June Conscious box - Gluten Free

June Conscious Box 2014 - Gluten-Free

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Organyc Cotton Pads

SPORTea®

Super Eats Kale + Chia Chips: Ranch

Bach Rescue Pearls

Bare Fruit Apple Chips: Granny Smith

Bolt Tape

MRM Elite Performance Protein Powder: Chocolate

Equal Exchange Milk Chocolate Crisp

Equal Exchange Dark Chocolate with Almonds

Xlear Saline Nasal Spray

Kale Salad & Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties

Meal recipes:

1. Sweet Potato Quinoa Cakes
2. Raw Kale salad  
3. Avocado-Lemon Dressing
4. Sweet Ginger/Carrot Dressing

 

Sweet Potato Quinoa Cakes 

Ingredients

• 3 large sweet potatoes (skins discarded)
• 2 cups quinoa
• 1 large red onion, finely minced
• 1 tomato 
• a couple handfuls of fresh spinach
• shredded and drained zucchini
• 1 egg
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• Himalayan salt to taste
• 1 green chili pepper, minced
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. jeera (cumin seeds, freshly ground)
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds (freshly ground)
• olive oil (or Ghee)

Directions
Peal, chop into small pieces, and boil sweet potatoes until soft enough to mash. Cook quinoa to a nice firm texture. Use slightly less than twice as much water to quinoa seeds, and boil covered until all water is gone (usually around 12 minutes).

Heat 1 tsp of ghee and add in the jeera, black mustard seeds, cumin powder, garlic and green chili. Add in the finely chopped onion and stir in for several minutes. Then add the tomato and keep string until the tomato starts to fall apart. 
Place prepared sweet potatoes in a large bowl and mash potatoes. Stir in quinoa, and onion mix thoroughly combine ingredients.

I had some frozen shredded zucchini from my garden, so I thawed that and drained it well. I then heated it on the stove with a little bit of ghee, small amount of crushed jeera seeds and black mustard sees to slightly flavor it. After it softened up and slightly cooked I added it to the sweet potato mix, along with one stirred up egg, and blended very well. 

Shaping quinoa mixture into palm-sized patties as you add it to the stove. Heat up some oil on pan and saute on each side until it starts to brown. Flip once one twice, until desired look.

Top with home made ginger dressing, and/or Avocado-Lemon Dressing. For extra spice drizzle add some Sriracha on top as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raw Kale salad 

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of Kale
• 2 avocados
• 2 small organic tomatoes
• ½ an organic cucumber
• ½ organic lemon
• ½ Sweet Red Bell Pepper (add yellow, orange and as much as you want)
• Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 -1/2 tsp of Himalayan salt 
• 1 1/2 cups Quinoa 
• Sweet Ginger sauce (recipe below)

Directions

• Cook quinoa (add slightly less than double the amount of water to quinoa. Boil on stove until water is gone (roughly 12 minutes). Once it gets to a boil turn to a medium high and cover. 
• Wash veggies and your hands well
• Chop up all ingredients into pretty small pieces. No need to chop up the avocado.
• Very finely chop up all the kale. Then put chopped up kale in large bowl
• Pour in juice from lemon, Himalayan salt and drizzle with olive oil
• Massage kale until nice and soft (with your hands)
• Then add in avocado and squish in (avocado, lemon and olive oil are all great for your skin! So dig in there)
• Throw in the rest of the veggie ingredients and mix up.
• If you didn't cook the quinoa in advance (I like to do it the day before and refrigerate it) let it cool by leaving it uncovered for awhile then put in the fridge until completely cooled. Once cooled add in several generous table spoons of the sweet ginger sauce until it's sweet to the taste. Then mix into the kale salad.
• Your kale salad is ready to eat:)

 also posted here: http://anitashealthblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/raw-kale-salad.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Avocado-Lemon Dressing (gluten-free and vegan)

Ingredients

• 1 avocado, peel and pit removed
• 1 Tbsp. of sesame tahini
• small bunch of cilantro, minced
• juice of 1/2 lime or lemon

Directions
Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and pulse until smooth

Also posted here: http://anitashealthblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/sweet-potato-quinoa-cakes-with-avocado.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweet Ginger/Carrot Dressing (gluten-free and vegan)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup peanut oil (or olive oil if you don't want the nutty flavor)
• 1/3 cup minced onion
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce (I use Ojio organic soy sauce alternative- from coconuts)
• 2 teaspoons of organic ketchup
• 2 teaspoons coconut palm sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
• sprinkle of ground black pepper
• 1 stalk minced celery
• around 10 baby carrots

Directions

Throw everything in a high speed blender and blend until smooth. Let sit in fridge for a few hours to let flavors blend (but can be used immediately too).

Serve on any number of dishes as a dressing or added sauce. 

Also posted here: http://anitashealthblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/ginger-salad-dressing-gluten-free.html  

Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties (gluten-free)

Ingredients

• 3 large sweet potatoes (skins discarded)
• 2 cups quinoa
• 1 large red onion, finely minced
• 1 tomato 
• a couple handfuls of fresh spinach
• shredded and drained zucchini
• 1 egg
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• Himalayan salt to taste
• 1 green chili pepper, minced
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. jeera (cumin seeds, freshly ground)
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds (freshly ground)
• olive oil (or Ghee)

Directions
Peal, chop into small pieces, and boil sweet potatoes until soft enough to mash. Cook quinoa to a nice firm texture. Use slightly less than twice as much water to quinoa seeds, and boil covered until all water is gone (usually around 12 minutes).

Heat 1 tsp of ghee and add in the jeera, black mustard seeds, cumin powder, garlic and green chili. Add in the finely chopped onion and stir in for several minutes. Then add the tomato and keep string until the tomato starts to fall apart. 
Place prepared sweet potatoes in a large bowl and mash potatoes. Stir in quinoa, and onion mix thoroughly combine ingredients.

I had some frozen shredded zucchini from my garden, so I thawed that and drained it well. I then heated it on the stove with a little bit of ghee, small amount of crushed jeera seeds and black mustard sees to slightly flavor it. After it softened up and slightly cooked I added it to the sweet potato mix, along with one stirred up egg, and blended very well. 

Shaping quinoa mixture into palm-sized patties as you add it to the stove. Heat up some oil on pan and saute on each side until it starts to brown. Flip once one twice, until desired look.

Top with home made ginger dressing, and/or Avocado-Lemon Dressing. For extra spice drizzle add some Sriracha on top as well.

 All ingredients prepared and mixed in...ready to cook the patties on the stove

Cook on each side for a few minutes

Patty is cooked, nice and neatly round, and ready to be dressed

 Topped with my home made sweet ginger dressing...very moist in the middle. 

Deluxe patty, topped with ginger dressing and Sriracha sauce for an extra kick...not conventionally round, as I flipped it over a few times to brown it slightly more...heavently! Super moist in the middle and full of flavor and texture.  

 Or enjoy on a soft pita bread for a fuller meal!

5 Telltale Signs You're Settling For Less In Life & Love

By Dr. F. Emelia Sam
When your current position doesn’t match up with where you want to be, you have two choices. One is to make the decision to pursue the dream and the other is to pretend it doesn’t matter and attempt to ignore it. 

In the names of responsibility and sacrifice, we often neglect our deepest desires. This differs from putting aside frivolous wants. Settling is about abandoning the most authentic expression of who you are. Here are five telltale signs that you may be settling for less than you deserve. 

1. You are constantly drained.
People often think of settling as being able to check out and coast along. However, if you check in with your internal barometer, you’ll find otherwise. Engaging in activity that is misaligned with your purpose is ultimately exhausting — physically and/or mentally. Only when you are in flow is your energy replenished. 

2. You make dangerous compromises.
This is especially true when it comes to relationships. We say we want one thing and end up with the opposite. When dealing with another person, of course, accommodations are made. However, make sure you compromise on preferences and not on values. Settling will result in you not being able to recognize yourself because you will have violated your core. 

3. You feel stuck, or restless.
The funny thing about settling is that you don’t necessarily feel settled. There is a feeling of nothingness, even though you often try to count your blessings to convince yourself otherwise. Being grateful for what you do have is a great practice but it cannot erase the emptiness of purpose that is unmet. 

4. You are secretly envious.
The success of others may be a serious irritant. Even if you outwardly offer congratulations, you may be secretly seething inside. Settlers can never be completely happy for someone who is bold enough to live out their dreams. 

5. You rationalize playing small.
Settlers are brilliant rationalizers. Excuses are often made for why the road not traveled wasn’t all that appealing. There are a multitude of reasons for why things didn’t turn out and, “I was scared to try” is never one of them. You may also try to minimize the great turnout of someone who did venture in that direction. It’s not always about living a grand life. It is about living the fullness of what life has to offer you. 

Understand that leaving behind your soul’s desires is never without consequence. Settling may masquerade as practicality, but nothing is worth the prolonged erosion of your truest self. Remember, you wouldn’t have the longing if you didn’t have the capacity to see it through.

How I Healed My Body & Lost 60 Pounds Along The Way

By Katrina Love Senn
Do you ever find yourself craving foods that you don’t want to eat? Do you ever feel guilty after eating food you wished you hadn't? Do you find yourself in a constant struggle with your fluctuating weight and self esteem? 

If you said yes to any of the questions above, there is one thing I want you to know: you can change your life for the better. 

Why do I know this to be true? 

Well, I spent most of my teenage years secretly tormented by my relationship with food, my excess weight and my ever-dwindling self confidence. Just days before turning 20, I was 60 pounds overweight and was suffering from a host of chronic ailments including eczema, asthma and adrenal exhaustion. It was at the precise moment that my body completely broke down, leaving me bedridden for months. 

When my doctors offered me experimental medication, I just knew that there had to be another way. Despite not really knowing which way to turn, I was intuitively guided towards the path of healing. Over the course of the following two years, I consulted with healers and naturopaths, as well as many alternative books before uncovering the path that was right for me.
 
Not only did I heal all of my chronic conditions, I also managed to lose 60 pounds naturally and have kept it off for over 15 years now.
 
In this article I share three healing thoughts to inspire you along your own weight loss journey. 

1. Allow food to nourish you.
Let me be frank. Food addictions are one of the most challenging addictions to overcome. Unlike addictions to drugs, alcohol, smoking and sex, where at times, under medical supervision, addicts can go cold turkey or participate in a program to wean themselves off of the substance over time to break the cycle of addiction, food addictions necessitate a completely different approach.
To break free of a food addiction, you need to transform your relationship with food. Allow yourself to see food as a source of nourishment rather than something you need to fight or struggle against. Using deprivation or restriction will only strengthen your addiction and is one of the big reasons most diets fail. 

Treat your body with love and kindness. Give it what it needs so that you can create strength, flexibility and wellness. If you really want to lose your excess weight for good, let food be a source of vitality in your life. Let it fuel and energize you. 
 
You don't need to radically change your diet overnight, either. All you need to do is keep taking baby steps towards improving your nutritional intake. The key here is progress not perfection.
 
2. Listen to your body.
If you are like most people, you're probably prone to being hard on your body, even when you know that you shouldn’t. I spent many years overburdening my own body until it finally broke down.
There are countless ways that people but excess strain on their bodies including working too hard, sleeping too little and overeating, drinking too much and exercising too much or too little. 

As an alternative to over-extending yourself, give yourself permission to work within your natural limits. Start to listen to your body so that you can give it what it really wants. 

The body has its own secret language and will tell you exactly what it needs if you create enough space to listen to it. A great way to begin attuning to your body is by gently reducing your intake of stimulants such as caffeine, sugar and television. 

Reducing your intake of stimulants has the added benefit of creating space in your life for things that truly nurture your body like gentle stretching, yoga and breath work. 

All of these factors contribute to building a deeper awareness and will help you to feel more at home in your body. When you do this, you will find that you naturally move in the direction of balance without pushing or straining. 

3. Do the things that make you happy.
Doing what makes you happy is one of the most important keys to healing. To cope with our complex modern world, most people end up living the life that other people want them to lead rather than pursuing their own dreams. 
 
When you push yourself to do things you don't want to do, you work against your natural self and create unnecessary mental, emotional and physical stress. This stress, if left unaddressed, can become chronic and result in many different forms of illness as well as weight gain. 

A number of years ago I felt stuck in a career that didn't make me happy. I had graduated from college with an honors degree in marketing so I thought that it made sense to begin working professionally in the field. 

It didn't take me long to figure out that not only did I not like working in a corporate environment, but I wasn't particularly good at it either. After a number of unsuccessful work experiences, it became obvious that I needed to do something different in order to reduce my stress levels and regain my natural happiness. 

I quit my job, went to art school and life has been an amazing adventure ever since.
When you do the things that make you happy, you create an environment for a healthier life. This will not only help you on your weight loss healing journey, it will also help you to become a happier and more balanced person in the process. 

If you'd like to learn more about healing your body, mind and emotions, download a free chapter of my book, Losing Weight is a Healing Journey, here. Good luck!

Garden update 6/21/14

 6/21/14 - Today's harvest lots of lettuce!

  6/21/14 - Looks like this row cover didn't quite survive the recent storms

  6/21/14 - Giant Fordhook Swiss Chard

  6/21/14 - Lettuce

  6/21/14 - Spinach coming in slowly

  6/21/14 - Tomato plants

  6/21/14 - Chocolate habanero peppers coming in!

  6/21/14 - Cucumbers coming in...teeny baby ones at the moment

  6/21/14 - Black Beauty Zucchini starting to grow

  6/21/14 - Black Beauty Zucchini...on both plants

  6/21/14 - Cucumber plants with lettuce and marigold flowers in front on them

  6/21/14 - Lettuces...well harvested but plenty yet!

 6/21/14 - This plump little unattractive guy hanging out in my lettuce

A 2-Minute Exercise That Will Change Your Life

 By   Dr. Aviva Romm

Did you know that you can visualize your way to health? Even success?
I know that may sound woo-woo, but hang on. 

For sure, getting the health you want requires making conscientious choices—but once you know how, that stuff becomes second nature and doesn’t feel like work. It just becomes a way of life. 

Too often though, women don’t even get started, or they quit before they’ve gotten very far, because they don’t believe that they can have the body or health they desire.
Here are some of the common statements I hear when patients first come to me:

• I’m so fat. I can never stick to a diet.
• I just don’t have the time to exercise.
  
• My mom and grandmother were overweight, so even if I wanted to lose weight, I doubt that I could.

Sound familiar? 

These defeatist thoughts are uber-common and set us up to fail. The trickiest part of changing health is changing our beliefs. But once we do, the changes we make last forever. 

Make SHIfT happen: Visualize success!
 
Most of us were taught that health was either something we had or didn’t have—maybe it’s just in our genes, for example—and we certainly weren’t taught it's something we can control! We tend to think negatively about our bodies and our ability to make shift happen. We hand our health over to experts. We focus on the obstacles. And we get STUCK. Because what happens in our mind has a tremendous influence over what happens in our body!
But have you ever considered that there is another way to think about—and create—health? 

Athletes do this all the time: they visualize their success down to the specific details of their moves on the court or field, to hearing their team’s song on the victor’s stand.

• Bjorn Borg, the 1970s world champion tennis player talked about mastering the perfect serve by visualizing it happening before he even tossed the ball into the air.

• Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was thought to be so successful because he emphasized his mental agility over his substantial physical prowess, using affirmations, visualization, mental rehearsal, and self-confirmation.

• Jack Nicklaus, world champion golfer, said, “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head.”

And it’s not just the big boys who've got this mastered!

• Mary Lou Retton, the first American to win the all-around gold medal in the Olympic Games said in an interview with Time Magazine that on the night before the finals in women's gymnastics, she lay in bed mentally rehearsing her performance.

• Gabby Douglas, another Olympic Gold-winning gymnast, also used this tool. “I visualized the floor set I wanted to do, and then I went out and hit the best floor routine of my life. It proved to me just how powerful my mind can be.”

 
The Secret Sauce: See your body and health goals as a fait accompli.
Getting healthy requires that that we believe in ourselves, get our beliefs unstuck, and create new thought patterns that lead to sustainable practices. We do this by visualizing our success, just like world-class athletes. 

Here’s what I teach my patients: Getting healthy requires us to actually see ourselves as healthy (or fit or slimmer or sleeping better or fill-in-the-blank) before we even get there. We have to think ourselves well! It’s a form of emotional fitness and mental retraining. So, for example, if your goal is to lose weight for a wedding this summer, here's what you'd do:

• Imagine yourself feeling fit and sexy, wearing that perfect-sized peach silk dress, your Michelle Obama “guns” ablazing, to your BFFs upcoming summer wedding—before you even start to change your eating habits.

• Visualize taking that dream trip of yours, completely headache-free, because you made the lifestyle changes necessary to free yourself up from those nasty stressors that were triggering them, you started drinking more water, and getting more sleep.

• Revel in the image of standing on top of that mountain with your arms in the air in a victory dance because you had the energy to make that climb—because you got your blood sugar balanced, lost 20 pounds, and started a great exercise plan with a fantastic trainer.

• Imagine that your period practically sneaked up on you because it was so PMS-less and cramp-free that you didn’t even notice it coming because you quit drinking so much coffee and added green veggies and flax seeds to your daily diet!

If you believe you can get to your health goals, you're more likely to do the things that get you healthy, such as making quality food choices, getting regular exercise, going to sleep at a healthy hour, surrounding yourself with people who make you happy, even changing to a healthier job environment that doesn’t give you headaches! 

Ok, maybe right now you don’t. Because you’ve been practicing the other way of thinking your whole life. It’s all you were ever taught. But I am here to tell you that I believe in you. Because I see women turn it around all the time.
It takes practice and determination to go at it over and over until the new skill is second nature. Sure, there will be some times that you don’t stick the landing. But you just get out there and try again. 

Visualizing Your Goal…and Making It STICK
 
The first time you do this, give yourself up to 20 minutes to really play with the dream you want to create. After that, you can do this practice in two minutes max each day and get a lifetime of benefit! 

Here are the steps to translate your goals into real and lasting health success:
 
1. Find a quiet, comfortable place to relax for 20 minutes. Have a notebook and pen in hand, or your fave electronic writing device. Make sure you’ve blocked out all distractions—cell phone, kids, partner, e-mail. You want to focus.
2. Close your eyes and take four deep breaths—inhale deeply, exhale deeply.
3. Now identify the goal you want to create. Get really detailed and specific about it—imagine the sensation you feel having accomplished your goal, imagine your surroundings. Think about what you're wearing, what you see, what you smell, how your friends and loved ones respond to the changes you’ve made. Imagine that it’s already happening.
4. Imagine that you're incredibly proud of yourself. You are positively glowing!
5. Capture this image in your mind’s eye. (Write it all down, too, so you don’t forget!)
6. End your session with a personal “huddle.”
7. Return to it for several minutes every day. 

Reinforce your new practice with the following affirmations:

• I am amazing.
• I can do anything.
• I am prepared to succeed.

Make sure to call this image up when making specific health choices, for example, when deciding between that muffin or veggie sticks and hummus, or when you're torn between going for a quick run or getting glued to Facebook. 

And what I said earlier about having a pit crew for accountability really makes a difference. All successful athletes have coaches (and often teams) who believe in their success and hold them accountable to their goals. 

Don’t hesitate to rely heavily on this tool when you’re making changes for your health. In fact, the more often you call up your goal, the closer it comes to being a reality! 

Booyah!