Health Tip - Surviving the Holidays in Good Health

Jennifer's 5 Tips

The holidays can be a time of added stress as we prepare for Christmas and the New Year. Along with the excitement and anticipation of the season, there are added chores, shopping for gifts, decorating and food preparation. A heavy workload, chronic illness, caring for others, emotional distress or a hormone imbalance can add to our feelings of stress causing further fatigue and exhaustion. Our adrenal glands are in over-drive and, if we are not careful, our immune system can weaken leaving us in a vulnerable state for colds, flu and illness.

Here are 5 tips to stay in good health during the holidays:

1) Choose healthy foods~

Eat fresh fruits and vegetables and stay away from processed foods and refined sugars, including fast food. It will be tempting to eat out, indulge in Christmas goodies that lurking around every corner, and skip meals. Try to balance your nibbling with healthy meals of fresh fish, chicken, lean meats, eggs, nuts and whole grains.

Protein-rich foods produce more energy and stabilize blood sugar. Each meal should consist of one third protein and the remaining two thirds should be fresh vegetables and fruits high in fiber. Try to limit coffee and caffeine consumption and reach for a cup of de-caffeinated tea instead.

2) Take your Supplements~

There are a variety of supplements that can boost your energy levels, strengthen your resistance to colds and disease and promote a sense of well-being.

The B’s rule -- B1, B2, B3 and pantothenic acid- are indispensible in breaking food down for energy. B1 is especially important if you are eating a diet high in carbohydrates as it plays a critical role in making the enzymes necessary to break down the carbs.

CoQ10 is necessary for the creation of energy in the mitochondria. Every cell contains mitochondria and CoQ10 improves muscle energy levels. Consider taking L-carnitine which burns the fat in the mitochondria and Vitamin C which aids in the synthesis of carnitine and keeps the brain energized.


3) Get Plenty of Sleep~

A good night's sleep is a must. Drink a cup of tea before bed, turn off the TV, computer and cellphone and let yourself unwind. Soak in a warm bath. If you have trouble sleeping, try the following supplements to aid in a good night’s rest: melatonin, 5-HTP and magnesium (also helps with leg cramps).

4) Exercise~

It’s easy to skip exercise when we are so busy with the Holiday season. Actually, the best thing you can do is to get some fresh air and exercise. Physical activity will promote the burning of fat and making of muscle. You will find that rather than feeling more tired, exercise will energize you and increase your stamina. Even thirty minutes a day will pay off and increase your energy level by up to 20%.

5) Take a moment to breathe and relax~

When you find yourself tense and overwhelmed, take a moment and pause. Take a deep, cleansing breath, and exhale slowly feeling the tension and stress leave your body. Imagine your stress draining from the bottoms of your feet into the earth. Allow yourself to completely relax in the moment. Do a couple of simple stretches -- rolling your head, bending from the waist side to side, stretching your hands up over your head.

In this state of relaxation, access the rest of your day. Is there something that you can let go of? Does it really need to get done today? Can you delegate to others? What can you do for yourself that will ease the stress and tension—prepare a cup of tea, take a walk outside, or simply read something inspirational for 10 or 15 minutes?

The holidays are meant to be joyous and a time spent with loved ones and friends. Cherish this time together, have fun and enjoy the holidays.

Quote of the Day~

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Intention of the Day~

To learn the uses for all 3,000 supplements, herbs, and other products at our health food store~

My brain hurts!

Sunday Reflection~

My sister forwarded this to me in an email. I have thought about what Ben Stein has written and I think he deserves a response. I do not agree with everything he says, but he is passionate and his comments are thought provoking. I have commented in italics/bold after certain paragraphs.

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you. I think it applies just as much to many countries as it does to America ...

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I agree. We have become afraid of speaking our truth in fear of "offending" someone/anyone.


I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

I do not think we are an atheist country. On the contrary, we are a country rich in religious and spiritual diversity, but there is a pervasive sense of "don't talk about it" like the military's "Don't ask, don't tell."

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God ? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

I don't and will never worship celebrities. But, his question begs another question: Why has TV, computer games, IPad and the Iphone become more important than our spiritual journey?"


In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

I part ways with Ben here. Our children are not responsible for the terrorist attacks, or the wars, or the famine, poverty and suffering that we experience globally. Our children, nor God in my opinion, is responsible for Katrina, the earthquakes, the tsunamis, or any other weather tragedy that befalls us. 


If our children have no conscience, we must look to how they have been raised. We, the parents, are responsible for teaching our children right from wrong, instilling strong values, and cultivating a deep spiritual life. Our schools, government, clergy, TV, twitter and facebook are not responsible. God's presence must burn brightly in the home. 


Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Now, I completely agree with that statement - "We reap what we sow."  Are we sowing seeds of love? Are we a living embodiment of love? Personally, I do not think God gives a hoot about a lot of stuff, nor do I think he controls the weather. I think God -- All That Is -- a divine, intelligent, vibration of pure love, is only interested in our journey of learning how to love. I believe that this divine intelligence is always present, always accessible, always available to us. We must ask and be open to receive. The darkness we witness in our world is the absence of love.


Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

I could care less what other people think. But, I do not forward chain emails that have an explicit or implicit threat, nor religious, political, or lewd emails. Just not what I do. Animal emails I tend to share, as well as inspirational. I have passed this on Ben as I do think you have us thinking...not necessarily agreeing. And, that is what healthy discussion is all about. We need not be bullied into sending or not sending. What we need is to think and reflect more deeply on the issues that we care deeply about.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and Respectfully,

Ben Stein

Jennifer Johnston

Saturday Blog Share~

Learn To Forgive Yourself
Ian Lawton~

Carol Luebering, an author who wrote a lot about death and dying, said,

Forgiveness is not something you do for someone else. It is something you do for yourself. An unforgiven injury binds you to a time and place someone else has chosen; it holds you trapped in a past moment and in old feelings.

It seems like one of life’s greatest challenges to forgive yourself, and often forgiving others falls into place when you forgive yourself because hostility towards others is often just unresolved self loathing in disguise. The incredible liberation you experience when you begin to forgive yourself is like a fog of bitterness that lifts. You see yourself, others and life more clearly and with greater compassion.

Forgiveness is an issue we all deal with in different ways. In light of the Penn State sex abuse scandal, many people (myself included) have been reminded of situations where we didn’t listen to our intuition and take action. This brings with it a heavy load of guilt. Others may need to forgive themselves for staying in abusive relationships for too long, or making choices that diminished your humanity. Most of us are haunted by something we wish we had done, or knew we should have done, and healing begins with forgiving yourself.

When I was in kindergarten I left the classroom one day to go to the bathroom. When I got there, I found my best friend, David, sitting on a stranger’s lap in the cubicle. I ran in terror back to the classroom and didn’t tell anyone what I’d seen. I was frozen in fear. Eventually word filtered around the room that David was missing, and I finally told the teacher what I had seen. Nothing else was ever said about it, and I never knew what happened to my friend. But my inability to immediately tell the teacher plagued me for years.

What was wrong with me? Why didn’t I speak up? It was my fault if David was hurt. I had made myself the perpetrator and bound myself for years to that time and old feeling. My self loathing wasn’t helping anyone, least of all myself. But I couldn’t move beyond it for years.

My healing followed 5 steps to liberate myself and move on. (read on for 5 steps to self forgiveness)

Step One: Accept What Was

I couldn’t control the actions of the man, nor my friend. Whatever happened, happened, however devastating. I certainly can’t change what happened, and I can’t change what I did and didn’t do. Wishing it were otherwise now is a futile battle with reality and memory. The starting point is ACCEPTANCE.

Step Two: Reframe the Memory

I am left with a frame in my mind, a snapshot of something that happened a long time ago. My frame on the experience was laced with guilt for many years. Once I accepted the reality of whatever happened, I started to reframe it. My new frame was full of compassion (for myself). I was 5 years old, confused and terrified. I was also an innocent victim of the situation. My new frame is compassion; for myself, I did all I could do at that time, for my friend, he has lived with what happened to him, and even for the perpetrator. You can’t abuse kids without being very damaged yourself. It doesn’t excuse bad behavior or lack of self control, but it is a frame that enables me to move on.

Step Three: Visualize Forgiveness

This is a brief summary of a visualization I have spent many hours working on. In meditation, I focus on myself as a five year old. I surround myself with protective energy. I create safe space to heal within. I imagine myself embracing myself as a shocked five year old. I give the same love and care to the boy that I give to my own children when they are scared. Forgiveness grows when you visualize compassion.

Step Four: Letting go of guilt.

With my new frame on the experience, and my visualization of compassion, I learnt to let go of guilt. I don’t have to live my friend’s karma, and I don’t have to suffer the abuser’s karma. I release myself from responsibility for what happened to either of them. I also release myself from responsibility for choices I made as a very young child in shock. I don’t need to punish myself any longer.

Step Five: Choose to Respond Differently

Freed from guilt, I can choose to respond differently now. I have had several opportunities to speak up for victims of abuse in my adult life. I have taken each one of them with determination. I chose to learn from the experience, and pledged to be a voice for those who lost their voices as victims of abuse. It’s now a major part of my life to support people in healing and transformation, through writing, speaking and coaching.

The steps to self forgiveness are not always neat and tidy. We move back and forth between guilt and forgiveness, hopefully adding a little more gentleness to our frame each time we do the hard work of self forgiveness.

In the end, it all comes down to what sort of world you choose to dwell in. I imagine a world where children are fiercely protected and people are mindful of the effect of their actions.

I love the ritual among the Masai tribes of African. Even though they were considered the most fearsome of all warriors, they use a greeting that is amazingly gentle. They greet each other with the words, “Kasserian ingera?’ which means “How are the children?” Even warriors with no children of their own would give the answer, ‘All the children are well.”

If the children are well, it is well with all. If the least visible and least powerful are well cared for, society as a whole is in a healthy state. Start by caring for the vulnerable child within who needs to be empowered with courage to heal from past choices and move on making powerful choices. Ask yourself often, “How is the child within?” May your answer be, “The child within is well.”

Forgiveness can’t change the past, but it changes the present in a mighty way. Forgiveness is the way of the peaceful warrior. It fills your present with peace, and enlarges the future for you and others.

Ian Lawton - Spiritual teacher of inner wisdom, divine love, deeper consciousness, oneness, peace, and abundance. Contact Ian: ian@soulseeds.com

Friday celebration~

I am celebrating leftovers!

The Thanksgiving meal tastes better the next day. I've already had a piece of chocolate pecan pie for breakfast with homemade whip cream. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

I'll skip lunch so I can really dig in tonight.

What are you celebrating today?

Spiritual Guidance~

The Day of Giving Thanks~

On this day of Thanksgiving, I reflect on my own family and our tradition surrounding this holiday. Growing up, it was a much anticipated day. We knew the food was going to be delicious and the smells emanating from the kitchen made my mouth water in anticipation. There were at least two fires lit, and we would have our appetizers and drinks in the formal living room. Dinner was in the dining room, before the fire, and we would always do "hands prayers".  I loved Thanksgiving.

I tried to carry on my mother's tradition as best as I could with my own family. In the early years, we would go back to my parent's house, or my husband's parents. We rotated years to be fair. As I reflect on this year and many in the recent past, I realize how much Thanksgiving has changed for us.  It will never be the same as we do not gather at the house anymore. Mom's alzheimer's changed our tradition. My divorce changed our tradition.

I'm not sad per se, but aware of how changes in one's life course impacts so many things. Max and Zoe are with their dad in Colorado skiing. They are excited as they do not see him often. They will not miss the turkey. Andy and I will be with friends and we are grateful. My dad will be at the nursing home, feeding mom, both sad and happy to be with her. My sisters will be with their families.

This is how it is. Not good or bad. It just is and I am, nevertheless, filled with gratitude. Grateful for all of the years that we did celebrate together as a family and appreciative of life's transitions. I know, one day, in the near future our home will be filled with our children, their spouses, and grandchildren on Thanksgiving Day.

I will be in my glory, feeding them all, and carrying on the tradition.

Health Tip ~ Natural remedy for cold and flu

Cold-Busting Teas~


During this busy holiday season, many of us over-do, wear our bodies down, and become more susceptible to colds and flu. It is important to pay attention to our bodies and restore balance as soon as we feel any imbalance. Eat well, rest, and take deep cleansing breaths when you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed.

One of the best cold-busting teas around is a combination of elder flower, peppermint and yarrow. These three herbs, available in most natural foods store, are combined in equal parts (e.g., ½ tsp of elder flower, ½ tsp of peppermint, ½ tsp of yarrow). Mix the herbs thoroughly before steeping the mixture in 6 to 8oz of water for up to 10 minutes. Sweeten with honey, xylitol, or stevia. Drink one cup of tea at least three times daily until symptoms disappear.

Why does this mixture of herbs work?

Elder flower has naturally occurring compounds that break up mucus and strengthen mucus membranes, which helps you filter out further illness-causing germs. Peppermint acts as a decongestant and yarrow works as a diaphoretic to promote sweating and a diuretic that helps to thin mucus.

A powerful threesome that will get you back on your feet quickly. Some also suggest taking a hot bath immediately after ingesting the tea and then getting under heavy blankets to promote perspiration.

Best advice, though, is to get plenty of rest, drink lots of water, and don't slip into the frenzy of the holidays. It will all get done. And what doesn't, let it go.

Quote of the Day~

"How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I'm committed to?"
Tony Robbins~

Intention of the Day~

Make an apple pie, pecan-chocolate pie, pumpkin pie, and rum cake by 10:00am~