Here are 13 Evidence Based Medicinal Properties of Coconut Oil to help motivate you to eat it! There are a minimum of 13 scientific studies that show the value of coconut oil, and the reason I encourage those I love to eat raw chocolate with coconut oil!
Sayer Ji from GreenMedInfo has compiled this list with all the references if you are the type of person who likes to read all the background research!
I’d rather go make some more raw chocolate!
According to current statistics nearly 1 out of every 2 people in the USA will wind up hearing the dreaded words, cancer. Despite all the money contributed to cancer research over the past 50 years, and all the money insurance companies pay for cancer treatments, the rate of cancer and the survival statistics have never been worse.
Every time I see an appeal for help to a cancer patient or help to find the cure, I want to shout – THERE ARE MANY CURES ALREADY! It’s just that they don’t make the headline news. They are happening though – without a doubt. If you, or a loved one, has heard those dreaded words, don’t believe the standard rhetoric. Look for all the cures. Here is one great story by a 26 year old that was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer and decided not to go with his oncologists treatment plan. Today, nearly 10 years later, he is completely cancer free and speaks, coaches and encourages others to pursue healing. I love the fact that he is unashamedly a follower of Jesus Christ.
I also encourage everyone who does not have a cancer diagnosis to watch this 4 minute video in advance. You need to know all the options before you ever hear the dreaded words. If you follow the same health plan outlined by Chris, you need never hear them!
G U I L T F R E E ! ! !
You know the adage, if it sounds too good to be true then it is probably….
But, not in this instance! Truly this chocolate is good for you! It will stem your cravings, it will feed your brain, it will send great messages to your metabolism, it might even help you lose weight! I take no responsibility, but urge you to do your own experimentation!
A lady in front of me at the local grocery store yesterday semi-apologized for hoisting three enormous boxes of a popular beverage aka, canned liquid poison (one of many toxic-liquid-evils widely marketed around the world by those who have a taste for death) onto the check-out conveyor belt. “One of my few vices,” she said. Out of the blue, because I had not tried to offer any health education AT ALL – ask my daughter. I sometimes want to, but in this case I hadn’t even gotten that far. Then, as she was leaving she says in a very friendly way to the cashier, “But you have to watch chocolate because it makes your clothes shrink!” I’m sure you’ve heard that before. It took me awhile, and then I thought out loud “Not raw chocolate! If you eat raw chocolate your clothes get baggy. In fact, you might even need to buy new clothes because you may drop a size or two!” At least, that’s what happened to me!
So here is yet another way to roll up the raw chocolate, courtesy of my client who liked my ideas and then experimented a bit more!
Just four ingredients. Each one has a smaller amount. So if you start with 2 huge spoons of coconut oil, add 2 spoons of peanut butter, one spoon of honey. Mix the first three ingredients completely, then add 2 huge spoons of cacao powder, or add the amount to give you the darkness you desire. The ratio will probably be just less cacao powder to the combined amount of coconut oil and peanut butter. Experiment with the ratios until you get it just like you like it! You could even add more ingredients, but I’m trying to keep it really simple!
Mix or stir well.
Refrigerate briefly to help it get itself together (depends on the temperature in your kitchen).
Roll out onto a plate (pre-cool the plate in the freezer in warm weather) like a snake, or roll into balls.
Refrigerate or freeze to harden. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer and have a slice when you are craving a treat!
Hide all evidence, or else the next time you have a craving you are going to find your family has completely consumed it! But hey, it’s good for them too! So I guess it’s time to make some more!
More raw chocolate ideas here and here and here… Just for a taste!
I’m on a chocolate journey! Where has your chocolate journey taken you?
Instead of cooking, how about food preparation?
Instead of rigidly following a recipe, what about having a look at the real food available to you and saying, “how can I combine these foods to make something delicious?”
If you bake so you can have “treats” or snacks, what other foods could you begin to enjoy that would be a treat or snack?
Make a list of all the foods you love that are good for you and figure out creative ways to recombine them!
The possibilities are endless. Share your great ideas with others. Our creativity can be contagious. We need to
get out of the ruts we’ve formed for ourselves.
One client shared a new adaptation of some of my raw chocolate ideas: mix organic peanut butter, raw cacao powder and honey. Roll it into a snake formation (like when we make play dough snakes with our kids). Store it in the fridge and cut off a piece as needed for your super delicious, nutritious snack! My adaptation would be to add come coconut oil to that mixture! Play with it. Make it your own. Be creative. Think differently!
My friend shared a very powerful story that more people need to hear. We’ve all faced situations where we feel unjustly attacked, or that the reaction we receive is totally over the top. These attacks can cause a physical stress response in our body and leave us reeling for days! We feel shattered. Have you ever felt assaulted by words? Like you’ve been punched in the stomach? Read about Kristin’s experience and how she responded. Just a beautiful story! These are her words, which she has given me permission to share:
Today, a simple trip to the “financial vortex” we like to call Target, ended up being an experience that God would use in my and my son’s life for quite some time. It is NOT a story about me. It is a story about the God that I serve and His infinite ability to make beauty from ashes.
As Luke and I turned off of North Point Parkway and into the strip mall that boasts the big red ball of happy, I noticed that there was a terribly obnoxious amount of traffic. I felt rather sorry for the cars that were trying to exit, (they had a yield sign to us) and so I (not noticing the “keep moving” sign) stopped to let a car squeak by. It was at this point I heard the BLAST of a horn – and when I say blast, I mean it sounded as if the driver had climbed out of his seat and was sitting on his steering wheel. And he didn’t let up. He followed me into the Target parking lot, and followed my minivan until I turned into a parking space. It was at that point that I realized we were going to have to exchange words… because he had intentionally stopped his car right behind mine so that I could not get out. Gulp.
I took a deep breath, I knew I was not dealing with a rational, good spirited person. Nope, this was an angry middle aged horn happy man who was severely enraged by my choice to let a car through traffic. Dear Lord.
My feet had not even hit the pavement before a barrage of arrows came flying from his mouth. This man, I did not know, was screaming at me in the Target parking lot. I watched his mouth moving, his forehead squinched, his cheeks bright red with anger. I heard the words. “Idiot” “You should learn how to drive” “can’t you read?” “It’s people like you who cause accidents.” I stood in disbelief. Was this happening? All I could think was “Why is he so angry?” So, that’s what I asked him In the gentlest tone I possess. “Sir, why are you so angry?” He was so taken aback by my response that he stumbled over the next few words, scoffed a little, and then carried on with more arrows. Ugly arrows. Flaming arrows. Hurtful, sharp and wicked arrows… and then… he was gone.
Luke and I stood in the parking lot hand in hand with our mouths gapping, our hearts pounding, and our spirits completely stomped on. We had just been harassed by a perfect stranger, for being kind to another stranger. (And I admit that technically I had made a traffic mistake, but I am fairly certain that my abuser has made at least one of those in his life time? Just a guess.)
After I collected myself, (and sucked any tears that threatened to fall out – back into my eyeballs) I leaned down and looked into my son’s eyes. “Son, I am really sorry that that happened. You know that we NEVER – no matter how mad we are – we NEVER treat another person like he just treated Mommy, right?” “Yes ma’am” “And son, the Bible says to love our enemies and so I think we really need to pray for that man.” “I do too mommy.” “Alright, I love you so much” “I love you too momma.” “You ok?” “Yup”
And although I had resolved it with my son, I could not quite resolve it with myself. As we got our items from inside the store, a trail of “poor me” thoughts like “How could a person who does not know me or who I am, attack me like that? I’m like the nicest person ever, that wasn’t fair, my saturday is ruined, that was so mean, I’m so sad, tears… uh oh, tears… here they come..” And I burst into pitiful self pitying tears, right there in the happiest store on earth. I was letting that man crush my spirit. I was swimming in the ugliness that he had thrown on me and I was so close to MISSING the beauty that God was, in that very moment, effortlessly replacing it with.
As we walked to the car, I believe God spoke to me. “That man put something ugly into the world, now GO and put something beautiful in its place. I am God – and I turn ashes to beauty, evil to good, hurt to healing… Go and be my light. Go and bless someone.”
So friends, here’s where it gets GOOD. Luke and I prayed right there in the car. Where do we go? What do we do? Who do we bless? I felt the urge to drive across town to the Kroger near my house and so I took that as part of our answer. We prayed on the drive over that HE would lead us, show us who to bless and how to do it. I suspected we would be paying for someones groceries and so I immediately started to plan “Operation Bless A Stranger” Actually, it was more like “Operation bless a stranger who looks sad or down trodden with just a grocery basket, not a whole cart cause we can’t afford it if they’re not in the ten items or less lane.”
God had something else in mind.
After grabbing a very schizophrenic assortment of unnecessary items that I absolutely did not need, we neared the check outs. I started to question what I had heard. I felt nervous and embarrassed. What if this didn’t go down well. Who is it Lord? What if I…
And there she was.
A nicely dressed 50 something. Well put together, a typical southern lady, with a very substantial amount of groceries. Really Lord? She does not look like she needs me to buy her groceries…ALL millions of them. But I knew. The holy spirit was pushing my heart toward this woman, this perfect stranger.
I watched the grocery bill climb higher and higher, a bead of sweat flew off of my forehead, I felt a little nauseous. It was now or never. Her last item had crossed the finish. It was time to pay. “Ma’am?” I said. “My son and I would like to pay for your groceries.” She looked at me like I had just said “My son and I would like to eat your groceries.” Adamant, she replied. “No. You can not buy my groceries, there are way too many here. Someone did this for my mother. No, I can’t let you buy my groceries.” To which I replied “Ma’am, my son and I had a horrible experience today, and we prayed a lot about this, and you, and well, we’re going to buy your groceries.” At this point the woman realized that I was going to buy her groceries. There was no talking me out of it. She grabbed me. She literally wrapped her arms around me and began to sob. I sobbed too. Then she pulled away from me and looked me in my eyes and said this: “My husband is terminally ill, you just, you just have no idea… thank you.” And off she went, pushing her millions of groceries that God had just paid for, out the door.
At this point everyone was crying. The people in line behind us, the checkout girl, the tough guy one isle over “had something in his eye”… (he totally cried). The check out girl looked down at Luke and said “you have a great mom” to which I say this: This is not about me. This is about the God that I serve. This was FOR me from Him. He turns ashes to beauty, evil to good, hurt to healing, pain to laughter, and traffic violations to stories of His immense love – from one perfect stranger to another.
So my challenge? When someone is terribly unkind to you, GO do something for someone else. He has given us the power to replace the bad with something good.
My God is an awesome God. That is all.
We all know that Snack Attack feeling!
My friend shared this great idea with me. Whenever you feel hungry – like you want some sort of a sweet treat, mix together equal parts:
in a big glass jar, shake and grab a handful – or two (maximum is two!) And your cravings will be gone!
I’m sure you could try different ingredients, like walnuts (brain food), cashews, almonds, coconut flakes, cranberries, whole cacao beans, etc. But since my friend is such a great researcher, I think she might have specific reasons for each of her selections!
I like to do a mix something like this for my husband to keep in his briefcase so he’s not tempted to have processed food snacks at the office! It’s also great to have a mix like this on long road trips. If I’m driving I always like a constant supply of snacks to help me keep awake and paying attention!
I’m not sure if that picture looks really really appetizing, but it is delicious AND amazingly nutritious! My friend Simela motivated me to experiment even more with
the idea of “Chia Porridge”
I decided to have Chia Porridge for lunch. It is super easy to make. But you and the kids might prefer to have it for breakfast! I’m giving you the quantities for one serving, to make more just use a bit more of everything!
Allow the chia seeds to sit for 10-15 minutes and they will soak up the water and become gelatinous! So do that first while you are collecting all the other ingredients and chopping whatever you like. Or, make yourself a cup of tea!
I also added cashews, almonds, frozen blueberries, 1 chopped frozen strawberry, 1/2 chopped banana, dried coconut, goji berries, hemp seed and chopped celery (you can never get enough celery and I love crunchy things – and I was having this for lunch, and they do put celery in a Waldorf salad!).
Here is a breakfast version I made for my husband: chia, goji, water, cinnamon, cacao, macs, honey, chopped apple, 2 chopped strawberries, blueberries, coconut, hemp, yogurt, kefir and a tad of homemade granola.
So, get creative and try it! Stock your kitchen with healthy nutritiously dense items and then dream up new ways of combining them! Let me know what you discovery in your experimentation!
One of the easiest things you can do to assist your body in the detox process is to drink a large glass of water immediately upon rising in the morning. It is important to drink the best quality water available. I do not have the definitive answer about which water is best, as I have read about reverse osmosis, alkaline, various filters, spring water, etc. One simple idea that might be the most effective and economical is treating your own water with lemon or wheat grass.
So, begin to make it a habit. Every morning make it easy for yourself to access a large glass of water and drink it down – and then wait at least 20 minutes before eating anything!
Water and food. This is a simple practice which most people are completely unaware of. It becomes critically important for anyone who struggles with chronic heartburn and takes antacids. Try this practice for three weeks and see if you notice any difference. Of course, the quality and quantity of food you ingest will also play a significant role, but this is something easy to start experimenting with. You are a scientist and your body and your intake are your testing ground.
As we get older we need to facilitate our digestion and nutrient absorption in every way possible. One important way to do this is to avoid drinking with meals. Drink water 20 minutes before a meal and wait at least 20 minutes after your meal to quench any thirst you might have.
I realize this is quite counter cultural. In restaurants the first thing they take is your drinks order. When you are invited to a meal at a friend’s house, everyone shares drinks before the meal. Every time I ask for nothing I receive at least two more questions and some strange looks: ‘you’re not going to have anything?’ Now in restaurants it is probably also about the size of the bill and the anticipated tip. Every waitron knows that the drinks portion of the bill can push the total much higher and they look forward to a correspondingly higher tip! For me it’s not about the money, it’s about how to facilitate my digestion and get the most out of my food. My aim is to live vibrantly throughout my whole life! I do not take for granted my current health, but seek to daily invest in my future health!
So sometimes I will ask for a glass of water and enjoy the pre-dinner conversation while my glass remains full!
I never thought I would be so careful with my onion usage!
I caught myself thinking, ‘I’ll use ¼ of an onion in hash browns so that I can still have a lot left for another dish.’
What is happening to me???
Eating organic in the USA is changing the way I prepare food, and the way I think about vegetables! Since one organic onion costs approximately $1 from my local grocery store, I have learned to use as many layers as possible and think about how to share it among meals!
Another way of stretching organic value is to use every part of every organic vegetable that I purchase. No throwing away the broccoli stalks anymore! Broccoli stalks and cauliflower stalks can be cut up and lightly sautéed with coconut oil or saved to go in the morning green smoothie! No peeling ginger, why waste any part? Cauliflower leaves? Chop em up! Outside leaves of the organic cabbage that was a cool $4?? Chop it fine, no more waste from this girl!
Brown spot on bananas? Into the frozen fruit tub for smoothies… Mushy bits of strawberries? The same. In fact sometimes I even freeze strawberries whole with the green bits still on!
“Don’t throw anything away!” Is my new battle cry to my family!
I even eat organic apple cores, as long as there is no fungus, and while other members of the family might not take my new ideas this far, when they leave a cut out apple core on the cutting board – it goes into the frozen fruit tub for smoothies!
Don’t tell me you can’t afford organic – think about ways to prioritize organic and don’t waste any! Reduce expenses in other areas by making your own and by organic so you send a financial message – LOUD AND CLEAR – to retailers and big agro that you won’t buy non-organic! Another reason to choose organic produce is because in nutrient analysis organic fruit and vegetables score significantly higher than their non-organic counterparts. Buying organic is about what you AREN’T getting – pesticides and herbicides – but it is also about what you ARE getting – more bio available nutrients for you money! You also have the added satisfaction of supporting a local brave farmer!
If finances are really tight, buy the clean fifteen, but always buy organic of the dirty dozen! Thanks to the Environment Working Group for keeping on top of this information.
Most of us have come to the realization that diets and self-deprivation don’t work, therefore it is important to create a relationship with food that is nourishing and pleasurable!
Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions!
However, not all overweight people are necessarily overeating right now. Many have developed yo-yo dieting patterns and even when they strictly control their intake, their body refuses to let go of the fat they are desperate to lose.
Most times we have no idea about the emotions behind our eating choices.
Stress is another significant factor that can sabotage your best attempts in pursuing healthy eating habits and other healthy disciplines.
Personalized Coaching can help you explore the many facets that keep you stuck in a place you recognize as unhealthy. Exploring factors that limit us can be a frustrating and sometimes scary journey. As a Coach, I can work with you as you make discoveries that can dramatically change your relationship to your emotions, stress and food.
As a Coach, I do not hold my own idea of success or hold one particular ‘formula’ for healthy eating and then hold you accountable for following it. A Coach does not beat you up when you are not making the kind of progress they want you to make. A Coach listens to the desires of your heart for freedom, health and joy and holds those values for you. A Coach believes in your ability to achieve the desires of your heart and walks along with you, which allows you to get there much faster and with great confidence.
I have found using the Emotional Freedom Technique as a tool allows clients to quickly navigate their health journey because they can: discover and clear negative emotions that have been sabotaging their attempts at success; identify awareness of their personal stress response and its impact on their body; and target the physical cravings as well as the emotional impulse to eat.
If you would like to schedule your free 30 minute inquiry call, we can discuss how hiring a Life Coach can help you take steps on your personal journey.
You have the capacity to make incredible progress and I am excited about the possibility of working with you!