While it feels like the year 2008 literally flew by, and I certainly did not complete all the projects I had  planned, as I look back and reflect upon the events of the past 12 months, I am awed by the many changes and accomplishments that I’ve experienced in such a short time. Some of my 2008 experiences were very painful. Others were fulfilling and rewarding.

I spent an emotional afternoon on New Years Eve, one which, like many of the other events of 2008, reinforced to me the importance of my life’s mission.

As cancer and surgery touched my life quite intimately this year, I began to really appreciate both the gift of health and its fragile nature as well.

I watched helplessly as my younger sister Cathy was diagnosed with lymphoma, which took her life within 3 months.

I so wanted to guide her back to health, but my approach of diet and lifestyle change was so foreign to her and the medical approach felt so safe that she turned her care over to the hospital staff and closed herself off from alternatives. I felt angry and betrayed by their ignorance of basic nutritional science.

During my 8 day round the clock stay at Cathy’s bedside, I learned with horror how little the medical staff actually knows about restoring health. They are masters at the mechanics of repairing broken body parts, cutting out unwanted growths, and stitching things back together. But when it comes to rebuilding the broken immune system,balancing body chemistry to safeguard against disease and strengthening the body, mind and spirit, they are seriously lagging in technology.

My experience this afternoon brought me back to the frustration I felt at Cathy’s bedside. I spent the day at the bedside of a 15 year old boy, a good friend battling for his life against cancer. He’s had the surgery, chemo and radiation and his parents decided to take him home and build his immune system using alternative therapies, such as Qi Gong, energy healing and nutrition.

The family set up a hospital bed in the dining room and are providing round the clock care for their son. He’s on a feeding tube that goes directly into the small intestine, and he was prescribed a pre-packaged nutritional formula, the same one as my sister was prescribed. The ingredients confirm a complete lack of understanding of the digestive process and nutritional needs of a cancer patient. With such ingredients as corn syrup, canola and corn oils and soy and milk protein, all implicated in the causation of cancer, how can a cancer patient be expected to rebuild and repair?

My friend and I are brainstorming other options, like wheat grass juice, E3 Live and green juices, and we’reconsulting with an expert in the area of cancer nutrition, Dr. Thomas Lodi in Arizona. I am so inspired by the videos on his site.

I also suggested that they try the Healing Codes, an energy system developed by Dr. Alex Loyd and promoted by Dr. Ben Johnson, MD, NMD, DO. They have lots of testimonials from people who’ve been helped with cancers of various types.

While it’s nice to know that there are doctors who specialize in helping people with cancer to restore their health, like Dr’s Lodi, Loyd and Johnson, and many others, including Dr. Brian Clement at the Hippocrates Institute in Florida, I’d much rather see you prevent cancer in the first place. It’s easier to build your immune system and create a fortress to protect you from cancer than to treat it after it takes hold.

I for one am tired of seeing my close friends and family members becoming afflicted with cancer and other debilitating diseases. This year has been a challenge for me as I watched close friends and family members deal with lymphoma, sinus cancer, breast cancer, a brain tumor, depression, diabetes, lupus and substance abuse. Many of these and other serious health challenges can be prevented and reversed through dietary and lifestyle balance.

A diet high in greens and living foods is a great starting point, along with balancing body chemistry through  targeted nutritional supplementation, herbs and energy work.  It helps to get coached by a trained practitioner, knowledgable about the medical science, nutritional biochemistry and fresh, whole foods diet.

Adrenal fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, autoimmune disorders and cancer can all be prevented through diet and lifestyle, including exercise, positive attitude,  a gluten free diet, lots of greens and raw and living foods.

It’s estimated that more than one in three people will get cancer during their lives. Don’t wait to become a statistic. Stop disease before it starts. I’ll be posting a series of videos, audios and written materials over the next few weeks to help you bullet proof your immune system. They are part of my soon to be announced Stepping Stones to Vibrant Health Program.

Everyone who signs up for the Stepping Stones to Vibrant Health VIP notification list will receive access to these audio and video resources.

My next blog post will be my special list — Best of 2008 - resources to make 2009 your healthiest year ever.

Sign-up NOW to receive notices whenever I post a new article to my blog.

If you found this article useful and would like more articles on the management of disease through nutrition, especially fresh, living green foods, write a comment in the box below.  Let me know what topics are of most interest to you.  If you have any important cancer resources, let me know and I’ll include it in my resource list.

I wish you Love, Peace and Joy in the New Year .

Dr. Ritamarie

Soups, stews, casseroles, pizza, lasagna, hot cocoa, and warm breakfast cereal are popular winter foods. Along with piping hot, steamy bowls of soup, these foods warm your insides and comfort you through the cold short days and long winter nights.

Unfortunately, temperatures above 118 ° F Fahrenheit destroy the enzymes, vitamins and phytochemicals and denature the proteins, resulting in food that is less than nutritionally beneficial. Eating an abundance of fresh, raw plant based foods is best for your health, yet the thought of eating a cold salad or drinking a frosty smoothie on a cold winter day is not particularly appealing when you’re trying to keep warm. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to eat foods that heat up your insides and contain the maximum nutritional benefit of fresh, whole living foods?

A common misconception is that raw foods are, by design, cold foods. Actually, this is far from the truth. When winter rolls around, it’s easy to create delicious raw foods dishes that warm the body from a both a thermal and energetic perspective, balance your energy levels and combat tiredness.

Confused? Well, let me explain. In several traditional medicine practices, most notably, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, the concept of hot vs. cold plays an important role in food selection. Diseases, people, foods, and emotions can all be classified as hot, cold or somewhere in between. When you think about warm or hot, you probably think about temperature.

In Chinese medicine, every food is believed to have an effect on the body’s metabolic temperature, which is different from the body temperature that you measure with a thermometer. Metabolic temperature is the heat energy generated through all your organ systems from the food that you eat and that your digestive system burns.

Still confused? Let me give a few examples. Ginger and cayenne are energetically warm. Even if served as part of a cold dish, they have the ability to push the energy deep and push the blood up and out to the surface of the body, thus raising the metabolic temperature.

If you’d like to keep healthy throughout the winter, stay warm, enjoy increased energy and avoid winter exhaustion symptoms, and enjoy the benefits of a diet that is mostly or exclusively fresh living foods, read on for a variety of practical strategies for creating warming raw food meals.

Living foods can be heated to 110° F and still maintain their aliveness, so you can enjoy hot soup and maintain the life-giving properties of the foods in it at the same time. And, while 110°F may not seem very hot, compared to boiling temperature at 212°F, 110°F does, indeed, feel hot to the touch. Think about how a hot tub heated to 104 ° F feels if you have any doubt. Heated living foods should be eaten right away, because they’ll cool down a lot more quickly than foods cooked at high temperatures.

Seven Strategies for Staying Warm with Living Foods

Below is a summary of ways to enjoy living foods to warm your insides this winter. This is excerpted from an article called Staying Warm with Living Foods I wrote last year for Purely Delicious Magazine, which can be found on my Free Articles page. Skip the exhaustion and enjoy the pure energy of warm living foods.

1- Make creamy living foods soups and sauces by blending green vegetables, nuts and seeds. There are several heating options. You can heat them by starting with hot water (between 110 and 120 degrees). With a high speed blender like the Blendtec or Vitamix, you can start with room temperature water and blend for longer than usual until the soup feels hot to touch. Pour the hot soup or sauce over chopped or grated raw vegetables to make a warm and delicious soup or stew.

You can gently heat raw soups and stews in a saucepan on the stove, using a digital thermometer to monitor the temperature to be sure it does not go above 110° F, so you don’t destroy any of the nutrients. An electric skillet can be used to warm foods if set to warm. Elysa Markowitz, in her delightful book, Warming Up to Living Foods, recommends the Rival electric skillet because it can keep the food temperature at or below 105° F.

A coffee warming plate can be used to warm soups. This is the part of an electric coffee maker that keeps the coffee warm after it has been brewed.

2- Learn to make hearty raw dishes like stews, casseroles, pizza, calzones, enchiladas and lasagna and heat them in your Excalibur dehydrator. The shelves are large enough to fit a casserole or baking dish and as many shelves as necessary can be removed to accommodate the depth of the dish. I’ve made raw lasagna and taken it out of the dehydrator only to be accused by raw food friends of eating cooked food because it looked so much like cooked lasagna. Raw pizza right out of the dehydrator is very comforting and delicious. Get a good Living Foods Recipe Book for complete details on how to make these very satisfying, very nutritious foods.

3- Make or buy dehydrated crackers and breads created from ingredients such as sprouted nuts, seeds, and grains combined with vegetables and spices. These are very comforting and warming on cold days. They’re loaded with nutrients, leaving you energized rather than exhausted, as baked goods often do. There are lots of recipe books and websites that have delicious and easy to prepare recipes. Warm breads and crackers taste great right out of the dehydrator!

A convection oven or a digitally controlled oven that can be set as low as 100°F can be used to warm living food recipes like lasagna, pizza , stews, and casseroles. Convection ovens even have fans, which make them useful for food dehydration.

4- Internal fire can be generated by the judicious use of herbs and spices. Nothing gets the digestive fire going like a sprinkle of ginger or cayenne pepper! If physically warming your food is not an option due to time or equipment constraints, then the liberal use of warming spices can create internal warmth. The warming herbs and spices are: Basil, Chili peppers, Cinnamon, Clove, Dill, Fennel, Garlic, Nutmeg, Onion, Parsley, Rosemary, Vinegar and Wasabi.

5- The Chinese medicine approach to classifying foods as warming, neutral and cooling can be used to create raw winter meals. Since each food has an effect on the body’s metabolic temperature, we can choose warming foods in cold winter to soothe and nourish. Foods that take longer to grow are generally more warming than foods that grow quickly. Most of the root vegetables, including carrot, potato, onions, rutabaga, parsnip, burdock and garlic, fall into the warming foods category. Corn and most nuts and seeds are also warming.

Grains tend to be warming as well. Sprouted grains can be hearty and comforting cold weather foods. Many of the grains can be sprouted and made into dehydrated breads, crackers, pizza crusts and cereals. Sprouted buckwheat makes an excellent granola and crunchy breakfast cereal. Served with warm nutmilk, sprouted buckwheat makes a hearty, warming breakfast. Oats can be sprouted and eaten as a breakfast cereal. Topped with cinnamon and nutmilk, sprouted oat porridge makes a great breakfast in the winter. Be cautious about eating oats if you have gluten intolerance, as oats contain a small amount of gluten. Sprouted Quinoa can be made into an excellent tabouli, or warmed and turned into a creamy soup base or cereal.

6- Delicious, warming vegetable dishes can be made by a process I like to refer to as cold sautéing. Start with vegetables that fall into the warming foods category, such as cabbage, collard greens, cauliflower, mustard greens and watercress. Lightly salt vegetables with a whole, unrefined salt, such as Himalayan or Celtic and massage the greens to break down the cell walls and release the nutrients. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or longer. You can speed up the process by covering with a weighted plate or placing in a macrobiotic tool called a salad press. Massage again, and then add dressing of your choice.

The salting and massaging wilts the vegetables and makes them more digestible. Cooking also breaks down the cell walls, at the expense of destroying enzymes, vitamins and phytochemicals. Using this technique, you get the best of both the cooked and raw worlds. You release more of the nutrients than you would by simply eating raw, and you preserve the heat sensitive nutrients that cooking destroys.

One of my favorite dishes is curried vegetables, a very satisfying cold weather food. I use the cold sautéing process described above, make a curry sauce by blending nuts, seeds or coconut with water and curry seasonings, mix the vegetables with the sauce and dehydrate for 3-4 hours or until warm and soft. Broccoli with cheese sauce is another favorite. Broccoli is covered with a favorite nut or seed cheese sauce and dehydrated 4-6 hours. We never seem to be able to make enough of it to satisfy everyone’s appetite!

7. Warm beverages are very soothing and satisfying in the cold weather. Warm apple cider, a winter favorite, can be made by juicing apples, spicing with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and ginger and warming using any of the methods described above.

My kids love raw hot cacao. I simply make nut milk using warm water, add cacao powder plus a sweetener like dates, agave, or yacon, and blend until smooth and warm. We serve it in mugs and even the neighbors and cousins love it! Finally, hot herbal tea is very soothing. You can get premade tea bags or make your own herbal blends. Hot water with lemon juice and/or freshly grated ginger warms me up on a cold day. Last winter was so unusually cold that I had an almost constant desire for hot tea. I bought an automatic hot water pot, which quickly warms water. I use the warm water not only for tea, but for soup and nut milk bases.
By now, the dreary prospect of cold salad for dinner all winter should be faded and the vision of plates of warm and comforting, nutrient dense, vital, and delicious living foods meals should be filling your heads, like the sugarplums dancing in the heads of the children in the Night before Christmas poem.
Follow these guidelines and you’ll soon be on your way to a healthy and vibrant, high energy winter. Exhaustion symptoms become a thing of the past.

Enjoy your adventure into the wonderful world of warm and living foods!

Recipe Resources

The following books contain delicious recipes for warming living foods:

• Markowitz, Elysa. Warming Up to Living Foods

• Dr. Ritamarie’s Feast Your Way to Health e-book

• Frederic Patenaude’ s Raw Winter Recipe Guide

References:
• Haas, Elson M. Staying Healthy With the Seasons.
• Pitchford, Paul. Healing With Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition (3rd Edition)
• Cousens, Gabriel. Conscious Eating
• Sommers, Craig. Raw Foods Bible.

Post your questions and comments about this topic below. Share your favorite recipe with us!

I announced the “DrRitamarie ’sMini Green Cleanse” Tuesday morning and by evening over 120 people had signed up.  By this afternoon we had almost 150 participants.

I usually lead 7 day cleanses, but I’d been thinking about offering a 3 and 5 day option as well.  I think it gives people a good way to start out.

Next year, I’ll be offering a one month coaching program to guide you to give your diet a Green Lift.  It will guide gently through diet changes and have a 7 day green cleanse in the middle.  That way, you’ll be able to ease in and are less likely to experience the  uncomfortable cleansing reactions that are sometimes experienced by participants.

So just what is a Green Cleanse and what exactly are we cleansing?

I’ll post more on that later.  But now, I need to sign-off and get some sleep.

Oh, I almost forgot.  If you’d like more information on Green Smoothies, I have good news for you.  Victoria Boutenko, author of Green For Life,has  a very special offer on her book “Green For Life”

She  would like to see as many people benefit from green smoothies as possible so she’s offering her bestselling book Green for Life at a 5o% disc0unt from now till December 25th, 2008.

In addition, she will match every purchase of Green for Life  one to one with a book donation to Relay For Life, a charitable organization for cancer survivors.

By buying Green for Life for yourself and your loved ones you’ll also be providing copies of this book to cancer survivors.

It’s a great price:  Green for Life for only $7.59 a copy and for each copy you buy, a copy will be donated to a cancer survivor.  (expir@s 12/25/08)

Order Victoria Boutenko’s  fabulous book on Green Smoothies at

http://snipurl.com/greenforlife

For 24 hours there’s an interview with Victoria Boutenko and Kevin Gianni at

http://renegaderoundtable.com/victoria/index-main.php

Love and Health,

Dr. Ritamarie

For the past year, I’ve been doing group green smoothie cleanses every 2 months.  Cleansing and a simple living foods diet are great ways to combat adrenal fatigue and exhaustion, calm an irritable bowel, and overall reduce the stress on your body and increase your energy.  Adrenal fatigue is common at the end of the year, due to the stress of the holidays, increased processed food intake and overall sense of overwhelm.

I had decided to skip my December green cleans program because I figured everyone would be busy with holiday preparations and wouldn’t have the time.  As December progressed, I began to really want to do the cleanse. I guess I’m a creature of habit. Anyway, I got to thinking that perhaps a short cleanse would be a good idea.   I’ve been a bit exhausted myself, with all the work to do this time of year and lack of sleep.  So I decided to a mini green smoothie cleanse. I plan to start Tuesday night at dinner time and continue through Friday, December 19. Would you like to join me?

It will be fun! It’s also a great way to get ready for the holidays. There’s no charge. I’ll be sending you an email message each day, sharing recipes and motivating you to stick with it. I can do a brief check-in call on Wednesday evening if you have any questions or want some support. Basically you can either.

A- drink nothing but Green Smoothies for 3 days
B- drink a lot of green smoothies and also eat raw foods only
C- drink 1-2 or more smoothies each day and eat your regular diet the rest of the time.

Sign up for the free mini green cleansing program .

If you’re not sure what a green smoothie  cleanse is, read about it here http://www.greensmoothiecleanse.com

The 3 day mini Green Smoothie Cleansing Program is free, and so is the Drink Your Greens recipe book at www.drritamarie.com/green

The full green cleanse program is extremely helpful if you are showing signs of adrenal fatigue.  Since a lot of adrenal fatigue can be helped with a gluten free diet as well as a living and raw foods diet, the green smoothie cleansing program is a very helpful jump start on repairing the stressed adrenal glands.

I’d appreciate if you’d join me on this mini green smoothie cleanse. I need the support of the group to follow through on doing the cleanse. We’ll do the full cleanse again in January 2009. Actually I have a surprise planned for January which I’ll be announcing soon. Let’s just say that you’ll be able to get a longer green and living foods coaching program to start the new year off right.

And if you sign up for the full green cleanse program before the end of the year, you’ll get special treatment and pricing for the new program.

I plan to start the cleanse right away, on Tuesday evening, December 16. My dinner will be a green smoothie.

If you’d like to join me for the cleanse, go to

http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/contact.asp?id=122906

Let’s have fun with this, ok?

Love and health,

Dr. Ritamarie

In all the years I’ve been consulting with patients on achieving vibrant health and boundless energy, I’ve always been amazed at how many people who’ve been experiencing dramatic improvements in their health allow themselves to get off track around the holidays and backtrack on the progress they’ve made.

It breaks my heart to watch folks backslide after they’ve been steadily improving their health, approaching their ideal body weight, and

finally experiencing the energy to begin to really live their lives. Well, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way.

I know it’s really easy to get so caught up in the frenzy of holiday shopping, parties and family activities that all the healthy habits

you’ve spent months or years to establish fall by the wayside, with the promise of starting again after the holidays.

The problem is, starting again after the holidays is really hard to do when your waistline is bulging, your strength has diminished and you barely have the energy to get out of bed in the morning

.

But what if you could wake up on New Year’s Day feeling slim, strong and energetic, ready to work on your life’s true purpose? Take a moment to really appreciate how great that would feel.

The winter holiday season is supposed to be one of joy and sharing. Yet all too often, you find yourself getting overly stressed by the magnitude of the tasks at hand. Cards, shopping for and wrapping gifts, decorating and making food are all a part of the sometimes overwhelmingly long task list.

And then there’s the food. Unfortunately, the traditional holiday fare is not consistent with achieving the level of health you want and deserve. And the pressure from well-meaning friends and family to indulge in the old favorites can be overwhelming.

How would it feel if you could indulge in delicious foods and still stay healthy and fit? Sound impossible? Those who’ve taken my Indulge without the Bulge Class know otherwise because they’ve learned amazing recipes and the 7 secret strategies for thriving through the holiday season and indulge

without the bulge. Here are the secrets.

1. Set clear goals about how you want to look and feel on January 1. Write them down and read them every day, especially when you’re tempted to stray from your healthy diet and exercise plan.  I did a teleseminar about Goal Setting a few months ago.

2.  Keep Well Hydrated. Often when you’re thirsty, you perceive it as hunger. Start your day with at least a pint of filtered water. Drink a tall glass of water about 15 minutes before each meal to take the edge off your appetite.

3.  Start your day with a smoothie made from fresh whole fruit and add some leafy greens for extra vitamins, miner

als and phytonutrients.  There are several green smoothie recipes in my blog post at Green Smoothie Recipes

4.  Bring food with you whenever you go to parties, dinners and on shopping excursions and eat a healthy snack before you go to parties or out to dinner. Learn a few quick, easy and delicious living food recipes that are similar to traditional holiday favorite and easy enough to whip up in minutes.

5.  Breathe deeply several times a day to decrease your stress get the oxygen flowing, clear your busy mind and calm your nervous system. Your digestive tract is most efficient in the calm state.

6.  Simplify gift giving. The holiday season is supposed to be a time when we express love and appreciation to th

ose we care about, so avoid stressing out about buying the right gift. You can donate to a favorite charity, and give health related gifts like CDs, DVDs, equipment and healthy food. Or give gift certificates for a service you can do for a loved one, or a place you can take them.

7. Give yourself some wiggle room. If you strive for 100% and you fall short, it could trigger a defeatist attitude and cause you to stray even further. Instead, strive to stay on track 90% of the time and be kind to yourself if there are a few indulgences.

And don’t forget that exercise is vital to keeping you healthy at this time of year. Be sure to move your body, even if you only have time for 10 minutes a day.And treat yourself with dignity and respect.  Connect with those you love and show appreciation and love to them and to you.  Recognize the gift you are to the world and celebrate your greatness.
Love and Health,

Dr. Ritamarie

www.IndulgeWithoutBulge.com

The image of Santa Claus with his big belly stuffing himself with cookies and milk may somehow seem to make it ok to have just one more slice of pie. But really, is it worth it?

The time to start making 2009 your healthiest year ever is NOW.  But if you indulge in all the holiday cheer this month, by January 1, you’ll have a lot of catching up to do.

There is another choice.  You can decide that this year it’s going to be different, can’t you?

I’d love to help you arm yourself with the perfect tools so you can indulge without the bulge.  Enjoy delicious treats, celebrate joyfully at parties and family gatherings, and experience the energy and stamina to connect meaningfully with those you love.

Here are a few Fatigue Busting Resources for this Holiday Season:

1- Eating for Energy: Quick and Healthy Meal Preparation to Powerfully Fuel Your Body Is a free teleseminar, being offered this Thursday evening, december 11.   This teleclass will help you to avoid fatigue symptoms this holiday season.  http://www.drritamarie.com/energycall.htm

2-  *Magic in the Kitchen* is a live class on Sunday December 14 in Austin, Texas.  In this class, I’ll be morking my magic on fresh whole, living foods and creating delicious, energy enhancing meals, on the fly.  It’s easy enough that you cna do it too.   In addition to offering this class for half off my usual tuition, friends attend too at half of half price and I’m donating ten dollars for each full tuition and five dollars for each half tuition to a family in need this holiday season.  The class will be filmed, so even if you can’t come watch me work my magic and turn simple whole, fresh foods into decadently delicious meals, the DVD will be avaialble later.  There will be door prizes, a raffle and all kinds of fun activities to help you become more energetic, vibrant and healthy through the holidays and into the New Year.  http://www.DrRitamarie.com/HolidayClass2008.htm

4: Indulge Without the Bulge- Seven Secret Strategies for Thriving through the Holiday Season: DVD, booklet with recipes, and laminated reminder checklist:  http://www.IndulgeWithoutBulge.com

I look forward to connecting soon.

Love and Health

Dr. Ritamarie

Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
Phone: 512 3499677
Austin, Texas 78730

In Summary:
http://www.drritamarie.com/energycall.htm
http://www.DrRitamarie.com/HolidayClass2008.htm

I intend to put the recipe in the updated version, edition 2, of my e-book Feast Your Way to Health:  A complete guide to healthfully decadent recipes for holidays and special occasions. I wrote the book last year as a holiday book, and decided to expand it to cover all the holidays and celebrations throughout the year.  After all, it’s those celebration times that you may decide to abandon your healthy eating regime so you can indulge.

The book is chock full of recipes, mostly living foods recipes with the exception of a few very nutritious baked and steamed recipes that use all whole, nutritious, plant based ingredients.

Would you like the recipe?  Ok.  Since it’s gettting close to Christmas, I’m going to share it.

Dr. Ritamarie’s Decadently Delicious Brownies

• 1 cup raw almonds, soaked, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup raw hazelnuts, soaked, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup raw Brazil nuts, soaked, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups raisins
• 1 cup raw cacao powder (can substitute carob for all or part)
• 1 cup raw pecans, dry
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder (or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract)
• 5 drops pure essential oil of orange

Put all ingredients except pecans in food processor and run it until the mixture forms a stiff dough. Remove mixture from food processor and place in a large mixing bowl.  Pulse chop 1/2 cup pecans to a fine meal.  Fold pecan meal into dough and mix well.  Spread mixture onto Teflex sheet of a dehydrator and dehydrate at 110 degrees for about 8 hours.  Remove teflex and place brownie mixture on the mesh dehydrator tray.  To do this, I put the mesh and the tray on top of the brownie and flip then peel away the teflex.   Press whole pecans onto the top of the brownie, so that when it’s cut, each brownie has a pecan on top.  Cut into squares and dehydrate a few hours longer, until chewy and moist.

Optional extras:

I made these pure since they are for a fund raiser.  Often I will finely mince kale and carrots and fold into dough.  I’ve also put goji berries, hemp seeds and coconut in for variety.

These are pure heaven.

There are lots of other decadently healthy recipes in my Indulge Without the Bulge DVD. to keep you slim, trim and happy this holiday season.

Please comment below and let me know what you think of the recipe.

Love and Health,

Dr. Ritamarie

• http://www.FreshnFunLiving.com
• http://www.IndulgeWithoutBulge.com
• http://www.FreshnFunLiving.com/Thanksgiving

I love that we have a day that’s all about giving thanks.  Gratitude is an important part of my life.   I start each day by finding three things to appreciate before I even get out of bed in the morning.  If you’ve been in any of my coaching programs, you know that I emphasize giving gratitude as an important part of the healing process.   It’s a great way to start each day. Thanksgiving was just a few days ago.  Here are some of the things I appreciate .

• I appreciate the weather in Austin where I live.  I especially appreciated Austin last week, as I bundled up against the cold in Chicago, where I was visiting my in-laws.

• I’m thankful that I got sick when I was in my mid 20’s and started questioning the status quo medical advice.  That experience launched me into a mission to educate and empower as many people as I can to awaken the healer within and end needless suffering by making conscious dietary and lifestyle choices.

• I appreciate that I get to make a living doing what I love most…empowering people like you, who want to live life to its fullest, to access the amazing healer within,  and mentoring  other health practitioners and future health crusaders in deeply touching lives.

• I appreciate my husband, Scott and my kids Eric and Kevin.  Living with a crusader mom and wife isn’t always easy.

• I appreciate the amazing health and vitality I get to experience day after day, year after year, and the joy that brings to me and others around me.

• I appreciate the amazing fresh foods I get to eat every day and the fun I get to have in preparing them.

I could write pages and pages about what I appreciate, but I’ll stop there.

I extend a very special thanks to you for receiving my message and taking action towards achieving your health goals.  If you didn’t care about your health, you wouldn’t be reading this.  It’s obvious that health is a core value for you.  You may not be perfect in your actions.  No one is.  Regardless of where you are on your health path, I applaud you for even beginning the journey.  Billions of people worldwide are still clueless about how to get and stay healthy. Be sure to give thanks for all you have, especially the little things you may often take for granted, like hot running water and flush toilets, warm beds and fresh food.