Health in High Heels

We considered doing a weekend edition to kick off the month of December, but decided instead that we'll spend this weekend playing in snow with our little ones!

That's right! Amy has joined Tera in the land of snow and ice and is back on Canadian turf taking advantage of some holiday visits with her family!

In honor of the season, Tera is thinking of hosting the very first Raw Divas get together.

If you've not yet contacted us to express your interest in a Wintery potluck with the Divas this December, then let us know! The more the merrier! We'll be announcing more about this event next week!

How are you holding up with the holidays? Thanksgiving is behind us, now is the chocolately, spice-filled build up to Christmas. If you've not yet checked out our fully-loaded program on Cravings and Emotional Eating, 'Tis the Season, Ladies. We're continually adding new information to this program, as it becomes available. It's the program that keeps on giving. As we discover new tools and tips to handle cravings, we'll pass them on to you!

In this week's article Tera's got a whole new point of view on the Magic of the Holidays and how to apply it to Christmas baking! Special thanks to Diane Barabash for this week's Tasty Treats! Diane's Recipe will be featured in our soon to be released recipe book! Your can too, but hurry! Send it in soon!

"Creamy Fennel Soup" (4 delicious servings)
by Diva Diane Barbarash (Vancouver, BC)

Notes from Diane: Here is my very popular raw dish. Even my friend's 13-year old picky-eater son loved it!

1 fennel bulb
1/2 cucumber
1 red pepper
1 avocado
juice of 1 lemon
1 bunch spinach
1 green onion
1 mango, cut into tiny cubes

Directions:

Chop fennel, cucumber, red pepper, and avocado and put into blender with juice of 1 lemon. Fill with water
1/3 way up the side of the blender jar. Blend till smooth (if you are using a regular blender you will have to stop and stir a few times).

Add leaves of 1 bunch of spinach and blend until completely smooth. If you need to add more water add only enough to blend so that the consistency remains creamy, not liquidy.

Serve into bowls with and top with mango cubes and chopped green onion ends.

Feature Article:
What Makes the Holidays Magical: A New Look at Gingerbread
by Tera Warner

Recently while walking home rather late through a snowy park, I had an astounding realization. I was looking around at the icy scene before me and was breathless at how beautiful it appeared.

When the trees lose their leaves in the winter, I am confronted with the visual reminder that trees really are the lungs for the Earth. Their branches reach out like the branches of our own lungs, and they take these great, deep breathes for the entire planet.

Last March having returned to wintery turf after an unsettling illness in Costa Rica, I didn't find this icy kingdom nearly as inviting. I was repulsed by concrete, angry at the cold and fought against being stuck in boots when my plan had been to live life as a flower-eating goddess--barefoot in the jungle.

Plans changed abruptly and when I looked around me I fought against the cold and the circumstances themselves.

To find myself in tremendous appreciate for the frosty forest before me, left me with some questions. Like how do we explain the fact that the same scene, the same person could create such wildly different reactions? I mean, what changed if it wasn't the temperature?

It was my point of view.

The position from which I am willing to see the world has changed a lot since then. And having changed, it allows me to experience a whole new set of sensations, awareness and appreciation for my surroundings and life itself.

I don't know if I can go so far as to say that I was afraid of winter's return, but I was apprehensive and curious to see how it would affect me.

To find myself in awestruck appreciation for the beauty of an icy park at midnight, nearly brought me to tears when I realized, maybe for the first time, that it is not the things around me that bring me grief, frustration or difficulty, but my perceptions of them.

And, by the same token, it is not the things around me that bring me joy, excitement or satisfaction, but my perceptions of those as well.

And having attained it, I was left with a rather empowering sense of peacefulness--the feeling that I could be anywhere, with anyone and find a point of view that brought me peace.

Maybe for you it's noise, pollution, cooked food, angry people or the neighbor's poodle. I don't know what sets you off or pushes your buttons. For me, it was winter. Whatever it is you resist or find yourself bumping noses with in frustration, remember this:

"Beauty" is what you say it is. And when you're willing to change your point of view, when you're willing to take a step back from your head and be something or somebody else for a moment, you'll astound yourself at how easy it becomes to find beauty EVERYWHERE.

So many people at this time of the year get lost in the physical sensations of food. The spices, the sweets, believing, perhaps mistakenly, that it is the food that brings them the sensations of pleasure they're looking for. Of course, when you tie it all in to the gamut of old family memories and Hallmark moments that come bursting up to the surface the entire scene can make this time of the year seem pretty intense.

If you're feeling the fear of holiday feasts approaching, then this year when the Gingerbread cookies get passed around to you, try this:

Rather than resist, fight against them and feel frustration about how horribly people eat, or what toxins must be laden in those little cookies, or how much weight you'll gain by eating them, STOP and change your point of view.

Take the plate, smile, inhale deeply and bask in the sweet aroma of Gingerbread! Close your eyes and "be" that tasty little morsel of spicy sweetness. Feel its crumbly crunchy form. Get the sensation of having your own little icing drop nose. Then stop, look again and notice how they've been placed on the plate. Look about at the faces of the people around you, and while you smile your knowing smile, say...

Then giggle to yourself at your silent victory. Knowing the thrill of sensations you've just experienced are even GREATER than that which you would have had having taken a chunk off the little guy's head and let it roll down the hatch.

I mean, if all this sounds a bit far-fetched, TRY IT! You've eaten them before, you know what that'll do.

Who knows, when you look down and see the Gingerbread boy, he might just wink back to you with a sigh of relief as the platter gets put back on the counter.

Whether it's shopping or eating, visiting with relatives or trudging through the snow, may your holiday season be more magical than ever with the realization that the magic of any moment is, and always has been, within you.

We'll be hosting a very special version of our
Body Enlightenment System starting with a preparation week on New Year's Eve!

Official Program Start Date, January 5, 2008!
(after the family feasts are OVER!)

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If you would like to send The Raw Divas feedback, suggest a "Health in High Heels Newsletter" topic, or ask a question that could be featured in a future issue of "Health in High Heels", please do not hesitate to send us a message customerservice@therawdivas.com. Please note that we are unable to offer medical advice.