The secret to simple healthy food is this: grains and veggies.

I explained a bit about grains one week ago. Today, let's chat vegetables.  

If you really don't know how to make sure you make this happen, then grab yourself a coffee chat with me so we can chat and I can tell you about the ways I can help you commit to it. I have SEVERAL ways! I can teach you to Eat Twice as Healthy in Half the Time. I can schedule you a Pantry Makeover. I can help you go deep in Love Every Bite. 

Let me share with you how I tout the advantages of vegetables in my forth coming book: 

Vegetables: 

Adding a salad or steamed vegetables to a meal is quick and easy way to round the meal out.  Cooking soup is an easy way to create a meal featuring the bounty of the farmer’s market.  Vegetables should be plenty and abundant in your diet.  They are filling and delicious; they are high in fiber and low in fat; most are low in sugar; they are full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. 

They really add so much to a diet and you can eat so much without ever worrying about whether or not they are healthy.  Vegetables are the one part of any diet that you never have to measure, weigh, or be concerned about over eating. 


And I didn't even go into the health benefits! Vegetables are the staple of most healthy "diets." Anytime or place in the history of the world, they ate vegetables. Except, of course, for modern day industrialized nations. Like ours. Where we suffer from a disastrous array of preventable health ailments... Ahem. Alright, so how can eat more of them??? Just like grains. We have to commit. We have to change our mindset from "it's too hard" to "hell yeah I wanna live forever!"

(You know, not really. But I do wanna feel great and look my best and be as healthy as I can as long as I can!!! And veggies help with all of that!!!)

Okay, Alegra. HOW????

Well, if you are familiar with "Eat Twice as Healthy in Half the Time" - the first step is chop veggies. It's really three steps: Buy them and chop them and use them. Still. I know you can do that. 

So go ahead and hop back on Pinterest and find one recipe with veggies. Easy!   And then chop TWICE as many veggies as what it calls for, and use up the leftovers in an other meal the next day!! You've just doubled your veggies consumption.

Okay, a lot of my friends have questioned me for "talking about sugar" despite crazy things going on in the world.

You know... Facebook is exploding with petitions, rallies, and all kinds of mayhem...and here I am posting about how to eat less sugar, or how not to worry when you do eat sugar.

Or, there are violent mobs and floods, and...here I am posting about how to lose weight by learning to manage your stress.

So why do I keep posting about weight loss, sugar, stress, and emotional eating when there are so many other, more timely things to be posting about????

The truth is this:  I think shit got crazy in 2016. When I woke up to a future President Trump I had to have  a little come to Jesus talk with myself. Trump as president?  That's not normal.

And I realized that if more people stood up for the things they cared about, the world would be...different. 

So I looked back at my bet that helping busy, ambitious women lose weight while eating all the food they love, and most importantly helping them FEEL their BEST and truly love what they eat.  

​And I BELIEVE in that. So I doubled down.

And I also believe this to be true:  People need help to eat well, without guilt or restriction, NOW more than ever. Shit is going down in our country right now. A white house run by reality TV star? Advisors leaving left and right? Violent uprisings from the white supremacists? Floods on the gulf coast?

Yeah, we're kinda stressed.

And in the midst of all this chaos, we need to nourish ourselves now more than ever. We need to take care of ourselves, so we can keep fighting for what we believe in. So we can speak our truth. And my work HELPS women do that. And I BELIEVE in my work.

So I'll just be over here, talking about sugar, stress, food, and loving ourselves through it all. 

I have decided to donate generously to 501c3 and 501c4 charitable organizations that are in support of uplifting our communities, speaking for equal rights for all, protecting our environment, and generally doing good work in the world.

I have always been happy to donate, but in light of the bigotry, racism, and hate that has sadly (but hopefully with the result of true change in our country) come to the forefront of the news lately, I have made this a keystone part of my business.

If you have a human rights organization (including any subgroup of humans fighting for equal rights), a dance group, a speaking organization, a beach clean up, a taco making charity, or any cause near and dear to your heart that uplifts people in any way AND puts on fundraising efforts AND would like a donation of services, please let me know.

In the past few weeks alone I've donated services for auction or raffle to over 100 events held by charitable organizations, from human rights groups to schools to churches to veteran groups to animal rescue/welfare groups to drug rehabilitation services to services for those in need to museums to research foundations to medical treatment and services.

I'd love to add your cause to the list.

​The easiest way to make a request is to sign up your charity on DonationMatch.com and make a request using my referral code RF100542.

​(Biz owners, you can sign up to manage your giving, too!)

I went on an extended road trip this summer, and it served me well to break me out of some old habits. Others are still alive and kicking... like how often I look at my phone! And, yes, I AM trying to break free of that little addiction. 

Anyway, the road was great in many ways, my kids are actually awesome travelers, and, if you didn't see my Facebook post about it... it was WAY over ambitious as well. 

Four weeks on the road with my kids?? Well, next year I'll cap it at two weeks. I hit new limits on my exhaustion, my ability to be extroverted, and my patience with my kids. 

Having some space also let me see that I need some new business habits as well.

So, the biggest change is that I will be sending out monthly newsletters from here on out, but I'll be happily posting more content on my blog to balance things out!

I'm also excited that I've opened up my schedule for clients to 4 mornings a week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday (plus Wednesday afternoon).

I told you last time I've dusted off my old manuscript for my book, The Kitchen Witch, and I'm working through it, finding typos, and getting ready to publish it! 

I am having SO MUCH FUN reading through my old wisdom, and following the advice I gave myself ten+ years ago. What a gift! 

Of course, it's not really dusty, because it's on a my computer, and the advice won't really make you live forever, because that's impossible plus - who would want to?

But it is excellent advice none the less, and advice which I see I have lost touch of with adulting and parenting... but advice which I am ardently working to bring back into my life! I hope you can, too!

Check out these three basic premises (premi?). Check out this simple concepts that inspire the book!  

What’s good for the inside is good for the outside.  That’s one of the mottos of this book, and what you’ll be learning about when you read this book or use it a reference.  The book is organized categorically, but the extensive index will help you locate suggestions for specific issues or ailments, such as facial treatments or acne, or by ingredients that you happen to have on hand, like sesame oil, bell peppers, or rose flower water. 
 
What’s good for the outside is good for the inside.  That means an approach to health that will help keep you happy and healthy from inside to outside and from outside to inside.  You can’t create beauty superficially – beauty arises from deep inside of each of us.  It’s when this beauty is blocked from surfacing that we don’t feel our best, and from there we can’t look our best. 
 
Treat yourself well, and the world will follow.  So, how can we take care of our bodies and souls everyday so that we feel good and look good?  It’s by treating ourselves to the best things in life, which happen to be things we have access to everyday: good food, good company, and good intention. 

Let's be honest. It's actually really hard to take good care of ourselves. Society, sadly, thinks it's great to run around, brag about how you haven't even eaten breakfast (and it's 2pm), complain about lack of sleep, etc etc etc.  But that is called: On your way to adrenal fatigue /  We don't take care of ourselves in 'merica.  

So, let's pledge together, that we will put ourselves first. We will take deep care of our bodies and souls. We will make choices that are good for our insides AND outsides.

In fact, I'm going to eat some healthy snacks AND get a massage this week.