Healthy Living

Top 10 Fruits & Veggies to Try Organic

Non-organic, or conventional, fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides and grown in nutrient depleted soil. Plants that have no peel, like berries, tend to absorb more of the pesticides that are sprayed onto them than those with a peel.

Organic veggies are rumored to have a more vibrant flavor.  After I switched to eating organic fruits and veggies I noticed many tasted way better.  I never liked apples until I tried them organic, and now I LOVE them.  I found conventional apples to be kind of waxy with bitter taste, and organic ones to have a more sweet and juicy flavor.  Also, organic foods contain double the vitamins & minerals found in their conventional counterparts.

Read Laurel's entire article Top 10 Fruits & Veggies to Try Organic

Laurel Pehrson, our official Raw Food Recipes Expert

Recipe: One Wild and Lucky Salad

This salad was inspired by posts from my FB friend Lana Sutton. She had been showing how people can eat from their yard..."weeds" that are edible and tasty, and she shared some ideas and pics of salads from her own yard.

I've been wanting to try this for a couple of days, so I ran outside this afternoon to pick some wild violets before my husband mows tomorrow. I got brave and sampled some yesterday (amazingly no tummy ache followed), and found the white ones seemed sweeter than the purple, so I picked more white blooms than purple.

Read Michelle's entire article Recipe: One Wild and Lucky Salad

Michelle Young, our official Food for Thought and Tummy writer

Going Home

I don’t think any words evoke more emotion for me than these: going home. At age eighteen I left home for college in another state and probably never got over the loss. I returned for the first two summers, then I moved away forever, going home to visit only rarely after that. Being married, having children, creating a new life, I moved on, but the place I knew as my original home still tugs deeply with cords to my heart.

To me, home means perfection: the place where I am supposed to be, safe while doing what I am supposed to be doing, with help and guidance from others who are here with the responsibility to help and guide me. This could be described as the state of belonging and purpose, maybe even like being peacefully pampered in a spa, and like all those nights snuggled into my bed as a child, knowing I was safe from all the troubles of the world. Home was the place where I could rest, knowing someone stronger and wiser was there to take care of everything.

Read Judy's entire article Going Home

Judy Hansen, our official Guided Meditations Expert

A Parent's Right to Choose Natural Healthcare for Their Child

Each one of us has been affected by cancer in one way or another. Nurse, Margaret Turley, has written a compelling reality fiction novel, Save the Child based on true events in the news dealing with family/parent rights in making decisions for their children's healthcare. Save the Child is about choice - about being able to choose the type of healthcare you want for your child.

The book is part of an upcoming silent auction: Authors for Cancer Research Benefit. All the money raised beyond cost to put on the event will be donated to Cancer Research. Half of the proceeds from the Goodfellow Author book sales at the event will be donated to Cancer Research.

To listen to a recent interview Author's Roost conducted with Margaret Turley, go here.

Life Coach: Solving Your Life's Problems in Two Simple Steps

Having problems and challenges in life is something we all face at one time or another. For most people, problems drag them way down emotionally and almost completely drain the life energy out of them.

But it doesn't have to be that way. By making a few simple adjustments in the way you view and react to your life's problems, you can quickly be on your way to eliminating the dilemma and living a better, healthier and happier life.

It all starts by making a small "shift" in your attitude towards problem solving.

Read Ed's entire article Life Coach: Solving Your Life's Problems in Two Simple Steps

Ed McDonough, our official Life Balance Expert

5 Easy Ways to Bring your Health Back into Focus

Here are five easy ways to bring your mental and physical health back into focus!

Eat well. Chemical additives, unhealthy fats and sugar stress you out on a nutritional level. Choose fresh fruits and vegetables, 100% whole grains, lean meats and healthy fats, including nuts and seeds.

Drink water. Soda pop, sugary juice drinks, teas and “power” drinks with artificial sweeteners and synthetic vitamins barely hydrate you, let alone provide any true value. Drink eight to ten glasses of filtered water each day instead.

Exercise. Regular exercise not only relieves stress, it also releases feel-good hormones and increases your energy level.

Read Rita's entire article 5 Easy Ways to Bring your Health Back into Focus

Rita Canada, our official Natural Health/Weight Management for Executives and Entrepreneurs Expert

Chakra Energy Healing -- Part 1

The purpose of chakra energy healing is to align and balance the Chakra system, which is one of our body's electro-magnetic energy systems. It is comprised of seven spinning vortices of energy running from the root chakra at the base of the spine all the way up the midline of the body to the crown chakra on the top of the head.

Chakra is a Sanskrit word from the Hindu system literally translated as "circular motion" but most often translated as wheel or vortex. The Chakras represent different levels of consciousness, having to do with survival, creativity, identity, love, expression, comprehension, and transcendence. Each of these energy centers has a special task and they all carry specific information.

Read Carolyn's entire article Chakra Energy Healing -- Part 1

Carolyn Cooper, our official Energy Healing Expert

Guardian Angels

I have always been sensitive to the presence of love in the form of angels watching over me. I don’t know why I have been so blessed, but it makes me happy to experience such a reality. Love in the form of angelic presences seems very beautiful and sacred, even an honor to my spirit, which in my innocence, I simply choose to accept and enjoy.

Sometimes the presence of angels is so real I sense the need to keep my beautiful music on and playing when I leave my house, as I feel my angels near, and I want them to stay and enjoy themselves while I am gone. I sense this makes them feel wanted and honored, appreciated and loved, which seems to allow them permission to remain and continue offering their blessings.

Read Judy's entire article Guardian Angels

Judy Hansen, our official Guided Meditations Expert

Make Love Your Favorite Color

One afternoon, during my 30 day juice feast, I was standing on my back porch in Georgia.  I was gazing at all the green around me for about an hour.  I was drinking  green vegetable juices daily to alkalize and cleanse my body.  Enveloped in green, I remember feeling  puzzled about what was so special about the color green.    Since then I’ve been learning to make green my favorite color.

The color green is considered to be the color of healing and love. Green is associated with the heart chakra.  Particularly, Ayurvedic medicine teaches that there are 7 chakras, or vortexes of energy, around the human body associated with various colors. 

Read Laurel's entire article Make Love Your Favorite Color

Laurel Pehrson, our official Raw Food Recipes Expert