Luxuriate in wellness! Live every day like a Goddess of health, beauty, confidence, and abundance. End the cycle of corny affirmations, Draconian fitness plans, unrealistic goals, unsustainable results, and just feeling like a hot mess. Why not have fun with movement, sensuous nutrition, creative art, and juicy spiritual exploration? Discover new ways to manage stress, be gorgeous, boost your body image, feel fantastic, and most importantly, savor the good life. I’m LifeBliss Lisa, and this lifestyle blog is about my favorite things:
Bellydance • Tantra/Sensual Spirituality • Food • Beauty • Fitness • FunThe Number One Super Secret Magical Feel Good Look Good Solution!
May 10, 2012 By
It doesn’t matter how much or little weight you want to lose. It doesn’t matter if you run marathons every week or walk around the block once a day. I don’t care if you are a young-un or if you’re older than Methuselah! No matter what your condition or ambition, there is one most important thing you need to incorporate into whatever your plan may be.
While this important thing is not the onliest thing we need for overall well-being it is one of the top two things that are just not negotiable. Substitutions don’t suffice. The sooner we all accept this thing, the better, healthier, more vibrant, energetic, and beautiful we will all 
become.
It’s not a pill, it’s not a potion, or a gadget. What is it!? It is a fairly simple and easy to access item. It’s plants. Nutrient dense, high fiber plants.
Eating plants is the answer. But wait, don’t go away yet, keep on reading! (WARNING: Food porn ahead) I do not promote vegetarianism, veganism, raw veganism, or any other ism for that matter, but I have nothing against them. I believe that it just doesn’t need to be that complicated. A mainly (90%) plant based diet (which includes unprocessed vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains) is the answer to pretty much all diet-related ailments. And all this plant eating can be done with great pleasure. Sadly, the average American diet is made up of less than 15% unprocessed plant based foods. All of this translates to: we need to eat lots and lots more vegetables. Vegetables pack the most nutritional punch without breaking the calorie bank. Fruits come in second, since fructose adds calories.
Vegetables don’t need to be those horrible, gray, soggy, salty canned crap many of us were force fed as children. I’d never been a fan of vegetables (I can’t stand the word “veggies”) in the past, I only tolerated them. But when I took the time to discover the exciting, colorful, sweet, sensuous, full of life combinations of flavors that can be created, everything changed. EVERYTHING. I’ve made it my job to find the most fantastically delicious way to eat well, with REAL food for REAL foodies. [Read more...]
Stuck in a Weight Loss Rut? Try Affection, Adornment, and Adoration.
April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
You’ve lost some weight. You’re still working at it. You have you been eating right and
exercising and you’ve reached a plateau. You weigh yourself daily and scrutinize your booty in your old skinny jeans. Is your mind on weight 24/7? Do you spend every waking moment obsessing, talking, tweeting, thinking, and worrying about what diet food you’re going to eat or what workout you’re going to do?
What if you gave all that a break for a while, it must be utterly exhausting!
Oh, no! Break your stride, no way! You know I would never suggest that you backslide to your old ways and reverse all that great progress.
But what if you do pretty much the same things you do now except within a different frame of mind? What if the high level of anxiety you are maintaining around the idea of “losing weight” were the very thing causing you to keep the weight on? How would things be different if there was a shift in focus from what you can’t eat and how many calories you burn with every single movement you make to giving your body something else it needs–affection, adornment, and adoration?
But how? You know how much I don’t like corny affirmations and “self love bla bla bla…” So we aren’t doing that. Here are a few handy tips to get things moving again and you feeling like a Goddess: [Read more...]
Food Love Sundays: How to Make Broccoli Rice au Gratin (Video)
April 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
This is my first cooking video! I’m so happy to be showing off in my new kitchen too. This was edited by my talented 13 year old daughter. Enjoy.
UPDATE 4/18 – You can add half a teaspoon of turmeric to the water when cooking the rice for more antioxidant nutrition and nice yellow color. Also, I’ve gotten several requests for the pureed cashew recipe. It’s very easy. Just take a cup or so of whole raw cashews and put them into a food processor on high speed until completely crumbled. Then slowly add chicken or vegetable broth until the mixture is smooth. Voila, there you have it.
Chakras: The Keys to Letting your Emotions Work for, not against you
March 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The process of invoking the divine feminine through the spiritual practice of tantra to experience balance and harmony in life requires an important understanding of the subtle body energies. Volumes and volumes have been written on this topic, and much of this knowledge is esoteric and never recorded. I will try to give you a short and concise understanding to begin with, a “tantric snack” as one unfriendly observer dubbed it–a condescending taunt of my encouragement of self, rather than guru driven tantric exploration. Despite the rude intent I actually like the term so here goes your tantric snacky-snack:
There is our physical body, and our subtle body. A subtle body is described as a series of psycho-spiritual components made of energy, and is not visible with the naked eye or medical technology. Movement, flow, and balance of these energies, affected by meditation, breath, and arousal permeate all aspects of life by dictating perspective and consciousness at all times.
There at least four subtle bodies:
- Etheric body – prana (the breath)
- Astral – desires, emotions (chakras)
- Mental – concrete (lower mind)
- Causal – abstract (higher mind)
(Each) subtle body is an energy field which has a structure, which influences and gives life to the physical body. This body has several interconnected layers, but of interest here are the first four: the etheric body, the template of and interface with the physical body, where sensation is perceived; the astral/emotional body, which relates to the individual’s emotional state; the mental body, which contains the thinking patterns; and the causal body, the soul or level of higher intuition. ~Roz Carroll [Read more...]
The Psychology of (and why I hate) the Gym
March 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I’m gonna break it on down for you, but first, I admit that I am not a real psychologist but I just play one on my blog.
There was only a small window of time of which I did not loathe going to the gym. It was when I worked at a small, friendly neighborhood gym owned by a good friend of mine. It was a joy to go in there and see all kinds of people, different ages, sizes, and fitness levels. In the abs class there was fun and lighthearted competition to be the best. There were always laughs to be had.
I hated going to the gym before then, and I hate them now. It’s really only the big corporate gyms that give me a headache but not because they are big and corporate. It just happens that way. I recently started going to a big (actually extremely nice) facility just for a month or two to try a fitness experiment to see if I can more quickly drop some of my winter fluff. I didn’t join, I just got a pass so I can attend some classes.
You see I like it one of two ways. Either I like a friendly and non-judgmental environment, or I want no contact, as in mind yo own damn business. I don’t want to deal with the gym bitches. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about!
So the other day I was arriving for my first spin class ever. I was all smiles, with a good attitude, because it was 8:30, not my usual cranky workout time of 6am. A gym bitch literally saw me and started to RUN to get in front of me. What did I do? I walked swiftly but with large slow-looking strides and just looked at her as if (and she was) acting stone crazy. [Read more...]
Food Love Sundays: Fake Food Upgrade–Broccoli Rice Au Gratin
March 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I wanted to taste a childhood favorite again. Uncle Ben’s Broccoli Rice Au Gratin. Even back then I would add broccoli to it close to the end of the cooking time because there is very little broccoli in that box. I am no longer temped to buy these kinds of things to experience them again because my taste has changed and I can’t stand all the salt and powdery cheese.
So I re-created the dish from these ingredients, listed by quantity:
Fresh broccoli, brown basmati rice, cashew puree, organic cheddar cheese, gruyere cheese, onions, garlic, organic low sodium chicken broth, olive oil, black pepper and sea salt.
The family tore it up! You’ll have to stay tuned for a recipe with exact amounts because I didn’t measure anything. The only change I might make is to add a little bit of turmeric for color.
Here is the ingredient list for the Uncle Ben’s version:
African American Women and the Divine Feminine
March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Healing individuals, families, and communities
Warning: I’m about to get all Afrikka Bambatta on you. I lovingly invite African American women everywhere to gather around this sacred fire. Boomshakalackaboom *waves fragrant incense around* Ok, silliness aside . . .I see that we have important, restorative work to do. There needs to be a women’s movement to re-establish balance in our families and in our communities at-large. The movement is powered by our ability to tap the divine feminine or sensual spirituality. Black women in particular are needed to lead our own charge.
Shared Struggles
Our collective history has blessed us with strength, fortitude, and resilience. But it has also cursed us with identity struggles, health issues, social and economic challenges, as well as attacks from all sides by the mainstream American culture. And how does this affect our families and our communities?
- Historic racial and gender injustices. Lately, turn on the news, or log onto social media and what we see about what is going on today is enough to make us scream. We desperately need our divine feminine power to help us raise strong children in a society that continuously depicts or girls as inherently unattractive, hyper-sexual, and unworthy; and our boys as dangerous, criminal, unintelligent, and less than human. ENOUGH! [Read more...]
Food Love Sundays: Weekly Healthy Food Prep for Busy People
March 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
So you’ve decided you are going to change your eating habits for the better. You have embraced the idea of eating for nutritional density. A
t this point you are trying to figure how you are going to eat green leafy vegetables (one raw and one cooked), some beans, and fresh fruits every single day. Or how you will manage to eat only whole grains, which take eons longer to cook? How are you going to do this after work, exercise, homework, etc.? Never fear. A little bit of prep work twice a week will make this so easy.
- Saute several days worth of aromatics and store in the refrigerator.
I noticed that eating pretty much all fresh food I am using lots more aromatics. Aromatics are vegetables like onions, garlic, celery, or peppers as well as herbs that are used to create the base flavor for a dish. According to Fine Cooking,
These basic mixtures go by different names in different cuisines, but they always play an important part in the character of a dish. A French mirepoix, an Italian soffritto, or a Portuguese refogado will each provide a foundation of flavor that will ultimately distinguish a dish from a similar one in another cuisine.
Real Beauty is Fun, Posing is Boring
March 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I have my own ideas about what beauty is and what beauty isn’t. I’ve talked about carefree sensuality and the importance of 
comfort and confidence. I continue to notice that the most beautiful women are the ones who are not obsessing about it all day long, every day, but the ones who take the time to do themselves up, and then forget about it. I came across a great article in Beauty Redefined that describes the root of this phenomenon best:
(Girls) are raised from our earliest memories to believe our happiness, success, ability to be loved, and confidence come almost exclusively from how we appear to others.
This passage immediately brought up mental images of women who fit the standard media-defined beauty, walking nervously, shoulders up to their ears, butt cheeks clenched tightly together, constantly pulling, tugging, and adjusting their clothing right in the middle of some ridiculously fun mayhem and debauchery. I see these women as going through the motions and not authentically living life. [Read more...]
Food Love Sundays: Easy 100% Whole Wheat Biscuits that Actually Taste Good!
February 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I have to give huge props to Lisa Leake over at 100 Days of Real Food for this fantastic recipe. Go check her out! She has loads of valuable and easy to understand information about how to get away from eating janky processed foods. You all know I am an advocate for eating real food and I ran across her site and love it. I whipped up these biscuits in 20 minutes flat, and they taste delicious. Great with honey, jam, sausage or anything.
Whole Wheat Biscuits
- 2 cups whole wheat flour (She uses King Arthur’s white whole wheat organic flour; I used Bob’s Red Mill organic stone ground white whole wheat pastry flour)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup cold unsalted butter
- 1 cup milk (any kind)
In a medium sized bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well with whisk or fork. Cut the ½ stick butter into little pea sized pieces and then mix the pieces into the flour mixture. Using a fork, try to mash the butter pieces as you mix it together with the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs. It is okay if the outcome just looks like the same pea sized pieces of [Read more...]
