The New Year has come and new beginnings are in the air.  Now that you have made a New Year’s resolution, how do you plan to stick with it?  For most people, we start out with the best of intentions, but find that over time it is difficult to keep the positive momentum going.

Recently, Marika and I were asked to lead a vision boarding workshop for one of our favorite organizations, Step Up Women’s Network (www.suwn.org).  In case you are wondering, vision boarding is the process of visualizing what you would like to achieve and literally putting that image down on paper.  The best way to do this is through making a collage of magazine clip-outs, quotes and other materials of your choosing.

Not only were Marika and I asked to lead 40 teenage girls through this process, but it was the first time either of us had made one as well! Shocking, we know!  Leading the workshop was the fortuitous kick-in-the-butt we needed to make our own boards.  We are happy to report that we found this exercise not only rewarding, but essential in keeping us on track and our eye on the prize.

In light of this experience, we’d like to invite you to make your own vision board for 2011 and beyond.  If the idea of making your own collage sounds like too much work, you can make a mental vision board; simply visualize what you want each area of your life to look like.  However, we do recommend you make an actual board.  Why? Because its fun!  How often do we allow ourselves to do an art project as adults?  As if this were not reason enough, it helps tremendously to imprint those images on your brain.

Here’s a framework to get you going with visualization.  Think big and for now, don’t worry about how you’re going to achieve these goals.  Allow the vision to take shape first and then figure out how you’re going to work towards that vision this year.

Visualize each area of your life and take notes on what comes up:

Financial and Material: What would you like your income to be?  What would your ideal home look like?  What is your attitude towards money?  What types of things do you want to be able to buy for yourself?

Career: What kind of work do you want to do? What kind of environment do you want to work in?  Who do you want to work with?

Free time: What are you doing for recreation? Hobbies? Vacations? Time with friends and family?

Body and Physical Health: What does your ideal picture of your health and body look like? How do you want to relate to your body?  How do you relate to food?

Relationships with Friends and Family: What is the quality of your relationships with those close to you?  Are they loving, supportive, empowering, open?

Personal Arena: Do you have a spiritual practice or religion? what role does that play in your life?

Community: Imagine your ideal community.  Are there community activities? How do you participate?  What do you do to help others within the community?  Who are you helping?

Let us know how the exercise goes for you – you can leave a comment below!  As always, we love getting your feedback.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful 2011!

Click here to visit the Building Brilliance site and find out how you can benefit from this transformational coaching program.

xoxo,

Karen and Marika

I was going to use this recipe to talk about my burgeoning vegetarianism/almost veganism but I think perhaps I’ll save my current process around food and animal products for the next installment.  Just to give you a taste, I will say that any dietary changes are a process and each person will go through that process in his or own, very personal, way.  So if you’re struggling to change the way you eat see you if you can develop a sense of curiosity about it instead of self-discipline.  What can you learn about yourself? How can you grow?  Connect with people who’ve been in your shoes and get creative with COOKING!  More on this to come.

For now, please enjoy this, vegan, relatively healthy but certainly tasty pumpkin bread!

You’ll need: 2 8″ x 4″ loaf pans

Ingredients

1 cup chopped walnuts

3 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour

2/3 cup almond flour or substitute with another kind of gluten-free flour

2 cups packed dark brown sugar (preferably unrefined)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 cup coconut oil (melted)

2/3 cup coconut milk

2/3 cup flaked coconut (unsweetened)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease the loaf pans with some coconut oil.

2. Spread walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.   You can also do this in the toaster oven.  Set aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add the pumpkin puree, coconut oil, and coconut milk, and mix until all of the flour is absorbed. Fold in the flaked coconut and toasted walnuts. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

4. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool for a few minutes and then eat and enjoy!

I wrote this article together with Career Counselor, Marika Ellis www.proficiocoaching.com.  We’re offering a group coaching program this January called Building Brilliance.  Keep a look out for more info on that to come.  For now, we hope you enjoy our article.  Leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts on conquering procrastination!

Karen Appelquist & Marika Ellis

Procrastination is your biggest enemy when it comes to
 making any significant changes in your life, be it in your health or in your career. When you break it down, procrastination is really self-sabotage, which means you are your own enemy! This might sound scary, but it is actually a good thing.  Why?  It’s often easier to change your own behavior than to change external circumstances.

Here are some ideas to start recognizing and tackling procrastination:

Notice your own self-sabotaging behaviors:
You know you feel better when you get to yoga, and you know you need to do your research before that next meeting.  So what makes us not do these things if we are the ones receiving the benefits? Procrastination can arise for many reasons, including a fear of putting yourself out there; feelings of overwhelm; or just a lack of overall clarity.
 The next time you catch yourself procrastinating, ask yourself WHY.
  Notice the underlying belief or feeling.  This is a
great first step to changing your behavior patterns, and moving beyond them.

Get clearer about your goals:
Procrastination often comes from a lack of clarity about what you’re actually doing. So before you stare at your computer,
 hoping the task will complete itself, or before you let poor planning render your farmers market veggies moldy again, stop for a moment to think about the big picture.  What is your goal?  How can you refine that goal in a way that will give you direction and vigor to really achieve it?

Chunk it down:
Now that you have clarity, chunk down your goal into smaller, manageable tasks. When there is a lot to accomplish it’s SO easy to feel overwhelmed with all the moving parts and the items on your to-do list.  This is why it’s important to set simple, specific goals.

Be accountable to someone else:
Partnerships are a positive force in getting things done. Whether you could benefit from a workout buddy, or a mentor, having to check in with someone could motivate you like nothing before. Plus, the input of someone else can help you break through the challenging roadblocks that lay ahead.

Evaluate the costs of not achieving your goals:
Whether it’s not getting the promotion or raise you want, or not giving
 your body needed physical and mental nourishment, the costs are high!  This is your life, your livelihood, and your overall state of well-being.  Ask yourself, what would my life look like
if I did achieve my goals?  Now, isn’t that worth working towards?

xoxo,

Karen and Marika

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight you know how challenging it can be to break out of your habitual patterns and let go of those comfort goodies that you’ve been turning to way too often.

So,  I want to share with you a simple but highly effective technique for losing weight that until now I’ve only shared with my private clients.  The technique is called crowding out.  Crowding out means taking an inclusive rather than an exclusive view of weight loss.  I’ll explain how this works but first let me say that this technique requires a bit of ninja self psychology.  However, if done consistently and correctly, I guarantee it will not only help you lose weight but will have a huge impact on your happiness and overall well-being during the weight-loss process.

Here’s how it works.  Instead of focusing on what you can no longer eat, such as your daily 4pm chocolate chip cookie, or moca late, or your evening helping of ice cream or potato chips, you shift your mindset to focusing on what you CAN eat.  For example, an extra serving of that delicious squash soup, or your favorite chopped salad, or sauteed broccolini with garlic.  Give yourself free reign to eat as much of the healthy stuff as you want and the not so healthy stuff will be literally crowded out.

A great way to do this is to make a commitment to fill half your plate, for both lunch and dinner, with veggies.  This way you are including as many veggies as you can instead of focusing on the calorically dense foods that may be missing from your plate.  So basically veggies become your main dish, and everything else is just a side.  Eating more veggies is the ideal way to lose weight because veggies are MUCH less calorically dense than any other foods, so eating more of them will fill you up without overloading your body with unnecessary calories.  This technique challenges you to find delicious fresh veggies dishes that keep you satisfied.  if you put some effort into this process you’ll develop a large array of these dishes that you love to cook and never get tired of.  So go forth and find some fresh veggie dishes that you can’t get enough of and eat them!

Last year, my boyfriend gave me an Indian, vegan cookbook for my birthday.  I was psyched to cook up some traditional Indian fare, but when I read the list of ingredients my enthusiasm waned.  Asafoetida? Amchoor? never heard of them, and having just moved to LA a few months before, I had no idea where to procure them. Then, there were the spices that I had heard of but didn’t have readily available, like mustard seeds, cumin seeds and coriander seeds.  I had the powdered variety, but I somehow knew that my year-old, grocery store, powdered spices wouldn’t do the dish justice.  So I shelved the cookbook and my desire to cook authentic Indian food.   A few months later, while strolling around Sunset Junction after dinner, I came across the Mecca of spices.  It was as if someone had felt my frustration, listened to my prayers and manifested the Spice Station.  Since this auspicious discovery took place, my cooking has gone next level.  I am now totally equipped and empowered to make whatever worldly concoction I want to with no limitations!

Here is one of the fruits of this experimentation.  It’s easy to make, healthful and totally delicious and tastes like you ordered it at an Indian restaurant, but better. Give it a try and stop by my blog to leave a comment and tell me what you think- www.livingnourished.com.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs ghee (clarified butter) or vegetable oil
Pinch asafoetida (AKA Hing): used in Indian cooking, the flavor when
cooked is that of onions and garlic, and a bonus: reduces flatulence
1/2 tsp amchoor (unripe mango powder adds a tangy flavor)
1/2 tsp yellow mustard seed
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp freshly ground coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 pound potatoes (yellow or new potatoes are perfect for this)
2 medium to large zucchini

Directions:

Thinly slice potatoes and zucchini into small round shapes.  Heat the ghee or oil in skillet, then add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When the seeds begin to pop add the asafoetida and saute for a few minutes. Add in the rest of the spices and salt and stir into the oil. Then throw in the veggies and toss.  Cook on medium heat until the potatoes are golden brown and the zucchini is well cooked.

Serve and enjoy!

Its Fall!  Time for hot apple cider, cozy sweaters and delicious warming soups.   In LA, Fall is really more of a mental state than an actual change of seasons, but a big, bubbling pot of butternut squash soup can facilitate that illusion.  Sadly, we don’t have real apple cider either (at least I haven’t been able to find any).  But If you take freshly pressed, unfiltered apple juice and heat it on the stove with a cinnamon stick, a few cloves and a sprinkling of nutmeg, you can get pretty close.  Add in some spiced rum, pop it in a to-go mug and take it for a walk on the beach!  That’s Fall – LA style.  Not too shabby.

Here’s one of my staple Fall and Winter recipes.  Butternut Squash soup is easy to make and freezes well.  A little tip I learned from a fellow health coach: make a big batch with garlic, onion and a little sea salt, then freeze half.  Make half the batch with Indian spices and when you defrost the second batch down the road, make it a completely different flavor (I’ll offer some spicing options below).

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 small butternut squash

4 Tbs organic unsalted butter

4 large cloves garlic

1 med onion

Spices combos:

Variation 1: Indian curry

1 Tbs ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, 1 tsp ground ginger, sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Variation 2: Thai curry

add a can of coconut milk and some red curry paste to the base soup, sea salt to taste

Variation 3:

simply add some freshly chopped sage leaves and sea salt

Directions:

Wash and chop butternut squash, scooping the stringy, seedy part out with a big spoon.  Don’t worry about pealing the squash, once it cooks the peal with soften and integrate into the soup.  Heat the butter in a soup pot.  Peal and coarsely chop the onion, add to the pot and stir, cooking for a few minutes.  Add in whole, pealed garlic cloves and butternut squash chunks.  Stir and let cook for a few more minutes then add 6 cups of water, spices and sea salt and bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and let cook for about 30 min.  Check that the squash is soft (try sticking a fork through a piece).  If soft, puree with an immersion blender or pour into a stand up blender.  If you have neither of these just take a potato masher and mash in the pot until smooth.  Taste the soup and adjust the spices if necessary.  Add more water to achieve desired consistency.  Serve right away with a generous spoonful of organic whole cow or goat milk yogurt!

Feel cozy and fall-ish no matter where you live

This is one of my favorite entertaining recipes. It’s seriously easy to make, a total crowd-pleaser and it looks so impressive! Its yummy served alongside a fresh spinach salad.

Ingredients:

1 whole wheat pizza crust (Trader Joe’s or Wholefoods are both great)

1 ripe pear thinly sliced

1 medium onion cut into thin strips

1 roll of goat cheese

Saute the onion in 1/4 cup olive oil on medium heat. Add 1 tsp sugar and continue to saute until brown (if onions begin to stick add a splash of water). Roll out pizza dough with a little flour to avoid sticking. Sprinkle flour on a cookie sheet or pizza tray and place dough on top, spreading dough out to fit the pan as necessary. Spread the sauteed onions and olive oil onto the dough, followed by the pear slices and crumbled goat cheese.

Bake in at 425 for 15-20min or until the goat cheese is slightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes before slicing.

Remember being a kid, getting so wrapped up in playing, imagining or creating that you didn’t want to stop when it was time to eat? Remember leaving your meal half-finished to run off and continue playing? Children innately understand that food is secondary to what is most nutritious and primary in life: fun and play.

As adults we have lost our instinct to prioritize play. We become busy with our careers, family responsibilities and financial worries. While many of us eat right and exercise, to live a balanced life requires more than physical care. We must also nurture our creativity.

Ask yourself this: what are 3 creative activities you would do if you didn’t have to do them perfectly? We often deny ourselves a creative outlet because we erroneously believe we aren’t “good enough”. But remember all those creative things you did as a kid and how it truly didn’t matter how “good” you were? Take a dance class, learn how to knit or sew, write a story, play an instrument, play a sport – the possibilities are endless!

What is fun for you? What makes you light up? What excites you? Whatever it is, make it something just for you and for no other reason. Make time for it this week. Integrating more creative play time into your life will greatly reduce stress and anxiety, take your focus off of food and bring more pleasure to your day!

Have fun!

Karen