CEFB Integrative Life Coaching

7 Tips for Eating Clean on a Budget

4/18/2016

The biggest hurdle most people have to clean eating isn’t the food. Fresh, homemade, organic food is delicious! It isn’t giving up those ‘unclean’ foods. There may be that one food you just can’t let go of, but that isn’t the issue either. The issue is the bottom line, that line item on the budget when you try to switch it all to clean, organic, GMO-free food, hit the checkout line for the first time, and almost faint when the total comes up. Maybe you didn’t even make it that far. Maybe you picked up the package of organic cereal and took one look at the tag on the shelf and walked the other way thinking, ‘How do people afford to eat this way?’

I can tell you, unless you have a whole lot of discretionary income, changing over your way of eating and shopping doesn’t usually happen overnight. We make small changes and keep looking for ways to eat clean on our budget and find ways to funnel more money over to the food line. It is an investment, but I can tell you that it is one worth making.

To help you out, here are my top 7 tips for eating clean on a budget:

Make it from scratch – Cooking at home saves money over eating out any day. But taking it one step further by making food from scratch is even cheaper than buying those fancy, boxed sides and mixes. You will save money and, better yet, you will know exactly what’s in the food you’re eating. Try mastering one new dish a week!
Plan your meals and shop with a list – It is always a good idea to have a plan. You will save money by knowing exactly what you need; this will help you avoid buying things you don’t need such as impulse items and it will help you to avoid making extra trips to the store.
Buy in bulk – Purchase larger quantities and freeze and store the extra for another week. Stores always have bigger packs that cost less per unit. Be wary, though: sometimes the big package isn’t less. Be sure to check the unit price and be a smart shopper.
Shop local and in season – Foods that are in season are generally cheaper than the foods that have to be shipped from halfway around the globe. Also, it pays to know your farmer and buy directly from the source.
Use discounts or coupons if you can find them – Sometimes, you can find a deal or get a coupon on healthy snacks and some of those great, organic convenience foods.
Join a group – There are plenty of local groups that share in the savings by pooling their buying power. Check out a local co-op or CSA or start one in your area. You can find them at coopdirectory.com or localharvest.org.
Go meatless – If you haven’t cut meat out of your diet yet, you can start by eliminating it from a few meals a week. Beans are cheaper than beef!

Do you have any local resources to share or any tips that can help save a buck? Leave a comment below.

4/14/2016

3 Ways to Rock Your Life with Essential Oils

If you haven’t incorporated the health blessing that is essential oils into your life yet, your health and happiness are missing out. Essential oils are one of the most wonderful things known to man. Don’t believe me? Give them a try and you’ll be amazed at how rejuvenated essential oils can make you feel, and how many benefits they can afford your life.

Essential oils are natural oils derived from plants, stems and botanicals. When you integrate these oils into your life, you’re getting a gift directly from Mother Nature. There are a wide variety of essential oils and essential oil blends, too many to name in this blog post. Contact me here if you’d like sample some of my favorites.

Understanding how to use essential oils is simple. There are three ways: diffuse, ingest and apply topically.

Diffusing them is one of my favorite ways (okay, they’re all my favorite ways) to use oils. You can purchase a diffuser from any store. The directions will depend on your diffuser, but typically you’ll dispel five or so drops of your favorite essential oil in the diffuser. Some of my favorites to diffuse are lemon, wild orange and a blend of lavender and peppermint. Experiment to find your favorite.

You can also ingest them by including them in your cooking, smoothies, juices, water, or even taken in a capsule. I add lemon oil in my water every morning, and I love cooking with thyme, oregano and basil oils by adding them to dips, sauces and stews. In fact, you can substitute any dried herbs with essential oils. It only takes two-three drops when cooking and one drop in a smoothie or juice. The options are endless for how to consume delicious essential oils.

In addition to diffusing and ingesting oils, you can also apply oils topically on places like your wrist, the nape of your neck, under your armpits and on the bottom of your feet. To do this, you’ll mix a carrier oil such as almond, coconut, grapeseed, or evening primrose oil with your essential oils. You can also mix essential oils into your homemade face cream and moisturizers. To learn how to create a DIY body butter using essential oils, click here.

One of my favorite blends to boost my mood when I’m cranky is frankincense, peppermint and wild orange. Breathing this blend in will make you feel like you’re walking under sunshine and rainbows. It will also give you a natural boost of vitality. I also enjoy rubbing frankincense on my temples to boost my concentration on days I’m feeling sluggish.

Be sure that when purchasing oils, choose therapeutic-grade oils that are completely free of toxins.

So there, 3 Ways to Rock Your Life with Essential Oils. Feel free to contact me if you would like more information and to sample essential oils.

Hurt people hurt people.

4/8/2016

This past week I was once again confronted by the crucial need for forgiveness. The most important thing that I have learned about forgiveness is that it is to help me, the forgiver. It is not for helping the perpetrator. Understanding this has helped me tremendously in being able to let go. However, I find that forgiving and letting go can still be a really hard thing to do. I now understand that forgiving takes practice. Sometimes that practice requires forgiving the same offense more than once.

I know for sure that health is much more than just nutrition and exercise. For there to be true health we must create balance by taking care of our other needs. One of those other needs is our connection to others. Whether you consider forgiveness spiritual, relationship or self-esteem it is an important part of emotional health and thereby physical as well.

“The joy that comes from realizing that suffering in our lives comes from the meaning we have given it is unlimited.” ~ Mastin Kipp

This is not to say that painful things in your past didn’t happen, but they no longer have to be as painful. It’s not as easy, it takes work and the work may often require repeating. If you continue the practice, over time new life and new meaning can emerge.

One of the best ways I know how to do this is to take ourselves out of our own story and step into the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of the person who hurt us. Not so we can make right what they did, but so we can begin to understand the painful event from their point of view.

The point of forgiveness is not to make right what happened, but to bring a new sense of empathy and compassion to all involved – this includes you.

The best revenge on those who have hurt us is to forgive them, because that is how we break the bond with that painful event. From there, we step into their shoes and consider how they must have been thinking and feeling, we begin to understand that their actions were not truly against us, but a request for Love and/or Validation in a very messed up way; that was the best way that they knew how to at that time.

From a SOUL perspective, we must claim ownership over the meaning we give that event, and no longer make it about how it hurt us but about how they were hurt. Our job is now to step into more Love, compassion and empathy for them and for us. This helps see deeper which brings clarity, resolution and forgiveness.

I know these words are easy to say and harder to do but I hope that this blog post can be a beginning for you to start the journey of forgiveness so that one day soon you will be free of the chains that bind you to the past. However, be aware that this journey does come with twists and turns. Sometimes you may feel that you haven’t made any progress or you might believe that you've completely forgiven but something as simple as the wind blowing blindsides you with memories of the pain as if it happened yesterday. Just know that it is just another turn on the road that is beckoning to you for a deeper look and/or a different point of view.

When we see things from the point of view of others, we realize that what they are doing is not against us but is an action to make up for the love they didn’t get. It’s that simple. In this realization, we can transcend the hurt and the pain because we realize it was never about us in the first place, and so the victim story can be replaced with the story of the hero who overcame the darkness in another with Love.

Mastin Kipp says, “I believe that there is unbelievable healing in forgiveness. Forgiving someone can take years of burden off your shoulders not to mention your soul. It restores relationships, enables new beginnings and allows us to move on to better things.”

How can you start practicing forgiveness right now? I’d love to hear from you; share with me in the comments below.