Blessings, Sisterhood Tribe. Many of you followed my journey on Facebook and Instagram out to the Oregon Eclipse Festival where I taught “Modern Goddess Cooking for Hormone Balance” with Nourishment Lab, the live cooking school.  

I spoke alongside other traveling chefs, cooking school teachers from the Living Light Culinary Institute in Ft. Bragg, and company owners of superfood products.

It was such a treasure of an experience, to be able to share the wisdom of the menstrual cycle, menopause or “moonpause” (as I like to call it) tips, and information on adaptogenic womb herbs.

This video captures the first half of my workshop, on hormone balance and the cycles of womanhood. I am blessed to be able to share it with you! (Hope you don’t mind the loudness of the blender at times… I was teaching next to a smoothie bar. Nourishment Lab was preparing delicious Durian shakes while I presented!)

My next live cooking class will be at The Playful Soul in Indianapolis, October 3rd. If you a...

mmmmm, this bread took many batches to get it to the right consistency of thickness plus moistness and I am finally ready to share it with you!

Low in sugar, full of protein and completely gluten-free and dairy-free, this bread is an excellent on-the-go breakfast or snack to nourish your goddess-temple! I eat it plain or will spread ghee or coconut oil on top.

Part of my hormonal health protocol I use and share with my clients is eliminating food sensitivities. Gluten, the protein in wheat flour, kamut, barley, bread, crackers, etc. causes digestion issues and food sensitivity symptoms for many so women with hormonal imbalances. When the gut is compromised, absorption of nutrients isn’t feasible and nutritional deficiencies can lead to improper hormone balance.

Do you experience constant intestinal bloating, tightness, or gas?

Even doctors are running tests when intestinal discomfort is present and diagnosing their clients with gluten sensitivities or even celiac disease. There is ...

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 fertilization.

Both Vita...

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 intimacy. Dopamine increases blood flow which can result in more blood flow to
...

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, may feel… icky.

The overwhelming aspects of this current human...

When it comes to hormone health, skipping breakfast may exacerbate hormonal issues. Conditions like Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), where there are small cysts in a pearl like string on your ovaries, are greatly impacted by blood sugar.

Skipping breakfast in the morning or having coffee for breakfast can spike cortisol levels and insulin. With PCOS, there are typically excess androgens, like testosterone. Excess testosterone can give you unwanted rogue hairs on areas of the body like the face, breasts, belly, and upper lip and affect fertility. PCOS can make if difficult to lose weight, because of the high insulin levels. And high insulin can increase carbohydrate cravings, leading you to gravitate towards the pastries and sweets later in the day.

It is especially important to eat breakfast if you have blood sugar sensitivities or if you are under a lot of stress. 

Your hormonal success breakfast equation is:

healthy fat + clean protein +  fiber

These three categories in your...

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, meaning this cake is “unbaked.” ...

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, it’s common ...

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 human body, The more healthy bacteria (the probioti...

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 embodying that quality in our interactions, often our partner or friend will mirro...