VegVitality.com

Ask me what I am passionate about and I will give you a list of many things. They run the span of eating plant-based organic whole foods and living that lifestyle to hiking and camping. I love keeping healthy and living a healthy lifestyle. I exercise daily. I honor the mind/body/ spirit connection and try to keep sacred that balance. Recently I have had many people coming to me for support as they transition into a healthier lifestyle. It may be that many of my peers are now in their 40s and 50s and health is not taken for granted as much during this phase of life as in the past. It may be that all the discussion and happenings across the globe with our food supply have made people a bit more observant to their relationship with food and their bodies. Whatever the reason, it is wonderful to be in conversation with them about something I care so very much about.

I recently created an online Facebook group that celebrated the connection between our bodies and the messages it sends to us. What an amazing and inspiring group! We have learned so much about our bodies and how to attend to the messages being sent. I also have a group that is designed for support and discussion of a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle. Again, a wonderfully inspiring group of people who delight in meeting the needs of their bodies through a plant-based diet and healthy lifestyle.

Inspiration struck and I decided to take it further. I have created a website called VegVitality.com and I am offering its members weekly menus and recipes for vegan and vegetarian living. One of the beliefs of people who are unfamiliar with this lifestyle is that all a vegan eats is brown rice and steamed broccoli. Nothing could be further from the truth! I love to cook and over the years have created an abundance of delicious and creative recipes that are easy to make and welcoming to all palates.

Guest who have eaten at my home have said, “If this is what vegan food tastes like and I can make these dishes, then I can be a vegan!” So I took it on. VegVitality.com will also offer the latest news and information about organics, healthy lifestyles, celebrities who are vegan, media and book reviews and a weekly blog post as well. It will be a one-stop site for your vegan needs! Membership will also have the most fun and often necessary ingredient: support and friendly sharing through a private online group.

If you have considered trying a plant based diet, if you would like to see how easy and delicious it can be, if you want to improve your health in a honoring way, if you have someone in your life who would love this as a gift…a monthly membership is only $8. I purposefully kept it very affordable so that anyone can make the commitment. And remember you get 5 dinner recipes, 3 lunch recipes, 2 breakfast and 2 dessert/snack recipes EACH week plus everything mentioned above!

Stop by for a visit at www.VegVitality.com and take a look, maybe this will be a great fit for you as well and a new passion will be introduced into your life!

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Mindless Behavior

As the busy-ness of the holiday season sets in, many find themselves moving through the day with mindless behavior. Holiday parties present edibles and beverages that we mindlessly indulge in without much thought, other than, what the heck…it is the holidays! For others mindless purchases are made because of the temptation of a sale that is just too good to pass up. Neither of these are horrible things that need anything more than some intentional awareness as we make these choices. It is important to allow the occasional splurge in our life, to celebrate without remorse and to have a few delights as long as we keep our balance. But what of the other mindless behavior that can occur. Often these holiday parties and gatherings bring opportunities for idle gossip and story sharing. This is when intention is most important. Words have very specific energies and we need to realize that what we say and what we share has repercussions whether we witness them or not. And there is that old saying your mother promoted of if you have nothing good to say about someone…say nothing at all! I have had to remove myself from conversations or speak up to end the negative talk that is happening. I figure if I would be uncomfortable standing next to the person about whom the gossip is being shared about then it is a done deal! Easy as that!

Other mindless behavior that often occurs at the time of the year is negative self-talk and comparison. We allow those old broken records of undesirable comments about what we are or are not to play through our thoughts. We give them power to control our actions and our energies. We allow them to weigh us down.

What other mindless behavior creeps into your days during the holidays? How can you create good boundaries and set limits? What new perspective can you bring to the holiday season this year and set a new practice into motion? Create positive change for yourself and watch it ripple out into the festivities for the end of this year the start of the new! What a beautiful gift to bring to your day!

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Not Just A Dream

Do you dare to dream a big dream for yourself? Are you willing to live large, to take risks, to shine brightly? The only way you can truly get what you want in life is to do these things. Sitting idly by and talking about what you want, but not doing anything to move forward to reach it…well, we all know how that unfolds, don’t we? When I look back on my life and think of all the times I said I wanted this or that to be in my life, the times that these “things” manifested is when I brought myself fully into the equation of creating, when I was fully present, when I was intention filled and willing to explore ALL the possibilities!

We have the capacity to be so, so much more of our most brilliant self on our best day more often than we think we can! In fact we can be in that capacity most of the time. It means tending to our needs though and creating space for this in our life. Tending to our needs? If we do not honor our bodies and our health…what good can we be if we need endurance, strength, and sharp focus. If we do not provide care for our souls…what happens to our pain and our feelings of loss? We bring it to our day’s unfolding energies and we drain the resources we need trying to stay afloat. If we do not nourish our connection to source and live by the principles we believe in…we send our hearts mixed messages of inauthenticity and we doubt ourselves. If we do not live in the present…we miss the gifts and the abundance that the Universe holds out to us, we miss our opportunities to grow or to share and we miss the wonders that fuel us and keep us committed to our desires and our longings.

Dare yourself to BE! Dare yourself to live the life that is intended for you. To be a part of the unfolding of peace, healing, joy, and beauty of this lifetime you need to show up! When you make this change in your life, everything else will begin to change. You will begin to create the life you want. It won’t just be a dream!

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Words

A beautiful little poem crossed my path today and I used it for my morning reflection: WORDS. So powerful. They can crush a heart, or heal it. They can shame a soul, or liberate it. They can shatter dreams, or energize them. They can obstruct connection, or invite it. They can create defenses, or melt them. We have to use words wisely. ~ Jeff Brown

It is so true isn’t it? Think of the way your heart expands and your soul resonates when someone shares kind words with you, words of appreciation or love, words of acceptance and grace, our body embraces the energy with peace and warmth and we radiate as we walk away with the words echoing in our thoughts.

But we all have also been the unfortunate victim of harsh and unkind words, words that act like curses, words that sting and cause horrible pain, words that emphasize negative patterns and create harmful thoughts. Our souls shrink, our hearts ache, our body’s drawn inward and feel the need to protect and conserve as our inner light dims from the pain.

These are the extremes of our words, but what about the more simple utterances that are spoken in the everyday conversations about the mail, or homework, chores, request of assistance from a co-worker, ordering our lunch and more. How can we add a vibrancy to those simple words? How can we soften any criticism so that it is positive and not harmful? How can we show appreciation without turning it into a Hallmark moment, but maintain genuine gratitude? How do we become mindful of this and intentionally choose to use our words wisely?

I am specifically carrying this in my heart today as weave my way through my day. I will cross many paths, I will meet up with many strangers, I will share exchanges with family and friends and I will be selective in my words. I will also be observant to the energy created in this specific act. It feels like a sacred act as it is holding intention of grace and beauty, compassion and acceptance, peace and consideration. May it ripple and ripple and ripple out into other’s wise words.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade