Livliga Makes Great Gift Giving for a Healthy Lifestyle!
What greater gift is there than one that shows you care about the people you love? Livliga® and Kidliga® are beautifully designed and packaged in a way that makes them fantastic gifts for just about any occasion.
Celebrate is available in a 16 piece set or in sets of 4 each of the dinner plates, side plates, bowls or mugs. You choose! |
The LivSpoon® is a fantastic gift for those who love to cook, those who love to entertain and those who are just tired of servings spoons that have no measurement. They are the go-to-gift for anyone who likes a novel and innovative gift. They come in the original set of 4 or the complete set of 6 ergonomically designed spoons in standard measuring/serving sizes of 1 cup, ¾ cup, ½ cup, ⅓ cup, ¼ cup and ⅛ cup. With their special design feature—the double bend—you can hang the desired spoon on a bowl or pot either right-side up or upside down.
Kidliga's Sammie & Sax 3pc set with award winning book is a popular gift for children's birthdays, a child's holiday present or as an original baby shower gift. It comes in both pink and blue.
Sammie and Sax 3pc set in pink |
Sammie and Sax 3pc set in blue |
In addition to our Celebrate line, our Hälsa and Vivente dinnerware makes a great gift for college students with their first apartment or for those ready to create their first home. They are also a lovely gift for those making a fresh start.
Hälsa 4pc Individual Place Setting |
Vivente 4pc Individual Place Setting |
It is easy to imagine adding Livliga to a wedding registry. Many weddings happen this time of year! Don't forget the Livliga glassware and serveware as items to include!
Celebrate: The Poetry of Life, service for 4, offers 16 original designs and inspiring phrases perfect for newlyweds. For an original bridal party gift our 4 piece mug set is very popular |
Our Vivente 16pc set, service for 4 also makes a great wedding gift |
Looking for more color? This Hälsa 16pc set, service for 4 is a fantastic choice for a wedding registry |
Aveq Wine Glass with subtle fill lines |
Aveq Water/Beverage Glass with 8 ounce fill line |
Livliga mugs in sets of 4 make a thoughtful gift for work colleagues or those you want to thank in a special way like a teacher, service provider who has gone above and beyond or to give to a friend...just because.
Celebrate: The Poetry of Life, set of 4 mugs, each one is original |
Vivente Mugs, set of 4 |
Hälsa Mugs, set of 4 |
Looking to create a gift with a combination of Livliga product? We have the ideal answer! Check out our new Everyday Bundles and Seasonal Bundles. We have them specifically deisgned as bariatric-friendly and diabetes-friendly, family-friend choices as well as specifc seasonal choices that are bound to delight.
And for the person you want to get that special gift for, the Aveq Serving Bowl is an elegant solution. Add our Celebrate Dish Towels too!
Aveq Serving Bowl--elegant inside and out |
All Livliga tableware is artist designed, eco-friendly and easy-to-use in everyday life. With their signature designs they make a great gift for those you love...including you! And did I mention you can have everything gift wrapped and include a personalized card? Perfect!
Can't decide what of the Livliga Designer Healthy Lifestyle Dinnerware to choose? Why not pamper them with a personalized gift certificate and let the lucky recipient choose? Now is a great time to stock up, think ahead and celebrate good health for you and your family!
Please help us spread the word about how Livliga is the best gift to give. It is easy to forward this blog with a click. We'd sure appreciate it!
Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!
Livliga Lifestyle--made for Healthy Living |
State of Slim Crowd-Pleasing Slow-Cooker Pumpkin Chili with a Livliga Flair
State of Slim Crowd-Pleasing Slow-Cooker Pumpkin Chili is Perfect to Serve Up for One or Share with Company! |
The Colorado diet is easy to follow and easy to stick to, I have found. It is not a "quick loss" diet, it is more like a "slow and steady" lifestyle diet. For the first time in my life I am not waiting to get off the plan. I am enjoying the journey. I am actually enticed by how I can make it more interesting while keeping to the basic tenets.
For Perfect Portions Make Sure to Use LivSpoons! |
Pumpkin is easy to buy as a puree with nothing added. The State of Slim includes a few recipes that include it as an ingredient. One such recipe is the Crowd-Pleasing Slow-Cooker Pumpkin Chili.
It is a tasty recipe but I thought I could make it a little more flavorful and give it a bit more texture with a few additions and changes. Here is the Livliga version:
State of Slim Crowd-Pleasing Slow-Cooker Pumpkin Chili with a Livliga flair
Ingredients
1 pound extra-lean ground beef or turkey breast
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 yellow bell peppers, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons pickled jalapeno chile pepper (optional)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (15 ounces) unsweetened 100% pure pumpkin puree
1 can (14 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon chili powder (or more to taste)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons thyme
pinch of sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cooking Spray
Directions
1. Spray a cast-iron skillet with cooking spray. Place the chopped onion and garlic in the skillet and sautee for about 4 or 5 minutes, until the onion starts to brown.
2. Add the meat and brown with the onion mixture. Once the meat is nearly brown add the chopped celery and yellow pepper. Continue cooking for about 4 minutes.
3. In a 3 - 4 quart slow cooker add the meat mixture and all other ingredients. Set the cooker on low for 5 - 6 hours. Vegetables should be tender.
4. Serve hot. Top with a tablespoon of Greek yogurt and some fresh parsley for visual appeal.
Yield: 4 servings. Serving size: about 1½ cups.
Slow-Cooker Pumpkin Chili Served Up on Livliga! |
Enjoy! And Live Vibrant! And Eat Mindfully.
The Raging Fitbit Controversy
There is a growing controversy surrounding the Fitbit (photo by LivligaHome) |
The Fitbit Controversy appears to be escalating. How serious is it? I thought it was time to do some research. Now you can decide.
For those of you who have maybe heard something in the news about this thing called a “Fitbit” but haven’t a clue what it is, simply put, it is an activity tracker you wear that monitors your movement and sleep as well as counts your calories burned. Additionally, the online app allows you to enter your food consumption, which helps count your calories, and water intake as well as any other activity you want to log that wasn’t tracked by the Fitbit.
Fitbit has been in the news a lot recently. It hasn’t been very positive. First there was the controversy surrounding the people who have developed rashes where they wore their Fitbit. Then there was the rather embarrassing discovery that Fitbits track everything, including your sex life. Others are reporting that some people using the Fitbit have become obsessed with tracking their movements and logging more steps to beat out their friends or to meet a new goal to the detriment of their social life.
According to a recent article, the controversy surrounding the skin rash seems to be more prevalent for those who have worn the wrist tracker. It is a very real issue. A person wears it for a few weeks without incident, and, after recharging it a few times, notices redness under the main part of the device. According to reports, the skin rash may be due to a metal allergy. The stainless steel casing has traces of nickel that is a known skin irritator. Fitbit has responded that it is working to rectify the problem.
The more amusing, yet embarrassing controversy, is that the more recent versions of Fitbit, the ones you wear when you sleep, also track your sex life. This is not so much a problem if you are not sharing your information with others online but if you are part of a community on line or have a list of friends and family you share your tracker information with, you may be sharing more than you realized. In fact, I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance who recounted the mortifying story about how she shares her Fitbit information with her father. They decided to get fit together so they share their activity. Well on a recent Saturday night she was with her boyfriend and they had sex late at night. The next morning her father asked her what the heck she was doing working out in the middle of the night. Oops…The Fitbit charts your activity throughout the day and shows what times of day, by hour, you are active. Moral of this story? Take your Fitbit off before you have sex.
Finally, more and more stories are cropping up telling tales of people being so obsessed with their Fitbits and tracking their movements that it is messing with their relationships and the other parts of their life. There are stories of people jogging in restrooms to get their steps in or being late to a meeting because they had to walk to the meeting despite the distance. Or there are those who have to win at any cost to log more steps than their friends or husband, even if it means staying up half the night. There are many such stories you can find in the blogosphere. It is clear, if you tend to have an obsessive-compulsive personality, the Fitbit can become the obsession.
So here is my take on the Fitbit Controversy. But first my confession, I am a Fitbit user. I have been for three years. I love it. In reality, I have not been a constant user over the three years. I will wear it regularly for a period of time but then forget it on a piece of clothing until I find it again. That was until my husband started wearing his Fitbit constantly. Then I started wearing mine constantly. I have the clip-on Fitbit that I slide on to my bra. Once I discovered clipping it to my bra I have never had a problem losing it. Fortunately in three years it has also never irritated my skin. Since I leave it on my bra, I do not wear it to bed. Two of my three children are Fitbit friends, along with my husband, so this is a very good thing. I have been known to jog in the bathroom. I do park further away when I go to meetings to get more steps in but I haven’t yet been late because of it. I am a little obsessed but I think it is fun. I would much rather be obsessed with my activity and movement, motivating others to do the same, than to be obsessed with something less healthy, like watching TV. Three years ago I lost 50 pounds. With the help of the Fitbit I have kept it off.
We live in a sedentary society where so much of our lives is spent sitting. The Fitbit is a great tool to help us get up and moving while making it fun. As a tool we need to be aware of its foibles. It does need to be safe for people to use so Fitbit needs to come up with a solution to the skin irritation users can experience. There is something wonderful about more and more people out there working on getting to their ten thousand steps each day. May we all be slightly obsessed friends on the same journey.
Re-posted from Sheila's Blog on TheEpochTimes.com.
Great Healthy Living Quote #87-- Mediocrity is Self-inflicted
Fortune Cookie Wisdom |
#MotivationalMondays
#LiveVibrant
#HealthLifestyle
Asking the Right Questions about Your Relationship with Food
Asking the Right Questions about Your Relationship with Food |
Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, recently posted an article that suggests some questions we should ask ourselves regarding us and our relationship with food. I found them very helpful. As he says, "Asking the right questions inevitably points us in a right direction." Here is what he wrote:
Here’s a suggestion: if you care about health, if you care about nutrition, if you care about good eating, then it’s a good idea to keep asking good questions.
Asking the right questions inevitably points us in a smart direction.
The greatest advances in science, technology, philosophy, art, and culture have so often come because somebody somewhere was asking the right questions.
Questions can be quite powerful.
Who am I?
What’s my purpose in this world?
How can I reach my highest potential?
How can I contribute?
How can I find true love?
What do I need to be happy?
Such questions activate the mind and guide the soul. They’re like fine tuned honing devices that help us access a greater wisdom.
So in the interest of having a healthier body, a well functioning metabolism, and a nourishing relationship with food – here are 5 powerful and important questions to ask yourself about you and food.
1. Do I eat in the ideal state of digestion, assimilation, & calorie burning?
This is a foundational question that I consider one of the top two questions that anyone could possibly ask in the realm of eating and nutrition. That’s because we could be eating the healthiest food in the universe, but if we’re not eating under the ideal state of digestion, assimilation, and calorie burning – which happens to be the physiologic relaxation response – then we’re in no way getting the full nutritional value of our meal. If we eat under stress, we’re excreting nutrients, digestion is impaired, hormones such as insulin and cortisol are secreted which can stimulate weight gain and de-regulate appetite, the function of healthy gut bacteria is impaired, and the list goes on and on. We are physiologically designed, by the brilliance of evolution and a higher wisdom – to be optimal processors of nutrition when we’re in the state of parasympathetic nervous system dominance – a fancy term for relaxation. Ask yourself this powerful question at every meal, and commit to techniques such as deep breathing, slowing down, taking time with food, and calming your mind – and you’ll officially be a nutritional superstar.
2. Am I nutritionally flexible?
Being nutritionally flexible means that we’re willing to explore when it comes to food and diet. We live in a time when the nutritional landscape is changing rapidly. We re exposed to stressors, toxins in the environment, poor quality food, and all kinds of assaults on our immune system. It’s a good time to be flexible and experiment. Are you willing to try different supplements? If you’ve been a heavy meat eater for all your life, are you willing to go vegetarian for a while? If you’ve been vegetarian for a long time, and your health is suffering, have you considered eating high quality animal foods? Are you open to cleansing? Would you consider going gluten-free for a few months? Switching to organic foods? Buying locally produced foods? Have you tried including more healthy fats in your diet? Do you try new foods? Nutritional flexibility gives us the greatest chance for long-term health and long-term survival. Plus it can be a lot of fun.
3. Am I in my body?
This might be the hardest question to wrap yourself around. A lot of people eat well, exercise, and do good things for their body. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are “in” the body. Another way to say this is that there are a lot of us walking around a bit “checked out” from the body. Such people are disembodied. This is a subtle distinction, but it has profound effects. When we’re checked out of the body, we’re not fully present, we’re not fully sensitive to body wisdom and body feedback, and the mind is always wandering somewhere else and not paying any attention to the thing that the body is doing in the moment. When you exercise, are you focused on your body or are you in your head? When you eat, do you focus at all on the food, or are you living inside your mind that’s chattering away? When you’re touching your loved one, or hugging your kids, are you really feeling them and truly embracing them? Fully embodying your life is a powerful practice and a metabolic game changer. Simply asking yourself, “am I in my body?” throughout the day helps us to embody. And the more we embody, the more metabolically powerful we become.
4. Do I put love into the equation?
Good for you if you focus on good nutrition, good for you if you read up about health and healing, and congratulations for learning as much information as you can about food and eating. What I often see happen with people who have a solid interest in nutrition is they forget vitamin L – love. Love is the missing ingredient in a majority of weight loss diets and nutritional approaches, it’s a missing ingredient in the food industry, and it’s often absent in the offices of practitioners who help us with food and body. No matter what you eat, what kind of nutritional philosophy you adhere to, or what foods you think are the right ones for everyone to eat – if there’s no love in the equation, then our nutritional strategies are deficient. This is a great homework assignment for you: get creative about all the ways you can add more love into your relationship with food.
5. How do I nourish the world?
Nutrition, food, and health are no longer a mere personal affair. How our food is grown, produced, marketed, and consumed impacts all of us. There are a lot of people out there who don’t have enough. There’s a lot of people out there who are lacking in education and understanding of good health. There’s far too much social and nutritional injustice in the world. So, how do you nourish the world? How do you give back to others? How do you share your good bounty? What goes around comes around. Nourish yourself, and nourish the world, and the best of who we are is automatically born.
See more at: http://psychologyofeating.com/5-important-questions-food/
How Much Wine do You Pour into a Glass? You Will be Surprised!
The bigger and wider the glass the more we pour (photo provided by LivligaHome). |
If you were serving yourself or a friend a glass of wine, would you know how much wine you were pouring into a glass? I think most of us would say we did. Turns out, we don’t. A recent study co-authored by Doug Walker, Laura Smarandescu and Brian Wansink of Iowa State University and Cornell University, respectively, shows that on average we pour ourselves 12% more than we think we do. What is worse, the bigger and wider the glass is the more we pour. We measure according to visual cues and, according to Dr. Laura Smarandescu; we see volume as a vertical measurement, not horizontal, which explains why we over pour when using a broad, squat glass. To add insult to injury, we tend to serve ourselves even more white wine than red wine for the simple reason that we can’t see it as well. Click here to read the entire article...
Re-posted from Sheila's Blog on TheEpochTimes.com.
Great Healthy Living Quote #86-Famous Irish Toast--to your health!
Irish Holiday Toast
May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks,
May your heart be as light as a song,
And each day bring you bright happy hours,
That stay with you all year long.
Live Vibrant!
#StPatricksDay
#MotivationalMonday
#Toasts
#LiveVibrant
State of Slim Muffin with a Livliga Twist-- Chocolate Banana Muffins
Chocolate Banana Muffin on Livliga (photo by LivligaHome) |
It is wonderful to discover new ways of doing things. I have been thoroughly enjoying reading the State of Slim by James O. Hill, PhD and Holly Wyatt, MD. Their explanation of the Colorado Diet and need to develop a Mile High Metabolism really makes sense. Better yet, it works!
As you know, I am all about testing things out. My husband and I decided to test out the Colorado Diet. We have been following the plan for the past 3 weeks. In that amount of time I have lost all the weight I gained over the holidays and am now headed to lose more. I have seriously not had the cravings I usually have on diets. Only once did I have to talk to myself when I was contemplating eating something off the diet. That happened in the first week and has not happened since. I think it is because you eat 6 times a day and each time you eat there is protein included. Additonally, your carbs are virtually eliminated except for those that occur naturally in the foods prescribed. On occasion, but not daily, you can include a State of Slim pancake or muffin. The recipes are theirs and are different than the run-of-the-mill pancakes or muffins. They have a lot of protein in them and no flour.
The recipe for the Chocolate Cheese Cake Muffin was good but the flavoring was a little weird for me. After a couple of weeks of following the recipes "to the letter", I decided it was time to experiment. I stayed within the parameters outlined in the State of Slim book so it is a legitimate iteration. I liked my new creation so I thought I would share it. Here it is:
Chocolate Banana Muffins
Ingredients
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
½ cup stevia (baking formulation)
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1 tablespoon banana cream Jello instant pudding, sugar-free and fat-free
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon banana extract
1 cup liquid egg whites
½ cup nonfat plain Greek Yogurt
Cooking Spray
Directions
1. In a blender, grind the oats to a flour-like consistency. Place in a mixing bowl.
2. Whisk together the ground oats, stevia, protein powder, pudding mix, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. Add in the banana extract, egg whites and Greek yogurt. Blend until smooth.
4. Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
5. Bake at 350˚F for 15-20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
Yield: 12 muffins. Serving size: 2 muffins. Gluten-free recipe.
Since you don't get fruit during the first phase of this diet, it is nice to have the flavor of fruit incorporated into this recipe. It smells wonderful while it is baking. Eating a muffin after it has been freshly baked allows the aromas to add to the satisfaction of eating it.
Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!
Reigniting Your Metabolism with State of Slim Pumpkin Pancakes!
These pancakes, served on Livliga, are specifically designed to help reignite your metabolism (photo by LivligaHome) |
I have a confession to make. I have an inflexible metabolism. In fact, as it turns out at least 73% of us in the United States and 35% globally have the same problem. If you are overweight your body is sending more food you eat to be stored as fat than you burn. The more we overeat and the less we move the more inflexible our metabolism becomes and the fatter we get. Ugh. The good news is there is a way to reignite your metabolism and start burning fat, as your body is designed to do, and do it for the long term.
Most of what I have read has made me think losing and maintaining a healthy weight was merely a matter of consuming a certain amount of calories. To lose weight you just need to consume less calories than you burn in a day. If you want to maintain your weight you just eat what you burn each day. Turns out it is not that simple. What we eat and when we eat during the day is equally, if not more, important.
According to Drs. Holly Wyatt and James O. Hill of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center in Colorado and the authors of the State of Slim, the fat burning “drain” in our body is clogged. The solution they have found through research is to eat foods that do not automatically go to fat storage, eat them in modest amounts every 2-4 hours, 6 times a day, and get moving. This combination acts as “Drano” for our clogged metabolism.
Does their plan work? Is it doable? The answer is “yes” to both questions. I thought it was time to test it out for myself. In the three weeks I have been following the plan I have lost 15.9 pounds and have not once found the need to cheat. I do get hungry but I never feel starved. Willpower is not an issue. The menus are full of flavors, colors and textures, which is really important to achieve satisfaction at the end of a meal. Serving it on a right-sized, beautifully designed plate, like Livliga, makes the food look plentiful so you feel like you are eating enough. And as we all know, feeling full and satisfied is key to a healthier lifestyle.
To reignite your metabolism all carbs, except those found in non-starchy vegetables, are eliminated from your diet. Instead, you eat a lot of protein with the non-starchy vegetables because your body can only store a small amount of these foods. Oatmeal is the one grain included. By eating these foods it forces your body to go into fat burning mode. This does not mean you are without your treats. Consider, for example, pancakes that are specifically designed to help reignite your metabolism. This is a great way to enjoy a weekend meal. Here is the gluten-free recipe:
State of Slim Cinnamon-Pumpkin Protein Pancakes
Ingredients-
1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not-quick cooking)
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
1 tablespoon stevia (baking formulation)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups liquid egg whites
¼ cup canned unsweetened 100% pumpkin puree
Cooking Spray
Directions-
1. In a blender grind the oats to a flour-like consistency.
2. Place the ground oats in a bowl with the protein powder, stevia, baking powder, and cinnamon. Whisk them together until well blended.
3. Whisk in the egg whites and pumpkin puree into the oat mixture until smooth.
4. Coat a preheated skillet or griddle with cooking spray.
5. Pour the batter onto the skillet/griddle in 3-inch diameter rounds (use a ⅛ cup per pancake for easy pouring).
6. Cook about 3 minutes on each side or until the pancakes are golden in color and spring back when touched. Serve hot from the pan. Add a serving of sugar free syrup or jam on top of the pancakes to complete the meal.
Nutritional Information-
Yield: 20 pancakes. Serving size: 4 pancakes. Calories: 190. Fat 2.5g; Saturated fat .5g; Protein 14.3g; Carbohydrate 28g; Fiber 7.2g; Total Sugars 3.7g; Cholesterol 8mg.
Enjoy! And Live Vibrant
Re-posted from Sheila's Blog on TheEpochTimes.com.
Great Healthy Living Quote #85-- Doubt Kills Dreams
Monday Morning Inspiration |
#MotivationalMondays
#LiveVibrant
#HealthLifestyle
Great Healthy Living Quote #84-- Exercise the Most Underutilized Antidepressant
Nothing like a reality check on a #Monday Morning. When in doubt...MOVE.
#MotivationalMondays
#LiveVibrant
#HealthLifestyle