Mmmm, Juicy! The Perfect Green Juice Formula

During the heart of winter in the midwest, I find myself craving color and aliveness in my food more than ever.

Starting the day with a big glass of green juice is a great way to get a quick dose of both. The great thing about green juice is that there's no 'perfect recipe' - almost anything goes.

That said, some combinations may leave your juice tasting a  bit more like 'earth' (as my friend Steph says) than others.

To leave the hard-core earthiness in the soil and out of your glass, I've found this to be the ideal three-part formula:

• Part One: High water-content veggies (cucumber, celery)
• Part Two: Dark, leafy greens (spinach, kale)
• Part Three: Fruit for sweetness (apple, pear)

With that in mind, my favorite green juice often looks something like this:

• 1/2 - 1 cucumber
• 1-2 sticks of celery
• A big handful of kale
• A big handful of spinach
• A small handful of parsley
• A chunk of ginger
• 1-2 apples, pears, or 1 of each

The only downside of juicing is the ratio of fruit/veggies to juice...so much produce for so little juice! To avoid going broke to feed your morning green juice habit (a legitimate fear I have from time to time), I recommend buying produce in bulk, shopping local farmer's markets, and modifying your juice a bit based on what's on sale and what's in season.

Anyone else have a favorite 'juice formula?'

Happy Juicing!

What Are Your Buckets?

In coaching, and in some religions, a circle is used to represent the different aspects of our lives. In Buddhism, it's called the Bhavacakra, in Hinduism it's called the Samsara, and in coaching, we usually just call it the Wheel of Life.

Whatever you call it, it's a useful tool to look at life and reflect on how it's going.

It usually looks something like this:

As we kick off the new year, I recommend taking some time to draw your own Wheel of Life.

That means stepping back and reflecting on the 'buckets' that together form your unique life, in order to create a tool that you can work from in the upcoming year. You can draw it out in your journal, or you can use the free blank template that I've included here. 

My wheel looks like this right now:

I say "right now," because your wheel may evolve or expand over time. Mine has.

Then, once you've created your own wheel, each month or each quarter, you can schedule a little check-in with yourself to look at how things are going in each area, and identify opportunities for growth, expansion, or more fulfillment. I like to place dots in each area to represent my overall level of fulfillment in each (the perimeter of the circle represents a 10, and the inside represents a 1), and then connect the dots to see what it looks like.

The fun thing about doing this regularly is that the wheel almost always looks slightly different, at any given point in time. 

Darin Eich of Innovation Learning has a great post here about how to do this in a reflective way - by using the wheel to do your own personal year in review. 

I'd love to hear from you in the comments...what are the different parts of your wheel?

Happy New Year!
Sarah

How to Survive Winter When It's Really, Really Cold Out

Another perk of winter?
Sweater season for the pup.
Photo by Mara Felton
http://mfelton.tumblr.com/

As a Wisconsin native, I'm used to winter. 

This year, however, it seems that winter has decided to show up early - and in its finest form.

Many people have a hard time during the winter months - it's dark, it's cold, it's hard to get outside to do the things we love, and often we start our workday before the sun comes up and end it long after the sun has left us for the evening.

This year, I've started a few new routines that have helped to bring a bit of warmth during the cold start to December. I'd love to hear from you, too - what are your favorite ways to stay warm during the long, cold winter months?

1. Simmer Something Wonderful on the Stove.
Warming tea, homemade broth, fragrant spices, or even warming up last night's leftovers all work great. Not only does this provide us with something hot and nourishing to eat or drink, but the delicious smell throughout the house warms up even the coldest of days.

Here are my two favorites:

Warming Tea:
A healthy pinch of the following, warmed on the stove with either almond milk or water, depending on what you're in the mood for:

Cardamom
Cinnamon
Black Pepper
Turmeric
Ginger
Cloves
Allspice
Honey (optional)

Homemade Broth:
Throw your leftover veggie remains in a pot on the stove, and just let them simmer. My favorites are: onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potatoes, and parsley - but anything goes. Use the broth for cooking in the evening, or throw it in the fridge or freezer to have on hand. Homemade broth in place of water makes almost any recipe taste better.

2. Brighten Up the Indoors.
In the absence of sunlight on the cold winter days, we're forced to create our own. Brighten up your living space with candles, cozy lamps, and calming holiday lights (Clark Griswold style decorations not required).

For candles, opt for soy or beeswax, which are renewable, free of toxins, and biodegradable. 

3. Find a Sunny Spot.
Search out the spot at home or at the office where the sun beams in during the afternoon, creating a mini tropical oasis. Make a point to visit that spot at least once per sunny day to warm up, savor the sunlight, and maybe even close your eyes for a moment and pretend you're in the tropics. 

4. Step Outside.
I know, this is a fairly horrifying recommendation when it's precisely one degree outside. But throwing on your largest, puffiest, most ridiculous winter jacket along with a hat and mittens and taking a walk around the block has a host of benefits. Studies have found that going outside leaves us ranking higher when it comes to vitality, enthusiasm, pleasure, and self-esteem and lower on tension, depression, and fatigue.

5. Find The Things You Love.
While creating a list of the things we hate about winter is much easier, creating a list of the things we love can be quite satisfying. To do so, get creative - and give yourself permission to include the 'little things' that you might not have ever noticed you actually like during the cold winter months. For me, the list includes giant piles of blankets, holiday scented candles, soups, 'baking season,' the way the sun streams into my office and onto my face each afternoon, and cozy evenings at home. 

What about you? What do you do to stay warm (and sane) during the cold winter months? 

Warmly :),
Sarah

How to Beat a Winter Bug

The time is upon us! Trees without leaves, frost-dusted mornings, snow sightings, and (ugh) the cold weather bug that our office mates, loved ones, and neighbors *all* seem to have. Eww!

This year, I tried out a few new remedies and beat mine in record time. Have your own bug-beating remedies? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

1. Bring on the Heat

...with hot tea, frequent baths with eucalyptus salts, and a visit to the sauna and steam room if they're available. Heat makes us feel better by relieving congestion and helping us breathe more easily. While the expectorant effect of some of these tactics is proven, there is lots of conflicting research out there about whether we can actually 'detoxify' the illness out of our body through heat. Conflicting research and all, using heat to reduce symptoms and gently sweat out some of the grossness is one of my favorite strategies for dealing with an irritating illness.

2. Echinacea, Vitamin C, and Multi-Vitamins

When I was little, we always busted out the orange juice when someone came down with a bug. I recently added echinacea to the list, which has been found, along with Zinc, to shorten the duration of colds. 

I also load up on multi-vitamins and plenty of Emergen-C. These days, I've been drinking it in hot water, like tea. 

3. Honey, Lemon, and Turmeric

In our house, we recently started having a mug of hot lemon water each morning to start the day. I love the warmth and detoxifying properties of this new morning tradition. What I didn't know was that lemons are also quite high in Vitamin C. 

For a bit of sweetness and to soothe a sore throat or cough, try adding a bit of honey.

Depending on how brave you're feeling, try adding some turmeric for some additional healing and warming properties, or  garlic for some highly impressive healing power.

Curious to try turmeric but not so sure about the lemon/turmeric combination? Here's another warming drink to try. 

6. Get Some Sleep

Jake doesn't need any convincing when it comes to the
importance of sleep.

Despite all of the conflicting research out there, sleep is the number one consistent piece of advice across experts. Like the idea in theory but curious to know how to improve your own sleep? Check out this earlier blog post on the topic.

7. Reduce Your Stress

The health impacts of stress are astonishing. 75-90% of all doctor's office visits are stress related. Stress impacts our sleep, our blood pressure, our heart, and our skin, and our overall wellness. Stress has been linked to cancer, aging, chronic disease, stroke, and even shrinking our brain. Yikes!

Of course some stress is inevitable and small amounts of stress can even be good, to help us accomplish something big or be extra productive. 

Here are a few ways to reduce stress, and keep your brain from shrinking! 

• Schedule Time to Unplug. Try scheduling a half hour or an hour per day free of technology, cell phones, and laptops. Need extra accountability? Try this with friends or loved ones, and check in throughout the week to see how everyone is doing. Not so sure you can do 30 minutes? Start with 10!

• Pet Your Dog (or someone's), or better yet, rescue one! It's said that dogs reduce stress and anxiety, and having one in the house may actually improve our overall health.

• Find Your Tribe. It's said that we're the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. Having a tribe of healthy, happy, supportive friends keeps us happier and healthier. Plus, it means we have people to laugh with - which provides health benefits of its own.

• Get Moving. In study after study, exercise has been found to reduce stress and improve overall health. This doesn't need to be 3 hours at the gym; it can be as simple as a 20 minute meditative walk in nature.