Holistic

Earth Day: Compassion Begins On Your Plate

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Compassion begins on your plate!! 💚🌱✨ I’ve always been a bit of a bleeding heart. I was 14 years old when I decided weight loss wasn’t worth eating animals. My entire family was on the Atkins diet, and saw short term successes (but long term health problems, cancers and death). I was repulsed by seeing family members eat flesh for every meal. I went vegetarian without really knowing how to be a healthy one. As a Midwest girl with limited nutrition knowledge, I just decided to eat anything that didn’t have eyes. This included tons of bread, pasta, and cheese. 18 years old wasn’t even my heaviest. I was heaviest in my mid twenties working in the insurance industry. I finally had a moment where I felt like I woke up. I found myself staring down a road I didn’t want to be on, and drastically changed my life.

Working at Whole Foods and learning about The Whole Foods Diet, and finding veganism was the answer I needed all along. It was not only the most compassionate choice for the animals, and the planet, but it was the most compassionate choice for myself and my health. I finally found the answer to all the questions I had about our nutrition, while still limiting our harm, and impacting the planet positively. The energy this diet gave me impacted my physical activities as well.

We are all so hard on ourselves sometimes, myself included. We are all imperfectly perfect. As I learned more, my mind evolved, my behaviors and diet evolved, and then my body followed. It wasn’t a perfect process. It took time. Transformation doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. It’s as simple as making a decision on what you are making for dinner tonight, or to take that walk you are thinking about. May your life and actions be a celebration of the Earth, every day.

Anything You Can Eat, I Can Eat Vegan

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Veganism is kind of like the mainstream belief in the normality of the “food chain hierarchy”, but in reverse. How did the animal get this nutrient ? What did the animal eat? If the animal got it from another animal, what did that animal eat? There in lies the answer to any nutrition inquiry.

The design of the Earth and our bodies is so intelligent, our nutrients we need just naturally occur in growing plants, and natural elements. Scarcity during changing seasons and weather conditions is the reason our early ancestors hunted animals. In this day and age, a large variety of plants is at our fingertips within a moment’s notice. Killing is unnecessary. Compassion truly begins on your plate: for the animals, the environment, your health, and the future of the human race.

Compassion Begins on Your Plate: How Plant-Based Eating Can Transform Your World

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As a child, I basically ate whatever my parents decided to put in front of me. Until one day, I started questioning the choices of my parents. I was 14 years old when my dad’s side of the family all decided to be on the Atkin’s diet. I watched my dad order a beef burger without the bun, eat as much bacon and sausage as he wanted for breakfast, not eating many vegetables and completely cutting out carbs. Being someone who never particularly enjoyed eating tons of meat, I was repulsed by it. I called it the “flesh” diet. I declared I was a vegetarian and started preparing my own dinners. I didn’t really know how to be a healthy vegetarian, I just knew I didn’t want to contribute to the killing of animals. Once I researched documentaries like “Kentucky Fried Cruelty”, and saw the brutal treatment of animals in factory farms, there was no turning back. I often ate pasta drenched in garlic and olive oil, or omlettes covered in cheese. It wouldn’t be until years later that I truly would make the connection between food as medicine and vitality.

Back then I never could have imagined cutting out eggs and dairy. It took me seeing years later that it’s common practice that male chicks are ground up alive and baby calves are taken from their moms and slaughtered for veal- that there is no humane treatment of animals in any food industry. We are exploiting the most innocent beings on this planet by giving them a life of misery. This connection started making me think about energy in food and focusing on sourcing food that is “cruelty free”. If everything is energy, why would you ever want to consume a product sourced from an animal who lived in misery? It made me question how much negativity we bring into our own lives by absorbing that which we create from these tortured animals. 

It wasn’t until I started working at Whole Foods Market did I really put the idea into practice. I set out to eat the highest energy, nutrient-dense foods. I finally learned how to not only eat compassionately for the planet, but also how to eat compassionately for myself. I took E3-Live, a super nutrient-dense algae high in 65 vitamins, minerals and amino acids, every morning with my orange juice. I ate chia pods on my breaks instead of bagels and cream cheese. I often grabbed organic pink lady apples, bananas, and cashews if I was hungry. I always had Lara bars on me, and drank chia kombuchas. If I was craving cheese, I bought cashew cheese and gluten-free crackers. I replaced my morning omlettes with my now favorite dish: the tofu scramble. I often ate at the salad bar, but mixed an avocado from produce with lemon juice over my greens instead of dressing. This diet gave me so much energy I had no problem working out for a couple hours after an 8 hour shift. 

I was over 300 lbs when I first started working at Whole Foods. This change to a plant-based diet combined with regularly working out led me to drop over 90 lbs over the past year and a half. Little steps and daily decisions from the heart has led to a huge transformation in my life. It’s been less about the end goal, and more about how to make a loving decision towards myself and the planet in the moment. The weight has fallen off in the process. Every day we have choices to make. Every day we have the ability to channel love and light into every decision we make. It’s our little choices over time that lead to life-changing transformations. I truly believe compassion begins on your plate. What we decide to eat can literally transform our world: from our bodies, to our energy levels, to our environment.

The Curious Mystery of the Missing Crystal

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I had been wearing the same amethyst around my neck for the better part of a couple years. About a month ago, a random woman came up to me and told me she could see Archangel Michael behind me and that I am always protected. She made a comment that I don’t really need my necklace. I instantly knew she was referring to the amethyst I had chosen to wear for protection. I was elated to get a message like that on a day I had been seeing a lot of Angel Numbers, and deeply felt it was genuine and heartfelt. Even with such a beautiful message, I didn’t want to part with the crystal I had become so partial to wearing. I eventually bought a new crystal, a rose quartz, meant as a replacement, but still couldn’t bring myself to separate the amethyst from my necklace. 

Last week, I noticed the crystal was missing from my necklace before I went to bed. Retracing my steps seemed impossible since it was lost on my day off and I had ran a bunch of errands all over the place. I really wanted to know what had come of it. More importantly, I didn’t want this loss to be a waste. Instead of being completely bummed about it, I said a little prayer that someone who needs it will find it, and hoped for the best. 

A few days later, a coworker of mine, who I will call Sandy, stopped by my desk and started telling me about how she just came inside from her work break. Sandy was sitting in her car reading articles on the Internet about celebrities that carry crystals. This sparked an interest in her that lead her to research crystals to help herself. She realized she wanted to purchase an amethyst for a particular concern she had that very morning. As she came to this realization towards the end of her break, she opened her door and stepped outside to feel something break beneath her foot. She extended her hand at this point in the story to show me a broken amethyst. But it wasn’t just any amethyst. 

“That’s my crystal!” I exclaimed, in utter disbelief. I proceeded to tell Sandy about the woman who came up to me randomly saying that I don’t need my necklace, and how it came to be missing. It was bizarre that it happened to drop in my work’s parking lot to begin with since I had literally only stopped there in an area I never really even park in for a moment on my day off.

It was clear through such a synchronistic series of events that the crystal was meant for Sandy. We both had goosebumps and exchanged a series of excited statements. However, we were both slightly concerned it was broken, and started researching interpretations of the meanings behind broken crystals. The first site that we opened said that when a crystal is broken, it can mean it’s work with you is done and it is a sign to gift it to someone else who needs it. The fact it broke and the way it broke made me feel even better about letting it go. Sandy now keeps the crystal pieces in her pocket daily as she is working on a healing.


It was such an auspicious day from the start, even before Sandy happened to stop and talk to me, particularly, instead of the dozens of people working around us. The moon was full, and I kept seeing even more angel numbers than usual. It was like a heightened intuition had come over everyone with whom I came in contact. A different coworker happened to give me my work break at 4:44, which means angels are all around you. When everyone works together to bring each other signs and messages without even trying, it just shows how connected we all are. As for the missing crystal, it was never really missing at all, just repurposed for a greater need. 

What Would Happen If You Invested in Nutrition Instead of Make-up?

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One of the saddest aspects of our society is what the population idolizes as beauty. There was a time in my life, mainly my early twenties, when I seemed to invest most of my disposable income on my appearance. I was often riding trends. Head to the gym, cake on bronzer, go to the beauty store for some cover up, blow out your hair, chemically straighten your curls. When I look back at all of the time and money I invested in hiding bags under my eyes, bleaching my hair, powdering my face, and lining my eyes with black make-up, I see a lot of wasted energy.

While I finish editing my book, I have been working in a holistic health foods store. All of my disposable income has been redirected into good nutrition and whole food vitamin supplements. After a major lifestyle change, I feel I don’t have to try so hard to feel beautiful. A good nights rest and rolling out of bed is all I need. The left photo is what I looked like in 2009 spending hundreds of dollars a month on my appearance and spending countless hours in the bathroom. The right photo in the picture is what I looked like after rolling out of bed and throwing on a peasant top with my sugilite crystal. I should also add I just worked an 8 hour day on my feet when I took this photo. While some people may prefer the left, I prefer the right. I don’t have to try anymore and I feel like I have more energy than I did when I was 21.

There are a few things I changed up:

1. Moisturizer- Cell Food Gel. Cell Food has eliminated my need for cover-up or photoshopping wrinkles with a process that oxygenates your cells naturally. The product is full of enzymes, minerals, lavender oil, and aloe vera. I just put on a thin layer after I wash my face with hemp soap.

2. Probiotics- Megafood Megaflora Plus (50 billion) and fermented foods. Probiotics do so much for the immune system, skin, and digestive system. Having a healthy level of good bacteria in your gut can change your life in so many ways. I used to have dry skin and psoriasis that cleared up after a month of taking them. Probiotics help absorb more nutrients, making any other vitamins or produce you consume more effective and nourishing for your body.

3. Wholefood MultiVitamin- Megafood One Daily. Taking a good multi made a difference in my energy level in about a week. Over time, I noticed my hair, skin, and nails were better. I used to wear hair extensions all of the time and get my acrylics filled on my nails every two weeks. Now my hair is thick, long, and full, and my nails don’t break as easily.

4. Vegan diet- eliminating dairy. I was a vegetarian for 12 years before going vegan in 2014. I don’t get sick anymore, or have mucus issues in the winter, and I am losing weight. My work out regimen has been light yoga work outs, but cutting dairy alone has helped me feel healthier than when I consumed dairy and completed P90x in the picture on the left. Focusing on healthy plant food based on organic, non-GMO produce has also increased the nutrients in my diet.

5. Eliminate chemicals. No synthetics here. Having chemical-free hair products, dying my hair without ammonia, and removing chemicals from my diet has really changed up my lifestyle. There are so many natural, effective alternatives. I used to spend so much money on chemical-ridden strips to whiten my teeth. Now, they are white through brushing with Tom’s Fluoride-free toothpaste with Xylitol for whitening. Not only is it cheaper to use coconut oil on your hair than the leading chemical-ridden hair mask, it is super nourishing for your hair, scalp, and skin. Your body absorbs so much through your pores that you start to notice feeling healthier when you choose natural products.

These 5 changes have helped me feel so comfortable in my own skin. When I see old friends of mine still living in a lifestyle where they are spending so much money on the appearance of being healthy and happy, it makes me sad for them because in the end, they aren’t really being healthy at all. Spending money on nutrition instead of beauty products can transform your life. Your appearance becomes a reflection of the healthy being inside instead of a facade. The picture on the right is me today without any make-up. I am full of nutrients and natural products, and I feel I have never looked better. Try it for yourself. ❤️