It’s fun to look at where the image “visions of sugar plums danced in her head” came from. When the days turn dark, cold and damp as they do in the win­ter sea­son, a tra­di­tional way of stay­ing warm, happy and cel­e­brat­ing is to eat, drink and make merry. For many, this is an open invi­ta­tion to eat cook­ies, cakes and pies, dips and chips, drink too much wine, beer, eggnog, and Irish cof­fee, eat often and to excess, late into the evening. While this is fun, it arouses latent addic­tions to sugar, caf­feine, alco­hol, bread, creamy cheese, chips and other stan­dard party fare. The result can be a binge that lasts for days and weeks, adding unwanted pounds and depress­ing “morning-after” discomfort.

So what’s a party per­son to do to gain energy, main­tain or lose weight?  Here are some sim­ple suggestions…

1. Find friends and fam­ily to be with dur­ing the hol­i­days who are inspir­ing, active, and don’t need to over eat or drink to have a great time.

2. Shop up on organic, local, sea­sonal fresh fruits, veg­gies, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes, poul­try and pas­ture raised meats and dairy. Plan to increase your time in the kitchen mak­ing savory soups, sen­sa­tional sal­ads and cul­tur­ally sat­is­fy­ing main dishes. If you don’t cook, invite chefs over to your stocked kitchen to help with mak­ing the meal. Chefs love noth­ing bet­ter than cook­ing for a cap­tive audience.

3. Plan to have healthy din­ner par­ties wherein you and your friends get together at home to cre­ate amaz­ing, col­or­ful, fla­vor­ful, home cooked meals. This saves money and cre­ates a joy­ful energy in home, hearth and heart. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes peo­ple need some time to search your soul and heal your body… A respite from email, cell phones and war sto­ries. With the ever increas­ing demands of life and toxic ele­ments in the envi­ron­ment, a sea­sonal cleanse is a nat­ural way to give your cells a tune up.

A retreat pro­vides the time to recon­nect with one’s healthy self, let go of bad habits and reclaim a healthy diet and lifestyle. Seasonal fast­ing is a com­po­nent of a spir­i­tual prac­tice that helps you to shift the way you feel about your­self by let­ting go of unwanted habits, cre­at­ing wider access to direct spir­i­tual expe­ri­ence by being opti­mally nour­ished. Great care is taken to sta­bi­lize blood sugar and sup­port the liver, pan­creas, gut, kid­ney and adrenal sys­tems that are taxed from over-work and under-nutrition. Recipes and reme­dies are pro­vided so that a healthy diet and lifestyle will be con­tin­ued at home after the retreat.

We wel­come you to join us for the the August 6-12th Vitality Cleansing and Rejuvenation Retreat. Bauman retreats are held at Stillheart Institute in Woodside, a pris­tine, nat­ural set­ting where the air is fresh, the water pure, and the light clear.