What Lianna Sugarman, founder of Lulitonix, does everyday

 I’m going to start hump day with an apology. Yesterday our newsletter featured the daily rituals of top fitness and food experts. Sounds good, right? I think it was except somehow my friend Lianna Sugarman became Leanna Silverman. Even pre-caffeinated Foodtrainers know better than that. Lianna is the founder and  CBO “Chief Blending Officer” at Lulitonix and is always experimenting with cutting edge ingredients and flavors. We asked her a few questions:

What is your #1 daily ritual?

While there are a million rituals for life that I really love, and that I mean to implement every day [At Foodtrainers, we call these “wish-uals”] truly the only one I do EVERY day, and the only non-negotiable, is to make and drink a big, huge, green blend with avocado.

How does this affect the rest of your day?

Whatever else I do, eat, drink, or think, whether I sleep or not, am happy or sad, whether I oil pull, spin, meditate (ha!) or just sit on my butt working in front of my computer, the daily custom blend, the perfect mix of greens, avocado, and lemon and water, creates that incredibly necessary sense of grounding, energy, harmony, clarity and balance.

OK, I definitely want all that you describe (harmony please!), any tips for blending at home?

For me, nutrition is about more than staying physically healthy or fit. What I take in impacts my mind and my emotions; I feel like I get to play at being a wizard every day. I’m very interested in both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese medicine and often use aspects of those constructs to make myself the perfect blend of the day. I base this on what is going on with my emotional landscape.

Anger and stress- these are stored in the liver. If that’s what you feel add a handful of dandelion leaves and some turmeric, liver boosts.

Sadness or grief – are stored in the lungs and the large intestine, so if that’s on the emotional horizon, opt for foods that nourish those organs, spicy blends with avocado, daikon radish or garlic.

What do you suggest for “blending” when you travel?

Even when I travel, I bring green powder, some adaptogens and a nutribullet. You can generally find avocados most places that I go (ahem, Mexico!), and I blend myself a little substitute blend. I walk around with my mason jar on the beach like a crazy person. People probably laugh, but we've all been laughed at for worse, right?"

Um totally but I now know why we are friends, by the way I’d steal your mason jar versus laugh but you know that. Maybe we’ll organize a healthy retreat if you’ll forgive us for botching your name. Thank you LIANNA

Do you have any questions about blending we can ask Lianna? Have you tried Lulitonix? What’s the craziest gadget or food you’ve traveled with? 

The truth about smoothie bowls

Smoothie bowls have been popping up everywhere. And while Carolyn and I are happy to test-drive any (ok most) trends we hesitated with these big bowls. We explained our "cold feet" in this month's Monthy Morsels newsletter  along with what to do and skip when it comes to these creations. 

Here's our featured recipe (pictured above)

Cocomint Smoothie Bowl

Handful ice

Handful fresh mint

Banana or frozen banana

1 tbs each of philosophie green dream, gelatin and coconut oil

splash harmless harvest

dash Pantea matcha

pinch Himalayan salt

Nustevia drops (I like lemon nustevia with this)

 Choose your toppings- cocochia, gojis shown here    

Add ingredients to Vitamix (yup we declared ourselves blender bitches but need a strong gizmo), blend and pour into ramekin or small bowl.

Do you make smoothie bowls? Favorite ingredients? What are you having or did you have for breakfast today? Are you a blender bitch (or blender snob)?

Hemp-y Breakfast With Anna Kaiser

I had the pleasure of shooting a video you fitness guru Anna Kaiser. The requested topic was hemp and since hemp hearts are lauded in The Little Book of Thin, I was thrilled. An aside, I hadn't meant Anna prior. And you never know what a project will be like in this scenario. Anna was as welcoming and fun as she is successful. So here is the link, we make a delicious Blueberry, lime and coconut breakfast bowl and laugh a lot. The bowl feature's my favorite Siggi's coconut low fat yogurt, Manitoba hemp hearts and lots of zest. Stay tuned for our next installment.
Have you tried Anna's workout? Eat hemp foods? Did you think hemp was pot?