Eat Real: Thanksgiving - Givingthanks...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We here in the Eat Real household look forward to a quiet day with each other. It will include cinnamon buns, turkey breast, stuffing, potatoes, corn and football. The typical high carbohydrate Thanksgiving most Americans eat.

In order to control the damage we bought a 2lb turkey breast, 1 bag of organic corn, made cinnamon buns with organic sugar and spelt flour, organic stuffing, home made pumpkin pie and the football is on cable. All told, the day's dinner cost about $25.00 for 5 people.

Here's our pumpkin pie recipe:

Crust:
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cold cut butter
1 tablespoon whole milk
2 tablespoons water

Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter with pastry cutter or fork. Mix until crumbly. Add water and milk. Mix and then knead dough on smooth surface adding flour to prevent sticking. Roll out. Makes enough for one 8" pie.

Filling:
1 (15oz) can organic pumpkin
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. powdered cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix all together and pour into crust. Bake 45-50 minutes at 375F. It's done when the middle is set. You can check with a knife.

We are managing this year's feast from a perspective of quality and quantity. We upped the quality and downsized the quantity. In general, as the human body eats higher quality foods, it is naturally less hungry because it is receiving and absorbing all the nutrients necessary for daily function. We are able to enjoy the festivities of the season without going overboard. Not to mention - minimal leftovers!

What would Thanksgiving be without practicing gratitude?! Yes, we are thankful for so much on this day - but what if we could be thankful for so much everyday?! It's been scientifically proven that practicing gratitude changes brain function. It raises your endorphin levels. Synapses change how they communicate between cells. Before you know it, you're feeling good ALL the time and your experience of life changes. It can be seen through eyes of love and optimism instead of fear and lack. When your inside changes, your outside changes and it is reflected back to you in the people, opportunities, and experiences around you.

- Choose quality
- Manage quantity
- Chew your food
- Eat slowly
- Be thankful

Do what you can, when you can, with what you've got.

I am thankful for everyone and everything God has blessed me with. I am thankful for you. (I am thankful for the nap I will take when the dishes are done!)

We are wishing you joy and peace on this day and every day.

Be Real: My Dad

Five years ago today my dad died. He was a Canadian lumberjack in Connecticut. He fell about 70 feet and broke his neck. That was that...

I grew up, my whole life, with him having accidents. He'd break his nose and set it in the tree he was in and keep working... a tree would fall on him and he's push it off and keep working... a branch would split his head open and he'd walk into the doctor's office unannounced and they'd sew him up and he'd go back to work... My life was spent seeing him bloody, broken, full of wood chips, hydraulic oil and full of life. He was NEVER afraid to do anything. Not that he had anything to prove, he just did what he wanted, when he wanted. Whenever, I get nervous or worried about something I think of him - what have I got to loose?

We have but one life this time around, we might as well do what we love and make the most of it!

He was never in a rush. He ALWAYS had plenty of time for anyone and everything. He'd try things like beekeeping without any experience and the results were comedic. One time he brought a hive of bees home from a tree he cut thinking he was going to start his own little hobby. Well, the bee's started swarming around the neighborhood! I was newly married at the time and remember calling my mom to check on things. She said "I'm drinking - your father's bee's are swarming, come on over!". Yup, when I get there, he has window screens duct taped around his head, duct taped gloves over his hands and he's holding a bottle of dish soap in one hand and a hose in the other. There he goes - running around the neighborhood hosing down the bees!

He was covered in stings! But he took it as a good sign that he wouldn't have arthritis. So he looked on bee stings with great appreciation. CRAZY! Man he lived everyday like it would be his last! He loved us more than his own life. He lived his truth no matter what anyone else thought.

One time, he left the house in the middle of a hurricane because an elderly lady called about a tree in her yard and how she was afraid it would fall on her house. It was a HURRICANE! He left without any worry or regard to his own safety to bring the tree down and calm an elderly woman. What?! I hear you say. Yes, that was my dad.

He died the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 24th. That was five years ago. I was in Ohio visiting my in-laws when we got the call. All I could do was hold my head in one hand and the phone in the other while the world stopped and I tried to breathe. My father-in-law found a flight and managed to get me to Connecticut immediately. There's nothing like being partially stripped search at the airport when you're going home to see your dad's dead body. Talk about surreal!

The flight home was emotional. The poor woman next to me was complaining about taking care of her ailing mother then asked me who I was visiting on my trip. HA, she had no idea what I was going to say... "Well, my dad just died today from an accident. I'm going home to mourn him and take care of his body". Talk about a conversation starter!

When I get home, I see him waiting for me at the airport with his fuzzy, yellow sweater. When I get to the morgue, I see his broken body. That's the last time I hugged him and felt the enormity of his body... I saw him in the corner, almost in disbelief. He was surprised to be dead. He really thought he might get up. I heard him in my head and at that point, the room went into bright yellow, white light. I was blinded and felt heat in the back of my neck. He came home with us - me. He was with me. For the next five days while we waiting for all the state investigations to complete, he was in my head telling me what to do and where to find things.

It wasn't until my brother saw his body did he leave for the other side. He went straight to the light. He always knew that was where he was to go. He was waiting for us to release him.

My story goes on, but I'll stop there. In meditation last week, he came to me and hugged me. If there was ever a doubt that they are not with us after death, that is gone. If there was ever a doubt about God and His power, that is gone. His death saved my life. Even in death, he put his family first.

Thank you Dad for loving us that much. Thank you God for allowing us to witness his life and his death. I cry because of the experience of his life and his death. Both miracles to play a part in. I am so grateful for all of it.

I love you Dad.

Eat Real: Glorious Greens

I just finished a class on the pH balance of the body. It was great, in large part, to the group that attended. What a beautiful group of souls!

The body requires a neutral pH, just as the water and the ground around us. If it's too acidic or too alkaline, there is imbalance and disease. The same is true for the human body. Our bodies lean to the acidic side of the spectrum. Largely in part to the way we eat, think, talk and the activities or lack of activity in our lives. Processed, chemicalized, refined, enriched foods are acidic and contribute to acidic conditions. Natural, fresh, real food contribute to alkaline conditions. Stress, electronics, unhealthy relationships, etc... all contribute to acidity. Do you see how the food we eat is just one part of bringing balance to our lives? Describing the balance in terms of pH is just one way to understand harmony.

One of the best and easiest ways to tip the scales in your favor is with the introduction of green foods. This can come in the form of green vegetables, chlorella, chlorophyll, spirulina or blue green algae to name a few.

Remember this, disease, bacteria, viruses, fungus all grow in acidic conditions. Are you sick all the time? How's your attitude? This is just one way for you to examine what's working or not working in your life.
So next time you're in a funk, try a bowl of broccoli and see what happens...

Beat the Blues Broccoli:
1 lb fresh or frozen broccoli
Salt to taste
20 chocolate chips
1 tbsp. of honey 

Directions:
Steam the broccoli until fork tender and dark green. Drizzle the honey on and toss. Salt lightly and prepare on a dish.  Add a few chocolate chips to finish it off!

Be Real: Seeing my Heart

By now, you've probably noticed I talk about the vibration of love quite a bit in these posts. What is the vibration of love? It's the ability to look on situations, people and events from a place of love and light without detachment. It is literally the ability to come from your heart and not your head. Let me give you an few examples:

Someone taking your parking spot at the mall
Getting beaten and nailed to a cross for talking about love and God
Your kid getting hurt at school by a friend

I hope you see the similarities... it doesn't matter who you are or what you're doing... whether you are the president of the United States or a mom from North Carolina - if you are able to look on those around you from a true place of love and light, your vibration of 'being' is high or is rising higher and is closer to love. You are operating from your soul and the ego has been put aside.

That's the idea. That's why Jesus was here - to teach us to love ourselves and to love one another. Our souls are here to learn. We are all from Heaven and we will return when our work is done here. Here and there are an illusionl, it's all the same. Physical and nonphysical - it's all at the same time.

If you can recognize that this existence is an illusion then you can really choose to look on what is happening around you from a place of light. That is why I'm here at 3 am writing this. They have just come to me in a dream and allowed me to remember the dream and this is what They wanted me to do. I am willing to be a clear channel to deliver God's message of love - I said it before I went to bed and they rewarded me with waking me up to write this. And it is a reward and an honor. I say that because of how GOOD I feel. It's beyond words. It's beyond feeling. It's a pure place of knowing there is SO MUCH MORE to our existence than what we see or perceive at this physical level of human existence. Who's They? God, my Angels, my Guides...

Thank you for the opportunity to see You, hear You, smell You and feel You in whatever way you communicate to me. Thank you for allowing me to rise in my love vibration. Thank you for allowing all of this with grace and ease, without drama, trauma or illness and for the best and highest good.

I have total faith and trust that You are abundant in love and goodness. And that the only thing that stands in my way are my own limiting ego programs. I am willing to let those go and allow for the possibility that there is MORE and it is BETTER than this human brain could ever imagine. Lack is an illusion, bad is an illusion - it is all good in the eyes of the Creator.

Just to state my disclaimer though - I am without the need to be nailed to the cross. . . They know, I'm told. Thank you, I love you, thank you.

The only one who requires forgiveness is me of myself. God made us so perfect that we couldn't see ourselves. We had to look at each other see who we are. If we like what we see in another, that person is reflecting the light qualities of us. If we don't like what we see, well, you get the picture. Are you ready to work on what you don't like you see? Are you ready to embrace the totality of who you are and love yourself anyway? To get over yourself, out of your own way and stand up and talk about this when We present you the opportunity? I say yes, for I experienced today and everyday that all things are possible through the Lord.

As always - with grace and ease, without drama, trauma, illness or harm to anyone or anything concerned and for the best and highest good...

Be Real: Seeing my A**

I got to see my a** today. You know what I mean... It's in pretty good shape for being 38 yrs old and having 3 kids. Most of the time it serves me well. However, I saw the ugly side of it today. This is what happened...

It all started by not eating my usual breakfast... I fell into some ego despair. Starting to feel victimized, blaming others, feeling lack, feeling like I had to make something happen in order for things to turn out how my ego pictured it. My plans were not going according to plan. So, once again, I'm shown how much food does matter in our soul's journey! Once again, I'm shown how much positive thinking matters. And, I'm reminded that the only plan is God's plan... surrender is the best plan.

The thoughts and feelings may be truth, however because I was in ego mode, I responded from a place of fear instead of balance and clarity. I believe I was shown some truth in the situation, but then took off on an ego-based tantrum. It totally got blown out of proportion.

First it started with my husband (blah, blah, blah...) and filtered down to my oldest son. They both got an earful. We went to church and it continued with my youngest son (my middle son has enough sense to keep quiet and out of the way). The little one was a real piece of work. But, I should say, he just reflected in me what I was projecting. I gave him a spank in the pew at church. Not enough to hurt, but enough to show my ass. He responded appropriately by crying and yelling. Thank you for the blessing of showing me my ass once again! I had to leave with him. He continued the tirade. Got lots of looks from people... ok, starting to feel embarrassed. Then I thought - screw it! This is it, life is perfect in its imperfection. So what, my kid's screaming, I didn't eat my breakfast, we're at church 'trying' to be holy. Guess what, God was laughing His ass off at me! I had to start laughing.

Maybe I was taking myself a little too seriously. Maybe - Ha! Definitely. I told my kid - get over it. He did as soon as I did. Thank you little person for being so connected to God that you can show me the truth in myself.

Guess what? I got back on the horse. I connected back to Source. The Universal flow of love became uninterrupted! Amen! I could feel God again. Man, I was affirming my ass off - I love myself, I approve of myself, etc...

See what I mean about seeing my a**? The world saw it too and whatever they thought or didn't think, is irrelevant. I'm happy to serve the Lord today to show others and MYSELF the totality of who I am. And I accept it ALL lovingly and allow myself to love myself anyway!

Can it be that simple? Choosing to react to our feelings, our inner knowings from a place of acceptance, love and detachment or choosing to react from a place of fear. Can it be as simple as eating breakfast? Yes it can!

We can manifest light or dark. Giving into the dark is giving into old ego patterns that are blocks to moving forward in our evolution and allowing our vibration to rise. Thank you for the opportunity to see my feelings and knowings from the place of ego and fear. And thank you for the opportunity to choose to see them from a place of light. I choose to see from a place of light. I choose to be guided by my soul to see the truth of what is shown from a place of light and love. It's not about me, it's about what I can do to serve the Lord.

Attachment is ego. Seeing it for what it is and loving it anyway, that is soul - God.

All of this from skipping breakfast... Do you see a correlation between attitude, events and what you eat? I do! Some events were caused by lack of breakfast, some were just on my path this morning and how I chose to react to them was from a place of fear initially and then turned to a place of love.

Does fear motivate me? It used to. Is this bad - nope. Does it motivate me now? Yes, sometimes - and I'm still figuring it out. Sometimes what I fear is something I just need to get over myself about. Sometimes it shows me what is not on my path. Or it shows me the truth of the situation and I need to decide how I want to proceed. I can choose to manifest what I don't want, or say thank you for showing me what I don't want, now I choose the opposite. I choose what I do want.

My affirmation today is - I choose to be guided by my soul for the best and highest good. I choose to be the co-creator of my life with God for the best and highest good. Here is the prayer I'm guided to share:

"God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can and Wisdom to know the difference."

Eat Real: You Are What You Eat

Remember Mom telling you, "You are what you eat"? Well it's truer than we ever thought. There is a movement of study in health called food energetics. It's based on that one statement. The studies include looking at ancestral and indigenous cultures in our human history and what they ate ceremonially before hunting, meditation and the like.

Follow me on this line of thought...

How many times have we eaten something we wish we hadn't? I can tell you from my own experience, plenty of times! How often, though was it unconscious. Just putting food in my mouth without paying attention to why or what was going in... well, first this is the body crying for nutrients and our ego being blindly led by inappropriate desires to fulfill how it WANTS to feel. We project our desires for peace, calm, love, confidence, relaxation into that scone. We actually think we will find comfort in food - so off we go. The ego wants to feel good and the best way the ego can think to do that is to stuff something in our mouth. Afterward, we sit back and wonder, "Why did I do that?". The truth is, when we feel bad, we eat bad. When we feel good, we eat good. How we eat is a direct projection of how we TRULY feel. And, how we feel is a direct projection of how we eat.

Not only are we what we eat, but we are also what we do not eat. So, if we are craving a certain food, what is it that we think that food will bring us? How can we bring those feelings into our experience without the bakery or fast food? Think about it... it's eating ALL the right foods, not just the food we put in our mouth.

Not only does the food we eat define us, but so does the TV we watch, the books we read, the things we do or don't do. This is said ALL without judgment. I want you to think about this the next time you reach for the Diet Coke or the scone. What were you just exposed to? What did you just do before that desire came about? Do you see a correlation? It's subtle, but it's there. And, yes, that heated discussion with your husband did have something to do with it. Being alone with the kids for 3 days DID have something to do with it. This does not excuse it, but it shows a correlation.

It's ALL FOOD. We feed ourselves beyond edible food everyday, every moment. God gave us everything. He made us perfect. We just need to remember we are worthy of ALL His goodness.

Choose your experience by defining how you want to feel and then allow those things into your life. The shift will take place. Know that you are worthy and loved.

Be Real: Finding God in the Dishes

I ran into a friend in carpool. She was commenting on how the dishes are never done. She wants to keep it on the 'checked off' portion of her list, but they keep coming back on the 'to do' portion. I know how she feels!

What struck me is how dishes are a direct reflection of our spiritual evolution. How we 'think' we move forward, by checking things off the list. When the real work is in the NOW of the moment. We think there is always more to do, but in reality there is only now. Our ego thinks we 'have to do this or that' in order to evolve or move forward in life. When all we have to do is just be. What a concept!

I've been reminded recently that Divine Guidance is simple, easy, quick and happens almost without thought. It's remarkable, really. When we get ourselves tied up in knots, over think, analyze, stress ourselves out - that's the ego run amok. All we have to do is show up, God will do the rest.

Affirmations and manifesting are tools our ego uses to change our vibration. I've found affirmations to be helpful in changing my direction of thought, to clear the clutter. The manifesting gets a little tricky. The reason is, I've discovered is that it is ego driven. God manifests exactly what He wants us to be, have and do. Divine Guidance, from our angels and guides, manifest for us exactly what is required on our soul's path. All we have to do is ALLOW this to happen and move out of the way. We just have to listen! My ego knows what it wants, but my soul knows what I've contracted to do in this lifetime and knows what is needed. The angels and guides will do what we ask if its in our best and highest good. And, of course, so will God.

The truth, I've come to discover, is that all I need is God. All I need is faith to carry me through. Faith is that knowing that I know exactly what I need to know right now. Knowing I have exactly what I need to have right now. Knowing I am pure love encased in a human body, with a human ego... that I am perfect in my imperfection. Perfection is an illusion.

The body is the 'vehicle', the soul is the 'driver' and the mind is the 'translator'. The mind can get trippy though - so watch out! The ego seems to reside in there. When these statements or words come up, you can be sure that the ego is trying to drive:
I think - I want - I should - Why - How

When I hear Divine guidance - it doesn't tell me what to do, I just seem to do it or understand it. Yes, I do hear it, see it, smell it or feel it. We all do. We just have to tune into it. When I hear Divine guidance, the words are simple, its easy, makes me feel good & happy - it is peaceful, gentle, nudging. It doesn't overwhelm - it's taken one step at a time. When I resist, it persists. Usually when resisting, it's because I want to know (ego), I want to understand why (ego). When I don't have to understand, I just have to do.

In Eastern Religious practices, being in the mind is a terrible place to be... Being present in the moment, being who I am, listening over speaking, slowing down... these are all ways we can live more fully in Spirit and less in ego. Oddly enough, doing dishes keeps me in the present and allows me the silence to hear God...

Be Real: Our BodIES

In my journey to learn all there is to learn about the energetic signature of the body, this is what has come up - we actually have 4 bodies. The physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental.

Low vibrational energy can manifest profoundly in any one of these 4 bodies. We get 'sick' in the physical or feel pain, depression and confusion in the mental, strong emotions in the emotional like crying, yelling, laughing and in the spiritual - that feeling of emptiness, not being whole - that's the best I can describe it from my own experience.

High vibrational energy, manifests in these 4 bodies as well. Excellent health, feeling 'good', happiness, joy, laughter, feeling the presence of God. You get the idea.

When there is an imbalance in any one of our bodies, it can be caused by allowing low vibrational energy into our vibrational existence or the sign of a deficiency. An imbalance in any one of our bodies can manifest in any of the others. The physical is just the most obvious. When I say we 'allow' this low energy into our existence, we actually may not be conscious of it because limiting subconscious programming may be the culprit. Programming many of us are not aware of because it's been with us for so many lifetimes or was ingrained in us by our experience in this lifetime. And a deficiency is nutritional - no matter what level. Sleep, laughter, peace and quiet - these are important nutritional components to our existence just as vitamins and minerals are.

I'm reminded of the subtle communication the body sends. It is always communicating a desire or need from some part of the 4 body complement. Are you achy, tired? It's telling you something. Are you grumpy, moody? Are you in angry, happy? Crampy, gassy? Pay attention to the signs, the language of your body and what it is trying to tell you. Then, just listen. Be still and listen - it will tell you what to do in order to maintain balance. You don't have to push through it, all you have to do is listen! That small, quiet voice within - the voice of intuition, Spirit - GOD, this voice loves you and guides you.