Recipe: Honey & Pistachio Rice Pudding 🍚

As we’ve established in previous articles, winter is not the time to go on a deprivation diet nor feed our bodies with cold salads or smoothies. Instead, what we want to do is 𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡 our bodies with warming foods which will enable it to better perform its detoxifying duties.

This Honey & Pistachio Rice Pudding recipe is just one of many in the upcoming Express Detox: Winter Edition. The masterclass includes recipes and menu-planning for the 10 days. We use real food, no weird supplements or energy powders. Enjoy this pudding as a breakfast, snack or dessert during these cold winter days!

Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links or discount codes, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may make a commission.

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup rice, cooked

1 can coconut milk

1 cinnamon stick (or buy in bulk like we did)

1/4 cup pistachios

1/2 tsp organic honey (optional)

Instructions

Cook the rice or use previously cooked rice (from package in link above or leftovers). In a sauce pan add the rice, along with the coconut milk and cinnamon stick. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until flavors have melded. Remove from heat and serve in a bowl with pistachios on top and a drizzle of honey. Enjoy!

💀 Don’t Diet in Winter: Why

It’s been at the top New Year’s Resolutions for at least the past 50 years: “lose weight” or “improve diet.”

At first glance, these goals seem health-promoting and socially acceptable. What usually follows though is a rather rigid set of rules around eating: what to eat, how much to eat, when to eat, what to avoid. This is popularly referred to as a diet and, it’s the worst. Especially during winter. Here’s why:

What’s wrong with dieting?

Anyone who has followed these rule-bound ways of eating will probably tell you two things: yes, they are losing weight and how many days left until they can come off of the diet. This points to a few problems with a restrictive diet:

1. The most popular diets are built primarily on deprivation. And absolutes. There is solemnity to the rules, as if divinely written onto tablets like the 10 Commandments rather than one person’s opinion written on paper. As long as you follow the rules of the diet, you’re a saint. Otherwise, you are one of them, the sinners and failures of the world.

2. Diets are often crazy-making in all their rules and even choosing the right diet (as many are contradictory). Is it okay to eat 1/2 cup of brown rice per day or should you be grain-free? Is the paleo diet better than a vegan one? Confusion abounds before even starting.

3. It’s not intuitive or customized at all. For example, most diet books will tell you to eat something specific, like half of grapefruit with a piece of whole-wheat toast and peanut butter for breakfast. It completely ignores the fact that you might be on a medication with which grapefruit interferes, that one of your kids is allergic to peanut butter, and that you are gluten-sensitive. So, is that a “healthy” breakfast? Maybe for someone else, but not for you. Following the diet’s recommendations might just cause more issues than it solves. Also, it usually encourages using willpower to deal with cravings rather than learning how to sate them.

4. We are often dieting for the wrong reasons. We think being thinner or leaner will automatically improve our lives, but we haven’t even addressed our thoughts or the areas of life we want to improve and how to get ourselves to step into the next version of ourselves. Confidence can, and does, come from many other aspects of life that don’t involve squeezing yourself into a smaller size.

5. Lastly, they are not sustainable. Diets don’t work. Once our days of waiting for the 3-day raw juice cleanse or 30-day paleo diet have come to an end, we often slip right back into our bad habits of late-night snacking, sweet treats, having “cheat meals”, or rationalizing stress-induced overeating.

What’s wrong with dieting during winter?

This has got to be one of the absolute worst times to introduce a cold, low-fat, crash diet.

Among the many mistakes of dieting discussed above, the added the layer of this season can cause things to go south pretty quickly.

From an Ayurvedic perspective (here’s a primer), there’s an ancient, time-tested and rather intuitive way of eating and caring for your body in each season.

If we look at what the earth produces in each season, it gives us a clue as to what we should be eating to maximize our health. Spring is a wonderful time to have salads, greens, berries and sprouts. Summer is when we can eat plenty of fruits and vegetables being offered by our gardens and farmers markets. Fall and winter is when the squashes of the season, nuts, meat or plant-based proteins, hearty grains, and root vegetables are best. Cooked, warming foods are key during this cold and dry season.

People generally, in their quest to cut calories, often decimate the fat in the diet. On the face of it, this change makes sense – fat has more than twice the amount of calories per gram of carbohydrates and protein. However, what is often not taken into account is that during the winter season, our bodies need healthy fats to help protect our skin and lubricate our joints.

This is simultaneously an old and new way of looking at how best to fuel our bodies with nutrition. Though we all often act like every day of the year is the same, especially with foods being available year-round in grocery stores and our with temperature-controlled environments, the fact is that we need to live in concert with winter.

The antidote to winter’s cold and dryness is eating warm, nourishing, oily foods. That’s why you’ll find you’ll find the recipes for meals and beverages that support your body’s detoxification processes in our Express Detox: Winter Edition masterclass.

In the Client Spotlight with Teresa Curtiss! 🎉

How did this program change things for you?

This program was a game changer for me. I knew I had food sensitivities and thought I had cut all of them out of my diet, but yet I was still sick. I learned that I had a reaction to some of the healthy things I was eating daily [emphasis added]. I finally have a list of foods to stay away from, no more guessing at what might be the issue. I stay clear of these, plus some additional food intolerances, and I feel great. 

What surprises and new strengths have you gotten from this experience?

I have my health back. I’m starting to enjoy food again instead of dreading eating and getting sick. I was just sticking with the same items that I thought were safe, not wanting to try new recipes.

My diet has opened up to more options now that I know what to avoid. I’m surprised at how much more variety of foods I can eat now. Even though there are quite a few foods I need to steer clear of (for now), I still have more options than I did before. I’ve just recently gone back to recipes in my cookbooks that I loved in the past, but thought they were making me sick. I can eat them again with no issues.

What is the thing you benefited from and/or enjoyed the most so far?

Getting my health back!

I had hoped to find out all the foods I had a food sensitivity to and to relieve my symptoms. I didn’t know I could feel this good again! It’s wonderful to be able to consistently feel good and not have to worry about my symptoms interfering with my day and holding me back from the things I want to accomplish.

I really appreciate our time together and definitely hope to stay in touch (I just referred someone to you last week).

Thanks,

Teresa Curtiss

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Imagine something ‘healthy’ you eat almost everyday – like a banana or maybe some kale – and it actually being the culprit behind your symptoms! This is one of the reasons why it’s important to assess for food sensitivities and intolerances – a problem food could be flying beneath the radar because it’s a ‘health food’. Luckily, Teresa has figured out some of the major ones and her symptoms have improved! Could identifying potential food sensitivities do the same for you? Find out here and schedule a complimentary, 20-minute Discovery Call to get started!

10 Healthy, Plant-based Fall Snacks 🍂

Maybe it’s all the autumn activities or just the season of our lives, but we’re probably not alone in feeling like a squirrel on a sugar-high. Scattered. Busy. Trying to maintain a mental map of the yards where we hid our nuts. Okay, maybe not the last one.

Still, the increase in activity, even if just shopping on Early Prime Days, tends to lend itself to eating more snacks. And that’s okay. Let’s try to have some that land on the healthier side of the spectrum. Here are healthy, plant-based fall snacks that run the gamut from no-bake and about 10 minutes to delicious, baked goods that might have you salivating at the ding of the timer after 45 minutes of somewhat patiently waiting at the oven door.

Gold Mine Pudding

Celebrity Couple! Choco-cado Cookies

The Anytime Warm Apple Crisp

Gluten-free Cashew Coconut Bread

10TV Recipe: Cocoa-Maca Energy Balls

Just another Mochi Monday

Chocolate Chunk Tahini Cookies

‘Nacho’ Average Nachos

Death-by-Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Roasted Root Vegetables

Enjoy!

Recipe: Blueberry & Peach Compote 🍑

Ooh wee! Have you seen the fresh peaches available at farmers markets and grocery stores? If you haven’t already, grab a few along with a pint of blueberries for this sweet, no-added sugar dessert. Compote usually involves fruit cooked in a syrup or with sugar but we just used water and a bit of cinnamon. It’s wonderful to have for breakfast or as a dessert. Life’s a peach!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: about 30-40 minutes

Servings: ~ 9

Ingredients

4-5 ripe, fresh peaches

1 pint blueberries

1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Dice peaches and put in medium saucepan with enough water to cover the bottom. Add blueberries and cinnamon. Cook on low, stirring occasionally, for about 30-45 minutes or until fruit has softened. Enjoy on its own, with oatmeal in the mornings, or with vanilla ice cream in the evenings.

Water Wars: Bugs & Politics

In 2017, 5.3 billion people drank water from safe sources – meaning local water sources that were readily available and free from contaminants, while 2.2 billion people were drinking from water sources that weren’t managed safely.

The following numbers are provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding water sources and accessibility:

1.4 billion people have basic services, meaning an improved water source located within a round trip of 30 minutes & 206 million people with limited services, or an improved water source requiring more than 30 minutes to collect water

435 million people taking water from unprotected wells and springs & 144 million people collecting untreated surface water from lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.

Drinking water that is not treated properly and poor sanitation practices is associated with several diseases including cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. Let’s take a look at this more specifically. What’s in the water that can lead to disease?

Cholera– caused by ingesting Vibrio cholerae found in water or food items that have been contaminated by feces from a person infected with Cholera. Cholera can also result from eating raw or undercooked shellfish.

Rotavirus is the leading cause of diarrhea. Most of the germs that cause diarrhea are spread through drinking water or eating food contaminated with feces.

Dysentery – often caused by Shigella species (bacillary dysentery) or Entamoeba histolytica (amoebic dysentery), dysentery can be diagnosed when an individual is exposed to water and food that has been contaminated by with feces. Additionally, a person can be diagnosed with dysentery when touching human or animal feces without washing their hands in an appropriate manner.

Hepatitis A – a disease characterized by inflammation of the liver, it is caused by eating food or water contaminated with feces. Moreover, Hepatitis A can be caused by inadequate sanitation and poor personal hygiene.

Typhoid Fever – caused by Salmonella typhi bacteria, this is a significant health threat for children in developing nations. Although it is rare in countries with modern water quality improvement infrastructures in place, typhoid can also spread through contaminated food and water or through close contact with an infected individual.

Polio – yet another illness that can result from water and food contaminated with feces. It can also be passed through direct contact with someone who has the virus already. Untreated polio can lead to nerve injury and ultimately paralysis. Polio has largely been eradicated in the world due to modern medicine.

Global & Local

Surely safe drinking water is largely an issue in for other countries; the U.S. doesn’t have these problems, right? Wrong! 4.32 million cases of acute gastrointestinal illness occur each year due to drinking water from public drinking water systems. This number does not include the number of illnesses that arise out of private wells, recreational water, etc.

There is still a lot of research being done to understand the full extent of waterborne illness in our country. Waterborne illness symptoms look different depending on the virus or bacteria involved, including gastrointestinal symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, stomachache), respiratory illness (coughing, shortness of breath, pneumonia), wound infections, and infections involving the ears, eyes, and skin. With that said, research about water quality are of the utmost importance. Our adult bodies consist of 60% water, and we need water to survive.

Water Politics

At a certain point, there may not be enough water to sustain life on this planet. Governments and corporations have been working together and suggesting that water privatization is the best solution for this problem. Is it? Maybe. Maybe not. As more public sources of water are sold or ‘rented out’ to corporations, some are sounding alarms. Water is a precious commodity and, as a commodity, its price can fluctuate. Corporations may be able to raise prices on this essential nutrient and control who is able to obtain it. In other words, water may end up going to the highest bidder. On the this side of the debate are also those who say that water is a human right and should be universally available, not just for those at a higher income level.

Red, White, and Blueberry Tart

You may remember this beauty being featured on WBNS 10TV in honor of National Pecan Month. This healthy dessert is easy to make and fun to decorate. Made from fruit and nuts, the tart is raw, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free. Did we mention delicious? Because it’s definitely that too! Enjoy it this holiday weekend.

Ingredients

Crust

1 cup chopped nut blend (we used 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup pecans)
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup flaked or shredded coconut
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of nutmeg, optional

Toppings

1-2 mashed bananas
Blueberries, strawberries, and kiwis to decorate (about 1 cup of each)

Instructions

Soak dates in warm water for about 10 minutes to soften them. Chop nuts with a knife or use a food processor. Drain dates and mix with nut blend, coconut, cinnamon, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Once well mixed, roll into balls and press into pie plate. Mash bananas and add a layer or ‘frosting’ to the crust. Top with berries and kiwi or your desired fruits. For extra pizazz, drizzle honey or melted chocolate over the tart.

“One Bite Wellness to WOW” – In the Client Spotlight

“One Bite Wellness to WOW!”

“In the past, on many occasions, I would start/sign-up for a program or class, quickly start procrastinating on beginning/keeping up with and/or finishing assignments, therefore I did wonder if working with you would be different? So, I was hesitant to invest the time/money for this reason. Would this be yet another “good intention” gone awry?…

The results I have achieved have been PHENOMENAL! I called you because my cholesterol was too high and my dr asked me about going on statin meds. In addition, I have been on a diuretic to “control” my blood pressure for about 25 yrs. I felt I could normalize my biometrics without meds, however knew that I needed Accountability and Support to do so.

Never in my WILDEST Dreams, did I Expect to find : A New Calling: Wellness Advocate/Coach: A New Passion: Cooking ( from scratch) I had never learned to cook. A New Dream: Be a Senior Olympian. These are a by-product of working with you, and Following-Through.
One has to make the changes, a little at a time ie….one bite…
I am living the whole-food plant-based lifestyle.
I am 15 lbs lighter, and my cholesterol has normalized.
My bp was getting too low and I was tired…..
Last week, my dr said: “I think your lifestyle has kicked in” you DON’T need this medicine anymore……You are really doing the work! Congrats….keep going. I just hugged her……and grinned for 2 whole days.
25 YEARS…..ON SOME DOSAGE OF THIS MEDICINE!
Long enough to raise a child!!!! I am Thrilled…..NO MEDS!
I will need to update my wardrobe…..all my clothes are Too Big!

I love your “presence”, listening, reflecting back and your unequivocal SUPPORT! I Know that you live a healthy lifestyle, and that you care that I too live a healthy lifestyle. You’re in my corner!

I loved that we chatted about career….did not expect that, nor did I expect to Want to pursue another career, at this point (semi-retired). I feel compelled to pursue wellness advocacy for the benefit of  us “baby boomers”

My whole mentality has changed. I am becoming More of who I came to Earth, to Be.

As I’ve released weight, I have stopped “hiding” from myself and others.
I am healing emotionally from earlier hurts, because I am taking better care of myself, eating good food, exercising, relaxing, and resting, when tired.
I rarely eat out anymore, and I used to go to a fast food place every other day
I was happy with our sessions and your prompt follow-up. Loved being able to connect in person, and/or by phone. I’m just Thrilled with my results.

As I said earlier, You are Your Clients’ “Champion”
You are Supportive, and of course, as a great coach, you guide a person to find their own Truth. You recognize that great potential within each person.
You are Authentic, Prompt, and Keep your Word!

I Totally Now Realize the VALUE of Having a Great Team and How Important it is to Invest in One’s Health. Without good health, the Rest doesn’t seem that important. Also, if you had not shared the recipes and encouraged me, I might never have tried to cook……..what a loss that would have been…..It is my New Spiritual Practice! I get great ideas while cooking…..in the silence and joy of seeing a new creation….from a few or many different ingredients.”

Blessings of Abounding Health
Jasianna
Client, Foundations of Health Graduate

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In just a few short months, Jasianna has changed her whole life. She decluttered her home and her old habits of candy, fast food, and junk food as she added in more cooking, physical activity, and a new career. We are certain that, with her determination and follow-through, she will qualify for the senior Olympics and look forward to watching her shine!

Our mission on earth is to help guide others on their life paths. Every time we see a client after they’ve tweaked a couple of recommended changes such as drinking less juice/soda/alcohol, getting better sleep, adding in (fun!) physical fitness…we see the changes in their eyes, face shape, energized speaking and livelier movements…and then we hear about how their clothes are fitting better, they enjoy cooking, their friends and family telling them how fantastic they look, and we share in your happiness.

Also, during one of our sessions, Jasianna mentioned how her doctor, the nurse, and friends were exclaiming how fabulous she looks…and how she appreciates herself. “Everyday after my shower, I look at myself in the mirror…I see my arms…waist and I can see the difference. I look fabulous and I’m really proud of that.” If only everyone could experience that same sentiment upon seeing themselves naked, especially those 60+ years old!!

To our clients:
Honestly, we just love you guys. We brag about your successes as if we were your parents :D. Thank you for trusting us to guide you on your journey and letting us celebrate with you; it is pure joy.

Recipe: Spicy Cowgirl Salsa

Hot and spicy foods can kick winter’s coldness to the curb as well as help with weight loss endeavors and provide health benefits. In this Spicy Cowgirl Salsa, you will feel the heat of the jalapeño and enjoy the freshness of the avocado, lime, cilantro and other ingredients. Olé!

For other hot & spicy food demos, check out our WBNS 10tv news segment!

Ingredients

1 red onion, diced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeño, finely chopped
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 jar or 16oz of salsa (unless you want to double the heat of the jalapeño, stick with mild)
1 tsp cumin
1 slice of lime, juiced
(Optional) Slices of avocado

Instructions

Combine all ingredients into a medium bowl and mix until combined. Feel free to top with slices of avocado and enjoy with some organic blue corn chips. For a tasty meal, consider topping brown rice with the salsa mix.

Why Weight?

In our busy lives, it is sometimes hard to put our health and ourselves first. We eat foods that do not contain the best nourishment for our body because they are inexpensive or convenient. People then think that some sort of weight loss diet can get them back on track. However in reality, these diets are hard to stick to and usually end in failure. In addition, everyone’s bodies are different and everyone needs unique nutrients to nourish and energize their bodies.

Weight loss diets are not specifically geared towards people, but follow a general set of instructions. Instead of trying to stick to a diet, the real success comes by making healthy food your lifestyle. In order to have good health, all parts of your life must be healthy. That means incorporating physical activity, healthy foods, and regular sleep into your life. Instead of trying to restrict yourself to a diet, try to be conscious of what you are eating. If you mindfully experience the foods you eat and the taste, you will appreciate it more. Work with your body instead of restricting it and it will naturally balance out.