On behalf of the woman I have yet to meet… (time sensitive)

In our interconnected web, there is one who deeply knows that it’s time to LOVE HERSELF happy, healthy, and true.

Today, I’m looking for her, for that one woman who is a YES to stepping into all of her feminine brilliance and showing up for herself like never before.

I feel that this woman is a nurse or business professional who is at one of her heaviest points in life, physically as well as emotionally. Her relationships have wounded her in ways injuring self esteem, self confidence, and self worth. She knows she’s survived some massive life situations and she’s to take her life to the next level… TODAY.

More details and progress reports on this as the day continues to unfold.

And, if this sounds like someone you know and love, call me right away at (715) 529-0405. I only have one private coaching client opening, and I deeply believe that some one incredibly ready to show up for herself will have snagged it by 6:30 p.m. CST.

Much love,
Sara Ann

P.S. Our transformational coaching work together can be done in person or over the phone. (Location is unrestricted.) What’s important is she’s ready to move forward in her health, happiness, relationships, and career, significantly. xoxo

March Against Monsanto: I am a stand for revolutionizing how humans around the world are nourished

Six months ago, to the day, I clocked out of my J-O-B for the final time and launched full-force into my work as a holistic health coach. If you would have told me then that in six months I’d have a thriving practice, dozens of clients and be front-and-center supporting a local protest… I would have believed you.

I wouldn’t have any idea how everything would come together to make that possible, but I’d believe it! So, here I am, celebrating six months in business the best way I know how – by walking my talk and taking a stand for revolutionizing how humans around the world are nourished.

Enjoy the speech! And here’s to the next six months!!! xoxo – SH

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“Hello to all my friends, families, and the independent, intelligent, and illuminating real food fighting people I have yet to meet.

My name is Sara Hefty. And I stand before you today to do my part to revolutionize how humans around the world are nourished.

I am a holistic health coach and grew up a farmer’s daughter. I was a two-time dairy princess and a pork ambassador. I worked on the family farm, I showed animals at the State Fair, and I promoted the Big Ag industry – milk mustache and all. My family’s been farming on the same land for 135 years. And I share all of that with you to tell you this: I’ve experienced first-hand the dangers of Monsanto.

A year and a half ago, my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer. His doctor attributes his cancer – and many of our neighboring farmers’ tumors – cancers – to the chemicals sprayed on the fields year after year. It’s been mentioned today that some farmers have committed suicide at the hands of Monsanto. And while my father did not commit suicide, what I can tell you is that after his diagnosis, he became a completely different person. And the man he is today is definitely not the same man who I grew up with – his cancer is managed, he is happy, and… he has changed.

So, those chemicals sprayed on the fields… they cause the pests’ stomachs and intestines to explode and the pests split in half. And then we feed those crops to our cattle, and we drink their milk and eat their meat. And then we wonder WHY we have so many digestive issues when we’re eating food sprayed with chemicals that rip open pests’ intestines.

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So I’m here today to empower you to get to know your food and where it comes from so you can eat real food. And I’m here to be a stand for every person in Eau Claire, every person in Wisconsin, every person in the United States and every person around the world having the absolute, inalienable right to real, nourishing food.

So let’s talk about food. Specifically, I’ve been asked to talk with you on staying away from corn derivatives, unfermented soy, artificial sweeteners, MSG and why. To bottom-line it, these things kill you. You should stay away from corn derivatives, unfermented soy, artificial sweeteners and MSG because the body doesn’t know what to do with them and sees them as toxic. And when your body is fighting something toxic, the body becomes inflamed.

Inflammation is the basis of chronic disease – like my Dad’s cancer, like diabetes and heart disease. Need I go on? This stuff kills. It’s been genetically modified and doesn’t make sense to your body’s chemistry. Your body does not know what to do with GMO other than get inflamed, put on weight, cause headaches, muscle pains and nerve disorders.

And just to be clear…  

• Corn derivatives are anything made from corn – from baby powder to shampoo to the zillions of ingredients that “may” contain corn.
• Unfermented soy – tofu, bean curd, all soy milks, soy infant formula, soy protein powder and soy meat alternatives (sausage, burgers)
• Artificial sweeteners – Splenda, Equal, Sweet & Low, NutriSweet, high fructose corn syrup
• MSG – monosodium glutamate – a form of concentrated salt to add flavor to food. Also know as autolyzed yeast, yeast extract, maltodextrin, hydrolyzed protein, sodium caseinate, mono-potassium glutamate and textured protein. Think spicy corn chips, ranch dressings, soups, sausages, hot dogs, BBQ meats, smoked meats, processed deli meats, sauces, powered packets like chili, gravy, taco seasoning, dips.

So these things – corn derivatives, unfermented soy, artificial sweeteners, MSG – are hideous.

They’re poison.

They’re in our food supply.

And we are here to change that. We are here to take back our food supply with the radical idea that our food – that everyone’s food – should be real, nourishing food.

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Empower yourself and know that you always have a choice. With every choice you choose death or you choose life. When it comes to our food supply, it is literally that dramatic.

In the words of Dr. Ann Wigmore, “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”

Here’s a chance to get a handle on your food choices – to take ownership of your food supply and ensure the inevitable success of every single person in Eau Claire, every single person in Wisconsin, every single person in the United States, and every single person around the world having the absolute, inalienable right to real, nourishing food.

I am a stand for revolutionizing how humans around the world are nourished. And I challenge you from this point forward and with 100% integrity and the highest respect for yourself and your legacy to choose life – every. single. time.

Thank you.”

– Sara Hefty, March Against Monsanto Speech, Eau Claire Community Gardens on Forest Street, May 25, 2013.

Lux Lesson #001: The Abandonment Legacies (and why I cooked twice in the past 15 years)

This is a story I was encouraged to share.

For myself or for you, I am not sure… Both, I imagine… I hope.

Let’s start at the beginning.

And this beginning is before my beginning.

It starts with my Dad’s first wife and daughter being killed in a car accident. My Dad has never said the words to me, but I believe that part of him felt abandoned by his first wife and daughter.

(And here’s where I forgive and let go of my anger towards Kathy and Jeannie for dying. I’ve been angry – without realizing I was angry – about this for so long that I haven’t ever even learned how to spell their names. Embarrassingly, that’s a true story.)

Several years after the accident Dad met my Mom in a bible study group at the Lutheran church in town. At the time (and in my humble opinion) my Mom looked very similar to my Dad’s first wife. Growing up, there were definitely times when I thought that my Mom was “the replacement wife”.

It was only recently that I became aware that the next logical step in that train of thought meant that I was “the replacement daughter”. (THAT was quite the moment. Thank you Access Consciousness.)

Growing up, I don’t ever recall consciously being aware of thinking about myself as “the replacement daughter”.

Although I did constantly try to earn love…

…which is another lesson for another time.

So, Mom and Dad met, and for the next three months generally spent time together with groups of people, were engaged and dated for two months, and then married.

A few years later and my maternal Grandma allows the family to know that she has cancer, a disease that many of her 12 siblings shared.

Three months later I was conceived.

When I was born, I was born with “baby pneumonia” and kept in the hospital for a week. My lungs were filled with fluid, and I didn’t cry when I was born. Often times when the parents are filled with sadness, the baby is born with pnemonia. As if the parents’ tears filled up the child’s lungs.

I know how “woo-woo” that may sound.

And yet… here my parents were…

… my Mom coping with her Mom being diagnosed with breast cancer, a fatal disease (at the time) and Grandma desperately wanting grandchildren…

… my Dad grieving the loss of his first family while existing with his second. (Grieving to the point that my middle name and my sister’s middle name come from his first wife’s grandma. That way my sister and I would always share a name – Ann. My Mom wanted to go with Jo in honor of her mother. And Mom did what comforted Dad, and went with Ann.)

There I was, Sara Ann Carlson. The apple of my Grandpa Hill’s eye and the absolute JOY of my Grandma Hill’s heart. I could do no wrong and I was spoiled with love. Don’t get me wrong, my Grandma and Grandpa Carlson loved me very much. And they already had quite the collection of grandkids. On the Hill side of the family, I was the first grandchild, the oldest. And Grandma Hill had cancer. The ladies at her church even put together a special “Grandma’s Shower” for her and I. I still have the baby shower cards.

Grandma Hill was a school cook. And I’m very proud to share that she was actively against school lunches being processed and packaged. Grandma Hill cooked and baked. It’s what she did. She taught my Mom to cook and bake. My Mom taught me how to bake. We never quite made it to cooking…

By the time I completed fifth grade, I had written a book for a class project titled, “Sisu, Strong-Willed One” in honor… in memory… in grieving of my Grandma Hill’s death. My Grandma was 100 percent Polish and my Grandpa Hill was 100 percent Finish. Sisu is a Finnish word, engrained in the Finnish culture that means strength of will, determination to succeed and perseverance against all odds. It’s tattooed on my left forearm in her handwriting.

What I’ve realized and learned since then is that I was angry at and filled with resent for my Grandma Hill dying. I felt abandoned by her. Who was she to not take care of herself, to not go to the doctor earlier, to hold onto her diagnosis for years before sharing the news and getting support and treatment?

She was a person who put other people’s happiness before her own. She was protecting her family from sadness. She didn’t want to be a “dark cloud” on her children’s weddings and family celebrations. She protected. She kept the news to herself. And I was angry at her for not taking care of herself – to the point that the family literally had to roll my Grandma up in a quilt and bring her to the hospital before she’d get help. I was angry at her for “abandoning” me and the family.

This pattern of anger and abandonment I can see again and again and again as I look back over the course of my life. Ad nauseam, truly. Friends, jobs, etc. This onion peels, layer after layer:

• Abandoned* when my Grandma died
• Abandoned* when my sister made friends.
• Abandoned* when my elementary/high school school friend preferred impressing boys.
• Abandoned* when my Mom let me go to school with white jeans and no instructions on how often to change the pad on the first day of my first period.
• Abandoned* when my first boyfriend chose a frat party with his older brother.
• Abandoned* when my closest post-high school friend became an alcoholic.
• Abandoned* when my maternal Uncle John died from cancer… also by hiding his illness and not taking care of himself until it was too late.
• Abandoned* when my work no longer lined up with my values.
• Abandoned* when I didn’t take care of myself and landed in the ER and told I may die because of how terribly I had hurt my gall bladder and pancreas.
• Abandoned* when my Dad gave thousands and thousands of dollars to feed his addictions and support another family.

(*Abandoned is what I perceived to have happened. It is not what ACTUALLY happened. It’s the meaning I gave to what happened. Does that make sense? And it’s not something I even recognized as going on behind the scenes for me until recently. I simply knew I wasn’t happy and that I had a really, really short and violent temper.)

Last fall I met with a therapist several times who offered up an intriguing diagnosis rooted in my Grandma’s death – PTSD. And I was surprised with the idea that I was under THAT kind of stress. I hadn’t killed anyone, I hadn’t been raped, I hadn’t been in a horrible accident. Post. traumatic. stress. disorder. I just kind of thought everyone lived like this and that I was just different in a way that kept me shy, reserved, and awkwardly desiring to please everyone around me so I could fit in and earn friendship, love, attention.

Let’s take a breath.

And BREATHE.

Since this fall, I’ve worked with my coaches, husband, friends and family,  and have forgiven the anger, the resentment, the abandonment. And it was a gut-wrenching process. It’s HARD to believe, to acknowledge that you’re angry with someone you love. It’s HARD to put the word “abandonment” on your own situation and claim it as your own. Yet, that IS what I felt. And I’ve finally been able to put names to those emotions.

My parents weren’t emotionally available. They didn’t have those tools in their toolkit. They did thee best they could with what they had. Emotions weren’t their strong suit. I grew up in a stoic home where we checked out of our emotions through working long hard hours and sinking into obsessions. And, later on in life we sank into our own addictions –  perfectionism, alcohol, drugs, sex, food.

Taking it a step further. I’ve forgiven my laundry list of abandonments. I’ve forgiven my Grandma for abandoning me and not taking care of herself, and understanding that her positive intention in doing things the way she did was to protect the family and keep everyone happy for as long as possible.

And what I’ve most recently noticed is the connection between abandonment and my kitchen. The kitchen was my Grandma’s space in the home. It was her kitchen. Organized, well-used, much-loved. It’s where she created meals and memories. And its as if being in the kitchen is too painful of a reminder of this abandonment. So the brilliant strategy I’ve been using to emotionally check-out has been to feed my hunger AND avoid letting myself feel abandoned AND continue the family pattern of not taking care of myself until it’s too late by choosing to find fast food, junk food, restaurant food. Bloody brilliant. I’ve already landed in the emergency room once and told I may die by this strategy working so hard behind the scenes for all these years.

You’re always winning at the game you’re playing. And I LOVE to be a winner.

So first, it’s been too painful to deal with real food and cooking because it reminded me of being abandoned. And second, I’ve been honoring my family’s legacy of not taking care of one’s self until it’s too late. Brilliantly, I’ve combined these aims into one solution: consume junk.

With this awareness comes a solution, a new strategy to try out.

And a few different things come to mind. First, I’ve been looking at going raw and vegan for quite some time. Seriously, have you SEEN the women who rock this life style? Google “Mimi Kirk”. PETA’s hottest woman over 50… and she’s in her seventies! And it lines up with my values, BIG TIME. And the food I had at Cafe Gratitude was AMAZING so I know it’s completely possible to eat tasty, nourishing food this way. To start this, I’m going to be walking myself through my 7 Step Slam Dunk Meal Planner… raw and vegan style. Which means, I’m starting with mastering the art of eating one fruit and one veggie daily and getting my snacks in order.

Week One Snacks:

• Wholly Guacamole and Beanitos
• Bananas with cinnamon (raw & vegan)
• Raspberry smoothie with coconut milk, ground golden flax seed, cinnamon, filtered water  (raw & vegan)
• Sugar snap peas  (raw & vegan)
• Dark chocolate 70% or more

Mastering One Fruit & One Veggie:

• Fruit: Raspberry smoothie or bananas with cinnamon, daily
• Veggie: Sugar snap peas, daily

With both the snacks and mastering the one fruit and one veggie, I’ll be kind to myself. Taking really good care of myself and nourishing my body is not the legacy that was passed down to me. Nourishing my body actually goes against how I was raised.

And to say “Thank you” to the way I was raised, recognizing that that way did an incredible job of getting me to where I am now, and thanking said way for all the work it’s done for me AND LETTING GO OF IT, is, to be honest, a bit sad. It’s like a piece of me is dying. Or a part of my past is dying. It’s like I’m going to a funeral for part of my past. It’s a piece that has served me well for years, and now it’s time to say goodbye to that piece. And goodbyes are HARD. And that’s okay.

And I’m enough “ME” now to say goodbye and move forward into my own truth of taking really good care of myself. Because, worst-case scenario, I know I can always go back to the old way.

Okay, back to taking really good care of myself… As part of this, I’m looking at the kitchen in a new light. What if instead of the kitchen being a reminder of abandonment, what happens when I approach the kitchen as a space to connect and deeply nourish myself and my loves? I wonder what happens then?

Part of this may even be making one of my Grandma Hill’s recipes on a special day like her birthday or anniversary. Maybe. Part of me feels like that’s too… sad? And this work is about constantly moving towards happiness. Happiness chooses love and life.

What is landing for me is getting our kitchen in order, and to start going through what we have and organizing and presenting it in a way that we love and is useful, as we’ve done more and more with the rest of our home. Just this morning I noticed how every other room in our home has had more design and attention paid to it than our kitchen. Our kitchen is literally black and white and organized in a way that makes next to no sense. Interesting awareness…

So, bottom line. Patterns run rampant. Legacies continue until their noticed. Strategies are brilliant. And I’m stepping deeper into my own truth, as the truest version of myself. Letting go of the past, leading with integrity, nourishing myself – mind and body.

Amen.

Now then, it’s time to be playful in the kitchen as a confident and happy woman!

 

 

 

Love, Feminine Brilliance: Lisa Fabrega

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“Cleanse all that is not love.
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  Purge all that is not true.
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  Release all that is not you.”
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– LISA FABREGA

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Wow! I love actionable inspiration!

Here’s that and a few of my kindest magic tricks – including The Star of Stretch and Support – from last Saturday’s Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions ALIVE podcast.

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Because it’s about your pursuit of health and happiness…

www.SaraHefty.com // The Lux Health Coaching

Wow – This was embarrassing…

Are you more of a Yes person or a Stress person? An Ownership person or a Blame person? A Communicator or an Angry-Assumption-Maker person?

For years, I have thought that I was a Yes person, an Ownership person, a Communicator but I recently got a dose of tough love and truth handed to me by the one who knows me best.

My husband and I were traveling to Minnesota on December 23rd for Christmas Celebration Number One (of three). He had made plans for us to go sledding with some good friends the afternoon of Christmas Eve. (Yes!)

Sledding plans, sounds amazing and completely sweet… BUT I didn’t want to be a part from my Mom on our only day with her even though we traditionally simply get-together for Christmas Eve night so…

I slapped his fun-filled invitation with a the wall of STRESS.

Apparently, I’ve been doing this a lot lately. He makes plans for us, and I’m just an angry whirlwind of STRESS.

And once I’m STRESSED, I blame, I start throwing out assumptions, and I shutdown trying to figure out how to please everyone.

Ugh. Do I really do that? Is that the kind of woman I want to be? Where else does this wall of STRESS show up and limit my opportunity to easily and pleasurably experience joy and happiness and create amazing memories with those I love most?

In the most forgiving way my husband showed me what I was doing.

What happened next stopped me cold… and it changed my life. I’ll reveal the whole story on next Saturday’s free uncensored call.

You’ll get direct access to me – for free! All you have to do is show up and raise your hand.

Just say YES.

Get free coaching with Sara

No selling.
No pitching.
Nothing to buy here.

Just radical honestly coming from a place of love and commitment to holding you accountable to your weight loss goals, New Year’s Resolutions, childhood dreams, and highest self. Think of it as a gift, of me paying the experience forward, and starting 2013 a little bit better than I left 2012.

I want to show you a way you can stop your old habits cold and choose to be surging forward.

All The Best To Your Health and Happiness,

 

 

P.S. With the end of the world out of the way, I think it’s time for there to be an overflowing abundance of inspiring, powerful, change-the-world, healthy and happy women in our generation. It’s time to look at your stuff and find where you stop yourself cold from living your feminine brilliance.

Join me for this accountability call.

Get free coaching with Sara

Know someone else who could use a love bomb of empowerment to say YES to the next big leap forward in health and happiness?

Please forward this email to other change-ready women you know.

I’ll see you on the first live call, Saturday, January 5th at 1:30 p.m. CST sharp.

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