by natalia | May 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
Dear Natalia,
Thank you so much for coming on the show back in July. Because of you and your books, I have changed my life. I was starting to change my eating habits and then we had you on the show. I was so inspired that I read your Detox 4 Women and Raw Food Life Force Energy books. I did the 30-day detox and since July I have been eating high-vibration foods and feeling incredible. I have a 9-month-old baby and a three-year-old son and my body looks like I am 18. I am toned, firm and lean. My husband CANNOT stop complimenting me. Our relationship went from being good to out-of-this-world amazing.
I never thought I could look and feel this way. I radiate and glow. I am happy. I am inspired. All the moms want to know what I did and I send them directly to you. I know they bought the book because they come and ask me questions (also my local Whole Foods went from having a huge stock of frozen wheatgrass to just one box left the other day)!!!
So thank you! From the bottom of my heart. I feel at 33 years of age a feeling of happiness and vibrancy and deliciousness I always dreamed possible. If you ever want to do a workshop in Great Neck, let me know and I can set it up for you. I’m going to start a meditation class once a week combined with a discussion on how to live in light and create and sustain joy in our lives. I see the women around me hungry for this. I know I was. I think I can shed some light.
With so much gratitude,
Macha
by natalia | May 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
Recipe of the Week by Natalia Rose Institute Executive Chef Doris Choi: Chocolate Fix
CHOCOLATE BEET CAKE
•3 cups red beet puree (roast beets in oven at 400°F for 1 hour)
•½ cup agave nectar
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1 tablespoon red vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
•⅓ cup chocolate powder
•1 cup millet flour
•1 tablespoon baking soda
•Zest of an orange (any type)
•Pinch of salt
Preheat the oven at 350°F.
Combine all the wet ingredients first, and then mix in all the dry ingredients. (Work quickly because the baking soda and vinegar will start bubbling, and they are what will make the cake moist and fluffy.)
Put the mixture in a mini loaf pan or a cupcake tin greased with a little coconut oil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove when the cakes are slightly soft in middle.
“Doris, I honestly never thought I could have my cake and eat it too!” – Ana Ladd-Griffin
by natalia | May 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
Eating meals in an office setting can sometimes be a challenge. The trick is to be prepared! Here are some suggestions that have worked for me and for my clients.
Create a small office pantry of non-perishables to make sure that lunch is flavorful and enjoyable. Keeping a small jar of Dijon mustard, stevia, and your favorite herbal tea can help ensure that you’ll love your lunch, and have something warm and delicious to get you through an afternoon slump. Add a fork and a knife and you’ll have everything you need.
Enhance your desk or cubicle with a decorative bowl of edibles instead of flowers. When I worked in an office environment, I brought in a beautiful glass bowl, which I filled every Monday morning with green apples, fresh lemons, and avocados. It was like a beautiful flower arrangement, and kept my desk area looking and smelling sweet.
Keep a selection of delivery menus that you can order from on the days you haven’t been able to prepare. Sometimes it’s easier to order in than to bring lunch from home. Getting or printing menus of local restaurants that deliver salads, steamed vegetables, veggie soup, guacamole, or other fresh, raw, well-combined options is essential. The vendors will get to know your order, and you will have the freedom of not having to bring lunch every day.
Shop for a selection of fresh raw vegetables on Sunday evening so you won’t have to worry about shopping during the busy work week. Keep 5 boxes of organic greens and a selection of chopped vegetables in your fridge at home, so in the morning you can grab a small container of your favorite raw salad toppings and a box of greens and run out the door. (Remember, lemons and avocados await you at work!)
Bake or steam a selection of veggies on Sunday as well, so you can grab and go on the following days. Slow-roasted beets, baked sweet potatoes, and vegetable soup are all great lunch options that can be cooked in advance for the week ahead. If you would like to include a cooked option with your lunch salad, it will be ready to go.
Preparing for your week by doing some shopping, chopping, and cooking will also help you stay committed to your goals. Every Sunday you are renewing your vow to yourself that you are going to spend the week caring for your body and cleansing your blood!
Love,
Ana
by natalia | May 29, 2013 | Life Force Families
We humans cannot truly soar until we’ve first cultivated deep, healthy roots. We all want to enjoy the highs of life-including romantic love, professional success, and other forms of excitement and personal achievement-but unless our highs are equal to our depths, our highs will set us up for terrible falls. Chasing after highs without any grounding knowledge is a hollow pursuit indeed.
Yes, I can understand the temptation to escape and hide from yourself when you are suffering from constant stress, illness, and disappointment. And yes, I know that digging deep to the root causes of your suffering and cultivating a more life-generating perspective requires effort, but the rewards of such work are beyond measure. If you want to radiate true health and beauty in this lifetime, there is no other way.
I encourage you to spread your wings and take flight, but just be sure you are not merely trying to escape from your norms. The greatest highs in life come from both internal and external pursuits. There are thrills of the body, the heart, the spirit, and the mind-and when these all come together in harmony, it’s nirvana! Do not neglect the beauty and richness of your inner life for solely external pursuits.
What Is Beauty, Really?
Our culture is obsessed with beauty. And let’s face it, who doesn’t want to be beautiful and sexy and desirable? Everywhere we turn, there are glossy advertisements for products appealing to this desire to be beautiful, and there are throngs of people who are buying into their promises. We are socially conditioned from a very young age to want the perfect body, the perfect face, the perfect skin, and perfect clothes-and all the trappings of vanity that come with them: sex, money, and power. But if we look closer, what is this obsession with beauty all about, really? Is it just superficial, or does it indicate some deeper biological imperative at work in our lives?
Many people come to Natalia Rose Institute seeking weight loss, rejuvenation, clearer skin, and the other hallmarks of surface beauty. But those who undertake the detox lifestyle discover that they really want so much more. The desire to be beautiful, deep down, is the desire to be given a chance to love and be loved. It is a desire to conduct joy and vitality-to be free to be oneself, not to hide behind expensive fashion trends and status symbols. When you cleanse your heart and your body, you naturally begin to shed the commonly held ideals of external beauty and awaken to the only beauty that matters: the kind that shines from within, emitting a fresh, natural, authentic glow. Any good art designer or plastic surgeon can produce a picture-perfect image based on the current marketing and fashion trends. Real beauty, however, makes you feel good through and through. Beauty is synonymous with clarity, love, and light-and no designer clothing or cosmetic product, no matter how ingeniously engineered, can deliver or even simulate these things for you.
When you release old patterns, aggressions, and fears; when you are pure of purpose and of spirit; when you have laid deep, healthy roots that can freely absorb and conduct clean energy from the soil, air, water, sunlight, and the life circulating all around you, you cannot help but radiate beauty-physically and spiritually. When you are beautiful within, you no longer have anything to hide or cover up. You become lighter and freer and more joyful in your own skin. You open yourself up to light and love and naturally connect with the inner beauty of others. You can finally stop obsessing about your looks because you actually embody and radiate beauty with every breath you take. True beauty, therefore, is the not vanity at all, but the natural expression of a deep and expansive love of life!
Plant Flowers, Don’t Cut Them
There’s a popular dermatologist with a new book out, and on the cover he appears standing with a bunch of freshly cut long-stem strawberries. The title of the book promises youth in no uncertain terms. What is the problem with this picture? Here’s a big hint: It’s why I taught my children never to pick flowers, and why those who know me well don’t bring me cut flowers.
Life cut off from its source is unsustainable. Think of it. The whole concept of this cover image is a lie, but the giveaway of the misguided consciousness underpinning the project is the cut fruit. Most people will see the promise of freshness and beauty in the fruit when those strawberries are in fact an example of life cut being tragically short in the service of instant, short-term gratification! Those strawberries, cut away from the vine of life, will be old and moldy in less than two days!
To put it most simply, life that is firmly rooted to its source will flourish-living long and well. Life that is cut off from its source will draw its last breath from its energy reserves, then wilt until all the energy has been drained away and decay takes over. The same is true for our bodies, for our whole beings.
We humans walk around in our bodies, seemingly unconnected to anything, believing all we need are some calories, vitamins, and omega fatty acids. That’s the herd mentality at work. The fact is, despite our lack of visible roots, we get our energy from the same sources that other living creatures do-from the sun and earth, unseen fibers of living energy that connect all life on this planet and reach across the solar system, and from other plant life and organisms that pass along nutrients to us through the food chain. As long as we fail to recognize our true roots, our true sources of life force, and our interconnectedness, we will never summon enough energy to soar, much less stand tall and proud within our own bodies.
So remember, first plant your roots firmly, and then spread your wings wide. There is no greater high-no greater expression of beauty-than growing and evolving as nature intended!
