Healthy and delicious recipes – boost energy and feel happy during the holidays with “The Earth Diet”

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Kurt Wallace: This is Kurt Wallace and our guest today on Rare is Liana Werner-Gray, her new book The Earth Diet. Liana thanks for being with us today.

Liana Werner-Gray: Thank you so much for having me on, Kurt.

Kurt Wallace: We’re here to talk about diet and eating during the holidays. And, the way a lot of people are during the holidays, they just kind of give up and start eating whatever they want and forgetting about diet.  Eating things that are just available at parties and that sort of thing. But, we’re talking about ways that we can change our lifestyle so that we can still enjoy holiday foods and you have some tips on that.

Liana Werner-Gray: Yes, I do have some tips on that. Because, it’s the holiday season — end of the year and I see people they go “oh well, I’ll just eat whatever I want for the rest of the year and I’ll start again next year”. And, then come the new year people get anxiety depression and they have to go through that detox process.

So, The Earth Diet really is about a lifestyle change and so there’s a way to enjoy all of our favorite flavors and taste during the holidays seasons while not poisoning ourselves with junk foods or processed foods.

So, a few tips I do have — one of them is to start the day with a lemon water. And, I’m always talking about a lemon water, Kurt, because people love it and it’s so affordable and it’s so simple. And, it’s something that everyone can do. So, first thing in the morning just squeeze a lemon into two cups of water and drink that.

And, it will alkalize the body and it will also give it an immune boost. And, it’s also high in vitamin C and it also cleanses the system.  And, people that have lemon water in the morning tend to have a healthier day throughout the rest of the day. So, it’s just great way to start the day with a lemon water.

Kurt Wallace: That’s great for people that are dealing with candida and issues with wheat and sugar cravings too, isn’t it?

Liana Werner-Gray: Yeah, it really does help a lot with sugar cravings. Also, to help with sugar cravings is ginger tea. So, I recommend people have ginger tea either in the morning or the afternoon. Whenever your cravings for the sweets usually come on.

So, have a ginger tea and it will help to suppress those cravings. Because ginger’s so cleansing and it feels so clean when you drink it. So, that’s a really helpful tip to get rid of those intense sugar cravings. But, if people do want to have sugars — go for the natural sugars and that’s another tip that I love talking about.

Because, we’re human beings and by design like we do thrive off sugars and we do need them. And so, nature provides us with all the natural sugars that we need. So things like fruits or dates or even some nuts are quite sweet. And then, of course maple syrup and honey if people want to make their own healthy desserts.

Kurt Wallace: And we have to be careful no to overdo that too, if we like to be excessive about sugar. That’s something that in my case because I had sugar craving issues and candida. And, I had to be careful even with natural stuff. I had to find fruits that were lower in sugars like blueberries and other things like that.

Liana Werner-Gray: Yes, exactly and there definitely is a balance. And if we have everything, fats, oils, carbohydrates, sugars, proteins and obviously a lot of plants then we have that balance. And, I think people know intuitively if they’re overbalanced or if they’ve eaten too much sugar.

I think that they know. And there’s a bit of guilt that comes up of like okay I definitely feel like I’ve had too much sugar I better have a green drink or a big salad after this to kind of balance it all out.

Kurt Wallace: Liana, people during the holidays sometimes get what’s called the “Christmas blues”. They get depression and you were referring earlier to eating unhealthy and then getting depression. And there is a correlation a direct relationship to the way that we eat and physical depression that results in the emotions as well. Can you speak to that?

Liana Werner-Gray: Yes, so there are foods that make the body depressed because they stress out the body and also they create a lot of guilt.  So, foods that we know are bad for us. So, when we eat those foods of course we feel depressed.

If we eat foods like refined sugars or refined flours, if we have too much gluten, if we have too much chemicals and preservatives then that leaves a trace residue in our body and our body is not able to digest it very well at all. And, it takes a lot of energy for the body to digest it. So, it kind of sucks out energy.

So, some foods give us energy and give us life and some foods kind of take away our life by depriving us of nutrition. So, for depression and around the holiday blues it’s very important that we eat a lot of antioxidants, a lot of fresh foods, a lot of colorful foods, a lot of foods that are in their natural states. So, things like salads and just making it so vibrant maybe with some radish and some peppers and things like that.

And, also a lot of antioxidants from berries like strawberries blueberries and fruits like bananas. All, those fresh fruits is going to make us feel better. Because, when we eat those foods we cant help but feel better. Even when we’re really depressed we feel better when we feel our body because we know it’s nourishing our self, we know it’s actually taking care of our self and our brain.  Whish helps to have healthier more positive thoughts as well.

Kurt Wallace: Your website TheEarthDiet.com — you have lots of resources. You have daily recipes on there. I went on the front page and you have one of my favorite desserts a cheesecake. And you have a cheesecake made out of cashews with an almond crust which is perfect for me because I’m gluten free. Could you give us some ideas of resources that people can go to that you’re providing for the holidays?

Liana Werner-Gray: Yes, so that recipe’s actually one of my favorites. The one you saw on the site the cashew cheesecake. It’s one of the top ten most popular Earth Diet recipes. So, I definitely recommend people this holiday season eat whatever you’re craving but with one rule — just make sure it’s as natural as possible.

So, if you’re craving cheesecake make this cheesecake. Try this recipe, it’s made with cashews and it’s gluten free. Which is such a bonus and it taste so divine like cheesecake. And, I’ve fed it to people that didn’t actually know that it was a healthy cheesecake and they were just blown away.

And, also other popular recipes for the holidays are things like chicken nuggets. Which the coating is turmeric and almond and some real salt.  Also, the avocado mousse which is made with avocado. And then some raw chocolate which is real easy to make, three ingredients.

And, I put all of these recipes in my new book The Earth Diet. So, everything’s there and also the website is a resource as well for accessing online.

Kurt Wallace: Some people are going to make resolutions for the new year. Maybe to reduce the amount of gluten in their diet or the amount of sugar or try to lose weight or try to quit smoking different things like that.

Lifestyle changes are in my case incremental. How do you approach someone that maybe knows there are problems with their body but they don’t know where to start?

Liana Werner-Gray: Yeah, that’s why in The Earth Diet book I put at the back of the book some guides. So, there’s a seven day weight loss guide and there’s a seven day clear skin guide for people who want to improve their skin. And also for boosting immunity. So, that’s for people who might be sick or might be having to heal from something.

And also, there’s a how to eat deserts every single day guide. Which I think is the most important and most exciting because a lot of people want to eat desserts.  And, find that when we say “oh I can’t have that” we deprive ourselves and we end up binging on it later.

So, the whole idea with this lifestyle shift is to maintain a consistently healthy lifestyle for the rest of our life. Never having to hit rock bottom and coming back up to health again and then going through that cycle. So, that’s why I put those guides into he book.  They’re very helpful so I recommend people do that.

Also, on my website there’s a free three day cleanse. It’s on the home page of TheEarthDiet.com and people can just download it and do it for three days or even just one day.  And that will help just to reset your body to flush out some toxins and put some nutrition back into the body.  And so, I would recommend starting there with a guide that tells you what to do and then you get the idea for yourself.

Kurt Wallace: Liana Werner-Gray, the book — The Earth Diet, thanks for being with us today on Rare.

Liana Werner-Gray: Thank you so much for having me, Kurt.

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