Oletko valmis todelliseen muutokseen?

Nyt sinulla on mahdollisuus saavuttaa kaikki ne tavoitteet, joihin olet aina halunnut päästä, sekä löytää täydellinen tasapaino itsesi kanssa!

Oletko stressaantunut? Haluatko pudottaa/nostaa painoa? Tunnetko itsesi väsyneeksi jopa pitkien yöunien jälkeen? Oletko koukussa sokeriin tai kaipaavatko ruokailutottumuksesi muutosta? Oli ongelmasi mika tahansa, me voimme yhdessä löytää siihen ratkaisun kuuden kuukauden ohjelmani avulla. 

Niinkuin monet teistä jo tietää, opiskelen holistista ravitsemusta insitute for Integrative Nutrition koulussa. Minun toimintatapaani ei kuulu laskea kaloreita, proteiineja, hiilihydraatteja eikä rasvoja. En usko dietteihin, enkä siihen että ongelmat voi ratkaista kieltämällä tietyt ruokalajit. Sen sijaan, haluan työskennellä asikkaitteni kanssa ja yhdessä rakentaa heille onnellisen, terveen elämän, jonka kanssa jokainen viihtyy koko loppuelämän.

Minun kuuden kuukauden mittainen ohjelma on suunniteltu muuttamaan elämäsi, parantamalla itsetietouttasi, löytämällä sinulle sopiva ruokavalio, sekä tasapaino jokapäiväiseen elämääsi. Ohjelmaan kuuluu kaksi tapaamista kuukaudessa, jotka voimme tehdä joko henkilökohtaisesti, skypen välityksellä tai puhelimitse. Tapaamisten aikana määritämme sinulle henkilökohtaiset tavoitteet, suunnittelemme tarkasti kuinka voimme ne saavuittaa ja seuraamme tuloksia. Minä rohkaisen sinua pysymään tavoitteissasi, valmennan ja kannustan sinua. Saat 100%:n tuen, sekä paljon muuta.

Oletko valmis haastamaan itsesi ja löytämään tasapainoisen, terveen elämän, joka tekee sinut onnellisemmaksi kuin olet koskaan edes unelmoinut?

Jos haluat kuulla lisää ohjelmastani tai tunnet jonkun joka voisi tarvita apuani, lähetä minulle viestiä essi.liljama@gmail.com ja vastaan sinulle mahdollisimman pian. Pidathän kiirettä, sillä valitettavasti ajanpuutteen vuoksi ohjelmaan mahtuu mukaan vain hyvin rajattu määrä henkilöitä.

Let's get the ball rolling!

-e-

Are you ready to change your life?

Introducing my amazing Six-Month Program!

Are you stressed? Want to lose weight? Do you feel tired even after a long night of sleep? No matter what your health issues or goals are, we can work on them together.

Like most of my lovely readers already know, I'm receiving my training in holistic nutrition in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. My approach is not to dwell on calories, carbs, fats, and proteins. It is not to create lists of restrictions or good and bad foods. Instead, I want to work with my clients to create a happy, healthy life in a way that is flexible, fun and rewarding.

My six-month program is designed to help you get lifelong results in health by gaining self-consciousness, improving your everyday diet and finding balance in your everyday life. The program can be done with sessions on Skype, on the phone or in person. During our sessions we will determine what goals you want to achieve and formulate attainable action plans. I will support you by providing guidance, encouragement and holding you accountable to your word. I will provide you with a variety of handouts, recipes, CDs and other materials, and most importantly, I will provide you with my 100% support.
Are you ready to challenge yourself, get the body you have always wanted and MAXIMIZE YOUR HEALTH?

If you, your mom or someone you know might be interested and want to hear more about the program, send me an email asap to essi.liljama@gmail.com. Notice that I can only take a very limited number of people into the program!

It's time to take the first step.

-e-

Essie's 10 tips for a GOOD life!

I have failed, I have been struggling, crying and felt completely unhappy sometimes. I was trying to define myself for a long time, years, before finding my place on earth. I have forgot to appreciate things I have and I have treated people the way I would NOT want them to treat me. I have taken risks, failed again and felt like giving up sometimes.

Now I'm in a place where I feel like I have found myself and MY life. It's not perfect and never will be, but it's exactly how I feel it should be. I am happy. That's why I want to share my 10 tips for a good life.

1. Be grateful. Remember to appreciate LIFE. Each morning you have a reason to smile and a chance to make a change.

2. Take care of your body. Sleep well, eat healthy, exercise and listen to your body.


3. Accept failure. When you fail, you can just think of it as finding a way to NOT do something! I can tell you it works!  :)

4. Find yourself and what YOU want from life. Make a plan how to achieve the life you want and start working on it.

5. Have faith on yourself. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

6. Work hard. It is the key to success!

7. Never take anything for granted. Remember to appreciate everything you have; your health and the people who love you.

8. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.

9. Never give up! Fall down seven times, get up eight. (or in my case fall down 100 times, get up 101 haha)

10. BE HAPPY!.. It's all about the attitude.

 -e-

Delicious Vegan Buckwheat banana pancakes! (Tattari pannukakut)

Super simple, quick and amazingly delicious Buckwheat walnut-banana pancakes

My bf loves pancakes but the idea of making him the regular pancakes with zero nutritional value and serving them with Auntie Ann's high fructose corn syrup with loads of artificial colors and flavors don't make me feel like cooking. That's why I was happy to see a Buckwheat pancake recipe in my School's website. I modified the recipe a little to make it vegan and made a nice breakfast with pancakes on Saturday morning. And what I heard was "mmmmmm these are my new FAVORITE pancakes". wow. 

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 ½ tbsp. honey
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch salt
1/2 cup soaked walnut pieces

(Coconut oil for cooking)

1. In a bowl, stir all the ingredients.
2. Cook the pancakes on a hot pan with coconut oil
3. Serve the pancakes with organic maple syrup and berries and ENJOY!

You can find the original recipe Here.

-e-

Happiness means everything!

Every morning when you wake up, you have a chance to make a difference. If you are not happy with your life, it's time to make a change. I believe that the most important thing in life is to be happy. If you're not, you have nothing. Nothing matters if you're not happy.

Last night me and my roommate had a wonderful evening eating salad and dipping french bread with olive oil and balsamic. We felt like we are the luckiest people on earth. We had many reasons for that;

1) We are healthy

2) We have amazing families, partners and friends

3) We were eating amazing bread and salads

Remember that you only live once. Make sure you have a reason to enjoy every day of it! 

Have a HAPPY weekend everybody!

-e-

FOOD HEAVEN PART 2

I'm a HUGE food lover!

I'm truly in Love with the dining possibilities in New York. My first posting about restaurants in New York included four experiences. Now it's time to publish the next four. Let's keep it short this time.

1. TAO

TAO is a restaurant where my lovely friend and ex NY roommate wanted to take me so many times last winter but for some reason we never went. Now it was Niina's bday and me and Jenni wanted to surprise her and decided to take her to TAO. Tao is the largest and most popular Asian restaurant in New York. The atmosphere is like a trip to Asia and the food is incredible. The prices are OK, this is not a cheap chinese restaurant but it is not over priced either. Their website tells that it is frequented by celebrities on a regular basis from Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Robert DeNiro and members of the N.Y Giants and Yankees. Our experience was truly positive.

I had a Spicy Hoi Yin Eggplant, and Buddha’s Harmonized Vegetable Feast for the Minor Gods with Udon Noodles    

Bday girl Niina and Jenni had Soy Ginger Glazed Salmon with Udon Noodles and Spinach.

Location: 42 E 58th st, New York.

MENU

2. Peacefood Cafe

Peacefood Cafe is a vegan kitchen and bakery located on Upper West Side. I went there for a lunch with Niina and really enjoyed the experience. The prices were reasonable, the atmosphere was cozy and our waiter was nice trying hard to find us a table where I can charge my phone. Food was yummy! I had a Quinoa salad and a delicious green juice called hangover cure (Lol). Niina had a salad called Asian greens.

fluffy quinoa $9.95
beans, baby greens & sprouts of the day, avocado, sweet peppers, corn & onions tossed with creamy lime mustard vinaigrette 
Hangover cure:
apple, orange, carrot, celery, ginger root

asian greens $9.95
seasonal baby Asian vegetables, mixed sprouts, shredded carrots, tomatoes, marinated & baked tempeh, ground peanuts, in a garlic, ginger, cilantro, ponsu & sesame dressing 

Location: 460 Amsterdam avenue (between 82nd and 83rd st)
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 3. Zia's Cafe

Zia’s mission is to provide you with a fresh, healthy choice for breakfast, lunch or dinner while supporting local farmers, plant-based meals & sustainable, green business practices.

Two weeks ago I made a blogpost ago about Zia's raw chocolate pudding that I found in Organic Avenue in Manhattan. Last weekend me and my boyfriend went to Baltimore, Maryland and I knew that Zia's have a restaurant somewhere in MD. It was almost on the way there and I was extra happy to be able to go and explore it. I love the brand and especially their Desserts. I love their mission and the whole idea so I'm happy to support restaurants and Cafes like Zia's as much as possible.

Of course I had to try one new Zia's dessert. It was a delicious raw chocolate brownie with super clean ingredients. 

You could make you own sandwich/wrap/panini so my wrap was a wholewheat wrap with grilled vegetables, hummus, avocado and spinach. 

My pink juice above was Dusk. It was nice, refreshing and gingery.

Andre had a Lucky13 smoothie and a grilled chicken wrap.

Location: 13 Allegheny Avenue. Towson, MD

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4. Candle Cafe

Candle Cafe is a Vegan restaurant two blocks from my home. It's always PACKED no matter the day or time so take some patience and an empty stomach with you when you go there. I went there with Annika for our weekly dinner with some high expectations and wasn't disappointed. The food was really fresh and good and I'm ready to go there again anytime.

We shared Summer rolls with spicy peanut dipping sauce for an appetizer and steamed broccoli with our main courses. I had a Quinoa salad for with avocado for main course and it was probably one of the best quinoa salads I've ever had in my life. Annika had a Ginger-miso stir-fry with brown rice.

Quinoa salad

Location: 1307 3rd Avenue Between 74th & 75th St.

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I'm going to keep posting about my delicious experiences in New York. There are so many restaurants and cafes I want to explore and share with you all. Hopefully some of you who live in New York or are able to come to New York sometime, will find these posts useful. I'm a huge food LOVER and that's why I did not manage to keep it short this time.LOL.

-E-

Eating 3000 calories a day!

Last night me and my lovely roommate were making some kale salad. I was going to pour olive oil to my dressing but the bottle was empty. I was surprised...Why?

Because,
*I also have used one third of my coconut oil.

*I eat one avocado a day

*I eat almonds, cashew nuts, brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, chia seeds, flax seed and raw nut bars daily. Not all every day, but still a lot.

*AND I have lived in this house for 3 weeks and there have been days when I haven't cooked at home.

I never count calories and I eat what my body tells me to eat. Last night I made an exemption and found out that I eat 3000 calories/day in average (sometimes more, sometimes less)
I am not gaining weight at all though. I know they say you are supposed to eat a handful of nuts a day, and that you get enough fat from eating one avocado a day.
If we take a look at my diet, it is really based on fatty acids, from oils, nuts and seeds, vegetables, berries and fruits. I don't eat animal based food at all and In the summertime I probably eat 90% raw food, including A LOT OF fruits (who cares about the fructose), vegetables and Super foods. Maybe twice or 3 times a week I eat brown rice, quinoa, pasta or rye bread.

The question is my diet bad for me?
My opinion is that we are all individuals. What works for me might not work for you. If you feel great, you have energy to work out twice a day, you need only 6 hours of sleep and you are not gaining weight, you have found the balance that we all should find. In that situation, If you start thinking about your diet too much it might only cause you stress and make the overall results negative. But I also believe that if your diet is bad for you, you should find a way to change it anyway.

This all is just my opinion though. I know there are a lot of health experts reading my blog, so I would really like to hear your opinion about my diet and all this. Should I change something in my diet or listen to my body? I would really appreciate hearing your opinions. You can send them to essi.liljama@gmail.com

Have a healthy (nutty lol) weekend everybody!

-E-

Chocolate Smoothie Heaven and the benefits of Raw cacao

Whenever I feel like I deserve a treat or I'm just dying to have some chocolate I make this amazing chocolate smoothie. It is ridiculously good, clean, natural and it's really good for your body (and you mind&soul hehe). 

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp Raw Cacao powder

1 cup Almond milk

1 frozen banana

1 tbsp natural unsweetened almond butter

handful of Raw cashew nuts

a little bit of organic honey/organic agave

(flaxseed)

(I don't actually measure the ingredients so these amounts are not exact. If you like darker chocolate put more cacao and not so much honey/agave. If I haven't had my daily flaxseed I would put 2 tbsp flaxseed.)

Put all the ingredients to a blender and blend it until its smooth.

Did you know that Cacao is derived from Theobroma Cacao beans, which literally means “Food of the Gods”? Cacao contains over 300 compounds including: protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, iron, zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium. I just love the fact that it is so incredibly good for you. That's why I made a list of the benefits of raw cacao just so that we all have a good reason to allow ourselves to enjoy it every once in a while ;)

Raw Cacao benefits: 

- Rich source of antioxidant flavonoids (almost four times the amount of antioxidants in goji berries) that promote cardiovascular health and protect against toxins, improve circulation, regular heartbeat and blood pressure. They also help the body repair itself and resist free-radical toxins

- Rich source of manganese, which helps oxygenate the blood

- Rich source of magnesium, which helps to build strong bones and is a muscle relaxant associated with feelings of calmness. It also helps in balancing brain chemistry

- Rich in sulfur, which builds strong nails and hair, and promotes beautiful skin.

- Contains the chemicals phenylethylamine (PEA). PEA is an adrenal related chemical that we create naturally when we're excited. It also causes your pulse rate to quicken, resulting in a similar feeling to when we are excited or fall in love <3

- Contains lipid anandamine which is in our brain when we feel great. Anandamine is also called "chocolate amphetamine" because it works like amphetamine, increasing mood and decreasing depression. It causes changes in blood pressure and blood-sugar levels, leading to feelings or excitement.

I think its time for all of us to have a chocolate smoothie ;)

-E-

Library of Recipes: Simple Super Salad!

5 Minute Super Salad

This is one of the recipes that you use when you just need to make up something from almost an empty refridgerator. The recipe varies every time, so feel free to change or add ingredients. The main ideas of this salad are dark leafy greens, lemon vinegar dressing, hemp seeds and other seeds or nuts.

 I really love using kale, not only for its nutritional value but also because it tastes delicious. It's crispy and fresh and somehow just so much more than regular lettuce. I know in Finland we don't really have kale (or at least I haven't found it) but its perfectly fine to use romaine lettuce or any other dark leafy greens. I also recommend everybody to start using hemp seeds, since they are an excellent source of protein including all the needed amino acids. They also taste good and the texture is smooth and creamy. You can use them for salads, smoothies, risottos, wraps etc.

ingredients:

Kale

pine nuts

Hemp seeds

carrot

avocado

cucumber

Dressing:

Lemon

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

sea salt

black pepper

Mix lemon juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and black pepper together in a small cup. Put washed kale on a plate and pour the dressing on it. Add all the other ingredients and ENJOY!

 -E-

Little Piece of Heaven!!

OMG this Raw Chocolate Mousse is just ridiculously delicious! So far I have only found it from Organic Avenue (Manhattan, New York) but luckily I got one a few blocks from my home door! :) The ingredients in this amazing dessert are so clean and nutritious that I don't feel bad at all after eating a whole thing.

This is definitely something I will try to make myself. 

If you live or visit New York, you should definitely go and check out one of the Organic Avenues..but just a little warning...their desserts will take your breath away!

Ingredients: Raw cacao, dates, coconut oil, agave, avocado, vanilla and sea salt

-E-