Nutritious You Programs

Tailored programs are offered to meet specific needs of an individual:

• One Hour Initial Consultation $75. Offered in order to assess an individual's health goals/concerns and develop a plan to reach those goals. An individual program might be recommended after this meeting. One, two, or three recommendations would be given at this time. This consultation can be done in person, via phone, or skype/facetime.

• One Week Cleanse & Renew $250. Includes: 
• One hour initial consultation.
• Three days worth of food supply (breakfast and dinner) made out of organic ingredients. 
• Seven days mentoring and plan adjustment if needed over the phone, text.
• A personal folder with detailed instructions, grocery list, recipes, and supplements suggestions. Next time you decide to detox, you won’t even need me!
• Notebook for food journaling.
• Note: For the best possible results, please give this experience 3 weeks following these steps:
• 1. Schedule your initial consult
• 2. Have one week of preparation
• 3. One Week Cleanse & Renew program (3 days of cleanse and 4 days of smooth transition)
• 4. At least one week of continuing transition back to your regular diet.

• Three Months Health Makeover Program. This program can be done in person and over the phone or skype/facetime. It can be extended to another three months if you choose to. It includes:
• One Hour Initial Consultation ($75) where we assess your health and wellness goals and determine if this program is right for you and if you would benefit working with me. One, two, or three recommendations would be given at this time. 
• Six 50 minute sessions $450 where we meet bi-weekly to discuss your health goals/concerns, your progress and recommendations.
• Mentoring of your progress and working together step-by-step on improving the areas of your greatest concern. Examples that will vary depending on your goals: preventative solutions, nutritional knowledge and healthy tips, energy levels improvement, digestive health, decreasing mild ailments, smart grocery shopping, nutritious cooking, healthier eating habits, de-junking your pantry, achieving the lifestyle you always imagined for yourself, healthy lunch box ideas, learning to read labels, learning new healthy foods, upgrading your medical cabinet with natural solutions, and more.
• Mentor/accountability partner, available by email in between the sessions. 
• Notes, handouts, CDs, books, food samples, and other materials. 
• Highly customized approach where we adjust the direction of the program depending on your immediate needs. 
• Bringing new healthier habits to your lifestyle, creating new daily routine. 
• Discounted price for the groups of up to 5 people.

• One Month Health Makeover Program is offered on limited bases. $75 for initial consult and $150 for the program.

• Raw Food Workshops: 
• Option 1. Half a day workshop (or workshop series) is available for groups of 3-10 people. It includes meditation, meal preparation, a nutrient packed branch with Q&A, a take-home binder with all the recipes included, and handouts. Available Monday through Friday. Please use contact form to request a specific day.
• Option 2. Host raw food workshop at your home. Free for you. Five guests minimum (including one host).

Important:
All sessions start on time and end on time. The hour cannot be extended because a client is late. You will only get a full benefit from the sessions if you allow for a full 50 minutes scheduled time. You can reschedule your session at least 24 hours in advance so not to loose your session time.

The prices are subject to change without notice. To confirm your program/session, a payment and a signed agreement should be submitted a day before the meeting.

Raw Avocado Soup Recipe

I would like to show you how easy it is to make a wonderful, packed with nutrients avocado soup. I am especially excited because I was invited in the local Observer paper to share my popular recipe with the readers. You can get the full story here, in YourObserver.

Here is the video on youtube:


Ingredients, Short Version:

• 1 Avocado
• 1/2 a cucumber or zucchini or cucumber
• 1/2 of tomato for soup and ½ for garnish
• 1 tbs olive oil.
• A slice of lemon or lime.
• 2 to 3 stalks of parsley.
• Sea salt unbleached to taste
• 1 to 2 cloves of garlic.
• You can add your favorite spices. It could be cumin, coriander, all spice mix, paprika, black pepper, or cayenne pepper.
• 1/2 cup of water. You can add later for desired consistency.

Ingredients, Long Version:
There are a lot of versions of this soup online, but this is my favorite combination of ingredients. If you like garbanzo soup, then you will love this. Our western diet is notoriously acidic and this soup is an easy way to get highly alkaline food into your body to balance out acidity. It is packed with nutrition.

- Avocado. Great source of healthy fats and fiber, a lot of vitamins and minerals. How do you cut your avocado?
- 1 small cucumber or zucchini. Cucumber is a great cleanser, it has a lot of water and fiber content in addition to a bunch of vitamins and minerals.
- 1 small tomato. Rich in vitamin A, Calcium, Potassium and other minerals.
- 1 tbs olive oil. I am adding oil not just for taste. It has an important job, to help me digest all the fat-soluble vitamins from all these fruits.
- A slice of lemon or lime. I use the skin too, it gives a little kick to the taste.
- 2 stalks of parsley. You can replace it with cilantro or even better fresh basil.
- Sea salt unbleached
- 1 clove of garlic. Great at healing inflammation in the body.
- I just happened to have some dry oregano. I’ll use some of it.
- You can add your favorite spices. It could be cumin, all spice mix, paprika, black pepper, cayenne papper.
- ½ cup of water. You can add later for desired consistency.

Blend all together, garnish with tomato, garbanzo beans, and parsley and that’s it.

Weight Loss Personal Story

How I helped my dad to lose 20 pounds. He was my first client!

I just realized recently that I never shared in this blog success at helping my own dad loose 20 lbs! So here we go. 

By the time my parents moved into the same town with us, I was already very much into nutrition. I couldn’t hide from my parents that they have been neglecting their most important thing given to them since birth – their own body.  I am not a big authority to my dad and I am still surprised he listened to me. But he agreed to an experiment for eight weeks only and he agreed to listen to me. We changed his breakfast and lunch routine, snacks choices, and everything else stayed the same. Here are the results on the picture, before - January 4, 2010 and after - March 1, 2010.

My dad went from 233 lbs to 213 lbs. He lost 2.5 inches in chest, 2.5 inches in waist, 2.5 inches in hips, 1 inch in arm, and 2 inches in upper leg! He couldn’t recognize himself in the mirror as every part of his own body looked smaller. He was staring at his skinny neck on March 1. He moved his belt two holes tighter and my mom was worried they’d need to buy him new size clothes. Btw, my mom lost 9lbs on the same regimen, pretty good deal too J

I’m writing this in June of 2012 and I’m happy to report that my dad didn’t gain anything back.  In fact it was a great kick start for him of a healthier regimen. Since then he even started to play tennis.  His weight right now is about 205 lbs and I am so happy to have been a reason for it.

From Becoming Raw to Nutritious You

From “Becoming Raw”* 

to “Becoming a Health Coach”

to "Nutritious You"

As many of my friends know, I have been experimenting with raw and vegan diets in the last several years. This is why I originally started writing this blog and called it Becoming Raw.  Over the past several years, I have followed different health gurus. This period of exploration culminated in my first cleanse which left me feeling lighter, more energetic and focused.  These experiences prompted more research on nutrition. Over the last four years, I helped people in my community with healthy supplements and adjusting their lifestyles. This experience inspired me to bring my knowledge to a more professional level. I am excited to share that I found a school that is the perfect match- The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, located in New York City.

The school preaches a holistic approach to one’s health and wellness based on bio-individuality. In addition to nutrition, it also addresses areas of relationships, spirituality, career, and physical activity together to help a person to achieve his/her goals holistically. You can learn about this approach here.

I am so looking forward to applying the knowledge I gain to help people achieve their goals in areas of health and wellness without restrictive yo-yo dieting. I will start seeing clients as a Health Coach in September of 2012 and will offer student rates until my graduation in 2013.

To learn more about the program I'll offer, please read on:
The process would start with a free consultation during which we will identify the areas of most concern and then proceed with creating a customized program to achieve your goals in a step-by-step fashion over six months. It is believed if you engage in activity for 6 months, it becomes your second nature. It may include tweaking your daily habits, easy-to-make nutritious meals cooking classes, sugar cravings deconstruction, helping out with comfort foods, a grocery tour, cleaning up pantry, introducing workouts for your mind and body, addressing your stress level, improving your sleep and many more options, depending on the need.

If there is anyone disappointed that Becoming Raw blog's name is gone, I would like to reassure you that I’ll keep posting easy and nutritious recipes and other informative articles on minimally processed food. So, please stick around!

Vitamix is Mine!

I am super excited to share with you that my dear sister-in-law shocked and surprised me with an amazing present. I came home last night and saw a box at the door from the Vitamix company! Yes, it is my dream blender, professional grade! I never thought I would own it so soon. I was looking at it for a day afraid to start using it:). It comes with a gorgeous cook book and DVD. So after I watched the DVD today, I'm confident to make my first Vitamix Smoothie for Lunch!

P.S. My sister, brother -in-law and their kids visited us for two weeks and I guess she noticed that my blender could only make two large cups of smoothies. She asked me what was the best blender and I raved about Vitamix so if she decided to buy one she would know about the best one. Instead, she bought one for us! Thank you so very much!!!

Healthy Popsicle

Do you or your children love popsicles?

Popsicle is a new concept for me as there are no popsicles where I come from. Since having a toddler, I quickly realized that it’s a very popular product in the U.S. among the kids. However, I wasn’t impressed by the look of some popsicles in a grocery store. A lot of them look too bright for a fruity treat and surely too sweet. Also some have substances to keep them from dripping too much. Well, it is probably not news for local moms that you can make your own popsicles at home where you are in charge of the ingredients. However, for us it’s been a total discovery! It is fun and easy to do together with your child.

There are lots of shapes you can buy on the market these days. We went to Bed Bath & Beyond and chose a form that’s not too big, has a good grip for toddler hands, and really cute. As a bonus, it has a little opening on top where you can put a fruit, whipped cream, etc.




Popsicle Recipe:

Blend all ingredients below

- 1 banana
- 1 big handful of frozen mangos (we’ve got all natural bag in BJ’s)
- 1 Greek yogurt (all natural)
- fresh OJ, just to barely top the ingredients

That’s it. Now you have enough to fill up 4 little forms and a small shake left over for mommy for a job well done! Frozen, it taste like sorbet!

P.S. last time I added a bit of chard to this mix and my toddler didn’t even notice. So it’s a great way to feed her greens, especially those like kale, spinach, etc that she would never eat otherwise.

If you have a popsicle idea, 

please share with us readers

 in the comment section!