Make a "note to self" the next time you eat

Making a note to self after you eat a food or drink is the best way to learn which foods support, nourish and feed you and more importantly which foods affect you in a negative way.

For example, for Thanksgiving my Dad brought the most divine death by chocolate cake for desert. Last night Johnn (my hubby) sliced me a piece (I didn't want it) of the leftover death by chocolate cake which I ate with joy and gratitude.

The down side to the death cake was that the rich, dark chocolate affected my quality of sleep. When I woke up at 5 a.m. to teach Yoga, I made a "note to self" about how eating chocolate within three hours of bedtime keeps me up and affects the quality of my sleep.

Now I know and knowledge is power and freedom.

Next time you feel off after eating a certain food make a "note to self." Most importantly keep your "notes to self" and next time the same or similar situation arises remember what you learned! Trust yourself.

Love and Health,
Amanda Moxley
Holistic Nutrition and Life Balance Expert
www.eating4energy.com

Do you listen to your body?

Many of us are totally disconnected to our bodies. Your body is communicating with you every day of your life.

When you practice yoga and any other form of mind, body and spirit exercise you connect to your body in an intentional way for the duration of your practice. When you make this connection on a daily basis your bodies voice becomes stronger and louder and you can her speak to you.

Yoga practice has been a part of my daily life for the past six years and in these past several years I have healed from all emotional and food related issues. I have developed a deep connection to my body and am able to listen to, trust and respect her guidance, wants and dislikes.

Many times in our fast past world we are driven by the clock, the holiday season, work demands and family and we completely ignore the ancient wisdom our beautiful body wants to share.

I encourage you to create an intention to begin a mind, body and spirit exercise practice like yoga, ti-chi, chi gong or kong fu so that you can establish this sacred connection to your beautiful body!

Love and Health,
Amanda Moxley
Holistic Nutrition and Life Balance Expert
www.eating4energy.com

Women, Why are We So Hard on Ourselves?

Yesterday I was working with several of my amazing, intelligent and beautiful clients and they each shared with me their desires to lose their "upper thigh flab", their "flabby bellies" and their "flabby arms."

I couldn't help but to feel a little sad. What I see in them is their beauty, intelligences, their strong feminine bodies, their kindness and grace.

What saddens me is that we women are so hard on ourselves. We beat ourselves up black and blue with our mean thoughts and hurtful feelings.

What if we could love ourselves as much as we love a new born baby? What if we could nourish and soothe ourselves like we would a child? What if we could become our own best friend and commit to always loving and cherishing ourselves?

That is my hope for the day, may all women everywhere recognize the divinity and magic in themselves.

Love,
Amanda

The Ancient Inca's and You

I have been thinking about my magical journey to Peru lately. The Ancient Incas built their entire culture and civilization without electricity, computers, refrigerators, cars, washing machines, cell phones and I-pods. They lived in communion with Mother Earth (Pachamama), the stars and moon.

With global warming becoming more and more evident I have become very aware of the resources I consume and support. I hope to inspire you to become more conscious of the choices you make in regards to food and energy consumption.

How much do we really need? When will we finally have enough? Why must we go outside of ourselves to become fulfilled? I believe that we have all that we need inside of our own hearts and souls. Each of us is unique in our ability to deeply connect with our hearts and souls. You can connect through mediation, yoga, prayer, silence, nature, drumming, dancing, intimacy with another being, skiing, playing with children, laughing, relaxing, art, singing etc.

The manner in which you connect to your heart and soul does not matter. What matters is that you dig deep and connect within everyday.

Turn your lights off in your home, be in the dark. What comes up for you? Turn your heat down, put a yummy sweater on and a warm hat and snuggle under a blanket. Look at the stars and express thanks for being alive in this exciting time on the planet. Bless your water. Smile at a stranger.

When we respect Mother Nature we learn to respect ourselves.

Thanksgiving Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to you! Did you order your Thanksgiving turkey yet? Before you do, ask yourself a few questions... How was your turkey raised? Did it grow up running around in the sun, happily ranging freely in the grass? (Free- ranging animal protein contains a much higher amount of Omega 3 fatty acids than animals raised in a factory farm.) Did you find your turkey at the grocery store? What did the label say? Does your turkey contain added ingredients such as nitrates and sugars? Don't be fooled by the word natural. The labeling laws around this are very loose. Look for the words organic and free-range. Your best bet is to go straight to a family farm where the turkeys have been well cared for. So you would rather not eat a turkey... Beware of imitation meat products. They usually contain isolated proteins, which are very dangerous for your nervous system.

Whatever you decide to eat this season, eat it with gratitude and chew it well. Breathe and smile as you eat and your body will thank you!

November 23rd Buy Nothing Day

November 23rd, the heaviest shopping day of the year, will mark the day that concerned citizens in as many as 65 countries will hit the streets for a 24-hour consumer fast in celebration of the 15th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global cultural phenomenon that originated in Canada. Buy Nothing Day focuses on concerns about the ecological, psychological and political consequences of our consumer culture and the impact of our materialism on society.

Community Organizations in Utah have joined together for this year’s second annual Buy Nothing Day Winter Coat Exchange at Library Plaza, 200 East 400 South in Salt Lake City from 10am to 2pm. These organizations hope to set the example of sharing, giving and reusing without consuming the planet.

Bring your winter coats, jackets and sweaters between 10am and 2pm on the 23rd to Library Plaza. If you need a coat, come get one. If you have a coat, we know someone who can use it.

Left over coats will be donated to the Crossroads Urban Center Thrift Store.

Information: 631-2998 or info@blueskyinstitute.org

http://www.blueskyinstitute.org/

Maya Angelou's Best Poem Ever

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SH OULD HAVE...
a youth she's content to leave behind....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her old age....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE....
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE....
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
a feeling of control over her destiny...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without;
ruining the friendship...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her childhood may not have been perfect...but it’s over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. ..
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table...
or a charming inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year...

Amanda Moxley
Holistic Nutrition and Life Balance Expert
www.eating4energy.com

My Top Five Tips for Burning Belly Fat

Amanda's Top 5 Tips for Burning Belly Fat for Good!
I hope you take these tips seriously!

1. Make up your mind that you are ready to change and then commit to giving it your 100% effort!

2. Stop eating chocolate, cookies, muffins (to avoid a muffin top waist), candy bars and other sweet processed treats for a week or two.

3. Replace processed crackers with gluten free flax crackers, the brand I like is "Mary's Gone Crackers", eat more crunchy vegetables like carrots, celery (boring I know but they are crunchy), and crunchy apples, organic of course.

4. Stop eating all chips at least for a week or two. Chips are nothing but fried corn or potatoes, chemicals, additives and salt. Replace chips with other salty crunchy alternatives such as sea vegetables like nori and dulse or snack on olives and raw nuts.

5. Exercise! Seriously you gotta use it or you'll lose it. You may be thinking that you do not have time to exercise but that is just an excuse. I recommend getting your calendar, palm pilot or day planner out right now and scheduling in exactly when you can exercise this week, ask a friend to hold you to your promise to yourself. As a side note just because you exercised today does not give you an excuse to eat more or eat "whatever" you want.

Amanda Moxley
Holistic Nutrition and Life Balance Expert
www.eating4energy.com

Writing New Moon Intentions

Creating New Moon Intentions


Here is a ritual on how to work with the new moon Energy to help manifest your intentions. The new moon is the time in nature when it is easy to start new projects and create new intentions. It is also a good way to deepen your connection to the earth.

Today is a New Moon.

New Moon Intentions are a concrete way of stating what you want in your life. Some of your wants will take time to manifest, others will come quickly. Your intentions or wishes are written statements of what you want to manifest for the coming Moon cycle.

Your list should consist of at least two wishes and no more than ten, so as not to scatter the energy. Start each wish with the words I intend because you are stating what you want to fulfill your desires and needs.

NEW MOON ABUNDANCE CHECK During the first eight hours of the New Moon write a check to yourself. Write your name in the section labeled "Pay to the order of". Write Paid in Full in both the amount sections. Sign the check with the words, Law of Abundance. Place the check on your altar or put it in a special place and prepare to receive!

I have been writing my New Moon intentions every month for more than a year. I write them on the new moon and then place my intentions outside under the full moon two weeks later and let them bake. I found writing my intentions in rhythm with nature is a very powerful way to co-create my life with the Universe.

Write your new moon intentions today!

Amanda Moxley
Holistic Nutrition and Life Balance Expert
www.eating4energy.com

Does your food have more frequent miles than you?

Here are some compelling reasons why you should eat locally:

*Support your community
*Get the freshest, flavorful and most nutritive produce available
*Mass farming depends on fossil fuels, depletes soils, and poisons waterways
*Eating locally reduces second hand consumption of fossil fuels caused by trucking and shipping produce
*Californian lettuce eaten in NYC travels 2,993 miles
*It costs the equivalent to 11,150 calories of energy to fly a two-pound Hawaiian pineapple to Des Moines, Iowa
*If one million people switched to locally produced food for a year, we'd eliminate up to 625,000 tons of CO2.
*Long hauled food loses vitamins and gains contaminants

To reach your plate, the typical meal travels roughly 22,000 miles! Each ingredient-meat, fish, vegetables, spices, eggs, fruit, milk, grains- is trucked or flown from where it's grown to where it's packaged to where it's sold, burning fossil fuel. Add the greenhouse gases created by the production and distribution of fertilizers, antibiotics, pesticides, and so on- not to mention the environmental havoc they wreak-plus the paper, plastic and aluminum used for packaging, as well as their disposal, and you start to get the big picture. Everything you consume has a profound effect on Mother Earth!

Inspired by the "Global Warming Survival Handbook" by David De Rothschild

Rekindle your summer love!

What a relief I am finally back to my healthy old self! I have rekindled my absolute love and passion for mountain biking in the past few days. I am very happy. Strenuous exercise increases my confidence, strenghthens my body and relaxes my mind.

The beginning of fall I was content with staying indoors working, writing, reading, practicing yoga and relaxing. I put my love for mother nature and my bike on the back burner.

Have you placed one of your summer loves on the back burner?

You too can rekindle your summer love.

Amanda Moxley
Holistic Nutrition and Life Balance Expert
www.eating4energy.com

Three A.M. Confessions

Guilt, shame and blame was a constant state of being for me growing up a Catholic school girl.

I would wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I would sit on the toilet at three a.m. and I would ask myself “what did you eat yesterday?” My mind would review the chocolate, bread, cookies and or alcohol that I guiltily ate and then the punishment would begin.

I beat myself up black and blue with mean unloving thoughts of inadequacy, judgment and blame. I feared that I would get beaten by the fat stick, my clothes would never fit and that I was always going to hate my body.

This middle of the night punishment went on for years! No wonder I continued to hold on to weight, food cravings, binges and obsessions.

Have you ever done this?

I have never shared this with anyone! Can you believe it?

This entire drama played out in my mind every single night! No one knew, I hardly new I was doing this to myself.

It wasn’t until I began practicing yoga and mediation that I was able to clearly distinguish the difference between the “monkey mind” and the “loving real Self” that dwells inside like a slow burning flame every day of our lives.

I have studied, lived and practiced the “law of attraction” since I was 18 years old.

As the years have flown by my understanding of the magnificent power of the universe and the law of attraction has increased and NOW I finally get it!

Thoughts are powerful!

My three a.m. punishment time attracted more weight and poor self esteem than if I ate the healthiest food on the planet.

Now I believe that eating healthy foods is essential to a radiant life but the most important piece to being happy and healthy is being able to discern your thoughts.

How do you do this?

Begin to observe your thoughts just like you would watch a movie. Your mind is the projector, when you observe, your mind is “watching” the thoughts. When you watch a movie you are not attached to the movie, you are simply watching. This is exactly what you must do with your thoughts. All you have to do is watch your thoughts.

Begin to notice when your “monkey mind” is taking over.

What does the monkey mind look and act like? Thoughts of inadequacy, fear, doubt, worry, shame, blame, guilt, jealousy, hatred, comparison, judgment, lack etc. These are all ego based fears which are not real.

The only thing that is REAL and absolute is LOVE!

How do you know when love is speaking or acting? You have thoughts of kindness, compassion, generosity, abundance, hope, peace, happiness, excitement, acceptance and joy.

Your REAL SELF is sitting in the right side of your heart every day of your beautiful life. Your real SELF is unaffected by pain or pleasure, have or have not, loneliness or boredom, your real SELF is omnipresent, omnipotent, limitless and formless.
http://www.eating4energy.com/