Healthy living is more than just exercise and nutrition. It’s about respect. Respect for your body, mind, soul, other people, animals and planet earth.

Can you tell when someone appreciates something in their life? Of course you can. There are some 50 year-old homes that look almost new while there are houses 20 years younger that look like they should be condemned!

Everything in life, no matter how it was originally built or created, requires a certain amount of time, energy and attention for maintenance. It’s obvious when neglect has been the reigning approach because it looks run down. It’s actually a form of abuse.

If you really feel blessed for something in your life, if you really love it, you’re more motivated to care for it because you want it to remain in your life in the best possible condition for as long as possible.

Engineers in Your Ear are a couple of stand-up guys who try to love the planet earth every day. They love it like apple pie. Check out their 3:35 minute tribute to her:

What do you think of the video and song, Readers? Thumbs up or down?

Caring for our bodies, relationships, material possessions and the land that provides us everything we need to survive are all important to living a healthy lifestyle. Let’s hear how you try to care for our planet earth in the comments below!

Instead of forcing people to diet and exercise, Dan Buettner is inspiring people towards healthier lifestyles by changing their environment. The Vitality Project is an incredible concept and very promising for future generations!

Awhile back, we reported how Mr. Buettner was studying the world’s “blue zones”, places like Loma Linda, California, where people on a whole in the community lived similar lifestyles and had unusually long lives. Based on his studies, he wrote and published a book in 2008 called, “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.”

One year later, Buettner decided to bring the health benefits he saw in these blue zones to middle America by partnering up with AARP magazine to start the Vitality Project.

Albert Lea, Minnesota, a town of 18,000 residents, signed up for the five month project and with some fairly subtle changes to the environment, they saw amazing results!

Almost 3,500 townsfolk participated. (Source: CBS) They got motivated, made friends, added a few years to their lives and had so much fun that they can’t stop! Read Dan’s article here in AARP magazine for testimonials and a more in-depth view on the project.

Some Results (Source: NewsWeek):

• Participants lost an average of 2.6 pounds.
• Boosted life expectancy by an average of 3.1 years.
• Health-care claims for city & school employees fell for the first time in 10 years – by 32% over 10 months.
• Residents uniformly reported feeling better physically and emotionally.

What were some of the environmental changes?

• New sidewalks linking residential areas with schools and shopping centers.
• They built a recreational path along the lake.
• Dug new plots for community gardens.
• Restaurants made healthy changes to their menus.
• Schools stopped selling candy for fundraisers (instead they sold wreaths).
• Schools banned eating in hallways (to reduce opportunities for kids to snack on junk food).
• Participants selected from more than a dozen heart healthy changes to implement at home, such as trashing their super-sized dinner plates.
• Community worksh0ps were formed to encourage more social engagements with one another.

Dan Buettner may have something here. Rather than try to persuade individual lifestyle changes, he changed the environment in little ways designed to help support and nurture healthier lifestyle habits.

What do you think of the Vitality Project? Would you support (financially, politically and personally) changes to public policy that enhance and encourage healthy living?

Have you ever had someone you love let you down or another who failed to fulfill their end of a deal? Maybe you’ve had complete strangers wrong you by letting a door close in your face or by cutting you off on the highway? Would you believe these are gifts?!

Last week I shared with you that I was starting Debbie Ford’s 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse on Opera.com. Yesterday I finished Day 4: The Gift of Forgiveness.

(It’s an incredible program and only takes 10-15 minutes every day!)

I consider myself a very forgiving person; even thinking on occasion that I let people off the hook too easily.

But after yesterday’s cleansing ritual and meditation, I realized that I was harboring some pretty toxic feelings – and towards people that I absolutely love!

Ms. Ford revealed:

Releasing the invisible ties to those who have left you, betrayed you, disappointed you or hurt you, you open up to higher realms of love, peace and joy. Without forgiving them and cutting the cords of resentment, you continue to be imprisoned by the very people you’ve spent years (or a lifetime) trying to get away from and you are bound to the incidents that caused the resentment in the first place. And because the outer world is a steadfast reflection of your inner world, these resentment and grudges ensure that you re-create situations that spark the same bad feelings you want to escape from. Resentments and grudges are two of the main culprits that perpetuate cycles of self-abuse and victimhood.

What I realized from yesterday’s consciousness cleanse was that when people piss us off, they are actually presenting us a gift – if we choose to accept it.

I can hear you now, “Have you lost your freakin’ mind, Steph? These people are disrespecting us, walking all over us and damn it, we deserve better!”

No, I haven’t lost my mind and yes, we deserve to be treated better. However, people don’t intentionally set out to hurt others (maybe some do but it’s a small percentage); they’re just wrapped up in their own world. They’re dealing with their own issues or simply trying to cope with life the only way they know how.

So what’s this gift we’re talking about?

When someone does or says something that disappoints, angers or hurts us, they are triggering a very old, internal wound within us from childhood. These are our personal issues that we haven’t yet bothered to heal.

Now before you balk at this, saying that you had the perfect childhood, please keep in mind that perfect parenting is impossible! Childhood development is so rapid that no parent has the capacity or resources to fulfill every need a child experiences. Plus, we’re extremely sensitive as children. We get hurt very easily.

Time to get REAL personal

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Although the sun is setting later these days in Canada (yay!), it’s still very chilly. Soups are a great way to warm up, get your recommended vegetable intake and fill your belly with a low-calorie, high-nutrient meal.

Thanks to the rice and variety of veggies, this soup is uber hearty. It’s also simple enough to throw together when you’re short on time; just make sure to cook your brown rice ahead of time.

And since it’s short on spice but just flavourful enough with a few herbs, it’s guaranteed to please those who have sensitive palettes!

Steph’s Tasty Garden Veggie & Rice Soup

Makes: a whole pot-full.

Get ready to freeze!

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups brown rice, cooked
• 6.5 cups broth, veggie or chicken
• 1.5 cups filtered water
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 zucchini, quartered and chopped
• 1/2 small green cabbage, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 cups cauliflower, chopped
• 1 tsp each dried thyme, marjoram, rosemary
• sea salt and pepper, to taste.

Preparation

1. Place broth in pot (with fitted lid) and bring to a boil.
2. Add veggies and herbs.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes.
4. Add cooked brown rice.
5. Bring soup to a boil again, then reduce heat and let simmer, covered for another 10 minutes.
6. Season soup with freshly ground pepper and sea salt.
7. Enjoy!

We talk a lot about detoxing and cleansing the body here on Live Lighter, and even went so far as to detox TV in January. We’ve also touched on how subconscious beliefs sabotage our efforts to change – that’s why I’m psyched to take Debbie Ford’s 21 day consciousness cleanse!

Ms. Ford talks about waking up one day without our old fears, doubts, unmet needs, limiting beliefs and perceptions that keep us locked in our repetitive, destructive patterns. I don’t know about you, but that sounds great to me!

Debbie has written The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse: A Breakthrough Program for Connecting with Your Soul’s Deepest Purpose. But what’s it all about?

She says:

“It’s a practical program that promises to alter the quality and direction of your life and support you in not only obtaining your goals for the new year, but, more importantly, creating a new loving and nurturing relationship with yourself and with the power that sources you. This program will enable you to take back your power from the outer world, turn inward and reconnect with your inner guide and your highest self. Instead of being guided this year by your head and what you think you should do, you will be inspired and directed by your heart’s deepest desires.”

But you don’t have to buy the book to participate in what she describes as “a detox diet for the soul”. Check out Oprah.com to access 21 links (1 per day) for excerpts from the book, exercises and even meditations!

Here’s a 1:28 minute video with Debbie sharing some of the testimonials from her program:

Special thanks to Emmanuel Lopez from Motivatorman.com for notifying me of Debbie’s new break-through consciousness cleanse program.

I’m starting the 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse tomorrow! Will you be joining me on this soul journey? In case you missed it, click here when you’re ready.

February is the month of Love; it’s also American Heart Month. Since pomegranates are loaded with healthy antioxidants which may improve heart health, POM Wonderful wants us to create some fabulous heart art for a chance to win awesome prizes!

Pomegranates have been listed by Shape.com as one of the top 15 healthy foods to have in your kitchen at all times. Between the juice and seeds, the antioxidants (including tannins and anthocyanins) have been shown to increase blood flow and reduce levels of harmful cholesterol.

I’m psyched to enter POM Wonderful’s Heart Art Contest!

All we have to do is create an original, heart-themed work of art. According to the contest rules, we’re free to use any medium but our finished pieces must include the POM Wonderful logo. As an option, we may include any POM Wonderful packaging.

To finish entering the contest, we take a pic of our art, sign in or register to their POM community and upload the pic along with a title and description of our masterpiece.

Easy and fun, right? But what’s up for grabs?

The Grand Prize is a POM Wonderful gift basket which includes a Flip Video, $100 American Express gift card, $250 donation to the American Heart Association in the winner’s name, and more!

The Community Prize includes a whack of POM products like a backpack, POM juice, POMx coffee and POMx bars.

Click here to find out how winners will be determined and here for the official contest rules.

Contest ends at the end of the month on February 28th, so we’d better get our creative juices flowing! Ooo… I feel something brewing…

It’s a little weird, I know. You don’t normally associate carrot muffins with Valentine’s Day. BUT, there is a special ingredient in this healthy recipe that IS tied to this celebration of love.

I’ll give you one guess as to what this secret love ingredient is… It usually comes in a heart-shaped box at this time of year…

That’s right – chocolate!

Not only does dark chocolate have a whack of antioxidants and other health benefits, it also contains substances which affect our brain chemistry in a very good way:

• Releases feel-good endorphins, our natural opiates which reduce pain and decrease stress.
• Produces serotonin, neurotransmitters that act as our natural anti-depressants.
• Contains phenylethylamine which increases blood pressure and affects blood-sugar, causing excitement and alertness, similar to what we experience as love.
• Has anandamide, a chemical which works on our dopamine receptors leading to feelings of well-being. It resembles the active ingredient in marijuana (THC) and stimulates the feeling of euphoria.
• Includes theobromine, another chemical which mimics caffeine and stimulates the nervous system. It also has properties that can lead to mental and physical relaxation.

Chocolate Carrot Love Muffins

Makes: 12 muffins

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It’s coming up to the big day of Love. For some, Valentine’s Day is full of meaning, joy and abundance. For others, it can be a painful reminder of love lost. This post is dedicated to everyone who’s ever wondered, “How can love be so fickle?”

If you’re looking for something a little more feel good, please check out these past Live Lighter Valentine’s Day posts: Get Your Love On and Be Healthy and Romance, Chocolate and Health.

For those of you interested in the answer to this age-old question, continue reading. But first, let’s get into the mood with a little Alicia Keys, “Fallin’”:

Why Love Can Be Fickle

How can we fall in and out of love? This is actually a very easy answer.

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There’s a lot of hype about the benefits of eating a live or raw food diet. This post defines living food, it’s health benefits and why some say that it’s not as healthy as some would have us believe.

Living food is all-natural and uncooked.

We know about the powerful health benefits of natural food, but what’s wrong with cooked food?

In general, food heated over 46°C (116°F) destroys it’s enzymes and alters the molecular structure of the food, creating toxic elements which must be eliminated or stored to protect the body from damage. It’s this internal damage that causes the external effects we label as aging.

What’s the difference between live and raw foods?

Live foods contain high concentrations of “active” enzymes. Raw food, on the other hand, has sleeping or “dormant” enzymes. These unactivated enzymes are awakened when raw foods are sprouted, like nuts and seeds, which then become “living food”.

What’s so great about enzymes?

Enzymes are catalysts which activate chemical reactions. In food, they’re called digestive enzymes because they facilitate digestion and food absorption.

Living food proponents contend that enzymes are the “life-force” or “energy” of food. Cooking food, in effect, kills or suffocates the potency of food.

One major criticism of a living food diet is that these enzymes are destroyed by stomach acid which render them useless to us since nutrient absorption takes place in the small intestine. Proponents maintain enzymes are merely deactivated in the stomach and reactivated when they reach the small intestine.

Health benefits of living food

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The 2010 TV Detox officially ended on Sunday and now that we’ve had time to catch up on some of our shows, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned from during our 31 days of detoxing.

Anything come up for you? Take some time right now to think of at least one revelation from your TV detox.

If you’d like to hear what I jotted down on my list, I vlogged it on YouTube:

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you may see a white box rather than the video. I’m looking into how to fix this but for now, please access the video directly from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQToWL1TtCk.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his video production (lighting was poor – my apologies!) and original music score for this video! Please visit http://motivatorman.com/ to learn more about Emmanuel’s varied talents as an award-winning illustrator, motivational specialist and social media consultant.

For all of you readers out there:

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