Fertility is sensual and playful… and if you are trying to boost your fertility, why not add some playfulness into your kitchen? Making zucchini noodles reminds me of playing with Play-Doh- That’s why I love spiralizing zucchini noodles for gluten-free pasta!

This recipe is completely raw-vegan, meaning the pasta sauce is made fresh in a high-speed blender and the zucchini noodles are eaten raw (although you could choose to lightly sauté them if preferred.)

More-so, zucchini is high in Vitamin A and Vitamin C, which are both fertility boosting vitamins.

Vitamin A helps build cervical fluid, which is needed during ovulation to help sperm live long enough to fertilize the egg. Naturally, there will be juicy cervical fluid during the 3-5 days building up to ovulation which occurs around day 14 of the menstrual cycle when the matured egg is released from the follicle for conception. The cervical fluid creates ideal conditions for sperm to swim up to the egg for...

These Thai Chicken Peanut Lettuce Wraps provide an abundance of the amino acid, L-Tyrosine. This was one of the libido boosting amino acids we chatted about in our Juicy Living Webinar last Monday (recording is available if you missed it!)

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. They are necessary for building neurotransmitters, brain chemicals that have an impact on the mood and hormone regulation. 

Eat foods with L-Tyrosine for…

• Lifting the Mood: L-Tyrosine acts as an anti-depressant by boosting dopamine levels.
  • … stress can deplete L-Tyrosine which is why you might feel down and moody after a stressful week of work.
• Adrenal Support: replenishes hormone supply made by the adrenals like norepinephrine.
• Thyroid Health: your thyroid gland needs both L-Tyrosine and iodine to make thyroid hormone.
• Better Sex:  Low levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine may diminish your zesty lust for...

mmmmm cacao… this elixir recipe of the goddess is an herbal tonic for activating your sensual bliss one sip at a time.

Sister, it is your birthright to feel sensual in every moment. As women, it may be easier for us to connect with our higher chakras… to our spirituality and to our intuition. (That’s one of the reasons we see a majority of female attendees in yoga class …)

Yet, part of this journey of living on this earthly plane is to be present in our bodies and know ourselves and our rhythm.

Which can be a challenge, right?

This means going into the three lowest chakras.. which feel more dense and difficult to be present with.

Because the Root Chakra stores fear, the Sacral Chakra stores guilt, and the Solar Plexus stores shame… Deep stuff.

Sitting blissfully in meditation and hiking in nature feels quite pleasant, but dealing with the hustle of our schedules, with the deadlines of work, the intensity of the news,...

You can have your cake and eat it. 

My Chocolate Cabernet Raw Vegan “Cheezecake” was a hit last night at my mother’s birthday party. The whole family came over and we enjoyed this decadent treat in celebration.

Beautiful goddess, taking care of your hormones does not mean depriving yourself of the deliciousness of sweets. What it means is eating sweets moderately, and when you do eat them, use natural sweeteners such as maple syrup and dates.

As it is in our nature to survive, our ancestors gravitated towards the high calorie, sweet foods found in nature, as this would give sustained energy reserves during times of feast to survive through famine.

However, with sugar so accessible in our modern age, it may be hard to refrain from it. So when you do use sugar in your cooking, go for natural sweeteners that contain vitamins, fiber, and nutrients, rather than empty calories from refined sugar.

This is a raw vegan dessert, so there is no oven involved,...

Spring marks a time of renewed energy, growth, and longer days of sunlight. As this season relates to the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, we experience new ideas with the energy to put them into action, which is associated with the rising estrogen of our inner spring phase.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the seasons spring and autumn are the best times to do a cleanse, as these are major transitional seasons leading into expansion (summer) and contraction (winter).

In TCM, spring energy relates to the liver, and autumn energy relates to the colon. Every spring, I like to do a cleanse to support the liver to aid in its detoxification process, and in autumn, I like to do a cleanse that supports the colon in elimination.

By cleansing in the spring, it helps my body adjust to the changes that are about to occur: the plants waking up, the flowering pollen in the air, the drastic shifts between windy rainstorms and sunny, warm days. Living in the midwest,...

Our hormones are greatly impacted by the health of our gut.

If our gut microbiome has been compromised by foods with preservatives, pesticides, and additives, then our digestion may not be up to par to absorb all the micronutrients we need for hormone regulation.

For example, leptin, the hormone that controls appetite and tells us when we are “full,” is impacted by the gut. A healthy colony of gut flora increases our sensitivity to leptin, helping us know when to stop eating.

Also, estrogen needs to be properly metabolized and eliminated from the body to prevent excess of this hormone, which can lead to symptoms like PMS, heavy bleeding, endometriosis, and fibroids. When the gut microbiome has enough healthy beneficial bacteria, digestion is improved and excess estrogen is properly eliminated.

What exactly is the gut microbiome?

The gut microbiome is the accumulation of microbes, fungi, bacteria, and even viruses that live in the...

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and before I share with you my Sexy Dark Chocolate recipe, I wanted to encourage you to LOVE yourself first, and foremost. Whether you have a partner, a date, or neither… All relationships you experience begin with yourself, as they are a mirror image of your biggest places of growth, such as becoming more compassionate, giving, understanding, creating boundaries, etc.

I recently had the opportunity to interview relationship counselors for a local magazine I write for. Here’s some tips:

When our partner or a friend is treating us a certain way… let’s say they are not being very understanding of our situation, then instead of first putting the blame on them, we can ask ourselves, “how can I be more understanding towards them?” Often this switch in psychology helps us realize the way we treat others impacts the way they treat us. And by first coming to a place of...

Unexplained weight gain particularly around the middle…. thinning hair and even hair loss, exhausted all the time and feeling sluggish… foggy thinking… few bowel movements…brittle nails…puffy face… excessive menstrual bleeding….and/or cold all the time?

My darling, if you are experiencing many of these symptoms, you may have hypothyroidism, or low thyroid hormone.

It is your birthright to experience wellness and I am here to share delicious recipes to help you support your endocrine system so you can feel your best and have energy to make magic happen in your life!

Below, I shared my delicious Red Lentil Soup recipe, providing your beautiful body-temple with thyroid supporting nutrients. You can go scroll down straight to the recipe- but, if you’re like me and want to know the nitty gritty details of hormonal health, please continue reading.

What Causes Low Thyroid or Hypothyroidism?

This is when your body...

At my family holiday gatherings, I always sign up to make a dessert. I have a sweet tooth and I want to be able to enjoy a treat that lacks processed sugar and dairy products.

White processed sugar has empty calories and there are many other sweeteners that contain minerals and vitamins that you can use. Some of my favorites are dates, honey, and maple syrup.

• Dates are loaded with potassium, even more than a banana! Dates also contain the micronutrients: manganese, B6, and magnesium. B6 is a libido boosting B-vitamin.  Magnesium is essential for helping bring calcium into the bones.
• Maple Syrup is rich in manganese and zinc. Grade B contains more minerals and has a richer maple flavor.
• Honey contains antioxidants and has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.

In addition to natural sweeteners, this recipe also contains healthy fats from coconut oil and cacao butter.

Cacao butter is the fat of the cacao bean (where chocolate comes from). The fat is separated...

Stress. Deadlines. Busy Schedule.

Our brains as women biologically function different than men. A man’s brain generally functions with more focus on one task at hand. Typically, the higher estrogen levels women have can make our brains look like computers with many tabs open, where we are able to jump from task to task, and work on several projects simultaneously. It gives us a unique ability to see the big picture and operate from many details, in knowing that everything is intrinsically connected. It’s why the men in our lives tell us to “get to the point” when we’re telling long drawn out stories, and our girlfriends hang onto every word. All that extra clutter of emotion and detail when telling a story can be quite confusing to our male friends, but our sister-friends catch every beat, waiting for it all to tie together.

But the catch 22 of our incredible female brains is the world we live in is set up in a patriarchal, masculine based model, where...