Over the years of my work as a Nutritional Therapist, I’ve had many clients come to their sessions telling me that they kind of ‘fell off the wagon’ with their healthy eating. Or I've had people tell me before doing my detox, that they were fearful they wouldn't be able to stay the course without 'falling off the wagon'.

It might be the #1 shame and fear most people have when it comes to establishing good habits around eating well for their health.

First off, I want to expel the myth of the wagon. It doesn’t exist.

There is no wagon, there is only choice and a path. Your path is your journey and it's up to you to choose the trajectory of that path. How bad to you want where that path is leading you to is the real question. If you falter, will you choose to get back up and keep going?

What people are usually referring to is that that feel they won’t perfectly sustain whatever dietary framework they’ve been recommended OR they chose for themselves....

Hey girl, are you overwhelmed and exhausted from constantly “powering through” and pushing yourself?

Then listen up… I’m here to give you a little pep talk and some ‘tough love’. And by all means, if there is a better way to say 'tough love' -please let me know, 'cause I’ve shied away from it in the past myself feeling it as criticism and judgement. That’s not what I want to relay… I want to relay LOVE about something you need to hear, but maybe aren’t willing to see it fully or say it to yourself yet.

I speak to and work with women weekly/daily who feel so frustrated and burned out… this is an epidemic that women collectively face and a pattern women choose to continue and perpetuate and it has to stop.

I talk a lot about self-care… I write about it, I share my own story, I post memes about it.

Today, I want to dig into it a bit further because self-care is more than just doing some nice things for yourself,...

Alright ladies... listen up, detoxification is a critical part of YOU being able to stay healthy, have good moods and energy. Unfortunately we live in a world bombarded by toxins at every turn, this is why we all could use some daily detoxification strategies. That's what I'm here to share with you today. You really can't heal your body and increase your energy if you are not detoxing well. In order to succeed with overall health  your lymph and liver need our daily attention.

Let's get educated, shall we?

The amounts of chemicals we are exposed to are unprecedented in history. The average American consumes 10 pounds of chemical food additives each year. Add to that the chemical burden caused by food sprayed with pesticides and from air and water pollution, you can see that our chemical burden is considerable.

Your body has systems designed to eliminate waste and to detoxify poisons. Your liver chemically converts toxins to be easily eliminated by your kidneys. Detoxification is...

Every season I do a focused time of 'detox' because of my past experience with overcoming decades of chronic fatigue, allergies, sinus infections, extreme bloating and gas pain, eczema and asthma.

For years I treated each symptom separately with pills, supplements, naps, heating pads -- anything that worked at the time. Then I went through a traumatic divorce. The verdict from my first HTMA: I was in total burnout. My doctor couldn’t help me recover all she ever offered me were more medications. This was when I realized there had to be a better way.

So the journey began. I detoxed my life. It wasn’t overnight and it took a lot of trial and error. The real change began when I started to understand that food did more than impact my weight; it was also a trigger for many of my aliments, cravings, moods and emotional eating.

By doing my spring detox, which is based on what I learned from many experts in the fields of health and nutrition, I have been able to use food to help...

As you may already know I'm a big fan of self-care. Taking the best care of yourself in all ways, mentally emotionally, physically, spiritually is the best gift you can give yourself.

Self-care means no more putting yourself as an afterthought ladies. Self-care requires a true deep commitment to yourself and your growth.

Spring is a beautiful season and time of year to bring forth new growth. It's a higher energy time of year, a time of renewal.

Every year in the spring I notice a desire to 'detox'. I start to clear out things in my life that are no longer serving me. One big way is through taking much better care of my physical body so I can feel lighter and freer. I tend to want to choose more fresh foods, in season veggies and drink more herbal teas.

It's a great time of year to re-calibrate.

To let go of all the things that are in the way of allowing you to burst forth fully with the energy of spring. This is why I love devoting some time to detox every spring and let go of...

Over the years I've worked with a lot of women to help unravel their health concerns. One of the biggest things I've noticed is that it's really hard for women to put themselves and their health first. And I'm on a mission to shift that paradigm.

Self-Love is an imperative topic to explore and delve into for anyone who wants to heal deeply and enjoy life as fully as possible.

Self love is a regard for your own well being and happiness. It's a personal responsibility to give this kind of love to yourself, instead of hope others will give it to you. It's you learning to love yourself without condition, to value yourself and accept you are already worthy of that kind of love.

This means you accept and love yourself no matter what, when you do things you think are good and when you do things you think are bad. Because at the end of the day you are a human BEING, already worthy already whole that deserves love. You are not a human doing, who is only worthy when you do good and unworthy when you do what you or others perceive as bad.

That is an old paradigm of thinking, black and white, conditional -based on merit, based on knowledge of good and evil. It's not real love. Real love is unconditional.

To love yourself means you get to...

Have you ever been at war with your own body? Missing out on life because you didn’t like some aspect of yourself or how you felt inside your own skin? Ugh, me too.

I used to have such anxiety about my belly, my gut also know as the dreaded ‘muffin top’. My belly was flabby and stood out on my otherwise long, leanish body. It made me feel frumpy and unattractive, but also it was uncomfortable being so bloated people mistook me for being pregnant. Nope… I was just bloated and couldn't lose the belly weight or flab. So embarassing.

This happened at least a dozen times over many years. People would literally congratulate me and say, when are you due? Eye roll... I'm pretty sure we all know the take-away lesson there.

To be honest, over those years my life was overwhelmingly unfulfilling. I did not love my life. There were many reasons for that, however I can recall a such deep disgust for my mid-section. I was a slave to my own misery. Often all I could think...

In March 2009, 10 years ago at the time I’m writing this, I went on a trip half-way around the world to Hong Kong. At the time, I had no idea it was the trip that would set me free to reclaim my life.

I was in a suffocating marriage at the time. My 4 boys were all so little, I was somehow trying to home-school my oldest two. I was beyond exasperated. My soul had been sucked dry.  

I was involved in a small group of blogging friends on line at the time. All of us were deconstructing from legalistic spiritual abuse and learning to embody a grace-filled way of life. It was a powerful time albeit incredibly challenging. This small group of bloggers helped me hold out for hope.

The trip to Hong Kong was for a grace and glory conference. It was one of those divine interventions. I knew I had to go, even though it didn’t make a whole lot of sense logically.

My ex was not supportive of me going. He berated for months as I planned to go in spite of him. Deep down I had...

I found I out I was pregnant December 2006 only one year after my second son was born. It came as quite the surprise.

What came as more of a surprise happened not two months later in February of  2004.

I went in for a routine early check up. The one that they do the internal ultrasound to check on things. The lab technician seemed a little concerned as she excused herself from the room. When she came back she handed me a phone saying Betsy (my midwife) wants to speak with you. At this point, my heart started pounding.

Betsy told me she was so sorry to have to tell me this but that there was no heartbeat and my baby was not alive. I went cold and blank. I was faced with the next steps as to what would happen. She explained and I chose to miscarry at home on my own. I opted out of the D&C (a form of minor surgery called a 'dilatation and curettage').

I had no idea what it would be like, but in my gut I struggled with the idea of the procedure. What ensued was worse than I...