The Wellness Wonderland

Welcome back to  The Wellness Wonderland Radio, where every week I share interviews with wellness extraordinaires. I cannot explain how much I love today’s conversation with my mentor Alessandra Mikic of Love Bomb NYC. She is an amazing empowerment coach, spiritual rockstar, and just generally cool NYC lady who I look up to so much. Her words and advice in this interview are just that, ultra empowering.

Because of her work, you can tell she genuinely loves her life every single day and has made it her mission to help other people feel the same way.

In this conversation with Alessandra, we cover so much including empowering your life, making career changes, surrounding yourself with a positive posse, protecting yourself from unavoidable negativity, her daily practice routines, and how to resist the urge of coaching 24/7 from family to the produce aisle.

Here are a couple notes from our chat:

-Her newest affirmation: “I give value to the world.”

-Here’s a link to one of her amazing coaches Meggan Watterson’s site & her new book Reveal.

-We mention Gabby & Kris Carr a ton too (when don’t I?)

-If you know in your gut that you’re ready to make some major positive changes in your life, read more about how you can work with our guest Alessandra.

-Link to my New Year’s dance challenge.

Super-food spotlight I love!

Did you catch Foodie Friday in Wonderland last week?

Need a chocolate fix? Make these!

Take this meditation for your backpack & relive stress on-the-go!

Why is your juice green? Oh, the power of green juice.

Always bring a dish to pass!

oldie but goodie salad

5 writing tips that will double your salary.

Holistic fashionista!

How’s your June horoscope looking?

Even though it’s finally summer here in America, in case you’re an Aussie here are some warming drinks! If not, file it for a few months.

How to handle negative people!

I love this Free People video! It is so adorable & sweet!

This looks like the perfect spring time recipe yum!

If you’re keeping tabs on me on Insta, you know I love to share a good meal when I have one. So today’s post is an ode to the dishes my body is loving lately. As the seasons change our bodies will crave different things. We’re meant to eat locally and in-season so shopping at a farmer’s market for as much as you can is ideal.  Think summer and spring = more raw fruits and veggies while in fall and winter = more dense fats and warming cooked soups and roasted root veggies. So here are my go-tos of the moment:

{1} Radical Radishes: I simply adore these right now. Every time I bite into one raw, tasting all the fresh crisp bitterness,  I can feel all the great things they’re doing for my body. Just to name a few radish benefits:

-Rich in folic acid, Vitamin C and anthocyanins making it very effective cancer-fighting food.

-Contain Vitamin C, zinc, B-complex vitamins and phosphorus. All of these are very effective in treating skin disorders such as rashes and dry skin

-Helps to relieve congestion within the respiratory system, making it an excellent food for asthmatics and those who suffer from bronchial infections and sinus problems.

-Beneficial for both the gallbladder and liver functions, as it acts as a cleanser

-Natural diuretic, effective in preventing and fighting urinary tract infections

How to enjoy them?

While they’re great raw in salads and you’ll get the most of the benefits, my favorite way to have them lately in roasted.

{Recipe 1} Preheat oven to 425 F. Cut radishes in half and toss in coconut oil, sea salt and pepper. Then just bake them for about 15 minutes & then take them out flip them and back for about 7 more minutes. Feel free to add in carrots or beets while you’re at it, that’s what I usually do.

{2} Vitamixed Tea: So I may have retired my teapot altogether. I feel like I’ve started to use my beloved Vitamix for everything from smoothies, to warm (enzymes packed) soups, and now even my morning lemon water is frothy & warm after blending it on high for about 5 minutes.  Today I created the weirdest/ best drink ever. Completely inspired by a new candle I just got that is coconut-lime-flavored, I created this.

{Recipe 2}  Place about a cup of filtered water, piece of ginger (peeled if not organic), juice of a lime, coconut shreds! Vitamix it on high for 5 min until it gets hot & frothy. I ended up added a drop of two of liquid stevia and that made it even better. 

{3} Salads for Breakfast: I know it seems like a revolutionary idea, but why not? They’re healthy, nourishing, and what our body was designed to eat so why not start the day off with one. And if you’re used to starting your day with a green smoothie of fruit and greens, this salad is pretty much the same thing plus chewing. Move over breakfast sandwich and make room for the breakfast salad.

{Recipe 3} Toss arugula and papaya. Top with a squeeze of lemon or lime &  a drizzle of coconut nectar for sweet simple breakfast salad! 

What are you loving right now? Let me know in the comments below!

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It’s been much too long since I posted a Gratitude for Today post, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been being grateful. Gratitude is the key to happiness and incorporating it into my daily practice has drastically altered my life.

This is how I’ve applied gratitude into my life daily: I keep an evening gratitude journal.

It’s way simple, just before I go to sleep I jot down 5 things I’m grateful for that day, in that moment.

Couple things:

1) They are different every night.

2) They are the first 5 things that pop into my mind.

3) Sometimes they are serious things like people or silly things like a new candle or sometimes they are things that happened that day that were near misses or went well, like not getting a parking ticket even though I had no change in the meter, etc.

I’ve fallen in love with this routine & actually look forward to it in the evenings. The energy from this exercise is a great way to drift off, much healthier than contemplating what’s on your to-do list tomorrow or replaying on repeat in your mind the things that went wrong today or falling asleep to the news or tv. As Gabby say here, Mad Men is great, but if you watch it right before bed you’ll dream that you’re Don Draper all night (what a nightmare).

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You could make this practice part of your morning routine as well. For me,  I’ve just got so much in on my morning routine this can it lost in the shuffle, between oil pulling, meditating, yoga, lemon water..oh my that’s a lot…no wonder I let my routine’s overwhelm me.

Here’s the thing when it comes to practices, you have to enjoy them or you won’t do them. So find a way to make it fun and fall in love with it like I did whatever that means for you. I have one more part to my gratitude practice that I will share with you next week, so stay tuned.

I’ll make a commitment to share my 5 things with Wonderland at least once a week. Share your five things in the comments below!

I am thrilled about today’s episode of The Wellness Wonderland Radio, where every week I share interviews with wellness extraordinaires. Today I’m honored to have one of my biggest mentors, Robyn Youkilis of Your Healthiest You. Robyn is a holistic health coach, body image expert for The Today Show, Ayurveda expert, and Quinn’s other half in their amazing collaboration in the kitchen {Healthy} Cooking Camp with Robyn + Quinn.

In this conversation with Robyn, we cover so much including what to eat late at night, go-to easy meals, body image and mindful eating practices.

We mention a plethora of links & takeaways:

-We chat about how Chia Pudding is the perfect night-time snack or for some extra energy during the day. Here’s a link to my super simple chia pudding video & Robyn’s awesome recipe for chia pudding.

-We talk how some recipes we can just eat over & over like her Easy Lemon Red Lentil Soup (a fav of Gabrielle Bernstein)

-She mentions this {Healthy} Cooking Camp spring salad. This slim-down spring detox salad has me drooling, it looks so nourishing and yummy!

-We honestly discuss how mindful eating can be hard. Here’s the link to Robyn’s amazing blog post on it that I mention & my post on the eating awareness guidelines we had to follow in my yoga teacher training visualized.

-And we also mention how labels are stupid & Robyn reveals her amazing journey to being a rad health/kitchen/wellness/body image guru, that I look up to so much.

Don’t just read the cliff notes! There’s so much more great info in the interview so download it by right clicking the golden dot below or listen right on YouTube.

Do you have additional questions for Robyn or I? Ask in the comments below & we’ll both get back to you!