Creamy Detox Soup Recipe with Coconut Milk

An easy, creamy vegan soup ~ gluten-free.

It's hard not to feel anxious these days. So much barking and blinking and chest thumping. So much posing and strutting, and grinding, voracious greed. It's mighty tough for a sensitive soul (prone to itchy bouts of worry) to cope with all the mishegas and mayhem of our overheated plugged-in self-promoting culture. Finding a little grace and respite amidst the noise can be hard.

That is why I am sharing (another) soup recipe. Just in case there is a kindred spirit out there in need of a bowl of creamy veggie comfort. A gluten-free vegan detox soup worthy of Peter Rabbit's sneaky excursions into Mr. McGregor's garden (that mischievous little rabbit- or as we like to say in my house... BUNNY!- close to my own greens adoring heart).

Bunnies aren't known for twerking on YouTube, or spitting out criticism, or bullying, or, in general, wreaking havoc. Unless you count Peter's root vegetable stealing. Or (my sons' favorite) mischievous Max and his devouring love of chocolate chickens (have you read the Max books?).

Bunnies are (ostensibly, anyway) devoted to a milder temperament.

And qualities like kindness and cuteness and gentleness.

Traits easily trampled in our thundering, gun toting, zombie killing 3-D pyrotechnics fed culture.

So it seemed only fitting I cook up a batch of bunny loving vegan soup today as fresh and non-toxic as could be.

Creamy, green, good-for-you soul food.

Ask any bunny.

Read more + get the recipe >>

A January Sweepstakes!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! With the new year here and lots of new plans, goals, and - let's face it - the same old work, too, it's easy to feel a little overwhelmed by the busy-ness of all this January business. 

Diet to Go is a frozen meal delivery service with options for maintenance or loss that can take a little off of your plate while you get readjusted to non-vacation life. They have multiple meal plans, including a vegetarian option, and meal plans can be chosen to provide 1,200 or 1,600 calories per day. If you just want a healthy way to maintain, you can add foods to the plan to make up your energy needs, and still enjoy the time-saving benefits of a frozen meal delivery service!

This January, running from the 31 days from January 1 to January 31, Diet to Go is hosting a 1,000 Meal Giveaway ($9,000 in free meals)! Check out more about the sweepstakes at the official sweepstakes announcement on their blog!

This isn't a sweepstakes you want to miss. You could win one of 50 different prizes from Diet to Go, including free weeks of meals and $50 gift cards. The good news doesn't end there, 5 super lucky grand-prize winners will receive an entire month of free meals from Diet to Go!

Don't miss their upcoming Twitter Party on January 7th at 9pm EST, an engaging one hour chat focusing on the anti-New Year's Resolution (how to make lifelong, lasting changes using common sense). To add to the fun, one randomly drawn chatter will win a Fitbit Flex Wristband or a Fitbit scale. Three additional randomly drawn chatters will win a week of free meals! 

To learn more about how to join the party and get a chance to win, check out the Twitter Chat Announcement.

First day to a new start

HAPPY NEW YEAR ! I spent today reviewing the new eBook I have been putting together for the past year! It is a collection of all the daily recipes that were shared in 2013 on the Earth Diet website.

The book has 365-Days of Recipes - A year of Earth's natural recipes. It also has over $150 in coupons!

It is available for DOWNLOAD here: www.theearthdiet.org/365-day-recipe-book

Myself and other contributors will do another year of daily recipes.

I am excited that in a few years my website will have a library of recipes for us all to choose from!

Love Liana

Don't Get Jealous, Get Inspired! 3 Ways to Turn Jealousy into Inspiration

Let's be real here. We've all felt jealous at some point in our lives. Whether it was the girl in high school who got all the hot guys, or the friend who just bought that big house, or the chick who landed an awesome feature in a glossy women's magazine, it's impossible to not feel a tinge of "Why Not Me?" when someone gets something we want. But jealousy doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact, if you channel that energy properly, you can quickly use it to light a fire under your own butt and get inspired. Watch my latest video to learn how!

Free e-Book and Ideal Weight Program 2.0 Announcement

I'm happy to announce that we're releasing a free e-book titled Why do We Gain Fat, and How do We Lose it? An Introduction to the Science of Body Fat, by Dan Pardi and myself. This is a slimmed-down version of the longer, fully referenced e-book we offer as part of the Ideal Weight Program. In it, we provide a succinct overview of the science of body fat gain and loss, and the evidence base for our program.  It also contains a schematic that ties together the various concepts in visual form. You can download it from the Dan’s Plan site by following this link to our program overview page.

Ideal Weight Program 2.0 Upgrades

Over the last year, Dan and I have been working hard to improve the Ideal Weight Program, both in response to user feedback and our own ideas for development.  Here are some of the new features we offer in 2014:

1. Four-week meal plans and shopping lists for the FLASH diet and the Simple Food Diet, as requested by Ideal Weight Program users.  This is in addition to the recipes and cooking guides we already provide.  
2. The Protein Unit system.  Research suggests there's an optimal amount of protein for appetite control and fat loss, depending on your height, weight, gender, and physical activity level.  Our fat loss diets are high in protein, but how do you know you're getting the right amount?  We've created a calculator that does it for you automatically, and explains how to apply your personalized Protein Unit value easily and intuitively using real food. 
3. Diet plates.  These are visual guides to following our diets, based loosely on the intuitive USDA MyPlate design.  
4. Cheat sheets.  Put these on your fridge to remind yourself of your diet and lifestyle guidelines, and daily protein unit goal.
5. Updated guidance.  We've refined a few things in the diet guidance documents. 

At a time of year when many people want to shed excess holiday pounds and start down a leaner, healthier path, we offer the Ideal Weight Program 2.0.  The program comes with a 30-day no-questions-asked refund policy so you can try it without risk.  We think you'll love this program, but if it doesn't work for you, we're happy to refund your purchase price. 

Financial disclosure: I receive a portion of the revenue from the sale of the Ideal Weight Program.  I do not receive revenue from the sale of other products associated with Dan's Plan or the Ideal Weight Program (such as the Fitbit, cooking tools, and other programs).

5 things to leave behind in 2013!

Where I am it is 2 hours until the NEW YEAR!  It is so refreshing to start a new year! 

Here are 5 things I think we as people living on earth should leave behind in 2013:

1. Consuming GMO's and other chemicals and preservatives. 

2. Eating corn syrup, refined sugar and aspartame. 

3. Over indulging in processed junk foods. 

4. Dairy that is not organic.

5. White flour and white bread. 

I also wrote down 5 things I personally want to leave behind in 2013. And then I wrote down 5 things I want to achieve in 2014!

Write your lists too! Live the life you want. I know it's not always easy but we just have to do it.  Here's to our healthiest year yet!

And if you are struggling with a healthy lifestyle, it doesn't have to be that hard, hire one of the Earth Diet mentors or myself to keep you in check and help you with your health goals! 

HAPPY HAPPY healthy New Year! 

Love Liana 

Have a great Eve and a Happy New Year!

This is a few hours early, so don't read it until midnight if that's important to you, but

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope that the next year brings great things for you and your loved ones. Instead of letting resolutions be the cause of unhappiness and disappointment, how about resolving to be happy this year and not letting little things (like not working out or how awesome ice cream is or how infrequent flossing happens) get you down. 2014 is the year of you, don't beat yourself up, love you and love the year! YAY!

I love new beginnings :)

302 days to book launch!

What will you do to celebrate? 

In 302 days the Earth Diet book will be out! Tuesday 28th October.

These recipes have already helped thousands to improve their health and even heal some diseases. It is obvious that when we put so much nutrition into our bodies that our immune system is boosted and our cells are nourished! Excess weight is usually the first to drop! 

Maybe this book can help millions of people?! What do you think? I am putting together an Earth Diet book launch team. Email me at liana@theearthdiet.org if you would like to be part of it! 

Imagine if you can make a huge difference to the lives of your loved ones and others around the world!

Love Liana 

Does the Vitamin and Mineral Content of Food Influence Our Food Intake and Body Fatness?

The Claim: We Overeat Because Our Diet is Low in Vitamins and Minerals

We know that animals, including humans, seek certain properties of food.  Humans are naturally attracted to food that's high in fat, sugar, starch, and protein, and tend to be less enthusiastic about low-calorie foods that don't have these properties, like vegetables (1).  Think cookies vs. plain carrots.

In certain cases, the human body is able to detect a nutritional need and take steps to correct it.  For example, people who are placed on a calorie-restricted diet become hungry and are motivated to make up for the calorie shortfall (2, 3).  People who are placed on a low-protein diet crave protein and eat more of it after the restriction is lifted (4).  Humans and many other animals also crave and seek salt, which supplies the essential minerals sodium and chlorine, although today most of us eat much more of it than we need to.  At certain times, we may crave something sweet or acidic, and pregnant women are well known to have specific food cravings and aversions, although explanations for this remain speculative.  Research suggests that certain animals have the ability to correct mineral deficiencies by selecting foods rich in the missing mineral (5).

These observations have led to a long-standing idea that the human body is able to detect vitamin and mineral (micronutrient) status and take steps to correct a deficit.  This has led to the secondary idea that nutrient-poor food leads to overeating, as the body attempts to make up for low nutrient density by eating more food.  In other words, we overeat because our food doesn't supply the micronutrients our bodies need, and eating a micronutrient-rich diet corrects this and allows us to eat less and lose body fat.  These ideas are very intuitive, but intuition doesn't always get you very far in biology.  Let's see how they hold up to scrutiny.

Read more »

Statins increase the risk of diabetes in kidney transplant patients

This study was published in Transplantation 2013 Nov 26

 

Study title and authors:

HMG CoA Reductase Inhibitor Treatment Induces Dysglycemia in Renal Allograft Recipients.

Choe EY, Wang HJ, Kwon O, Cho Y, Huh KH, Kim MS, Kim YS, Ahn CW, Cha BS, Lee HC, Kang ES.

Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24285338

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of statins on the development of dysglycemia in kidney transplant patients. (Dysglycemia is defined as diabetes and impaired fasting glucose). The study included 394 patients without previously known diabetes or impaired fasting glucose who had undertaken kidney transplantation. Patients were grouped into the two groups according if they used statins (245 statin users and 149 nonusers).

The study found:
(a) Statin users had a 208% increased risk of dysglycemia compared to non users.
(b) The time to development of dysglycemia after transplantation was shorter in the statin group (38.8 months) than in the control group (47.2 months).

Choe concluded: "Statin treatment is associated with an elevation in fasting plasma glucose and in the development of dysglycemia in renal allograft recipients (kidney transplant patients)".

Stuffed Peppers - Crockpot (C1)

Stuffed Peppers - Crockpot (C1)

Recipe Author: Beverly Bates Johnson

4-5 bell peppers, seeded and halved
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 Tbsp olive oil
Mushrooms (1-2 cups, chopped, or as much as you like)
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves of chopped garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
8 oz can tomato sauce (or more, if desired)
Salsa
Fat Free mozzarella cheese

Brown the turkey with the olive oil, onion and garlic. Add mushrooms and cook until they are soft. Add diced tomatoes and ½ cup of salsa. Heat through.

Coat slow cooker with cooking spray. Stuff peppers and place in cooker. Top with tomato sauce and more salsa. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours, or until peppers reach the consistency you prefer. Serve topped with cheese.

This can also be baked in the oven: Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and top with fat free mozzarella. Bake 10 more minutes until cheese melts.

Notes:
Get creative with your vegetables when stuffing this! You can use carrots, or other variations.

Oatmeal and Apples (C2)

Oatmeal and Apples (C2)

Recipe Author: Brittany Simpson

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

1 apple, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 packet Truvia/2 tsp Stevia
Cinnamon to taste
2 Tbsp dry oatmeal
6 oz plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1 scoop vanilla protein powder


Take the apple, Truvia and dry oatmeal and saute in a pan with the olive oil until soft.

Top with the yogurt that's been mixed with the protein powder.

Yummy breakfast!

Krista's Easy Turkey Meatloaf (C1)

Krista's Easy Turkey Meatloaf (C1)

Recipe Author: Krista Plaisier

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 Tbsp crushed garlic
2 Tbsp dried basil
1 tsp mustard
pepper to taste
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp oregano
1 1/2 Tbsp steak sauce
1 egg white
2 Tbsp flaxseed meal

Cook at 350 for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 and cook additional 15 minutes if needed.

Note: Double-check the ingredients on your steak sauce -- some have sugar added to them.

Meat eaters who are also vegan

Last night at a food party I noticed how my friends and I are all meat eaters, yet everything we served and ate was raw and vegan. 

Straight up raw cauliflower for a great snack! 

Superfood kale salad with grated carrot and beet for some vibrant colour! 

What works for me is a 70% raw vegan lifestyle, 20% cooked vegan and 10% meat eaters. Living this way has had me experience more energy, I've lost excess weight, my digestive system is working well and I feel better. It's all about finding what works for our own selves! 

Emily Rose Shaw who is a mentor for the Earth Diet Personalized Programs was amongst the group and we discussed hate mail from vegans who do not approve that I share meat recipes. It's very important we remember not to judge or condemn anyone for everyone is at different stages and we are all a team on earth together. Its not that I am encouraging people to eat meat, but I do provide recipes for EVERY type of eater. No one gets left behind. I have found that when people start living the Earth Diet lifestyle they naturally start to live a more plant based lifestyle. 

My tip to meat eaters: eat more raw foods!

My tip to vegans: don't condemn meat eaters, focus on your own lifestyle. If you aren't supporting the meat industry that must make you feel proud. You can also inspire and "convert" others around you especially at family gatherings when you bring a huge tray of cookie dough balls ;) no eggs! Purely vegan! Don't be haters. 

Love Liana 

FOCUS on the Principles Challenge - Week 1

FOCUS on the Principles Challenge for 2014 - Week 1

On our Facebook group, we are starting on a four-week challenge to re-incorporate the principles of the 17 Day Diet.

In talking with others and doing some coaching, I'm hearing from a lot of people who have "fallen off the wagon" and need to get back in the game.

Sometimes that's not as easy as it sounds, even though we know what works.  What's worked for some that I've worked with is to incorporate 2-3 principles at a time and make them a habit that you don't even think about down the road.

So that's what we're doing in January! Feel free to join us, let us know here how you're doing with this!

3 Good Reasons not to Day-Drink

As a college student, even at an Ivy League (where studying severely limits partying relative to some other places), I'm aware of how much drinking happens.

I'm also aware of how great an excuse  the holidays seem to be to extend that drinking from Saturday to Friday night to Thursday night to Wednesday afternoon...

Courtesy of images from the internet (yay, internet!), here are three good reasons not to day drink.

Your reputation.

The holidays are a really social season for most of us and drinking tends not to make you sound any smarter. You will form impressions, and a reputation, now that will last all year!

Drinking doesn't bode well for decision-making.

That might be a bit extreme, but you get the idea.

The Hangover.

The whole movie (including the conception of the movie) was just a bad idea.

This one isn't a GIF, but it's almost better - have you heard of the Drinking Mirror App? It shows you what drinking does to your looks. Since the holiday season is also a prime to take photos, you definitely don't want to go down in history looking like the 'after' you on the Drinking Mirror App.

Just don't day-drink! Or, if you do, you've been warned.

Whatever you're drinking this holiday season, drink responsibly.

And DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE. That's a personal pet peeve of mine (I've heard people brag about it - it's not something to brag about, it's shameful and endangers the lives of innocent people).

Okay, lecture hat is off.

What's one your pet peeves?

What's your favorite holiday beverage? Alcoholic or nonalcoholic!

Gluten-Free Chicken Chili with White Beans, Sweet Potato and Lime

Gluten-Free Goddess chicken chili with white beans.

New Year's Day looms. Ah, the annual parades. The glut of bowl games. The feast of football. Pigskin is king. Tight ends are tightening. Quarterbacks are quarterbacking. And kickers are praying to the football gods they won't be called in for a chip-shot, with 6 seconds to spare in the final quarter. Do I sound like I know what I am talking about? I don't. I just overheard some manly sporty banter over gluten-free tuna melts. To which I smiled politely.

And reached for a pickle.

Even after watching every episode of Friday Night Lights, I still don't understand a down. Football is a mystery. Back fields in motion. Penalties! Off sides. Snap. Blitz. Gotta love the lingo.

It's a language alluringly foreign to me.

Like math.

Or for some, perhaps it's akin to say... abstract expressionism.

Visual chaos executed in angles and arcs and bursts of focus, drive and energy.

Thing is, I get the practiced dance of propulsion. Designing motion from multiple points of view. I get it. In my bones. This is my territory. You're talkin' my language. Value verses tone. Light bumping up against dark. Sharp contrast dissolving into blur. I appreciate the power of practice and intention. Negative space divided by a perfect spiral.

Think of the interplay of icing thick paint and oceanic viscosity.  The quickening beauty of a layered surface, vibrating with complementary colors. Transparency and opacity. Cool against warm. Unprimed and primed. Lost and found edges. The seduction of action's evidence. The painter's hand. Rugged tooth and clean, smooth paper.

Though it's not all yin yang, a wrestle of opposites.

As in football- and life- painting is a focus of expression, sometimes true and authentic, and sometimes disappointingly off the mark.

Like a short field goal.

We try. We sometimes miss. But what matters is- we make the effort. And that is all we can do. We kick the ball. We brush wet paint. We string words into a lyric. We stitch a quilt. We photograph a child's curiosity. We make chili.

And sometimes?

We get a winner.

And if not?

Tomorrow is another day.


Read more + get the recipe >>

Healthy Replacements

“Just Eat it”? Taking that leap of faith to let go of the diets and the rules.

Just Eat it. Designed by Olle Hemmendorff for Nike.

Just Do It has been a memorable Nike campaign, motivating and inspiring athletes and active wannabees for years now. But I really don’t want to talk about exercise and determination.

Rather, let’s talk about Just Eat It, the image circulating on social media with that very phrase. This expression has crossed my mind—but not my lips—during many a patient session way before the creative graphic emerged. Yes, sometimes I’d like to shout out JUST EAT IT! (or even JUST EAT!), at times when rational discussion seems to get us nowhere. But that’s my emotional—and occasionally frustrated—response.

Personally, I struggle with the just part of the statement. Does it feel like a justto you, as an only? Or merely eat? To the person living with disordered eating, I bet just is the worst possible adverb imaginable. To me, it minimizes the struggle. Just eat it? As in, “it’s no big deal, what’s all the fuss about anyway”. EAT it?! If you could just eat, wouldn’t you?

The hike toward the Hornli Hut, heading toward
the Matterhorn. 

My editor was reviewing this piece—by editor I mean husband—and he likened this minimizing to a personal experience he and I have had. You see, I have a fear of heights, and I swear it’s worsened as I’ve gotten older. So now, when we go hiking where the path has narrowed and I can vividly imagine the drop off to my death, I get a bit stuck—think deer-in-headlightskind of stuck. No, not just a bitstuck. There’ve been times when he’s had to talk me through, or physically be there to support me. At those times, he’s clearly communicated the message of “just do it, just get over it”, as in “what’s your problem?” failing to understand that my concern just might be irrational.

No, others really may not get it; fear is often irrational. But somehow reading a draft of this post he did get it. I don’t choose to get anxious at precipitous drops at high elevations. And sometimes the dangers are real. But the risk of stepping outside of your comfort zone to eat (as opposed to the risk of not eating enough), is not life threatening.

I suspect that if you really think about it, you’d realize that you used to eat the very foods you fear will make you fat, or will trigger overeating, with no ill effect. Think back to the time before the rigid rules and diets began, before your eating disorder or disordered relationship with food developed. Sure, you may associate carb restriction with something positive—weight loss perhaps (strictly because it resulted in reduced calories, and not because there’s anything magical about reducing carbs, or fats, or any food or nutrient in particular). 

But you fail to acknowledge that your struggle with binge eating only began with this restriction, with the deprivation. Or, that starting to restrict set you on your path to being unable to nourish your body, to respond to its needs. You hold on to all the ‘good’ you associate with dieting, yet minimize the consequences of your disordered eating on your health—on your mood, on your ability to be social, on your energy level, on your thinking.

There’s a bit of a conundrum we face; by we I mean providers and parents and loved ones alike. I can present all kinds of justification for nourishment—for including carbs, for increasing necessary calories, for adding snacks, whatever—but sometimes that’s not enough. Evidence that food restriction is slowing metabolism may help—such as pointing out that a slowed heart rate or lowered body temperature is a consequence of starvation. Showing evidence that you had previously been both healthy and a normal weight when eating your now feared foods may help, but it doesn’t seal the deal. 

Do you know which are the least read of all these blog posts? They are the ones describing research—the clearest evidence—in favor of normalizing your eating. Few tend to care about the evidence.

No, you can’t always negotiate with an eating disorder.

Sure, it’s easier if you know you can trust me—that I’m not going to mislead you; that it’ll really be okay if you make the dietary changes I suggest. But where’s the proof? Until you actually do it, and see that it really isokay, it’s challenging to trust. You believe that you’re different, that the rules simply don’t apply. And so we’re stuck.

At that point, you need a leap of faith. You need to go on blind faith that it will be okay. It helps to acknowledge that where you’re currently at is clearly not alright—in fact, that you’re quite miserable, if you allow yourself to be honest about how you feel. And it helps if you consider ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ acknowledging that fear of rapid weight change is a distortion of your thinking; progress on so many levels can start here. Recognize that you don’t have to commit to continuing with this change forever—take it one day at a time, and give yourself the opportunity to back out.

It can be scary getting to the top, but it's worth the effort.
Capu Rosso, Corsica

Sometimes we do need to “Eat it!” or “Do it” giving yourself no option but to not go running, or to cease all purge behaviors, for instance. Sometimes giving your self no option makes the recovery process much easier.

But if you can’t bring yourself to take that leap of faith, or to “Do it”, then eating disorder programs may be the next best thing. Or, for those living at home with family, FBT (family based treatment for eating disorders) may be a great alternative.

Over time, you’ll realize that there’s really no other option for living a healthy life than to maintain the changes you’ve started.

Just saying.

What are your thoughts? Is anyone reading out there?

Apple-Cinnamon Stuffed Omelet (C1)

Apple-Cinnamon Stuffed Omelet (C1)

1 egg + 3 egg whites whisked with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 apple diced, tossed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon ground flax

Pour the eggs into a  pan over medium heat and let them sit. After a minute or so start lifting the edges and letting any uncooked egg get underneath. Once it’s completely set, remove it from the pan carefully to keep it round and intact. It should be sort of like a crepe.

Dice the apples and mixed them with the cinnamon and flax in a small bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds to a minute until they are soft and smell like apple pie.

Place the apples onto the omelet and fold it up and enjoy!

You can top this with berries that you've microwaved and then crushed, or for C3, you can use almonds-only almond butter.