by natalia | Sep 6, 2013 | Health & Wellness, Personal Development
The Chalkboard Mag: A Day in the Life with Natalia Rose
OUR GUEST THIS MONTH, Natalia Rose, is inspiring from head-to-toe. Her killer physique, wealth of wellness wisdom, and generous attitude toward life all make her a stand-out health superstar. But when it comes to living that family life, we think Natalia makes an especially notable role model!
A DAY IN THE LIFE WITH NATALIA ROSE
7:00 AM
Get kids, Thandi, 12 & Tommy, 10, ready for school
7:30 AM
Make 15mo baby Electra’s raw baby shake, feed her & play with her
9:00 AM
Rebound or ride bike & sauna – sometimes I take business calls in there!
11:00 AM
Meditate with either Anita Briggs or Almine guided meditations – both of which elevate me to a markedly higher frequency.
12:00-3:00 PM
Write, develop and prepare for upcoming courses; touch base with Natalia Rose Institute team on top goal projects
3:00 PM
Call Health Nuts for grocery delivery: with so many mouths to feed this is almost a daily activity – often I’ll take Electra and get the items myself and enjoy a green juice as we shop.
3:15 PM
Pick up kids from school & drop older daughter off at ballet
4:00 PM
I’ll try to sneak in a few moments on my inversion board to rebalance. This is a quick fix for my mind and body between the two intense parts of my day. I get fresh blood to my organs, give my internal organs a chance to breath in a way they can’t when I’m right side up and something about being upside down helps me get a better perspective on all things.
4:15 PM
Head to favorite local juice bar for daily fix of wheatgrass & green juice
4:30 PM
Oversee children’s homework & manage myriad of household demands…this is the second intense part of the day, the first being running the business side of things on a very limited amount of time while the kids are at school.
6:00 PM
Prepare beautiful raw salad such as baby romaine, sunflower sprouts, dulse, nori & tahini dressing, served with a plate of bohita and cerignola olives and sweet potato slices
Feed each child dinner of choice
6:45 PM
Darling husband comes home and the children flock to him!
7:00 PM
We dine and connect.
8:00 PM
Play with baby in nursery with all the kids – we have lots of fun & laughs here!
9:00 PM
I lay down with baby while hubby puts big kids to bed and hopefully she sleeps through the night so we can have plenty of fresh energy for the next epic day…
More from The Chalkboard: A Day in the Life with Natalia Rose
by natalia | Aug 21, 2013 | Recipes
• 2 salmon fillets
• 1/2 bunch radishes, sliced
• 1 handful of red cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 head of red leaf lettuce for wraps, pico de gallo fresh cilantro sprigs
Salt and pepper the salmon as desired and pan sear in a little butter till slightly pink in center, 4 or 5 minutes per side. Let cool and flake apart with fork. Add chipotle sour cream.
by natalia | Aug 15, 2013 | Cleansing
Butter, Cream, and Negative Fasting Experience (January 25, 2010)
Q: Rachelle writes, “Where do (organic) butter and cream belong? Can I use a little butter on my sweet potato or a bit of cream in my tea or do I need to keep them in the flesh combo?”
We are able to include butter and heavy cream, which should certainly be used sparingly, because they do not contain large amounts of casein, the animal protein that sticks like glue in the intestines. Because butter is really a fat, and not a protein, it can be used with both starch and protein meals and can definitely be enjoyed on a baked sweet potato or yam. Heavy cream should really be used with a protein meal except for the very beginning transitioner. Add a small amount to your blended Cream of Broccoli Soup, or a tiny dollop in your Detox Hot Cocoa (made with hot water, stevia, and cocoa and carob powder). Use these fats in moderation for their flavor (like spices), not to add density to a meal.
Rande writes, “I did a 5 day juice fast recently and did not lose any weight (and I definitely have at least 10-15 lbs that haven’t wanted to go anywhere). I had 2 gravity colonics and a solid bowel movement each day of the fast. I was drinking quite a lot of juice and did feel like I was hanging onto a lot of water. I was very frustrated after this and my diet was definitely not as good for a couple of months afterwards It has been weighing on me heavily as I feel like I’ve been working very hard and stuck at a plateau.”
Thank you for your question, Rande. Actually, a low weight loss fast often means you’re really getting somewhere! First, check the fast for hidden factors. Juices should be vegetable and not fruit-based, and adding “extras” like coconut water and salty veggie broth will keep your body holding.
If your juices are fresh and veggie-based, and you are supplementing them only with tea and water, the answer must be in you. And if you’ve really been working the diet, eating cleanly, keeping the body moving, and processing emotional situations well you may just be at the perfect place for your body for right now. Kudos (or rather, carrots) to you! You may also have hydrated a large amount of waste (picture a dried sponge that’s now filled with water) which hasn’t moved yet. It will, and you’ve done the work of starting it’s process up and out. It doesn’t mean that this is the farthest your body will contract, or that you’re at your detox end-point by any means. But it means that you’ve been doing really good work, and that your body wants to stay where it is size/weight-wise right now.</span>
Believe me, I know how hard this can be to accept. We all battle with this at times. But detoxification means your body is releasing stored toxins from many places, not just fatty deposits. It knows best, and you can trust that as you continue the process it will continue to morph and change. The detox process is happening, and changing you dramatically, it just might not be apparent in the places you’re looking. I’ve seen cellulite diminish before pant size, or hair grow in thicker and shinier before the scale budges. Or there might be nothing you can see, but instead something you can feel. I understand frustration, I promise. Hang in there, and your body will find its center.
by natalia | Jun 5, 2013 | Life Force Families
E = mc. Remember this tenet of quantum physics originated by Albert Einstein? If E equals energy, m equals mass, and c2 is the speed of light squared, this equation suggests that we can understand our bodies in terms of energy and light. Let this insight inform how you carry yourself. I call this “holding your flame.” Yes, your body, that sometimes hard-to-rouse-out-of-bed lump of flesh, is actually living light. And the very essence of light is fire. Therefore, you, my friend, are a living flame. Don’t ever forget it!
The Energy Body
The spinal cord, which is the core of the body, is the fire-rod axis, which conducts your life force. Running through your spine is your spinal fluid, whose essence is pure energy. If this energy were visible, you would see it move as a fluid light current following the donut-like pattern of a torus. Picture the light-energy flowing into you from the head (the crown chakra) while simultaneously flowing from below in the base of your spine (the root chakra). In this way, the current runs up and down the length of the spine until it reaches the opposite pole, then moves outward and around you to recirculate fresh energy.
Everything in the plant and animal kingdoms follows the torus pattern of energetic flow. It is the flow of all living things—from the smallest atom to the largest tree. You can even see this lifeline flowing within a carrot, an apple, or a Brussels sprout! The energy enters from both directions and flows into, through, and around the plant, giving it its life force and fanning its indwelling firelight. Likewise, from the macrocosmic perspective, the Earth, the other planets, and even the solar system follow the torus pattern, sending life through their cosmic pranic tube.
Like the Earth, when your core or inner axis is rightly aligned and moving energy in swift waves, harnessing both the negative and positive poles equally, your being will thrive. This is why physical and energetic blockages (e.g., through unfit foods, environments, relationships, and experiences) are so damaging. Disturbances in the energetic flow manifest in the physical body in the form of compromised energy and illness. Becoming aware of this is the first and best step you can take to revive your inner flame. How do you do this?
Take a moment to try the following exercise.
Exercise: Realign with Your Flame
First, I ask you to envision and sense your body as a living flame whose greatest intensity runs along your vertical axis. Feel its heat running up along your core.
Next, I want you to feel this flame’s power in the chakra centers of your body. Feel the power take hold at the base of your spine at your root, then feel the creative energy in the area halfway between your root and your navel. Then feel the life force energy awaken in that flame at the spot right behind your navel.
Next, feel your heart center surge with the power of this fire; allow the fire to rise into the throat opening so you can express yourself more freely. Feel the heat in your forehead as the flame rises in your brain, between your eyes, and then finally allow it to surge through your crown and upward, where it will connect with the more spiritual dimensions of your energy field. Notice how your posture naturally lifts, opens, and surrenders to the graceful flow of energy.
Instead of merely straightening your posture, note the effortless rise of your body once it embodies the flow of this flame. Notice that it does not cause you to stiffen. Notice how it lifts the middle of your spine and opens your shoulders like wings. Notice how it lifts and draws back your head back ever so slightly, like that of a swan or a giraffe. Hold your flame, feel it rise and emit its powerful energy all around you. Open up to its fullness. This is your natural alignment and your indwelling power.
Remember this as often as you can as you walk to work, shop for groceries, type e-mails, or undertake any other task. Notice how much clearer your communications and how much more centered your emotions are when you hold and embody your flame.
Reclaim Your Power Center
Real power is inner power, and inner power comes from wholeness. Your center is to your body what a nucleus is to a cell: the physical and operational center of your being, or the center of consciousness. Physically, your energy center is about an inch below and behind the belly button. There are several powerful points of consciousness in the body, such as the center of the heart and the center of the brain. When you are aligned with your flame, properly conducting life force energy, these all link up to create a powerful, interconnected center.
Every single person is capable of tapping into and activating this inner power. Once you fully engage it, you’ll be capable of unshakeable strength and confidence, no matter what comes your way. If you want to get the most out of this work, if you want to shape the life of your dreams, you must cultivate a powerful center.
Imagine your power center as a great control tower where all causes and effects of your life are spread out before you like a spider web. From that vantage point, you will recognize with astonishing clarity what is essential to you and what is counterproductive or superfluous; you will be able to observe the outcomes of all the causes you have set into motion, and choose your next steps accordingly. When you are your own pilot—calm, confident, and centered—channeling your own inner fire, you can rise above all the nonsense and navigate smoothly toward wholeness.
When we choose a path of higher living—including alternative choices about our consumption, our social conditioning, and our physical and psychological blockages—we initiate the journey back to wholeness. It all begins with your inner flame, cultivating its power from your center, and feeding its strength with every obstruction you remove and every broken piece of yourself that you put back together. In this way, the journey is ongoing becomes more rewarding over time.
Most people today do just the opposite: instead of cultivating their centers, they focus too much on externalities and burden their bodies with all kinds of obstructions that stifle their energy flow and throw their systems off balance. Their flames suffocate and become weak. They have no core strength—physically or spiritually. Thus, they are at the mercy of passing trends and social pressures that will eventually throw them so off balance that they will topple over. Real power is inner power. Never forget it.
Recharge with Sleep, Rest, and Meditation
There has been much discussion about rest and sleep in cleansing circles. The notion that you won’t need much rest comes from novice detoxers in the early stages of consuming more vital foods and juices. They experience the natural rush of energy from the life force in these substances, and the contrast to their previous levels of energy is remarkable. The burst of energy stimulates much creativity and productivity, sometimes making it hard to sleep. But beginners have initial experiences that dramatically change as they stay the course and their bodies rebalance.
The deepest, most meaningful healing is done when the body is resting and sleeping. Taking care to get lots of sleep (and even take naps or meditation-naps, where you lie down to center yourself and then allow yourself to doze) is essential to your cellular convalescence. You can expect your sleeping patterns to change as much as your body and your perspectives change over the long haul. Some nights you may have intense night sweats as toxins pour out of your body; other nights you may sleep more deeply and longer than you ever have since you were a teenager; and still other nights you will feel high as a kite from the pulsating chi, which may stimulate you to undertake all kinds of creative, productive projects in the midnight hour. Just go with it and observe, always remembering that rest and deep sleep do not betray weakness but support greater strength.
In addition, when you start to expand your consciousness, you may find you need much more sleep and time-outs. Growth is an extremely active process. When you are taking leaps of consciousness and your DNA is literally rewiring it’s programming, you might feel like you need to drop out midday for a deep sleep. This is very typical. If you can afford the time, take it and surrender to your body’s need for rest. It is critical to the process and will enable you to integrate your leaps of consciousness much more harmoniously. You’ll come out of it crisp and clear. Do not judge the need for rest. Just notice the benefits when you allow it.
This concludes our ninth lesson. In next week’s edition of The Rose Program Insider, we will talk about how to exercise freedom of choice in a world of false authorities.
by natalia | Jun 5, 2013 | Personal Development
I will start with thank you. A friend suggested your book. After several attempts to get me to read your book, I finally took a look and purchased Raw Food Life Force Energy and then another. It has changed my life. I had been overweight most of my life and planned on having the Lap-Band. Luckily, I was not a candidate and the docs recommended gastric bypass. I knew I would not have that procedure. But I say luckily because I then knew that I would have to make the change from within and not depend upon a crutch.
In addition I was turning 50 and realizing that I had to take the weight off myself and that was the impetus to change my lifestyle. So last March 2008, I started the 21-day program. My goal was to lose 50 lbs. by August (my 50th birthday). I have now lost 74 lbs. and would like to lose 30 more. It was much easier than I expected. This truly is a lifestyle change that has improved my health and appearance.
I am an optometrist and see most patients once a year and many of them ask me how I lost the weight. What diet did I follow? Most of them think that I had surgery. They are usually surprised when I tell them that I changed my eating habits and lifestyle. I explain to them that it is not a diet but a lifestyle. I then give them the name of your book.
It has not been the perfect journey and I do not expect it to have an end because it is the journey itself…the life force energy that propels me forward. Thank you. I continue to learn and, by the way, I look terrific, feel terrific, and people have noticed the “glow”…and I know it is the “good vibrations”…
Most sincerely,
Elaina
by natalia | Jun 4, 2013 | Life Force Families
Softness triumphs over hardness, gentleness over strength.
The flexible is superior over the immovable.
This is the principle of controlling things
By going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.
—Lao-Tzu
Pursuing an alternative lifestyle is never easy. It often elicits floods of resistance from family and social circles, and requires great patience and perseverance in the face of obstacles. For me, it took more than twelve years of dedicated practice to reach my current level of self-awareness and self-sovereignty. I also had the help and encouragement of extraordinary teachers.
As for the floods of resistance, in my own case, I found that everyone had an opinion—mostly unsupportive, because my approach challenged their values. The obstacles grew based on how far away I veered from my expected course in terms of religious upbringing, social conditioning, peer pressure, and family expectations. But I knew that I had to face these obstacles and fully own my power in order to revive my authentic self, the one who’d been caged and silenced for far too long.
Take the Time You Need to Heal
Our work at Natalia Rose Institute is all about healing, nurturing, and growing, not quick fixes that have no lasting power and usually turn out to be more harmful than healthful in the long run. We are here to support true healing, in the deepest and most expansive meaning of the word—not to keep some kind of false peace with the body until all hell breaks loose again and another ceasefire is required!
We would get nowhere without patience and perseverance. My personality is naturally impetuous. I had to learn patience the hard way—by slamming into walls in my haste to achieve all my goals at lightning speed. I know for a fact that many of you are similarly wired because I read about it in your letters. Well, here in the Natalia Rose Institute community is one place where we serve ourselves far better with a healthy dose of patience and perseverance.
People tend to have a short memory when it comes to cleansing. They think after a week or so of juicing and eating only salads they should be clean. They forget all the soda, processed foods, hormone- and antibiotic-injected animal products, pasteurized cow dairy, birth control pills, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and/or recreational drugs they’ve consumed over the course of their lives—not to mention the generations of compromised DNA they received through their lineage! The cumulative damage to our cells and DNA is profound, not something that can be shaken off after only a week, month, or even a year of cleansing. It takes years to rectify our deep-rooted imbalances and achieve a truly beautiful, clean-celled body.
Keep in mind that raw foods and juices alone are not going to bring you back into alignment. For example, eating all raw or strictly vegan won’t necessarily ensure that you will live better or longer than your non-raw, non-juicing peers. You will also need to remove internal obstructions consistently over time. Eating a cleaner diet is just one essential component of the larger picture. The removal of obstruction (both physical and mental) is the actual fulcrum of healing.
This is where the patience and persistence comes in! You can juice for a weekend and drop a few pounds, but your body will go right back to its old stats unless you remove the obstruction that the juice fast awakened—and then continue to awaken and release more and more of that obstruction. Those that stay in the game, awakening and releasing for months and years, are the ones that reach the ecstasy of cleansing. The extended journey is what eventually cleans and elevates the blood chemistry and unblocks the internal pathways, enabling Life Force to surge and conduct through your body. As the cleansing reaches those depths, the alchemy happens: the internal organs are revived by the higher-caliber blood, skin tissue reflects the strengthened internal body, and energy soars. This is the true meaning of rejuvenation!
Our work here at Natalia Rose Institute is not about covering up our physical imperfections. Rather, it’s about pulling back the curtain on all the internalized toxicity that you’ve been carrying around with you and spent years of your life trying to hide. If you are still new to this work, you probably have some very deep toxicity that will emerge in waves. Don’t be embarrassed. No one who matters is judging you. In fact, here in the Natalia Rose Institute community, we’re all cheering you on! This work only gets better over time. Don’t give up. Give your body a chance to regenerate itself from the inside out.
Stay the Course of Cleansing
Physical aging and deterioration accompanied by feelings of weakness and fatigue are not factors of how many times you have ridden around the sun, but of what you have accumulated as you have gone around the sun! If you cleanse and maintain an alkaline-rich diet of primarily fresh fruits and veggies, and you are still feeling weak or lacking power for your workouts, it is due to one or more of the following reasons:
• You are awakening waste without releasing it. You have awakened matter that your bowel cannot release on its own. Therefore, your center is blocked and the awakened poisons are flooding your bloodstream, making you feel ill and tired. You need either bowel cleansing or a less than perfect meal to help ease your bowel’s transition to clean foods—one or the other, but preferably the former.
• You are experiencing withdrawal symptoms. You are so addicted to the stimulation of cooked proteins, whey/soy/protein energy bars, coffee, refined sugar, flour, soda, etc. that your body is not coping with the change. The problem is that you’re having withdrawal symptoms—not that the clean diet is failing to deliver energy. You probably need to transition more slowly. People are often deceived into thinking they need meat when, after a week of a meat-free diet, they eat a steak and suddenly feel “energized.”This is a false fire! Acidic, dense substances can never give you real energy, only stimulation. To an unclean body addicted to the stimulation, continuing to consume such substances feels good and familiar. Stopping too suddenly leads to withdrawal symptoms and a feeling of weakness. Hence, people often associate a clean diet with feeling weak. This is why making a gradual transition away from the old foods, rather than going cold turkey, is so crucial. It will help you avoid many pitfalls!
• You are still a slave to the old mental programming. Mental programming is a powerful thing. For years you’ve been absorbing the erroneous propaganda that only calorie-dense substances can sufficiently energize you. You’ve also been conditioned to expect quick, linear results from health regimens. But when the average obstructed body undergoes deep cleansing, it must slow down to conduct internal triage. When this happens, you might grow impatient and lose heart, but I urge you to stay the course. It often takes persistence in the face of a temporary impasse to yield a major breakthrough. But you have to stick with it!
Keep an Eye on the Big Picture
The detox lifestyle is largely a case of mind over matter: work to reverse your thinking and align with the greater truth. Most of all, keep an eye on the big picture of cleansing. A clear body is an energized body. Arnold Ehret said it nearly a hundred years ago: Vitality = Power – Obstruction. However, “Power” may not have been the clearest word choice, so, with all due respect to Ehret, let me rephrase this slightly: Vitality = Electromagnetic Conductivity – Obstruction. In other words, when the electromagnetic conductivity can rush unobstructed through the body, you will experience uncompromised vitality!
Every time you’re feeling impatient or a little less energized than you want to feel, ask yourself how clear your pathways are and how well your cells are conducting the electromagnetic power. Even when you’re blocked, this energy is always lying dormant within you, ready to be unleashed. But you cannot expect your body to release all the obstructions and toxicity that it has accumulated over a lifetime and regenerate clean cells overnight. True healing requires visionary practice, patience, and perseverance. If the duration and requirements get you down, just consider for a moment the alternative—hospitals, medication, countless unsexy symptoms and a steady, disempowerment, and a general decline. Green Lemonade, raw salads, and colonics, please!
Do all you can to remove any blockages—physical and mental—and then feel your body come alive with the blissful vibration of life force conducting through you. Your authentic, revitalized self will begin to emerge like a butterfly from a chrysalis, and soon you’ll be able to take wing!
This concludes our eleventh lesson. In next week’s final edition of The Rose Program Insider, we will close with a meditation on our highest aspirations and the true meaning of beauty.
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!
by natalia | Apr 25, 2013 | Health & Wellness, Personal Development, Recipes
American Yogini talks to Natalia Rose.
My private practice and personal interest has always had a heavy focus on kids and family. Maybe it’s because I have two children myself, but I cannot help but be very passionate about feeding the younger generation and hoping that the ills that plague my generation and my parents generation will, with perseverance and care, be remedied through the enlightenment of my children’s generation. Obviously, there are so many levels at which correcting what I would call the “mutation” in our dietary evolution must be addressed: in the home, in public health, in school cafeterias, in commercial products and in social settings. Even though it sometimes seems an insurmountable task, all it really takes is getting parents and kids motivated and enthusiastic about embracing a natural lifestyle.
Here’s how to start:
• The first thing that we all can do is be an example through our own lifestyles. By truly living this clean, prana-filled life that you are all becoming more and more at home with, you become a beacon to other parents and families, to your children’s teachers, doctors and especially to other parents and parents-to-be. We do not always need to be vocal to be heard. We can simply live this way and raise up our own beaming, light filled, mucus-free little ones with the good sense of natural living and we will inspire others.
• We must practice what we preach to our children (or better yet, practice and don’t preach). If you do not believe in eating meat or donuts and other junk foods, you must stand up for this when you purchase groceries. We cannot feed ourselves one way and then stock the refrigerator and cabinets with junk food that goes against everything we believe in for the others in our home (children, family, extended family, visitors). Our home must be the embodiment of our lifestyle. However, there is a fine line between living what we believe and forcing them to do what we have chosen to do. We don’t want to oppose anything so strongly that we wind up creating an eating disorder in our child or rouse anger and rebellion in the home. We must proceed sensitively. What I have found helpful in this regard is:
• Set the tone in the home: I keep only healthy foods in the house so that if they have the occasional non-ideal item outside the home it is not a big deal because it happens seldom.
• Avoid nagging but do explain to your kids why you make the choices you make in your lifestyle and why you do things differently to what is common.
• Permit exploration: I allow my children to try anything they want when we are in restaurants. They can even order a steak if they want to. Nothing is forbidden but I will not bring animal flesh other than fish into the home. I will not handle these flesh foods as the act of killing and eating animals is not in my truth. My children and husband respect this and know that they are always free to have such foods in any restaurant anytime.
• Prepare as much of your child’s daily food intake as possible: I pack my children’s lunches so that their school day eating is natural.
• Give them a sense of independence around food: I always let them choose what they would like to eat at mealtime. I keep lots of ingredients on hand for sprouted grain French toast or spelt pancakes for breakfast, sunshine burgers or sweet potatoes or their favorite soups for dinner and their lunches are always utterly delicious.
• Make it a sweet thing: I make sure there are fun sweets and desserts in the house so they can always have healthy indulgences whenever they like
• Let freedom ring: my kids never have to eat if they are genuinely not hungry, they can have more of one food than another, they can go into the kitchen at anytime if they would like something; while I do encourage eating at mealtime and refuse to be a short order cook, children need to feel empowered to follow their own palate and desires, particularly to avoid a sense of the parent holding too much sway over their eating. You can wield more power if you can give them more power. It creates a necessary balance that makes them feel free yet keeps them healthy.
• Make healthy snacks accessible: I keep bowls full of delicious apples and bananas around for “fast food” that they will take frequently during the day. My son will reach into the fruit bowl and wind up eating 2 apples and 2 bananas every day like a little monkey. At 4½ it gives him a sense of independence to take it when he likes without having to ask for help.
• We are all well aware of the cancer and weight crises spreading swiftly among our children. Too many children are suffering needlessly from obesity, depression, ADHD, asthma and more easily preventable physical and emotional ailments. The only way to help is to first start with your home and your children, standing up to all that our government, commerce and social conditioning hopes we will ignorantly keep consuming: such as their “square meals,” milk products, meats and packaged, processed foods that are outright killing our children physically and stealing their spirits emotionally.
• Food, however, while a good place to start and surely a necessary thing to get right, is only half of the equation. The other half is healing the emotional scars and societal habits that make us overeat and gravitate toward unfit foods to begin with. Our children are eating out of pain, out of a sense of loneliness brought about by our modern way of living so out of touch with each other. Our primary endeavor as parents must be to stand as a safe haven of unconditional love for our kids. Instead, we typically project our own pain and criticisms onto them. Children today are inundated with parental, societal and peer-projected expectations from academic and athletic competition. They are further over exposed to the constant onslaught of stimulation from the media. The incredible amount of anxiety that comes from this gets channeled into food because food serves as a numbing agent – a place they can go for temporary, albeit false comfort. Once they form this habit in the early years it is very difficult and in some cases impossible to change it sending them into a lifetime food and weight battle that eventually manifests in dire health and psychological consequences.
The only solution
We need to find every way we can to bring them peace. We can do this through sending them the message of unconditional acceptance in every single interchange we have with them each day. We do this by recognizing our own projections and correcting them if they are harmful. We do this by creating a home environment that is soothing, gentle and loving. Switch off the TV, light candles and enjoy dinner together, encourage older children take a relaxing bath and practice deep breathing exercises. Go for long walks together. Children are intuitive and would rather be with you having a gentle time than being over-stimulated by some form of media any day. From this place of peace they will also choose more natural paths, including how they eat.
The only way to bring them the kind of peace they need to have truly productive lives that serve themselves and their community one day is by opening our hearts and giving them what is sometimes difficult to give – attention and dedication to changing deep-seated habits and casting off deeply encoded cultural programmings about what matters, what is healthy and what it really means to be a good parent.
Once you find the bliss of peace that comes after you face up to the truth about how to best serve your families you will unleash a whole new spirit in the home that will shift the whole family unit into harmony and set the stage for health and well being in every area – from the kitchen to the classroom and beyond.
Natural eating, in turn will keep them calm and in sync with their inner selves and ultimately lead to better relationships, more creativity, better choices and a better sense of their place in the world. It is a healthy cycle that once begun feeds and sustains itself effortlessly.”
Ideas for healthy lunch bags
• Sprouted grain sandwiches filled with: Avocado, goat cheese and Dijon mustard Raw nut butter and pure fruit spread or raw honey Organic butter and raw honey Organic butter and pure fruit spread Sprouted grain bagels with organic cream cheese or organic butter Sprouted grain pita bread filled with nut butter and pure fruit spread
• Lara bars or other raw food bars
• Dried strawberries, dried pineapple or dried mangoes (unsulfured, no sugar added)
• Banana slices topped with cocoa powder and agave nectar
• Sliced apples topped with pumpkin pie spice
• To drink: Lemonade water: water with stevia and freshly squeezed lemon or lime
• All Organic Gourmet or Kollar cookies
• Raw brownies or other favorite raw food treat!
I personally keep lunches really simple: one healthy sandwich as above, a whole apple, a whole banana and a bar like a Lara bar or a whole grain cookie. This takes about 5 minutes to put together before school!
When it comes to feeding my family and advising my clients feeding their kids, I firmly believe in keeping it simple. Kids are usually happy with simple, natural foods. Don’t become too obsessed with perfectly combining foods for your kids either. Just make sure they are eating fresh, whole, largely raw foods most of the time and then you won’t have to worry about what they are doing the rest of the time.
I wish you and your family the most vibrant, love-filled lives!
Natalia Rose
by natalia | Apr 25, 2013 | Health Foods, Recipes
The Chalkboard Mag: Entertaining in the Raw
WHEN IT COMES TO entertaining friends, we save the soup to nuts dinner parties for the colder months. Summer is all about lighter fare, freer table settings and a more relaxed atmosphere. Whether you’re a raw foodie year-round or just like to dabble when the temperatures rise and appetites shrink, these two recipes from Natalia Rose are perfect for a little light entertaining!</span>
Both recipes, from Natalia’s most popular books Raw Food Life Force Energy, The Raw Food Detox Diet, are perfect as a quick menu for a night in with girlfriends or as dishes to add in to any healthy get-together. Get details below to win a copy of Raw Food Life Force Energy for yourself!
• SUDDENLY ST. TROPEZ SALAD
Recipe from Raw Food Life Force Energy. Simple to make, delectable to eat and easy to serve!
INGREDIENTS
1/4 to 1/2 lbs mesclun or baby romaine lettuce
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 medium beet, peeled and finely julienned into spaghetti-like strips
3 oz Alta Dena raw cheddar-style goat cheese, grated
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
NuNaturals stevia to taste
1 Tbsp diced sweet onion, optional
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, optional
2 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano or chives, optional
DIRECTIONS
Toss all of the ingredients together in a large salad bowl and serve!
RAW CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM
Recipe from The Raw Food Detox Diet. Ice cream that isn’t ice cream at all. If you’ve never tried raw, vegan ice cream before, make this the summer you do!
INGREDIENTS
3 bananas
3 Tbsp pure cocoa powder (I recommend Green & Black and Shiloh Farms)
2 Tbsp organic raw unsalted tahini
NuNaturals stevia to taste
6 organic dates, pitted, optional
3–4 cups ice cubes, about 14 cubes
DIRECTIONS
Place the bananas, cocoa powder, tahini, stevia, dates, and 1/4 of the ice in a K-Tec blender, or other high-powered blender. Slowly add the remaining ice cubes, as long as the mixture is flowing and blending well. You may have to run it two or three times to use up most of the ice. You don’t have to use all the ice, just use enough to make the mixture thick. You may also wish to use a little coconut water to facilitate blending. Makes about 4 cups.
by natalia | Apr 25, 2013 | Health & Wellness, Personal Development
The Chalkboard Mag: In & Out in NYC with Natalia Rose
IT’S THE EVER-PRESENT QUESTION OF city living, should we eat in or eat out?”
Either choice comes with its challenges for those of us making an effort to eat healthfully – especially if, like this month’s Guest Editor, you’re living in New York City! No matter where in the world you live, eating in means a whole lot of shopping, prepping, cooking and storing. And eating out means navigating menus, finding healthful choices and trying not to cause a stir!</span>
When it comes to the ever-pressing culinary question of ‘in or out’, we wanted to know: how does one of our healthiest raw role models do it? Natalia Rose is sharing her favorite tips for making either choice a bit easier, from the best items to stash in your purse to the perfect dressing to make at home. Whether you live across town or across the country, there is something useful here for everyone. As for take-out – eating out while in – you’re on your own!
IF YOU’RE EATING IN…
TOSS IT UP
Celebrate salad as a main course! You can add just about anything into a large bowl of greens and have a really enjoyable meal.
Trust yourself to make inspired raw salads without using recipes!
IN THE PANTRY
Instead of waiting til the last minute to gather your ingredients, keep all of your favorite pantry staples stocked up at all times.
What are your favorite seasonings, spices and sauces? Keep these ingredients at the ready and get to cooking! If you’re always stocked up on dry goods, you can keep the focus on really high-quality produce as you need it.
THE PERFECT DRESSING
Learn what constitutes a good dressing. Always include an acid, a sweet and a fat to balance the palate.
Also, learn when not to dress your food: don’t over-season and keep things simple!
IF YOU’RE EATING OUT…
STEALTHY SWAPS
Avoid restaurant oils: ask for everything clean steamed and add your own things to it. Carry an extra lemon for dressing – and dark chocolate in your bag!
TIPS AT THE TABLE
Make eye contact and be kind and honest with your waiter about what you are looking for. Don’t be pressured into eating anything you genuinely don’t want to – your body, your choice.
Order a double order of salad or ask for a steamed veggie plate – even if it’s not on the menu, most restaurants can quickly make you one.
FAVE NYC SPOTS
Gemma, for the great vibe, Amaranth & Orsay for the Orsay Salad
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