Blog Archives - Lotus Rising Healing & Wellness

Cranberry-Pear Fat Buster Juice Recipe

11/27/2013

This recipe is from the Juice Lady, Cherie Calbom in her book, The Juice Lady's Turbo Diet.

Studies show that cranberries boost metabolism and their acids help dissolve fat. They also act as a diuretic, which helps you get rid of stored up water. The credit goes to their soluble fiber, which is not lost entirely with juicing.

Ingredients:

2 pears, Bartlett or Asian

1/2 cucumber, peeled if not organic

1/4 lemon, peeled if not organic

2 tablespoons cranberries, fresh or thawed if frozen

1/2- to 1-inch-chunk ginger root

Cut produce to fit your juicer’s feed tube. With the juicer turned off, add the cranberries and top with the plunger. Then turn on your machine and juice. Juice all remaining ingredients and stir. Pour into a glass and drink as soon as possible. Serves 1.

Join me as I interview the Juice Lady about juicing, detoxification and weight loss in the New Year on my radio show on December 13, 2013 at 2pm, Pacific. Get all the information and join the call here or listen to the recording after it's over!

Spicy Cranberry Relish

11/26/2013

I'm so excited to make this Cranberry Relish from one of my favorite go-to recipe sites,

www.marksdailyapple.com.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh cranberries

juice from 1 orange

1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

1 jalapeno pepper or other hot pepper, roughly chopped

1/2 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1-2 tablespoons raw honey

pinch of sea salt

Instructions:

Blend all ingredients in the food processor until desired consistency is

reached. Allow to sit 12 hours before altering sweetness as it will not taste sweet

right after mixing. After 12 hours, if needed, add more honey or some stevia.

Homemade Hummus Recipe

11/19/2013

I have adapted this recipe from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

Ingredients:

2 cups chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

1 1/2 tsp Real Salt

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)

6 TBS fresh squeezed lemon juice (from 2 lemons)

2 TBS olive oil

8 dashes Tabasco sauce

Instructions:

Place all ingredients into blender or food processor and puree. Taste for seasoning and chill before serving.

Snack Attack: What We Eat at Snack Time

11/18/2013

This week I thought you might like to know what snack options my kids have. I try to change it up each week. Here's what's on our menu for this week. I actually plan our snacks for the week and post the list of options on the fridge. That way, my kids have a choice and I don't have to hear, "Mom, there's nothing to eat!" When my kids have options and at least a few things they enjoy, they are much more likely to make healthy choices!

Here's what's on my list:

Air popped popcorn with butter, Real Salt and nutritional yeast.

Luna bars. *some of them have added sugar and I stay away from those.

Hummus with fresh cut up veggies. I make my own because most of them have canola oil. If you can find one made with cold pressed olive oil, then store bought is fine. (Let me know below if you have a favorite brand.)

Kale chips.

Rice crackers with raw, organic cheese. Trader Joe's carries a great raw cheddar, though it's not organic.

Apples with nut butter.

Hard-boiled eggs.

Organic, Greek yogurt with fresh or frozen fruit or berries. You can even make a puree with raw honey, water, a pinch of salt and fruit blended in the blended.

I take some time on Sunday afternoon and make up everything needed for the week or I do a little after dinner during the week if I run out of time on the weekend.

Hope this helps give you some good snack ideas. What are your family's favorite snacks? Comment below to let us know!

You might also like:

20 of My Favorite Snacks to Stay Slim, Healthy and Vital

Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as a local practice in Bothell, WA. This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or
contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.

How to Give Up Night Eating and Why You'll Live Longer if You Do!

11/16/2013

Does food start speaking to you after 7pm? Those cookies beg for your companionship. The ice cream lovingly awaits your warm embrace. Do you feel deprived, lonely, bored or anxious if you don't eat treats while you watch TV, read or surf the internet after the kids go to bed? Do you vow to stop eating after dinner, only to do the opposite and over-indulge? How do we stop this cycle without feeling deprived?

Consider for a moment that maybe it's not food you are feeling deprived of. Maybe its love. Maybe we eat because we feel we are missing something we need in life. Maybe its adventure, passion, sweetness, spice. Next time you have a craving, tune into it and visualize yourself pushing the food away and see what comes up. What is it you REALLY want? Food is only a great counterfeit for what we truly desire in our hearts.

Night eating has the potential to shave years off of your life and create a perfect environment for dis-ease to thrive. According to Paul Chek in his book, How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy, your body is busy doing physical and psychological repair work between the hours of 10pm and 6am, if you are sleeping. If you happen to have food in your stomach during this time, it creates stress for the body because it is a distraction from the healing process.

Stress causes the stress hormone, cortisol, to be elevated. Cortisol is our fight or flight hormone. To the innate wisdom of our body, a rise in cortisol means we are being chased by a lion. This signals the body to hold onto ALL of its reserves because it has no idea when safety will be reached and food will become available again. So, as our body works to help us survive the chase, it shuts down the digestion process and sends the blood to the lower (instinctive) brain and the extremities. READ: your body holds onto ALL of your fat and your food sits in your stomach to ferment which creates inflammation, the root of most dis-ease. On top of this, fermenting food can be a breeding ground for parasites and fungus. This also creates a hormonal imbalance as it causes chaos with the messengers of our body (our hormones). Since we normally feast on processed carbs at night, you might like to know that processed carbohydrates and sugars are the number one dysregulator of hormones in the body. If you have hormonal issues, this is very important to know.

When I experienced hormonal chaos, it took a short six weeks off of sugar and processed food to totally turn it around! What's more is that as cortisol is raised, it prevents the increase of the human growth hormone, the major repair and anti-aging hormone in the body. The increase in this hormone is necessary for the repair process to happen as we sleep. Sugar consumption also decreases production of human growth hormone. So, night eating can literally shave years off your life and prevent the ability to really live while you are alive, free of dis-ease.

Did you know all of this was happening just from eating those cookies while you watch TV? I hope this information helps next time you get a nagging craving to eat at night. Remember, new habits take about 21 or so days, to instill.

If you have strong cravings, you might like to check out my article, Supplement Secrets for Weight Loss & Cravings.

You may also benefit from my video teaching you a powerful EFT (tapping) exercise to eliminate night cravings.

And lastly, since we tend to not be hungry at night, you may find success by trying out the Hunger Satisfaction Guided Visualization exercise MP3 below. Just find a comfy spot and get ready for a mini vacation while your subconscious mind gets rewired about overeating.

hunger_satisfaction_exercise_with_favorite_place_relaxation_mp3.mp3
File Size:	24473 kb
File Type:	mp3

Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as a local practice in Bothell, WA. This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.

Partnering with YOUR Body for Weight Loss Success

11/11/2013

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One of the biggest contributors to the war we have within ourselves about releasing weight is that we have not partnered with our body, so instead, we work against it and it works against us. Sounds familiar? This is exactly where I was before I began this journey and I am happy to report I now see my flaws with gratitude! This video will teach you how to partner with your body so it will support you in your journey towards wellness.

Before you begin, stand in front of a mirror naked or imagine yourself doing so. This will greatly enhance the effectiveness of this exercise! Do this every day until you really notice a different experience when you look at your body in the mirror.

Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as a local practice in Bothell, WA. This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or
contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.

Eat For YOUR Type for Optimal Shape and Health

11/11/2013

Are you overwhelmed by ALL the health information out there? Maybe you find yourself wondering, "What's the best diet for me? Why did Sally lose 20 pounds on the Zone diet and I stayed right where I started? Do I really have to eat for my blood type? How do I figure out which one is the right diet for me?"

I am asked this question so often. People email me asking about this diet or that, does HCG work, etc... No wonder we are all confused! I'm happy to report there is a way to overcome the insanity and step into YOUR ideal body! Here's the thing. We are each biochemically individual. There is not one diet that will work for everyone. And, if you have chronic stress, whatever diet you go on is likely not to work because stress causes us to hold onto fat.

So, how do I find the right diet for me? Enter, metabolic typing. With this technique, you learn how to partner with and listen to your body because the innate wisdom of your body will lead to exactly the right way of eating for YOU! When we rely on the scale to tell us if we are OK and we try diet after diet, we don't learn to listen to what our body needs. This is the missing link.

Each of us has unique 'cellular machinery'. In his book, The Metabolic Typing Diet, Bill Walcott explains that each individual has unique macronutrient proportion requirements to facilitate optimal cellular and bodily functions. Just as we use the correct fuel for our cars to run properly, we must also use the correct fuel for our bodies to operate optimally. So how do I know which one is the balanced combination for me? Here are three ways:

First, do some experimenting. You can actually take a test with me to find out, or you can try it out for yourself to find the optimal combination for your body to convert food to energy. The three basic metabolic types are:

Protein Type
Carb Type
Mixed Type

Your body either requires more fat and protein and less carbs (Protein Type) or more carbs and less fat and protein (Carb Type) or a combination somewhere in the middle.

If you are a Protein Type, your plate will look something like this:

45% protein, 35% carbohydrates, 20% oils and fats.

If you are a Carb Type, your plate will look something like this:

70% carbohydrates, 20% protein and 10% oils and fats.

If you are Mixed Type, your plate will look something like this:

40% protein, 50% carbohydrates and 10 - 20% oils and fats.

Next, simply pick a combination that feels right for you, try it and then listen to your body's response. If you are eating too much fat and protein you will feel sleepy, lethargic, dull or depressed. You'll be mentally sluggish or slow. Your gut will feel heavy. You may feel full, but hungry and crave sweets or caffeine.

If you are eating too many carbs you may get a headache or feel anxious and unsatisfied or hungry soon after eating. You might crave fat or protein and feel jumpy in your mind or tired but jittery. You may feel energy and then crash.

This takes a little time to figure out the right combination, but once your do, your body will function optimally and you'll feel great. Here is a comprehensive list of all the foods you can choose from to create a healthy diet. You can also check here on my blog for recipes on how to make delicious meals from these choices.

healthy_choices_foods_list.pdf
File Size:	566 kb
File Type:	pdf

The third thing you must do is listen for when you are hungry, and eat only when you are good and hungry and stop when you are full. For this, I do a simple 'hypnosis' exercise which is really a guided relaxation that works miracles. It involves 'installing' a hunger/satisfaction gauge into your subconscious mind so that you no longer feel like eating when you are not hungry and you have no interest in overeating. Below is an MP3 of this exercise you can download and listen to daily until you no longer feel its necessary.

hunger_satisfaction_exercise_with_favorite_place_relaxation_mp3.mp3
File Size:	24473 kb
File Type:	mp3

Using just the tools in this article has changed many lives! If you would like to be tested for your metabolic type and have a complimentary health evaluation, please set up an appointment with me here.

Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as
a local practice in Bothell, WA. This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.

*photo from hgactive.com

Maria's Fat-Busting, Gut Healing Daily Smoothie Recipe

11/11/2013

Ingredients:

1 cucumber
1 zucchini
1 apple, red or green
3 stalks celery
1 handful cilantro
½ lemon, mostly peeled with some skin left on.
1” piece of ginger, peeled
1 1 – 2” piece of fresh aloe gel or 1 TBS George’s Aloe
3 – 4 cups water

Optional:
If you don't already drink it upon arising, with some fresh squeezed lemon juice, you might add 1 scoop of Vitality Super Greens to your smoothie.

Instructions:

Place ingredients in blender and blend until very smooth, 1 – 2 minutes. Place in two separate jars so you drink half today and half tomorrow or half this afternoon and make a new one for
tomorrow.

Here's an article on how to harvest fresh aloe gel from a stalk of aloe.
http://www.naturalnews.com/PhotoTour_Aloe_Vera_1.html

Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as
a local practice in Bothell, WA. This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.

Ready for true transformation? Get a complimentary health consultation with Maria by
booking an appointment here.

Got Cravings? 3 Simple Tools to Outsmart Them

11/4/2013

Are there certain foods you just can't say no to?

I was having some real challenges with my wine cravings. This had gone on for years. I absolutely could not say no to wine. If it was there, I was having some, period. And when I drank, I over-indulged most every time. I'd wake up feeling awful and judging myself for being a hypocrite and lacking will-power. I did not want to be giving all that energy away to wine, a red liquid that had a lot of power over me.

I became very curious about whether there was a way to overcome this without feeling deprived or giving wine up completely. Well, guess what? Just a year ago, my husband and I would share a bottle of wine and often open another to have one more glass. Now, we truly are unable to finish a bottle of wine and have no interest in drinking it daily and besides, there are times where wine is served and I just don't feel like drinking it. What's more, I NEVER gave it up or deprived myself. Here are three simple techniques I used to find this balance.

The first is to acknowledge the craving. Acknowledge that this craving has a purpose in your life and can be a potent teacher if you allow it to be. We can do this by simply saying, "I am dying to eat/drink chocolate/wine, etc... I want chocolate so badly right now. I honor this craving and I accept myself right where I am. I love how sweet and silky it is in my mouth. But, maybe it's not actually chocolate/wine I am craving. What I truly long for is ______________." And see what comes up for you. It's also helpful to say, "I crave chocolate because what I feel I'm missing is _____________." I found out how dissatisfied I was with my life, how I didn't know how to get my needs met or speak my truth and how lonely I truly was. When I drank wine, I didn't have to feel my feelings. I longed for connection. I begged for approval and I craved a sense of belonging. Wine gave me a mini vacation from feeling it all. It also gave me a false sense of connection with whoever I was drinking with. It loosened me up and made me more footloose and fancy-free. It filled me where I felt empty. It took me a while to learn how to fill these needs with other things that truly created a sense of fulfillment, which I will talk more about over time, so stay tuned!

Another simple technique if you crave food when you are not hungry or are obsessed with eating something you said you wouldn't is to just close your eyes and tune into the craving. Where in your body do you feel it? What shape is it? Does it have a color? Is it moving? What does it feel like? Really dive into this craving and 'see' it and 'feel' it. What is it telling you? Is there something you are trying not to feel that eating this food can numb you from? What is that feeling? Ask yourself the same questions about this feeling as you did for the craving. Now, listen. What message does it have for you? If you allow yourself to feel this feeling deeply and cry or get angry or whatever comes up for you, what will follow is a clarity about your situation that you may not have experienced before. If it feels scary to feel the feeling or like it might swallow you alive, ask a friend, who you really trust, to be there while you do this. Or find a coach, like myself, or a therapist to work through it with. Now ask yourself what the ideal state of this feeling would be. Here's where the clarity comes. Just sit with it and notice what changes in your body. Does the feeling shift? What does it look like now? What is it here to reveal to you?

My third favorite, simple technique is to sit with the food you crave. Take a taste of it and notice what you like about it. Allow all those good feelings to come up inside of you, the excitement, the joy, the happy feelings. Now close your eyes and imagine those feelings rising up out of the food and into a bubble right above the food. Notice what color the bubble is. Now bring those feelings into your heart. Feel how good this love feels inside of you. Now imagine passing this love to a friend or loved one or even yourself as a child. Just pass it back and forth. Often, when we take the 'love' out of the food, it no longer has the same appeal because we realize that there never was love in it to begin with and we can feel that love without having to eat the food. Overcoming out-of-order eating requires us to remember to eat when we are hungry, and deal with our emotions when we are not. And to accept ourselves, right where we are, in all of it.

You might also like to read:

Can Weight Loss Goals Cause Weight Gain?

What's Up with Food Obsessions and Why Do We Eat When We're Not Hungry?

3 Shocking Ways to Release Weight: Stop Dieting, Stop Weighing Yourself and By All Means, Don't Count Calories!

Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as a local practice in Bothell, WA. This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.

Ready for true transformation? Get a complimentary health consultation with Maria by booking an appointment here.

Homemade Gluten-Free, Whole Grain Crackers

11/2/2013

If you want some healthy crunch and you have a little creativity, you can do almost anything with this recipe! It's super simple and fairly easy (meaning you have to play around with them a bit to get them perfectly crunchy, but not burned). You can use cookie cutters to cut out any shape you like or just use a pizza cutter to score them into squares. You can also use a toothpick to poke holes in them so they look just like regular crackers, especially if you have picky eaters.

Herb and Dulse Crackers

Yield: about 24 crackers

Time: 5 minutes (active), plus baking time, which varies a bit

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa flour (if you have a Blendtec Blender, you can use whole quinoa and just blend it on the 'Grind Grain' setting to make flour)

• 1/2 cup millet flour, same as above

• 1/2 cup chia seeds, I also grind these but you can use them whole as well

• 1/2 tsp dried thyme (Feel free to use any herbs you have on hand such as Italian Seasonings or even cinnamon, nutmeg and some Stevia powder and honey for a sweeter version).

• 1/2 tsp dried parsley

• 1 tsp Dulse flakes

• 1 tsp Celtic Sea Salt (add a bit more if you like your crackers really salty)

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1/3 - 2/3 cup cold, filtered water (I start with 1/3 cup and add as needed until you have a thick dough that is spreadable. I found 1/3 cup to be too little water.)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

2. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or Blendtec Blender which is what I use and pulse until smooth.

3. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Grease sheet with a small amount of olive oil. Put about 1/3 of the cracker dough in the middle of the sheet. Press down with a spatula. Now, get your hands wet with water and begin pressing the dough down flat, re-wetting hands as needed to press the dough as thin as possible, about 1/8 inch.

4. Score the crackers into the size and shape you like with a pizza cutter or sharp knife (or make shapes with a cookie cutter). Poke holes in crackers with a toothpick if you like and bake the crackers for about 13 minutes, then flip them over and remove parchment paper. Bake 5 to 7 more minutes until they are fairly firm and golden brown, but not too brown. This is where it gets a little tricky. Every oven is different so just watch them and make sure they become golden brown, but not burned! Turn oven off, open the door to let some heat out for about 1 minute and then allow the crackers to sit in the 'turned off' oven another 1/2 hour or so until they are perfectly crisp. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely, if you can before you eat them:)

I took this picture after the initial 13 minutes.

This is after the next 5 minutes just before I turned the oven off for them to sit. The picture of the crackers in the basket is after they sat in the oven for another 1/2 hour. The golden brown evens out!

This recipe is adapted from the Body Ecology Menu Plan Week 15.
This is one of my favorite, healthy meal plans because the recipes are simple and very healing while also tasting great!

Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as a local practice in Bothell, WA.This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.

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Chichen Itza, Mexico 2015

Author

Hi, I'm Maria. I practice hypnotherapy and holistic coaching specializing in emotional eating, addictions, depression, anxiety and PTSD. I LOVE what I do! One of my goals is to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for doing headstands in the most places around the globe! I have a love affair with butter and red wine and all REAL food Mother Earth lovingly provides her inhabitants. I collect recipes, hoard books, scavenge for heart rocks and go totally crazy when my 4 kids try to talk to me all at once. My favorite pastime is witnessing people realize the miracles in every moment and reminding myself to do the same. I love silence. I am a lover, a mystic, seeker of the Divine, a Warrior of Light, Alchemist. Welcome!

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