Ten Lishi Wisdoms on how to be happy and healthy for 2016

Ten Lishi Wisdoms on how to be happy and healthy for 2016

Ten Lishi Wisdoms on how to be happy and healthy for 2016

1. Take your time, when going about your daily life; don’t hurry. Remember “Wait, wait, wait and let the energy move you”

2. Don’t think too much. Thinking takes energy. Thinking can make you age quickly. Learn to follow your energy work in the flow.

3. When working, work for 40 minutes then stop for 10 minutes. When you look at something all the time, it can damage your eyes. Concentrating on something too long is not nourishing for your mind or body.

4. When you are happy, control your happiness, too much happiness damages the heart energy.  When you lose control of your happiness then you damage your lung energy.

5. Don’t worry too much or get angry.  Anxiousness and anger damages your liver and your intestines. It’s ALL GOOD!

6. Don’t talk too much. Lishi is a doing Art – most people either talk about doing, or do. The benefit is in the doing.

7. When you eat food don’t eat too much.  Chang Ming advises always make sure you leave a little space in your stomach and do not eat until you are totally full as this can damage your spleen.

8. If you only do physical exercise all the time and you never do Qigong this makes you lose your balance and you will become impatient. You lose the Yin of your body. Lishi Exercises balance the Yin and the Yang.

9. If you never exercise your body, and instead only meditate with soft training/qigong, then this doesn’t nourish your Yang energy so you will use up your Yang and become weakened.

10. Lishi training is holistic. The purpose of our training is to balance our Yin and Yang.  How many hours is not important. It’s quality not quantity – come along to one of our classes lishi.org/classes/leeds

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Recipe: Steamed Greens and Carrots with a Tahini and Miso Sauce

Recipe: Steamed Greens and Carrots with a Tahini and Miso Sauce

Steamed Greens and Carrots with a Tahini and Miso Sauce

This currently has my number one spot for favourite meals.

At the moment I am 30 weeks pregnant and I my body craves Cabbage and Broccoli! (nope, not a pickled onion or piece of coal in sight!)

This recipe is super quick and easy. Plus once you’ve tried the Tahini and Miso sauce you won’t be able to get enough of it.

 

Serves: 2 adults / 2 Kids

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 15 mins

 

Ingredients:

Half a head of Brocccoli

2/3 Carrots ( organic if possible, just because they taste so much better)

Half a Green Cabbage

But substitute with any seasonal vegetables that are hanging around in your fridge.

 

Sauce:

2 tablespoons of Tahini ( Light)

1 generous tablespoon of Brown Rice Miso

1 generous dollop of date syrup

1 dash of tamari

1 dash of toasted sesame oil

2 ladels of vegetable stock / water from the steamed veg

 

Instructions:

  1. Wash and cut the carrots into large chunks
  2. Place the carrots into the steamer and start steaming
  3. Wash and cut the broccoli into chucky heads
  4. Wash and dice the cabbage
  5. Place the broccoli and cabbage into the steamer and add as another layer over the carrots. Steam for 5 mins.

 

While the veg are steaming, make the sauce.

 

Tahini and Miso Sauce

  1. Place 2 heaped tablespoons of Tahini in a pan with a very low heat.
  2. Add 1 dollop of date syrup, toasted sesame oil and tamari soya sauce
  3. Add 2 ladles of the steamed vegetable water and stir
  4. Once the sauce has mixed well, turn off the heat and add 1 tablespoon of brown rice miso and continue to stir in well.

 

Place the steamed veggies in a bowl and generously dress with the hot sauce and serve.

I try and follow lifestyle guidelines called Chang Ming (Long Life therapy).

This means plenty of seasonal veggies and I’ve also been cutting down on the amount of grains and carbs I’ve been eating lately.

However you can also serve this with a portion of short grain brown rice.  The nutty flavour of the brown rice is also delicious with this sauce.

Bon Appetite! 🙂

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5 Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium

5 Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium

Here are 5 non dairy sources of calcium

Calcium is an essential mineral for the good health of the body, teeth and bones.  I am sick of being told that the only source of calcium is from milk and dairy.

In actual fact calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body and also abundant in a number of foods in equal or higher quantities than dairy.  It is estimated that 6 out of 10 people are not able to digest lactose.  Chee Soo describes it as “ cows milk is designed for baby calves not people” (sic)

For example only 33% of calcium from dairy products can be absorbed by the body.  We need around 300-400 mg of calcium a day. Other food sources such as leafy greens, vegetables and seeds are a much better source of absorbable calcium.

Over zelous PR from the dairy industry market calcium as an wonder mineral, however over comsumption of calcium has its problems.  Therefore to be safe it is better to consume calcium through natural food sources rather than supplements and fortified foods.  Natural food sources are the best way to consume calcium as to absorb this mineral, Vitamin D, K and Magnesium is also needed in the body, which are also naturally occurring in food sources.

Here is a quick list of 5 great non dairy alternatives to calcium

  • Dark Leafy Greens: e.g. Pak Choi, Broccoli, Cabbage and Kale. In addition they are also a fanastic source of vitamins A, C, E and K and B vitamins.  If you make no other changes to your diet, if you have an extra helping of dark leafy greens, you will see positive results in your body.
  • Sesame seeds: there are 90mg of calcium in a teaspoon. But foods such as tahini and halva are rich in sesame and therefore calcium as well as zinc, magnesium, selenium and iron.
  • Beans:such as haricot or navy beans are high in calcium, fiber and iron.
  • Black Strap Molasses: This is an excellent sweetener for teas and baked goods. High in multiple vitamins and minerals, one tablespoon of this thick, dark molasses will give you 172 mg of your daily calcium needs. Try it in your morning cup of organic tea or coffee.
  • Quinoa: this is widely thought to be a grain, but is actually a seed. The delicious light nutty texture contains around 175mg of your daily RDA for calcium, as well as high levels of potassium, magnesium and zinc.

For more information on the Chang Ming Diet buy our Kindle book which includes sixty delicious Chang Ming Recipes

 

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Daoist Diet

Daoist Diet

The latest medical studies confirm what the Lishi diet has taught for thousands of years.


Taoist Vegetables

A massive collaboration between Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, the China Study is the most comprehensive study of diet, lifestyle and disease that has ever been conducted in the history of biomedical research.

Over the course of the intensive study, researchers surveyed a wide range of diseases and diet and lifestyle factors across rural China and Taiwan, and eventually produced more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease.

So, What does it tell us?  Basically, what the Taoists have been telling us for years.  Avoid eating meat as your source of protein and eat vegetable protein and grains instead.

Chang Ming Diet Guidelines

The study also showed that even relatively small intakes of animal-based foods were associated with adverse effects. And what’s more, the study revealed that the source of animal protein didn’t matter. Whether it came from a lean pork chop, egg whites, or a glass of whole milk, the results were all the same.

In the Basic Chang Ming Cookbook, there is a list of foods that Chee Soo taught students of the Daoist Arts of Lishi to avoid eating.  This list includes:

– Meat such as pork, beef, mutton and lamb.

– Salmon, mackerel, shark, swordfish, tuna and whale.

– Concentrated meat extracts, soups and gravies.

– Milk, cheese, butter, dairy yoghurt, boiled or fried eggs.

– Lard or dripping that comes from animal fats.

– Any bird or fish that has a lot of fat tissue.

 He also advises on a number of foods that can be eaten and these include:

– All locally grown vegetables that are in season, especially root vegetables

– Eggs, if scrambled or in omelettes; better still, eat only the yolks.

Chang Ming Diet Guidelines Vegetables

Once again, the ancient wisdom of the Daoists is still cutting edge and modern research is only just catching up with what they have taught for thousands of years.

What it really comes down to is that eating animals is a significantly different nutritional experience from eating plants. On top of the aforementioned, plant-based foods have substantially more antioxidants, fiber and minerals than animal-based foods and significantly less cholesterol and saturated fat. Plant-based foods also tend to be alkaline forming, which can help your body combat inflammation, reduce stress and protect bone health.

To find out more about the Chang Ming Healthy living guidelines, ask your Lishi teacher, find a class near you or get yourself a copy of The Basic Chang Ming Cookbook from amazon.

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