for us.  For OUR sins.  It was not a generic salvation plan.  It was a very personal plan.  He died for you and He died for me.  Each year on Good Friday our family takes a few minutes to think about this amazing, incomprehensible fact:  Good Friday was for us.  I take each of my little girl's hands and tell them: 

Did you know, while our King was on the cross,

Your face was in his eyes,

Your life was in his mind,

Your sin was on his back,

Love of you, was in his heart,

for beloved, your name was written on his palm.

Then I make a red circle in the middle of their palm and write their name across it.  Over the years many of our friends have started this tradition as well, and it brings me such joy to see their children's little hands. 

Amidst all the Easter hoopla,  I hope tomorrow you will take a few minutes of quiet to remember that it was all for you.  For YOU are God's beloved.  The one he came to save.  

 If your family marks your hands for Good Friday will you send me a picture?  I would love to see it!

Blessings to you all! 

Hosanna Palms - another guest post by Janna

My friend Janna from Mustard Seeds, is spending a week here at The Celebrated Family, sharing her wonderful Easter tutorials.  I love this idea for creating Hosanna Palms for preschool age children.  Palm Sunday is next Sunday the 24th, what a wonderful way to engage your little ones on this day.  Enjoy! 

Tutorial: Hosanna Palm

Palm Sunday is the day we remember Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem a week before his death and resurrection (Easter). The people gathered palm branches to wave and welcome Jesus and they laid them down at the feet of the donkey he rode on.

To get your youngsters into the spirit, here's a quick and easy tutorial.

 

Anne and her friends love playing with these be-ribboned palms, which I keep in the Lent basket. They make a parade (I often join them) and march around the house shouting, "Hosanna, Hosanna!"

 

Supplies:

• A large silk palm or other greenery. Just make sure there is a long stem for proper "wave-ability."
• Ribbon, raffia, extra trim you have laying around. (You don't need much.)
• Scissors for trimming lengths of ribbon.
• Strong glue (I use Amazing Goop. Super glue will also work. You need strong glue so it won't fall apart after much flinging and praising!)

First, remove the leave from the stem. Put a dollop of glue in/at the end of the stem and stick the leaf back on. Then, put another dollop of glue where the stem and leaf meet.

 

Tie your first strand of ribbon/trim on top of the dollop of glue. Just tie it once, no need to knot it. You will need to tie on each ribbon separately with a dollop of glue alternating which side you tie the ribbon on.

See here that I've flipped the palm over to tie this ribbon. One of the reasons you do this is so that there isn't a bulky knot on one side. It also adds security to the palm since you are basically adding a small layer of glue to the joint each time you tie a ribbon.

 

Once you have all of your ribbons tied, put more glue at the joint and wrap your raffia around the ribbons and then tie with a knot. The raffia will kind of cover up all ties of the ribbons. Let dry completely before waving your praise for Jesus.

You can download a printable version here, using this PDF.