the WELLNESS WONDERLAND: EPISODE 064 | ANJIE CHO

featured this week on The Wellness Wonderland, by Katie Dalebout

Anjie Cho is awesome. I’m so excited to finally welcome her to Wonderland. Since recording this episode she has become a great friend and she even interviewed me a couple times on her site here and here. She is one of the coolest, kindest, and most knowledgable people I’ve ever met. I am fascinated by Feng Shui, minimalism, and interior design and in this episode Anjie uses her vast experience and knowledge to enlighten us on all of that and more. Anjie is a registered Architect, Feng Shui Interior Designer and best selling author of 108 Ways to Create Holistic Spaces: Feng Shui and Green Design for Healing and Organic Homes. Since 1999, she has been creating beautiful and nourishing environments throughout New York City, Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and beyond. There are so many simple yet profoundly impactful tips shared in the episode and I’m so excited to hear how you implement them in your lives. Let us know.

Everyday Uses for Lemon Juice

Lemon juice is a delicious addition to many salads, and it makes a great, refreshing twist on water, but as it turns out, food and drinks aren't the only places lemon juice shines. Check out these awesome ways to use lemon juice in your home and everyday life. Score some holistic living points just by using lemons creatively! 

Refresh Your Kitchen

Lemon juice is actually very useful in refreshing various parts of your kitchen, from your smelly refrigerator to that worn-in cutting board. After removing anything moldy, unusable or just super smelly from your refrigerator, squirt some lemon juice on a cotton ball and let it camp out for a few hours inside. Then enjoy a fresher smell when you open the door. 

This trick works for cutting boards too. If you cook at all (and even if you're raw), you probably use your cutting board for a variety of fruits and veggies, ranging from onions to peppers to ginger to tomatoes...the list goes on. Chances are, no matter how clean your cutting board is, it doesn't smell too good. Lemon juice to the rescue! Just rub a clean cutting board down with half a lemon, or wash it in lemon juice for a kitchen tool that smells like new! An extra perk to this is that lemon juice disinfects as well! No salmonella in this kitchen!

Refresh Your Skin

Lemon juice, with water, can work wonders on your skin. It works like this: lemon water reduces the body's production of free-radicals, the bodily critters responsible for all sorts of age-tattlers, including wrinkles and sunspots. Simply put, reduce these substances in the body, and you reduce your skin's tendency to succumb to fine lines and sun damage. It's as easy as adding a little lemon to your daily agua intake.

Heal Yourself

This one is especially important, since we're heading into fall and winter, the season for colds, sore throats and every other life-hindering ailment one can think of. When you start to see symptoms of bacterial infection (sore throat, cough, etc.) take a few hits of lemon water for quick results. Lemons have a certain anti-bacterial characteristic which makes them super helpful in these situations! Much cheaper than a doctor visit!

Lemon juice is exceptional for detoxification as well. Most of us want to eat a better diet, but many of us don't. And even if we do, there are still a number of toxins that make their way into our bloodstreams on a regular basis. Not a fan of toxic blood? Up your daily lemon water intake to combat this naturally. While you're at it, take note that drinking lemon water also helps keep the digestive system on track, strengthens the immune system, balances out our body's pH balance and so much more! 

Did you have any idea you could do so much with a lemon? And they're some of the most affordable fruits available! Load up on these goodies and keep a collection on hand for staying healthy and keeping a fresh home year round. 

by Anjie Cho

Wellness and the Holistic Home with Olivia Lane

Olivia Lane is one of my favorite twitter personalities. She always has so many creative ideas, crafts and recipes, and she's agreed to share a bit about what she does with Holistic Spaces!

AC: You focus on wellness, today I wanted to talk specifically about creating a holistic home. How are some ways you help your clients do that?

OL: During my 90 Day Beautiful Body, Radiant Life program I help my clients identify toxic household products and replace them with healthier ones, like replacing conventional cleaning products with natural and homemade ones. That's something that has an obvious impact on their physical wellness. 

That said, I love to help my clients notice the deeper connection between the health of their home and their overall wellness. How you do one thing is how you do everything. Many of us want to be healthier but it's hard to jump in Day 1 and make changes to our diet, at least ones that will stick. So why not start by making changes to our home and how we care for it? Putting more love and attention into where you live will absolutely open the door to putting more love and attention into other areas of your life. 

One of the first things I have my clients do is commit to having at least one meal a day seated at their dining table and using real (not paper or plastic) dining ware without TV, radio, internet or reading material. I don't care if you're eating a double cheeseburger from a fast food joint-- we'll get to that later-- but any food ingested this way is going to be so much more nourishing.

What are 3 simple tips that the readers can do to create their own holistic homes?

Firstly, have friends and family over often, at least once a month. It's so important to have that love energy in there. (I find having someone over also gives me momentum to tidy up, which is an added benefit).

Secondly, cook a meal at home at least once a week, even if you think you can't cook. It's healthy. It gets the creative juices flowing. It also strengthens the bond between your physical body, your soul and your home environment.

Thirdly, identify how you want to feel in the world and think about how you can create that feeling in your home. For example, my core desires are to feel radiant, abundant, creative, and connected. I love keeping a bouquet of local wildflowers from the farmer's market on my kitchen counter because to me they represent those qualities. 

How have you created your own holistic space?

My husband and I recently moved from a house to a small one bedroom apartment (which is sort of like a studio because we use the bedroom as an office). For us, creating a holistic space was so much about simplifying. We're constantly evaluating and re-evaluating what is truly important to us, what do we want to make space for in our lives and what can we let go of. 

It's so important to me to be intentional about what I invite into my space. Not just with physical stuff, but with lights and noise too. I try to minimize background distraction. I don't play music unless I'm actually listening to it. I hate having the TV on unless I'm watching it, it's difficult when you live with a partner, but we're doing our best. I've also been challenging myself to use the internet less. This helps me to reduce stress and to truly focus on and enjoy the people, objects, and experiences that are meaningful to me.

You're a big fan of healthy eating as well, right? Can you share one of your favorite recipes with us?

How about this creative way of using leftover rice...for breakfast?!

You'll need:

  • 1 1/2 cup cooked, leftover brown rice

  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup coconut milk (I like unsweetened vanilla coconut.)

  • 1 large carrot (shredded)

  • 1 small handful of raisins (about 1/4 cup)

  • 1 small handful of dried shredded coconut (about 1/4 cup)

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 3 supershakes of cinnamon (about 1 tsp)

  • 1/2 tsp almond extract

  • weeshake of nutmeg

  • pinch of sea salt

  • Toppings (per bowl): 1 tsp coconut oil and a few crushed walnuts. Delicious with optional fairy-dusting of brown sugar or maple syrup. If you're adverse to sugar, I bet a few slices of banana would be yummy too.

Here's what you do:

  1. Put 1/2 cup coconut milk and all the other ingredients (except the toppings) in a medium saucepan.

  2. Heat for about 7-10 minutes on low heat, until warm and the flavors combine. Stir often. Add more milk as necessary.

  3. Divide into bowls and cover with toppings.

Serves two hungry people who are serious about breakfast. Can also serve up to four people who prefer a light breakfast and are somehow not concerned that lunch is 4 hours away. This could also be served cold as a rice pudding dessert.

by Anjie Cho

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Olivia helps women kick sugar cravings to the curb and put out the welcome mat for a hot body, tons of energy, and unbridled joy. She empowers her clients to work with nature and their intuition to transform their health and reduce risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and depression. You can learn more about her work at itsolivialane.com.