We’ve been getting to know Bindu Grandhi, author of Spice Up Your Life this week. We’ll conclude our introduction of The Flex Cook with a video of Bindu preparing one of her flavourful, healthy Flexitarian recipes. One that I’ve tried and love!

In December’s  Spice Up Your Health Nut’s Life cookbook review, I reported how much me and my family were enjoying Bindu’s first cookbook – where the meat minimalist meets spices! At the time we had tried 7 recipes and loved almost every one of them.

Seasoned Kale was one of my favourites – why not try it out for yourself? Here’s The Flex Cook in action so you can follow along as she prepares her scrumptious Seasoned Kale (6:39 min):

Want more videos of The Flex Cook cooking her Flexitarian recipes? Subscribe to her YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/theflexcook

By the way, for those of you who are wondering, we’ve tried and loved these recipes, too:

• Tofu Topping on Crackers
• Spiced Carrot and Sweet Onion
• Pasta with Spiced Cashew and Almond Sauce
• Cauliflower and Brussels Sprout Curry

Have you tried any recipes from Spice Up Your Life? Stay tuned next week as Bindu has graciously offered to giveaway 2 of her cookbooks!  And if you’ve tried a Spice Up Your Life recipe, let us know what you thought in a comment below.

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!

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.

Read the rest of this entry

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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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This is it, TV Detoxers! We’re coming to the end and this is the last check-in of The 2010 TV Detox. Let’s review our challenges and successes and gear up for the weekend as we wrap up this new year’s resolution alternative.

Let’s hear how you did this week, TV Detoxers!

For me, if you’ll remember from last video I said my intention was to detox ALL of my TV time. It was… interesting. If you have 1:05 minutes, 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=_uZB_zH-abw.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his creative content consultation, video production 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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We’re finishing up week 3 of our New Year’s resolution alternative, The 2010 TV Detox. It’s time to look back over the week and assess our results, celebrate our successes and rev up for the final week!

How did you do this week, TV Detoxers? Please leave a comment and share your challenges and successes with the community. Perhaps we can help you out or your challenges may help someone else.

This past week for me was much like my last week’s report. If you have 1:09 minutes, 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=B275XgxZeek.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his video production and creating an 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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Happy New Year, Live Lighter Readers! This brand new year resonates with the promise of change and improvement. For those of us who balk at new year’s resolutions, we chose an alternative this year: The 2010 TV Detox. This is our first check-in!

We’re now 5 days into 2010 – have you begun your TV detox yet? If you haven’t, it’s not too late!

Check out this post to find out how it works and while some of you may not need a plan, others may so here are step-by-step instructions in creating your 20 minute TV Detox plan.

If you’ve started your TV detox already, watch this 1:16 minute video:

*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=EvThgVGo-5c.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his video production and musical skills 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:

Happy New Year! It’s Steph Miller, again, Head Health Nutter here on Live Lighter, a blog for people looking to lose weight naturally and permanently.

To update all the new viewers, January 1st marked the beginning of our new year’s resolution alternative, The 2010 TV Detox. Those of us taking this month-long challenge are replacing some or all of our TV time with other personally meaningful activities.

So… to all the TV detoxers, how’s it going so far?

If you’re having trouble turning off your TV or just can’t seem to get motivated in your other activities, please email me directly at stephanie [at] livelighter [dot] org for complimentary TV detox training.

Here’s a tip that may help some of you: track your TV time with a log. A simple notepad will do. Keep it by your remote control and every time you watch a program or movie, jot it down next to the date and how long it was.

This way you can be aware of how much TV time you’re watching and you don’t go over your prescribed detox limits!

Thanks for tuning in and I’d love to hear how your TV detox is going so please, let us know in the comments.

TV addicts and those looking for an interesting New Year’s resolution alternative are doing the 2010 TV Detox! If you’re sitting on the fence, find out how it works in this short video blog post!

A few weeks ago I invited everyone to participate in a personal development group challenge,  The 2010 TV Detox. In that video, I explained the idea was to replace a certain amount of TV time with other personally meaningful activities for the entire month of January.

But a lot of details were left out so if you want to know what you’re committing to, check out this 1:20 minute video:

*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=f-_9o6jwmag.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his video production and musical skills 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 the readers:

This is YOUR TV Detox so you’re free to do what you want! You decide how many and which TV hours you’ll detox; AND what activities you’ll replace your TV time with.

That said, this is what I envision:

1. A 20 minute personal planning session
2. We share our plans with each other before December 31st and start January 1st
3. Then we check-in every Friday in January to share our challenges and accomplishments

Sound good?

If you need some ideas or an easy process to follow in creating your TV Detox plan, read “Your 20 Minute TV Detox Plan” which will be published on Wednesday, December 23rd. I’ll be sharing my personal TV Detox plan in that post and will be encouraging you to share yours there, too!

Stay up-to-date by signing up to have new posts delivered right to your email or feed reader. Thanks for tuning in and I can’t wait to see your 2010 TV Detox plans!

Are you tired of making (and breaking) New Year’s resolutions? Here’s an alternative that’s fun, totally personalized, has a low commitment level and runs for ONLY for the month of January!

Who loves TV? Raise your hands.

Like many of our favourite past-times, TV can become habit or an addiction. Sometimes we don’t even realize the power an activity has over our minds and behaviour until we stop doing it.

One way to kick a habit is to detox it from our lives and replace it with something more constructive and even more fun!

So, inspired by Darius Bashar’s TV challenge on DailyChallenge.org and for all those who are looking for a New Year’s resolution alternative, check out what Live Lighter is planning for January, 2010:

*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=WIITnnyL24M.

Special thanks goes to Emmanuel Lopez – Motivatorman for contributing his video production and musical skills for this, Live Lighter’s 2nd video! Emmanuel greatly improved the quality of this video for you in a very short amount of time. (I have much to learn about video production!)

Please visit http://motivatorman.com/ to learn more about Emmanuel’s varied talents as an award-winning illustrator, motivational specialist and social media consultant.

Will you be participating in the 2010 TV Detox, Readers? Or do you need more information before you’re as psyched as I am?

Politicians and government health officials are urging us to get vaccinated as health insurance. So for the past few weeks, we’ve been investigating exactly how healthy it is to get vaccinated for the H1N1 and seasonal flu. We’ve discovered there are HUGE health risks involved.

One of these risks is the development of neurological disorders. Although rare, this particular type of side effect is completely debilitating.

Before choosing vaccination, please consider the unfortunate case of Desiree Jennings, a beautiful 25-year-old cheerleader from Virginia who received a seasonal flu shot in August and 10 days later, developed what medical experts call, dystonia.

Here’s a 2:18 minute news clip from Inside Edition:

Since they’re rolling out the H1N1 vaccination before properly testing them, coupled with the fact that pharmaceutical companies and doctors are legally protected against lawsuits in these cases AND there’s no funding for vaccine injuries, we have to ask ourselves: “Is it worth the risk?”

What do you think, Readers? Will you be trusting your health to Nature or man?