"Sue~trition"

I have been pondering the successes, teachings, and breakthroughs I have had myself, witnessed in others, and been apart of over the years being in the Health and Wellness field.I am so lucky to wake up every day, inspired, passionate, and driven in my work.

The one message I wanted to send out to you as I approach the 8 year anniversary of BOULDER NUTRITION, is my heart felt gratitude for all of you readers, clients, yogis, and friends out there who have been the backbone of my business.

As you know, small business such as BOULDER NUTRITION depends on the loyalty of it’s regular clients and supporters.  As we work together in our bustling Boulder Colorado community we celebrate each others successes, support our neighborhood businesses, and honor the gifts we all bring to such a diverse, educated, and creative community such as Boulder.

BOULDER NUTRITION is like my baby.  Growing with me, changing and evolving over the years, but always keeping consistent, effective and alive in it’s own ways.  She has been absolutely one of my biggest teachers.  She has supported my family.  She has kept me on my game.

The one thing that will probably never change is human nature.  When given a choice, we will always spend our time around people we like, and people we trust.  Thank you for trusting me, sending me your friends and family, and consistently sharing with me your feedback and requests!

Our relationship is important to me, and held close to my heart.  You feed my companies heart and soul and that does not go unrecognized!

I care. I care about you, I care about your health and happiness, and your children and families health as well.

I have pondering how I can give back, show my gratitude, and create health, vitality and radiance along the way.

It came to me over tea with a dear friend of mine just the other day.  Why not offer the community free consultations to kick start the spring, to connect with those who are wanting to work on their health, and to just give back in a way that feels so good?  We agreed that this could be AMAZING.

Here is what I decided:

For the month of June, I am offering FREE nutrition consultations. 

You can simply shoot me an email or give me a call and schedule your FREE consultation.  See the secret code word below to claim your FREE Consultation.

I have never done this before, but I am so excited to make this official offering to our community.  It feels aligned with everything I stand for, and it also feels like an active way to show you that I care!  I know sometimes actions really do speak louder than words.

Spring is a time where so many of us emerge out from months of winter hibernation, ready to be our best, to expand into the light, and to shed what it is not working for us!

I would LOVE to be part of that process in any way that serves you.

Speaking of sheding, we just  had an AMAZING group of folks go through our Spring Cleanse Program, and the results were phenominal.  The testimonials coming down the pike are huge.  Weight loss, increased energy, and even many folks finally getting a handle on their hard core sugar cravings that had created a constant inner battle.

I will be leading a wonderful workshop, with my dear friend Angela Coyle  on June 11, 1-3 pm.  We will be combining a deep and nourishing detox yoga flow class, followed by a talk on the benefits of Holistic Nutrition and  Spring Cleansing.  This will be at the Colorado Athletic Club.

What do you need to move forward with support?

Our  code word SHAKTI will get you the FREE consultation and more!

In divine health and gratitude,

Sue

I have just returned from Costa Rica, where we spend the entire week diving into our own practice, pleasure, and relaxation.  This year our theme was “Self-Love”, turning AHIMSA inward towards ourselves.  Ahimsa ~ one of the eight limbs of yoga defined as compassion and non-violence to self and others ~ and the yogic path towards food, health and deeper levels of self-love.  As I go through the writing process, digging deep into my own well of expereinces and obstacles, I find myself of course, working with my own path, my own triggers and especially my own self-judgement.and internal dialogue.

I had asked for help and support from a dear friend who is a wise healer and teacher of mine.  We agreed that we all struggle at times and wrestle with our minds so to speak.  We also agreed that if we were truly practicing the very first pledge in natural medicine “do no harm” which perfectly parallels with the practice of ahimsa, we would open and love ourselves without out all the bullying we so often are guilty toward, yes, ourselves.

If we truly lived in an energy that was all embracing, all accepting, and recognizing our own inherent value, the value of what we offer to others in our lives, and the value of each of our purpose, would our energy be abundant, our enthusiasm for life high and energized, and our manifestation abilities infinite?  We both agreed that yes, that would be true!  It has to be true.  This is a universal law…

I was in a wonderful tea date with a dear friend and fellow yogi yesterday.  We spoke at length about connection, inner alignment, and the depths at which our practice leads us back to more and more self love.  Our thoughts may not always reflect this perfectly balanced approach, but once again, our job is to recognize where we are, how we feel, and how we operate on our edge during the day to day life.  It is not a final goal, or a destination, but a constant practice both on and OFF that matt.  We need reminders,  we need support and connection, and we need to be gentle with ourselves most of all, after all that is the true ahimsa working for us!

If we can journey into the heart, sit and find compassion, that may just be us getting our of our own way.  Freedom is available in each moment.  Freedom from the junk that is in our way to finding divine love for ourselves…

When we re-connect back to our hearts, our own endless well of self-love that is the strongest healing power known to humankind, and use this power to truly awaken into each moment and each challenge, our health is aligned at a deep level.  Our daily choices moving from this heart place will always be for our highest good.  Aaahhh, thank-you….

Weather you are a believer and supporter of valentines day or not, taking an approach of gratitude, self love, and appreciation is always a path that is valuable, and that we all deserve EVERYDAY !

We all know that Valentines day, weather you are single or not, is a day known for chocolate, pleasure, and  love.  Sometimes in loving ourselves, we giver ourselves permission to let go, and endulge so to speak.

On the day after valentines day, here is the perfect way to reset your blood sugar, while delivering super nutrient dense ingredients right to your cells, and of course, keeping up with the chocolate theme…

Power smoothies are may favorite creation not only because they are the most power packed meal in a glass possible, but when you really start letting your creativity fly, you would be amazed at what it possible with many flavors, superfoods, and boosts.

With the perfect balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat, along with a health dose of daily greens (the sunshine component) you will feel better then ever…

Chocolate Sunshine

Check out my favorite Chocolate Sunshine Power Smoothie below, and on a springy day like it is today, a little bit of sunshine in February is always welcome.

Chocolate Sunshine

2 scoops of chocolate raw whey protein shake

1Tbsp raw cacao nibs

1 Tbsp raw hulled hemp seeds

1 scoop greens or 2 leaves of kale

1/2 banana- optional

10 oz water/ice

That there is me on our Costa Rica Women’s Retreat from last year.  Delicious power smoothies like never before, tropical style.  Our next retreat is just around the corner coming up this April.

www.radianthealthretreats.com

If you want more information on where to find these magical ingredients, or how to sign up for our women’s retreat, please comment below and we will be sure to let you know : )

Shine on,

Sue

Love your Liver, 2010

This came in from one of my favorite cleansers this spring, glad to share it with all of you…

I’m into my second week of being thrown back into my “normal eating habits” after cleansing for three weeks. I removed refined sugar, refined carbohydrates, dairy, caffeine and alcohol from diet which was much easier for me than I thought it would be. I still had plenty of food and meal options that were for the most part extremely tasty and satisfying. The cleanse gave me a chance to experiment with new foods such as amaranth for breakfast and prepare “old” foods in new ways. After three weeks of no vanilla almond milk, (my vice) I can now say I have fallen in love with organic canned coconut milk and I continue to use it in about everything I create in the kitchen.

Before beginning the cleanse, I had imagined cleansing to be difficult and distasteful, but I’m now finding the real challenge to be adding the forbidden foods back into my diet.

At first, I found myself thinking about food too thoroughly. What foods are healthiest for me? What foods should I cut out of my diet completely? Am I getting all the right nutrients? Am I eating too much… too little? These crazy thoughts lasted about a day until I remembered that instead of grasping for answers from an outside source answers to questions such as what I eat, how much and when are all questions that are answered by my body when I slow down and take a moment to listen inward.

Remembering this important tidbit relieved me from much anxiety and uncertainty, and brought me back into my beloved body.
After coming back into my body and listening and trusting its dialogue, I realized how important quality of food is to me and my body. I started thinking to myself, if I’m going to eat bread now, why not eat the best quality of bread! And I rode my bike to Great Harvest early the next morning and picked out a steaming loaf of cinnamon raisin wheat bread. Of course I wanted some nut butter to spread over my luscious piece of bread so I bought my favorite kind of nut butter, fresh ground organic cashew butter, sweet, salty and delicious!

We all deserve to eat quality food. To me, quality could mean favorite, organic, local, in season, fresh, delicious, pleasurable, luscious, homemade or full of love. Not only does buying quality food elevate my pleasure but it also elevates how well I metabolize my meal and how many nutrients I am pulling from my food. What everyday foods could you elevate in quality? Instead of buying a bag of frozen spinach, buy fresh organic spinach from your local farmers market. When you go out for pizza, enjoy the best pie in town with good ingredients and a feel good environment.
By taking time to listen inwards to the signals, needs and wants of our bodies, I find  that all the answers to my unanswered food questions,  become clear.  I can feel the difference in my body after eating a donut from Safeway and a freshly baked pastry from my favorite italian bakery. Trusting the messages of your body takes time, patience, love, exploration, breath, and slowing down. So enjoy this time of getting to know your body and gifting yourself with quality nourishment.

Our next cleanse group will begin June 13th.  If you are interested visit www.bouldernutrition.com or find us on facebook…

The frozen winter season has officially opened up to the warm breezes of spring and sweet morning bird calls outside my sunny window.  I’ve unusually found myself waking up with the sun, weeding through old clothes in my closet, removing the old and dead foliage from my yard, and deep cleaning my kitchen.  As I make new space in my closets, garden and home, not only has my space begun to feel roomier and alive, but I feel lighter, more expressive and expansive.  When I conclude projects and tasks in my life, I free up energy to put towards the renewal that spring naturally brings.

What can you bring to a completion into your life in order to make space for new expression and expansion.  Do you have a pile of papers sitting in the corner of your desk waiting to be hung up or phone calls that need to be made? Or maybe you’ve been meaning to try out that yoga class on monday night or dust off your bike that’s been hibernating in the garage all winter. I find it helpful to write down a few top things in my life that are nagging for attention.

While you find things in your life that need to be finalized, look at how you are feeling towards  these things. Do you have any resistance to sorting through that pile of paperwork or reaching out to the old friends? It’s interesting to notice what you may have resistance to starting or finishing.  Once you notice and observe what you are resisting  without judgement but with curiosity, there is opportunity for exploration and growth!

I started writing this blog about two weeks ago.  It’s been fascinating and ironic to see myself resisting finishing up this post.  Each day I thought about writing a little more or finishing it completely, but I seemed to find any excuse not to. Now that this blog is almost done, I’m already feeling relief and spaciousness in my mind. When your mind is clear of things that need to be accomplished, being in the present moment comes effortlessly.  In the present moment, you will find yourself with a curious mind to explore new growth and in the opportune place to accept a refreshing spring start.

Spring is a time for renewal, new beginnings.  A time we connect with the early morning sun, and the green sprouting life all around us.  The sight of the spring greens nourishes our soul deeply as we feel the fresh beginnings and opportunity for something new.  This is a chance to see things from a fresh perspective.

“Take care of all the maintenance requirements and attend to any last details. Your totality of commitment is what will determine the depth and breadth of your success.”

“To find balance, plant deep roots and soar your head into heaven.”

At a dance class this week, my teacher reminded us that we as humans are the perfect connection between heaven and earth.  How blessed are we, that can have the best of both worlds? With our feet firmly rooted on the ground, we are free to reach the tops of our heads into the sky above.  And without one or the other, we would not live or exist as we do. We are the perfect balance between ground and sky. We connect heaven and earth, simply by being living each moment.

The spring equinox is nature’s reminder of balance.  Translated literally, equinox means “equal night.”  On the day of the equinox, there are twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness everywhere in the world.  It’s pretty amazing to find such a simple and profound expression of nature balancing itself.  The spring equinox is the only day of the year, along with the fall equinox, that this unifying phenomenon occurs.  Equal light and equal dark.

We all have found certain things in our lives that help to bring us back into balance with ourselves and with nature. What kind of anchors do you use in your life to bring yourself back into balance? It is so easy for us to get wrapped up in all the business of doing and be tipped off balance. After a long day of running on little sleep, eating on the run, squeezing in errands, and working your heart out, what do you do to ground yourself, to bring yourself back into balance?

What I do to balance myself could differ depending on the day, my mood and my surroundings.  Some days I might soak in a warm bath or take a calm walk in the woods, or practice meditation.  Other days I might snuggle up with an inspiring book, journal, or talk to a sweet friend.  I find that doing something  daily that takes my mind inward to the place of peace inside of me helps me return to balance.  The important thing is not what you do, but rather that you know how to find a way to anchor your energy, and come back to center.

Feeling balanced for me, is feeling inline with my true self. Feeling connected to the needs of my body, mind and soul, connected to my beliefs and connected to nature and the spinning world around me.  Feeling balanced is also feeling a sense of inner peace. When my thoughts and feelings can “simply rise and fall like the waves of the ocean without disturbing the deeper waters of peacefulness within,” I am balanced.  When the even more challenging moments arise in life, and I can work with them rationally, and effectively, I am balanced.

With the balancing energy of the spring equinox upon us, take a few moments each day to notice if you feel naturally balanced, and make it an adventure to discover what brings you back to that peaceful, balanced place inside yourself.  Remember, that with your head sprouting up to the sky and your feet planting into the ground, you are a brilliant, natural continuum of balance between heaven and earth.

“The storms of life throw us out of balance again and again.  The constant change between being centered and un-centered is the process which teaches us to be more conscious from moment to moment in order to retain that inner peace and clarity when we find it…”  Crowly Tarot

What makes you feel beautiful? Is it putting on your favorite little black dress and going out for a night on the town? Is it taking a walk on a soft sandy beach, feeling the salty breeze run it’s fingers through your tangled hair? Is it when you are flowing through a peaceful yoga class, feeling your body through the rhythm of the asana?

Beauty is so important to have in our lives.  Without recognizing beauty in the world and within ourselves, life can seem dull, and lacking passion and inspiration. Without beauty, both inner and outer, life quickly loses its glow and sparkle and we are left with a deep feeling of emptiness.

Part of recognizing beauty is accepting all in life as it is.  Accepting all the imperfections, uncertainty, surprises,  and possibilities.  Interesting how we are so quick to accept the beauty of nature and all it’s imperfections.  When taking a walk through the woods, I would never look to judge trees as being too skinny, or too tall, or to skimpy.  I don’t pick apart each divet or bump in the muddy path, wondering why nature couldn’t have made it look more groomed.   With nature we tend to accept all of its imperfections.  As humans, even though we are part of nature, why is it that we can not accept our flaws and see our imperfections as a part of nature’s beauty as well?

One reason I believe we make it so difficult to appreciate, see and respect our own beauty and the beauty of others is, because many times, we are in a state of judgement, a mental state rather than a feeling state.  When we are in constant judgement, it is impossible to see and feel the magic of our own inherent perfection.  Until we can let go  and respect the beauty of imperfection, the uniqueness of asymetry, and the beauty of our inner world, we will never be able to love the beauty within us.

When you embrace beauty in your life, you will attract beautiful people and experiences into your every day. When we are hoping, wishing and wanting to feel beautiful and inside we are hating ourselves, and talking negative self talk, punishment and disgust, it will be impossible to reach true self love, beauty and acceptance.  It can feel like taking the wrong road to get to your own house.  To begin embracing the beauty of imperfection, and naturalness in your life begin to explore what truly makes you feel beautiful.

Beauty is fun, exciting, pleasurable and expressive.  It is so important to carry it within us and to spread our beauty into the world.  When I feel beautiful, my life seems to sparkle, glow and shine! The sun shines brighter, the sky appears bluer and every person I meet glistens. So, what is it that makes you feel beautiful?  Nurture, love, take care…

“It is impossible to live pleasurably without living wisely, well, and, justly, and it is impossible to live wisely, well, and justly without living pleasurably.”  Epicurus

February strikes me as the perfect month to put my focus on personal pleasure for my mind, body and soul.  Since our culture is expressing its love of pleasure in the way of celebrating Valentine’s Day, why not use this loving and celebrational energy to put towards pleasuring ourselves and our greater health ? It is so easy to get wrapped up in our day to day life and completely push pleasure to the side.  This may be because we feel guilty for spending time and energy focused on ourselves, because we are too busy caring for friends and family, because of certain “rules” or beliefs we have decided upon for ourselves, or simply because we don’t make time to bring pleasure into our lives.

Pleasure can be listening to your favorite song, soaking in a steaming bubble bath, fully enjoying a piece of dark chocolate or setting an hour aside to focus inwards at your favorite yoga class.  Let it be fun to explore the different pleasures that you enjoy. Recognize the reasons why you deny yourself pleasure and for this month, let those reasons go, and allow yourself to focus on giving your body exactly what it desires in the form of pleasure.

We don’t need to search outside of ourselves to find what is pleasurable for us, because our bodies are born wired to desire pleasure and avoid pain.  We simply need to listen in to our bodies inherent wisdom.  A great place to begin adding more pleasure is to practice with food and the sensations your body experiences with mindful eating.  Each time your feel your body hungering, really take the time to listen to what it is your body desires to eat.  Try to set old food patterns and habits aside, let go of your food rules and regulations, and fulfill your bodies desire for pleasure tuning to each physical sensation in each moment. Choose to experience the joy of eating more and more often.  Thoroughly savor the food you put into your body, recognizing the nourishment, health and pleasure your body is receiving.

Lets not pass up anymore opportunites for pleasure.  Trust your body to tell you what it truly desires and you will find yourself becoming an expert on pleasuring your body, mind and soul. Your health will improve, your radiance will shine, and you will be an example for others to follow. Simply by bringing more pleasure into your life, you are likely to find yourself feeling more connected and trusting or your own body’s wisdom and desire.  Not only will you feel more joy and bliss in each day, but you will also deepen your relationship with the most important person… you!

“No other nutrient can restore the radiance to body, heart and soul as pleasure does. It is time to welcome pleasure back to the table.”  Marc David

The drum beat, steady and sound.

A raging Native American pow wow, moccasins and feathers pounding into the frozen earth, to the rhythm of their sacred past.  Creative yet contained.

A young drum circle, beating, thumping, tapping to the rhythm pulsing through each young soul.

The techno beat that drives the energy of rhythm, pressing my body into a relaxed dance,  following not only the rhythm of the thrusting beat but the rhythm of my body, and her’s.

The flowing creek.  Steady, calm, cold and collected… rushed, excited and loud.

The stream of energetic rhythm.

Flowing through me and flowing through you.

Some days I feel the need to sway.  To move my body in a way that dances with the day’s natural rhythm. To get down on the floor and roll around.  To feel my body’s organic rhythm, is one way I feel a deeper connection to the collective.

Whether you have recognized it or not, the world has it’s own pulsation.  The rhythm is constantly changing, slowing down, speeding up, throwing you a sexy salsa spin on some days, an electronic thrust on some, or edgy, sharp and masculine on others.  When we are in tune with organic pulsation, we can feel a deeper connection to ourselves, to everyone and to everything around us.  Energy begins to move freely, releasing emotion, stagnation, and creating more space, more bliss.

Life seems to flow in an indescribable way, within us and around us.  The rhythm may be sharp or smooth, but when you are aligned with it, it doesn’t matter whether life is throwing you for a spin on the dance floor or taking you for a gentle walk in the sand.  Quite honestly, what a blessing it is to have this rhythm pulsing through each one of us, guiding us, offering us teachings about our selves.

What connects you to your own organic rhythm?  Is it taking a few minutes to lie on the floor and move your body slow and sensual, is it finding a place of stillness to listen to your own inner voice of truth, or is it nourishing your self deeply while moving in sync with another?  There is always another opportunity to deepen your connection with your own inner bliss and freedom,  dancing with the divine….