Brushing your pets teeth is important, but how many folks actually bother on a regular basis?  With some pets the job is easier and others completely impossible.  Firstly, just like us, we need to be mindful of the food we feed them, avoiding sugars that harm teeth.

Raw meaty bones help clean the teeth and give your pet something to occupy their time with too.  Raw because cooked bones are brittle.  Yes, you can feed your dog or kitty a raw organic meaty chicken bone, just never any cooked!  Just as you should for yourself, buying clean, fresh organic meat from a reputable place assures you don’t have to worry about bad pathogens.  And remember, your dog or cat is a carnivore, with a system built to eat meat.  We do not possess that system.  When we ingest meat, we are not eating as our maker intended.  Therefore, we are more susceptible to illness from partaking.

Avoid bad mojo ingredients – There are a plethora of products out there and it still amazes me how Propylene Glycol (antifreeze) is in so much stuff, from cosmetics to pet products. Proof we are insane.  Read your labels and shun anything with chemicals, sugars, by products.

Rhett turned 7 this April.  He has never had a formal tooth cleaning at the vet and one is not needed.  I attribute this primarily to Ark Naturals Breath-Less Chewable Brushless Toothpaste and Ark Naturals Plaque Zapper, which is a powder treatment you add to the drinking water.  Cats and dogs typically don’t mind, it is flavorless.  This is exceedingly important for picky kitties!  The product contains naturally available enzymes which are activated by mouth saliva. As your pets drink from their water bowl, Ark’s PlaqueZapper zaps harmful mouth bacteria and the enzymes stop plaque from sticking to teeth.  The vet said Rhett’s teeth and gums looked fabulous and was shocked when I told him we had never had them cleaned.

I highly recommend using both the chews twice a day, after breakfast and dinner, and in the morning, add your water treatment because the zapper powder lasts up to 8 hours once mixed with water.

Feel free to comment, I love reading what folks have to say and kindly share out my blog to help others.

There’s been a lot of buzz about work and life balance.  My former company (and that of my husbands) mention it routinely.  But talking about it doesn’t make it so.  I am going to address what is and what is not balance as well as why all corporations, hospitals, every single entity that employs staff, must honestly strive for it.

TIME – Other than learned skills, the primary commodity an employer buys, is your time, which is finite and a different quantity for each individual.  Stress shortens life.  It’s ok to work hard at something and preferably something that brings you satisfaction, but it is equally important that you balance time spent at work with personal pursuits which should take up a large percentage of your day/week and allow the feeling of abundance and joy. Essentially, this time spent in personal ways provides the moments of pause necessary to truly appreciate that paycheck because you are feeling, directly, the reward.  When you spend too much of your day/week on work rather than personal things, you are just a hamster in a wheel.  And this would be sucky job satisfaction. Editing: “Work And Life Balance”

BALANCE – Balance can be that you always work an 8 (or fewer) hour day.  Balance can also mean you work for a set period of time,  kama kazi mode 10-12 hour days on a project with a finite scope, where, at the end of it, you get comp time and a fat bonus. Yes, both.   Think about your most favourite thing to do in the world.  It could be rock climbing, horseback riding, jogging, yoga, reading, watching TV or downing a tub of popcorn.  For ANY of the favorite things which spring to mind, would you in complete honesty want to do that one thing for a solid 8 hours straight?  How about 10 or 12 hours?  How about long hours, at least 5 days straight, for months on end?  Put this way, we can then understand that 8 hours of anything isn’t balance either, but it does provide for 8 hours of sleeping and another 8 to get personal pursuits tended to.  We need to stop thinking of an 8 hour day as a short day or that people who work only 8 hours are somehow not as worthy as those of us who put in twice that. For those who drive into the office, some of those hours will be spent in that space of working while driving into work.  I count that as work time because I spend that time thinking about and planning my day out, and sometimes taking a few conference calls.  Don’t discount this time, those treks in are also working for your company.  If you were not driving into the office, those hours would be spent at your home office.  And on that note, we move into working from home.

WORKING FROM HOME – Some jobs are perfect for this planet saving, emission reducing tax write off.  For over a decade I’ve had a full-blown home office and LOVE it!  The tax break each year means the difference in getting money back or paying in.  Not every job can accommodate this of course. If you are a surgeon, a contractor or Starbucks Barista, working from home is not possible.  But many jobs are and this is a great way to increase productivity, reduce corporate costs and provide a space, typically 2 extra hours that would otherwise be spent driving, to get extra work done.

It takes the right mindset, someone who can work autonomously, putting the needs of their company at the forefront without direct supervision and be the role model that allows this opportunity to thrive within your company.  I worked on my director for years before he finally relented.  For me, it got creepy working late in the office when the lights dimmed and the vacuum cleaners started humming as the cleaning crew went to work.  Then someone was robbed in the parking garage.  Then someone was murdered at their desk located inside a secured, badge required building.  I did not like driving home alone at night in the dark either. But when I was on a hot project, I really hated to waste any of my time that could be better spent.

The downside to working from home is that you can easily just work around the clock and center your entire life around work with your personal needs, all of them, taking a back burner.  I had to set timers to get myself free of the computer, to set relaxation hours and work hours so that I created a separation of church and state.  I only crossed those lines when necessary, such as when I had scheduled late night business to attend to.

An old manager used to tell our entire team how lucky we were to work from home.  All of us were pulling 12+ hour days.  I did not feel lucky, I felt spent and under respected.    There must be balance in the way both the employee and the corporation thinks about both a workers time and work from home opportunities to create that win-win. In short, someone working from their home office should be working every bit as hard as someone driving into someplace.  The only difference is the drive time and the fact that they can also toss in a load of laundry in between conference calls.

When strong employees are enabled to work from home,  the company is lucky, spending less on office space and upkeep, as well as supplies. In the event of an urgent issue or in a situation of flex time, workers with laptops are able to step into work from their home office on a moment’s notice.  Working from home can mean the very difference between being able to put in extra time and leaving their employment due to personal life and work conflicts.

For anyone seeking a true work life balance, I recommend Thank God It’s Wednesday, by Mark Langford.

For those of us who hike into the office daily, there are electric cars to help the planet and ways to work smarter and take control of your over hours.   At the end of it all, nobody says they didn’t spend enough time in the office when reviewing their joys in life.

Here’s to being joyful, productive and balanced!

Most of us learned how to eat from our parents.  They may have been well meaning but if you were raised on the Standard American Diet (SAD) then their best intentions boiled down to poor dietary choices.  The body takes whatever ‘food/fuel’ you provide it and does its level best.  But most Americans are calorie dense and nutrient bereft, leaving the body always hungry and chronically dehydrated.

If you want to lose unnecessary weight (or gain healthy weight such as body building) you want to minimize your risks of heart disease and diabetes or reverse these issues, then a PBL (Plant Based Lifestyle) is for you!

Now comes the freak out, if you are like me.  I had been vegetarian years ago but I sort of panicked.  Now what do I do for food, what do I fix and how do I get creative with it (because I am married to an executive chef)?  I had the great benefit of training at Hippocrates Health Institute who stepped me through everything from enemas to juicing to the importance of organic clothing.  I had been a project manager with long hours before my Hipp training.  I knew that most Americans were over worked and short on time.  And this creates a very negative cycle.  Rather than fix our own food, even growing a lot of it, as our grandparents did, we have allowed ourselves to become dependent upon big business to provide fast foods.

Not one thing you buy fast, a pre-made and bottled green juice, or a mas produced sandwich, is ever going to be as quality controlled and fresh as it would be if YOU shopped all ingredients and put it together yourself. Sometimes, we want to just buy a pre-made vegan mayonnaise rather than making it from scratch and I totally get that and yes, I sometimes do that too.  But what I am calling you to take note of here, is when you make that choice, you are trading convenience for some nutrition loss and loss of ingredient and freshness control.  This may be ok if you are very familiar with the brand you are buying or are temporarily out of time.

Straight up, this lifestyle takes planning and it may make sense for you to hire someone like me to help you get started and stay the course.

With busy-ness in mind, during this year long study, I took a lot of time to ramp up on researching the best tools, from juicers to cook books to best ways to sprout, in order to offer help to others going down my same path who are short on time but really want to take control of their health, weight and happiness.

I either physically or virtually take folks down the shopping aisles at grocery stores, helping them with re-learning how to shop, what to look for, how to read labels.  I help folks get started growing their own sprouts!  Sunflower sprouts are delightful!  And, if you are lucky enough to have them where you live, I am jealous because until I grew my own, I had never ever even heard of them!

This lifestyle is about planning ahead a bit, soaking your seeds over night, and planning ahead for meals so that you are truly taking care of you and not putting yourself in a compromising position of being hungry and not having something nutritious on hand.

From growing your own garden or mini garden to natural home cleaners to organic skincare and air purification, I can help with my knowledge share and support.

OOOPS!  
Whether you crashed before getting the job done, as my cat Tiger did here in this photo, or knocked it all out beautifully but still didn’t get credit, we’ve all been there.  You feel like you failed and not just yourself but everybody else involved in your life perhaps.  How do you climb back out of the doldrums?  A friend reached out to me earlier because they were just fired after working diligently for the last 6 years. Whether you lost a client, lost a project or lost your job, it sucks to be you right now. But please understand this is temporary and you are going to move onward and upward to something far better!  It’s just time for some re-tooling.

An Opportunity in Failing
Whatever your fail, know that failing provides us new growth opportunities.  Find some quiet time to sort through what happened and your part in what took place.  Taking ownership for any actions on your part that landed you in the fail zone just helps you learn and do better next time.  If you look back and see that you did everything flawlessly but still things went awry, then you are just in the wrong situation.  Perhaps a change of people, circumstances or organizations is in order.

Minimize Drama
Drama can be very addictive.  Before long, you just live drama and believe it’s normal but it is not.  What is normal is peace at your center.  Daily, we tell others how we want to be treated by what we accept.  Who you were last year, last week or even last minute may not be who you are right now because we all have that amazing power to grow and change.  We may not control others, but we sure can control how we think, feel and act.  And we can reset our boundaries that range anyplace from what we work for on an hourly basis to who is at the forefront of our lives, who sits balcony row and who is curbside.

Take Control of Chaos
The first step to minimizing drama is reducing chaos.  Clear clutter, clean your home, your car out, maintain your stuff.  When you look around at a clean car, a clean home with things you love that are clearly well cared for, that has a strong impact on you and that impact hits every time you cross the threshold, grab a drink and sit on the sofa.  Make your spaces inviting to you. This conveys pride in a healthy way and will help boost your self-worth if that is flagging.

Finding Your Super Power
Analyze the past for wins and losses but don’t get too hung up on your history of fails. Instead, try to focus on your history of wins.  What are the intrinsic qualities you possess that became the catalyst in all of these successes?  I’ll give you an example from my life.  I have a tenacity coupled with a strong grasp of what is right and what is wrong or fairness.  I once accepted a position that turned out to be very different than what I thought.  I quickly realized that, no, actually I did not have the knowledge base I truly thought I had to be in the position I now found myself in.  I called upon my super powers.  In spite of fear, not knowing the buzzwords, the work, the tools, I was tenacious and I had a strong desire to get it done for my client and get it done right and timely.  I wowed management, and most importantly, the customer, and I learned a whole lot.

Reallocating Your Super Power
So now that you know what your super power is or super powers are, looks for ways you can take those skills and re-apply them elsewhere in your life for a win.

Mentors and Good People
Surround yourself with people who care about you and are a positive influence.  When you have suffered a failure, the last thing you need is a Debbie Downer telling you how life is cruel.  True, life is a mean thang sometimes, to be sure, but it is also filled to the brim with glorious fabulousness.  Hanging with the right crowd will help you bounce back faster.

Job Loss Help – If you’ve recently been laid off or fired, I’ve included  helpful links below but while you sort through all of the stages of grief, and some all over the map feelings, know that there are reasons for everything, even if we don’t yet know why they happened.

http://lifehacker.com/the-five-stages-of-grief-after-losing-a-job-1725201444

http://lifehacker.com/nine-things-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-if-you-lose-you-509536697

I began my journey thinking primarily of health, the planet, harming animals fewer times, with a burning question about what food really is.  I began preaching organic living 20 years ago because it’s safer. I have been passionate about the purity of what goes in and on my body. What is applied soaks in. But what I have learned so far this year is stunning me and taken my journey to another whole level.

Most of my family has been killed off by cancer. I lost my dad before I was 18.  Mother passed in 2015, a brother in 2014 and currently I have 2 family members who are terminal (a brother and cousin). All of my people were meat eaters, who did not embrace an organic diet. Then I was laid off at my job of 26 years where I was a project manager.  It’s been a perfect storm. With what I knew already, coupled with the deaths of loved ones, and time to study, this solidified my goal of a preemptive strike.  I am asking you to walk with me and then help others take the blinders off that Agribusiness and Corporate America wants to keep tightly in place.  All of us deserve to live our best life, with abundance on all levels.

The Planet – We have harmed her greatly.  We have polluted the air, our water, and soil with the way we do our business, all the chemicals, hormone disruptors, toxins. There seems no end to it. Pesticides, like DDT, began as chemical warfare.  After the war, corporations had surplus and wanted to find a use and profit. We didn’t even know how DDT worked when we began using it as a pesticide spread far and wide on our crops to kill off good and bad bugs and while this toxin was banned decades ago, it is something that will always be here as it takes so very long to break down.  DDT is in all US soils which means it is also in the bones of our beef who dine on grasses. (What cows really eat, they do not actually eat corn and their bodies don’t process corn well at all.  This is a forced cruelty perpetrated by the meat industry to fatten the cows cheaply.)  We no longer rotate crops and rest our soil. Because of this and CAFOS, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, otherwise known as Factory Farms, with our addictions to meat, to beef and the dairy industry, we have soil erosion. It takes 40 bowls of spinach to equal the iron content of 1 bowl of spinach from 1950.  We have depleted our soil of nutrients. If you are buying your lettuce from the grocery store, you should be aware. Because of Corporate choices in the way business was conducted and continues to unfold there is not only less nutrition in our vegetables (although Organic is higher and better) there is no absolute safe haven from toxins. You and I share what is known as a body burden because of this. For those not already vegan, try adopting a more plant based diet where meat and dairy is consumed not more than 2 days a week.  When you do shop, buy local and organic from known farms so you understand the quality and how the animals are treated.  But I encourage a visit.  It can be quite eye opening.  After a long search for the holy grail of animal kindness in the meat and dairy culture, it turned me vegan.

Health – The oil and gas industry, Monsanto and GMO and pesticides all contribute to our body burden, which is the level of toxins our bodies cannot get rid of, that are tucked away someplace in our fat cells, in an attempt by our bodies to continue existence.  Our body is an amazingly resilient self-healing machine, capable of fighting off numerous diseases, even cancer.  Cancer is simply a mutated cell and a healthy body fights it every day.  When our immune system gets tired, the system breaks down and we begin to fail.  It is paramount that we detox daily, exercise to flush out toxic waste and minimize the chemicals we put in and on our bodies.

Food – Many animals are taught by their elders how to hunt and what is food to them.  Otherwise, they would not know.  This accounts for why some Whale Pods will either prey on fishes or marine mammals, but not both.  Some even kill moose and sea birds. These skills are taught by the parents and become the pods culture that is passed on to the next generation.   We are a product of our environment and how we were raised.  I recently met a vegan who had been raised in the vegan lifestyle.  He had never tasted meat.  I was a bit envious that I had not been raised similarly.  I remember my family giving me treats for eating my meat, which I did not want to consume as a small child.  It turns out, I was onto something.  What is food to us is by our culture.  But our bodies are set up, from our teeth, our jaw design, down to our digestive tract, to eat plants, vegetables.   I advocate growing your own organic vegetables and herbs wherever possible. This can be on a patio or a window sill.  Buy organic when you shop.  Every day we support companies and their decisions, with our dollars.

Harming Animals – Everyone can google search these days, so go do that.  It is shocking how we treat our food.  I always had felt our food should be honored and kept safe from harm, both plant and animal.  Films like Food Inc. were eye openers for me and fueled my drive toward organic farms.  Factory farming methods are the most inhumane of the bunch and should absolutely be shunned. To buy from them, perpetuates untold suffering for both them and us, as we consume that unhealthy, unsanitary meat and dairy.  There are many things I could say here and all of them would turn your stomach.  I leave you to your google searches where folks have worked undercover at these places and provided snapshots of what takes place.

Is there a kinder killing?  The flat answer is that we are taking animals with their own thoughts, goals and awareness, who do not want to die, who see their buddies go before them, are so scared, want out, badly, but cannot do anything but march forward.  I watched a cow desperately try to walk backwards, turn around, get away from death, before finally bowing his head in despair to the reality that he was next.  Even organic meat is not in our best interest health wise.  Meats and animal fat hold the highest levels of toxins.  When we eat animals we consume those chemicals too.  The truth is that we don’t have to consume meat to live a robust and healthy life and doing so is actually shortening our life and putting us in the clutches of heart disease, high cholesterol and cancer.  I urge you toward a compassionate diet, one that will extend your vitality and years of great health.

The Hippocrates Diet – The Hippocrates Health Institute (HHI) is a vegan diet, with at least 80% of consumed foods being raw. If you are healthy, 20% may be cooked.  Enzymes and oxygen are in all raw food.  Yes you actually eat oxygen, not just breath it! Vitamins require Oxygen and Enzymes for utilization. Cooked food is depleted of Oxygen and enzymes.  Digestion is the #1 thing.  If you lack enzymes from your food, your body will borrow it from other places (not good).  Due to soil erosion, and the toxins in our environment, there is a huge focus on sprouts and wheatgrass juicing.

Alternative Lifestyle Consultant- What I do is help clients shift to a vegan or more plant based diet.  I help them with best products, juicer, sprouters, blenders, food processors, to set their kitchen up with to make it easy as possible.  I realize that a lot of us travel or for other reasons, may not be able to sprout their foods on a consistent basis.  This is why I became an independent rep for Miessence.

Miessence – Body Tonics & Skincare/Body care – It is vital that what we apply on our skin be pure, be free of pesticides and other toxins.  The way we guarantee this is by buying organic.  Fantastic skincare you can feel good about is just the beginning.  The superfoods, what I call Body Tonics, are great for on the go, or for those folks who cannot sprout their wheatgrass at home on a regular basis.  Cancer doesn’t like an alkalized environment.  Deep Green alkalizes our body with algae and grasses. Probiotics increase the body’s enzyme production.  And Antioxidants help us repair and fight off daily onslaughts from the air we breath, the water we drink (get a purifier) and the (organic) foods we eat.

No matter how cleanly you choose to live, you need to daily detox because the body burden is there. It takes a full 7 years of this diet to eradicate most of the body burden.  Some of it is always going to be with you, but I encourage you to take steps now toward a brighter, enlivened future!

Suzanne O’Brien – PureTemple Ph 214-334-8517

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