THIRSTY THURSDAY

I feel like I just posted one of these boy does time FLY!

I needed one of these little JOYS because I have had quite the week...

I used to be super into COMPUTER PROGRAMMING when I was in high school and I could figure out ANYTHING, LITERALLY, ANYTHING

I had the opportunity to do an internship in high school at BOEING and as you can see in this picture I hated it! Sometimes what you are good at (or used to be good at) is not your true passion so therefore you need to find something else...

and now on to Wordpress....WOW..

Working on moving this wonderful blog to an actual website :)

If you have any tips or tricks please feel free to contact me...

BACK to Thirsty Thursday...

Ahhh...and hey I can't complain this is my OFFICE space :)

CLICK READ MORE FOR THE RECIPE

THIRSTY THURSDAY

 My liver hates me right now (5 days of partying) so I have been extra gentle and eating my liver cleansing super foods and of course avoiding alcohol, processed foods and fatty foods as well as these foods are hard on the liver.

The research I have been doing for a huge project coming out in the next 3-4 months has taught me ALOT about the liver and how vital it is to the digestive process so taking care of your special little liver is very IMPORTANT! I mean it!

You can make this as a smoothie by adding some frozen berries or ice cubes but I have been blending it as a juice because I am working on adding juices to my diet instead of just smoothies all the time.

• Coconut Water- hydrates, potassium and provides you with electrolytes lost during boozing!
• Kefir (unsweetened)- puts back those good bacterias lost while drinking while providing you with a healthy source of protein and calcium
• Berries- yummy antioxidants and excellent flavor agent! I love the taste of berries 
• Celery- if you can believe it celery contains sodium which is lost while drinking as well so fill up on celery for a refreshing dose of vegetables and vitamins/minerals
• Beet Root-the ultimate liver cleanser: beets thin the bile and enable it to flow easier through the liver and small intestine but do not eat to much as it can be overwhelming to the body
• Chia Seeds-helps lock in the moisture from all these delicious ingredients, gives your some fiber, omega-3's and helps with inflammation (drinking is bloating as we all know)
• Raw Honey- for taste and provides you with some natural sugars which will hand you a small dose of energy and can help with stomach aches and constipation

This is a great smoothie, or juice to drink for a few days after a crazy trip (vegas, river, ANYWHERE) with of course hot water and lemon right when you wake up!

Mine this morning! YUMMMYY!

I love this color in the morning its so beautiful! Filling my body up 1 juice at a time :)

 

Take care of your body and I promise it will take care of you :)

THIRSTY THURSDAY

A martini...I could use one... :) 9 days until my wedding and I am still cleansing! It gets easier as I go a long and I think about some of the things I gave up (sugar-free gum, gum, meat (except for one day), and alcohol (except for 1 day)) Not bad :) The gum was the hardest for me..I know how bad it is for me but honestly sometimes it feels so good to just chew (I must be an addict) someone save me

But giving it up for 11 days has made it so I do NOT miss it. Honestly it really has not hit me at all until right now when I started writing my accomplishments in my journal! I believe looking for praise is usually a disappointment and that you should just be proud of yourself and reward yourself in that manner. I love sitting and boasting how wonderful I am in my journal and especially writing about my accomplishments whether super small (I drank 1 more glass of water today) or huge!!

Here is a recipe I came up with for Thirsty Thursday! It uses some of Ashley Armstrong amazing Baja Super Foods! I swear this stuff is so amazing! I am HOOKED! The bag is supposed to last you a month but um...is it bad that I like to eat it by itself? haha Grab some at Baja Super Foods (click the link)

So 9 days...getting a bit stressed but I keep looking at pictures of my girlfriends and its making me SO very excited to recreate some of the memories pictured below :) (I know I have HOT girlfriends ;))

Some of my girlfriends I have not seen in 2 years (ie Tiffy) and the rest its been about 8 months ;( but I am so happy they ALL are able to attend my special day! It makes it that much more exciting and we all have SO much to catch up on!

P.S: My cleanse is still going well! The stuff thats coming out of my nose is scary (sorry for the picture)

P.P.S Anyone doing Tuesdays Tip ? Comment and let me know what these last few days have brought you?? Click the link if you have yet to check it out!

Hope you all are having an amazing day!

STAR SPOTLIGHT

I noticed Ashley Armstrong at a Tomatoes meeting and could not wait to meet her. I saw a beautiful, knowledgable, healthy and radiantly glowing mother! I ran right up to her and introduced myself and after that I found her on face book. From there I connected with her when she introduced her product The Super Food Booster. I am currently studying the health benefits of super foods and have been having a difficult time finding them out here in Cabo so when I saw Ashely selling this product I jumped right on it! 

I went to visit her at her home where I picked up my delicious Super Food Booster and got to talk with her a bit. I really fell in love with her passion for introducing others to health benefits and foods that most do not have any knowledge of. I also fell in love with her radiant, daughter who ran up and hugged me! I have never seen in my life such a healthy, glowing baby. Most babies you see look tired and sick but this baby was special. This is because Ashley is well versed in raising a healthy child and specializes in getting your kids to eat those healthy foods! She even makes cookies with healthy ingredients and hides seaweed in there if you can believe it!

The superfood booster is my new favorite addition to my smoothies because it contains organic seeds, buckwheat, goji berries, mulberries, apple pieces, spirulina, chlorella, wheat grass, cinnamon, maca and xylitol, camu camu, turmeric and ginger all in 2 tablespoons! I tasted the booster alone and I wanted to eat all 8 oz in one sitting! Receiving all these vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber and iron without gluten and vegan is insane especially since it tastes so yummy! 

Star Systemz Super Smoothie using Baja Super Booster

I wanted to introduce Ashley (http://www.bajasuperfoods.com and www.alternativemedicinecoach.com) to my readers so I asked her a few questions and LOVE her answers! She really shows who she is and why she is so passionate about helping others be healthy and raise there children the same!

1. How did you learn about super foods?

 I am a natural health practitioner, I work with naturopathy, homeopathy, body cleansing, natural medicine and other alternative therapies. From this I gained a lot of wonderful information, plus I grew up in an overly healthy, athletic home !

2. What made you want to start creating the Super Food Booster?

I am a mother of two amazing girls and even though we eat healthy, they still get into their "I don't like that" tantrums. So I am always adding extra special ingredients to boost their immune system and mine.

Plus, every time I make something, i.e. super cookies or super brownies for my family, my friends, clients and Cabo locals, all hound me to sell it to them. So, I realized a gap needed to be filled, hard to get super foods, for us locals.

3. Who can benefit from the Super Food Booster?

The food booster is for the whole family. Babies under 1 years of age is not recommended, because of possible allergies. You need to try one ingredient at a time to make sure, other wise it's up to each family. My girls always ate things earlier than normal.

4. Tell me how you got into nutrition, natural medicine, infant education and child birth education.

That's a long winded question. But to try and sum it up I would say, it started with my up bringing of a super athletic and healthy family. My father attended 4 olympics for downhill ski racing, as the Olympians technician.

Once I was into my teen years, I was very active in competing and then teaching and developing programs in the snow sport industry. Which was when, I really developed health issues and not one doctor could help me. So a process of elimination and then into college, I gained more awareness of how food reacts with your body and how your mental attitude controlled EVERYTHING.

Then the move to here, Cabo San Lucas, from Whistler, Canada. I was not able to work, so I focused on my then, hand crafted jewelry business and diving knee deep into personal growth of mental, emotional, nutritional, environmental, spiritual health and went back to school to become a Natural Health Practitioner, hoping to continue to my doctorate this year.

The child development really took place once I became pregnant with my first child. My motto in life is "knowledge is power and power is CHOICE !" Again, it was knee deep into studying and learning all avenues of child development, education and then onto birthing.

The recent start up of my other company Eat Pray Love Baby, found on Facebook or http://www.EatPrayLoveBaby.com, came to light after having a pow-wow with my meditation coach, Gaby De La Rosa, of another gap here in Los Cabos. From there, I again went Knee deep into what I love and do best. Teach, educate, share and I hope to inspire our locals from all walks of life, by showing them, they have a hand for support.

5. Tell me about your baby classes. Where do they take place? When is the next class?


The child birth and infant education courses are amazing. I get to take my holistic world, child development and birth world and role it all up into one huge, jam packed ball of information goodness. That it makes me excited to think about how much information there is, and how much more I can learn still. 

We discus everything from how to be a good support, for both parents and much needed training for the father or partner to be. Labor, labor options -holistic to medical, birth pain management and relaxation, nutrition, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, newborn care, CPR, baby massage, making super baby food and my favorite, conscious parenting. More information can be found at http://www.EatPrayLoveBaby.com or contact me directly.

The classes are being held at Yoga-Shala, in the Home Depot plaza up stairs, above where Green Tree used to be. The first infant class is from 4pm-5:30 pm, april 28th and the next Child Birth course is 6-9pm on April 28th. I need to be contacted for registration, there is limited space in the studio.

6. What is one food you can not live without?

Oh, dear..... That is not a question I do well with. All of them ! haha, well veggies, fruits and seeds ! To narrow it down more, would have to be tomatoes, avocado, bell peppers, chia seeds, walnuts, almonds, pecans, wakame, swish card, lemons/limes, coconut oil, my Yummy Tummy Probiotic Drink, I make and sell and Whistler/Vancouver quality sushi. Basically I am a smorgus board person and eater, I love all styles, all health foods, I can't commit to one.

7. If you could tell someone one thing about yourself what would it be?

Well, I feel like I practice this one a lot. "I screw up as much as the next person, I am not perfect but I don't stop trying to grow and be a better person."

8. What other products and services do you offer?


Other than the therapies and already mentioned nothing else. just the probiotic drink, and soon the probiotic to go, the food booster, and the cookies are just for fun. they are organic, non-gmo, gluten free made with garbanzo bean, millet, spirulina, kelp, chia seeds, flaxseeds, cacao nibs. The brownies are made with black beans, cacao powder and cacao nibs.

9. Anything else you feel would be informative to my readers.

Well, one piece of advise would be to, "always read your labels ! Including Baja Super Foods, Food Booster.

and to "view people, like you,(Courtney) and me, who spend the time and funds to educate our selfs, to better our selfs and in return, offer to help our communities, to be viewed as professionals as well. 

It does not hurt to try something new, it can be quite fun, as an example. I use other alternative therapies, like EFT-emotional freedom technique, nuero-sensory algorithms-strategic mind messaging, and touch for health-energy running. They are all proven to be fun and amazingly affective, for my clients and myself.

10. How can I contact you and try some of those delicious super food cookies everyone talks about?

At this moment, the best way is through email ashley@EatPrayLoveBaby.com or info@BajaSuperFoods.com, www.bajasuperfoods.com or on Facebook through, me, Ashley Armstrong, or Alternative Medicine Coach or Baja Super Foods or Eat Pray Love Baby, Child Birth Courses. Lots of options, and after 3 days of requests, I am baking some super cookies tomorrow.

Feel free to contact Ashley Armstrong at ashley@EatPrayLoveBaby.com or on Facebook at Ashley Armstrong, or Alternative Medicine Coach or Baja Super Foods or EatPrayLoveBaby.com or sign up for her Child Birth Courses on April 28th. She is also available for Skype coaching for those who are not in the Baja area at: AlternativeMedicineCoach and www.alternativemedicinecoach.com

Give her cookies and brownies a try, I promise you will be hooked!

THIRSTY THURSDAY

I am cleansing away and counting down to my wedding day! 16 days and counting...I am so excited just been stressing a bit! Its crazy having a destination wedding because not only are you doing the wedding part, but you kind of start worrying about everyone feeling comfortable in a new place. Many of my friends and family have never been to Cabo San Lucas, MX which is exciting for them because Cabo is so beautiful with a ton to do, it just makes me nervous to spend time with everyone who has taken the time to fly out to my wedding! It means so much to me that they are taking there own time and personal vacation from work just for my wedding! I wish there were more hours in the day, but thankfully all of them are staying in one place! I get to see some friends I have not seen in over 8 months which will be fun and get to show them where I have been living for the last 8 months..in paradise...:)

I thought I would share with you my cleansing strategies. Everyone cleanses differently, depending on there own personal lifestyle. I applaud those who can do the master cleanse, its tough especially if you work a 9-5 pm job where you need to be 100% awake and ready for anything. I have done it before and I will tell you it is WORK, but very rewarding at the end. Instead of that type of cleanse, I do something a bit different. It works with my lifestyle, I can exercise still and I get the same benefits. The only thing is, it takes longer than the master cleanse.

My cleanse lasts about 12-14 days depending on how I feel. Its all about how you feel! I am doing this to cleanse out my Hong Kong trip and start the next chapter of my life with a clean body!

First thing in the morning I heat up some water and squeeze lemon into it.

About 30-45 minutes later depending on how I am feeling I enjoy a super smoothie:

Check back for more recipes!

I drink the same smoothie maybe adding a bit more veggie or maybe another fruit about every 3-4.5 hours, it all depends on how I feel of course.

For dinner I have a vegan cooked meal.

Last night I had:

Baby bella mushrooms, spinach, pine nuts and 2 cloves garlic. At the end on low heat I drizzle a dash of olive oil and this is the result. 

Garlic is great for the immune system and since I am cleansing I try to include garlic into my cooked meals.

Olive oil provides me with the fats needed to move the toxins along my digestive tract. Olive oil helps "grease" up everything.

Mushrooms and pine nuts provide me with some proteins and other vitamins.

Pine Nuts are also my new favorite food and have a bit of iron as well, help with fatigue and help alleviate muscle cramps.

Spinach provides me with a bit of iron and of course green does wonders as well all know :)

Some people enjoy there cooked meal at lunch since they work and its hard to stray away from a nice vegan cooked meal. I do mine at night, as my workout is at night and I like to make sure I have yummy fuel to fill my muscles!

Of course before trying any cleanse or diet change please consult a doctor. 

Comment and let me know what you think of my cleanse! I am having fun with it and have already seen my body de-bloat and watching my fat disappear! Although a bit cranky, I just say its my negative toxins coming out and after these 14 days, my body will be clean and have only positive energy (which is needed for a wedding :)