Editors Note: Gone are the days of saying “I don’t know any healthy places to eat that have food I actually like” with this weeks Top Pick.  I am going to challenge you to play another game with this everyone, next time you make plans to go out to eat, choose a place in this book.  Give yourself a month to go on only Clean Plates NYC outings and see if you can feel a healthier you! ~Nitika~

When I discovered this book at an event recently I couldn’t have been more excited!  After living in Manhattan for almost 10 years I still manage to always flock to the same handful of places that I know will be good.  However in the back of my mind I am always slightly frustrated with myself that I haven’t been more adventurous, or taken more time to do a little research.  I ultimately choose the same restaurants because with the long list of food allergies I have, I feel a little nervous going out to eat somewhere when I don’t know how aware they are about their ingredients or if I feel I might not have that many choices.  Until now that is!

Clean Plates NYC is a small book with a large amount of knowledge, insight, and resources that allow you to stay plugged in to all things healthy wherever you are in this fabulous city.  Created by nutritional consultant Jared Koch who had a great amount of success in the entertainment industry before he channeled his passions in to this publishing adventure.  Before Clean Plates, Jared began seven years of wellness study with the likes of Dr. Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, raw food guru David Wolfe, and Walter Willett, Chair of Harvard’s Department of Nutrition.  Jared graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition with certification by Columbia University, Teachers College in 2005 and graduated from the Global Institute for Alternative Medicine in 2004. He is a health coach, nutritional consultant, and certified yoga instructor with expertise in meditation.

The thing I appreciate most about the reviews in this handy guide to healthier eating habits is the fact that it is completely designed to support you living your best life.  This isn’t about having strict rules that you can’t follow, or dinning out when you can’t afford it.  This book is about having an invaluable resource for you to stay on the healthy track that so many of us crave daily, but don’t always feel supported enough to follow.  Although the book is a super sweet and compact size that was designed so that you can comfortably carry it around everywhere, Jared is well aware that we are an Internet driven generation so Clean Plates has a mobile version too!  That way with just one tap on your touch screen, or click on your Blackberry you can be eating healthier, delicious, and more environmentally conscious foods today.  Now what could be cooler than that?

To purchase Clean Plates NYC in paperback or as a mobile application please visit http://www.CleanPlatesNYC.com

You can also follow them on Twitter @CleanPlatesNYC or on Facebook

Editors Note: You want me to eat what??  I am more of a sweet person rather than sour, however over the years I have learned that sour foods have incredible healing properties that I shouldn’t over look!  Now that doesn’t mean that just because it is healthy we need to suffer through the digestion process, but with more and more companies appreciating fermented foods you are sure to find a product you will love.  Play a game with a friend of yours to try 5 different fermented foods and choose one that you like and can add to your regular diet! There are loads of great options below, or leave a comment and ask for more options if you would like even more variety. ~Nitika~

I want to introduce you to a food group that I have recently been exploring and experiencing great benefits from.  You may have heard of them, but never knew much about them or thought you would enjoy them as I have.  They are not very common in the Standard American Diet, but have been used in China and many other cultures for centuries for medicinal and food preservation purposes.  So, what am I talking about?  You may be asking yourself.  Welcome to the fascinating world of fermented and cultured foods such as sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, and kimchi.  I want to make you aware of the many amazing health benefits that you can gain by adding these foods to your diet.  I hope after reading you will be inspired to try them for yourself!

Help control sugar cravings.  One of the greatest benefits I have found with adding fermented foods to as many meals as I can is having my craving for something sweet after a meal disappear.  The addition of the sour or bitter taste of the fermented foods helps create a balanced experience for your taste buds.  You may have noticed that after eating salty popcorn you have a desire for ice cream or something sweet.  This is very common after many of the meals that we eat because table salt is unfortunately over used and many entrees are missing the sweet and sour tastes.

Loaded with vitamins and nutrients.   Throughout the fermentation cycle the live cultures create B vitamins, including folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and biotin.  In addition, fermentation creates omega-3 fatty acids that have an anti-inflammatory effect in the body.

Improves digestion and your immune system. Fermented foods are rich with live, active cultures of good bacteria known as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.  These live cultures help to restore and maintain the balance of the intestinal flora, which in turn supports a healthy digestive system.  The good bacteria produce beneficial enzymes and short-chain fatty acids that aid in digestion, enhance the absorption of nutrients, and nourish the cells of the intestine.  This results in the body’s ability to protect itself against harmful pathogenic microorganisms to promote a strong immune system.

Places to find these fabulous foods! I am noticing that more and more markets around the city are carrying different brands of fermented foods and beverages.  Farmers markets are also a great place to find fresh, local sources.  A few of my favorite restaurants where you will find homemade sauerkraut and/or kimchi on the menu are Angelica’s Kitchen, Sun In Bloom, and Hangawi.  Below is a list of some of the brands to look out for and experiment with.  One thing to be aware of when you are buying fermented foods is to make sure they are the raw, unpasteurized versions because the heating process destroys the beneficial enzymes and good bacteria.

Hawthorne Valley Farm and Real Pickles – Both produce natural raw sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented vegetable.

Sunja’s – Makes different varieties of kimchi.

GT’s – Organic raw kombucha, this is my personal favorite out of all of the brands and has many different flavors.

Red Wood Hill Farm – A sustainably farm and family owned company that produces all natural goat kefir milk and yogurt.

So Delicious – Provides dairy free alternatives such as cultured coconut milk and creamer.

There are many great YouTube videos online that you can use as resources to learn more.  I would also recommend The Body Ecology Diet book by Donna Gates for anyone that is very interested in learning more.  This book has a wealth of information with step by step instructions that I often use as a reference guide.  Happy eating Bella Life readers!

Editors Note: So most of us don’t have the funds to hire a full-time stylist, yet. However that doesn’t need to stop us from exploring the world of fashion and getting some help from fashion experts along the way.  This new and exciting site Shopafrolic is your one stop destination to have you adding COLOR to your wardrobe effortlessly and with a lot of fun.  I encourage you to try the site and add ONE new thing to your normal routine of getting dressed, see if it doesn’t add a little extra pep in your step! ~Nitika~

Effective people everywhere know that focusing on what you’re good at and delegating the rest is a sound practice for getting great results.  I like to apply this adage to all areas of life, not just business or work.  What does this have to do with fashion?  Not everyone is born a savvy fashionista—myself included!  (Warning: those of you who are naturally gifted with style are about to wince in horror) Growing up as a tomboy, with a mission of never wearing skirts, and keeping my curvy body hidden from the world in sweats, jerseys and baggy t-shirts, fashion has never come naturally to me. When asked ,“What’s your style, Liz?” I’ve been known to respond, “comfortable.” So, when a website comes along offering easy to digest fashion tips and trends, I’m all over it—because what better way to learn than to soak up the advice of those who specialize?

Whether you’re like me, usually behind the trends, or you’re the fashion barometer for your circle—my new favorite fashion site, shopafrolic.com, is for you.  Co-Founders and sisters Liz and Jane attribute their passion for fashion to their Upper East Side mom who they say had a standing appointment with her dressmaker on Friday afternoons.

When you visit shopafrolic.com, you’ll find it’s an extensive site filled with useful information.  I’ve narrowed it down to my top three favorites to help you get started:

1. Tips and Trends.  This is a one-stop shop for the clueless to get a clue and the fashionistas to put their knowledge to the test. Liz and Jane cover timeless fashion tips, walk you through the latest trends, and even have picture examples of street chic ensembles.

2.  Buy/Don’t Buy. Been eyeing a particular item and you just can’t decide? Pose your query to the experts! (They both have their own line of clothing, lizlange.com and sajedesign.com. They’re qualified experts.)  You can post a picture of your item with your question and the ladies will give you a thumbs up or, a thumbs down complete with why and alternatives to your item!

3.  Shopafrolic’s Shopping Posse.  Sign up for the daily newsletter and receive a daily email with a highly touted fashion, accessory and beauty item so you can always know what to shop for.

To find out more visit shopafrolic.com, and follow Shopafrolic on Twitter and Facebook.

** This article was written by guest contributor Elizabeth Dialto, for her bio and contact information please visit http://yourbellalife.com/guest-contributors/

Are you a foodie who’s been there, done that with vacations that are all about hitting up famous restaurants and local food markets? On your next trip, instead of just eating the regional cuisine, learn the art of actually making it by spending a few days at a local cooking school.

Taking a cooking school vacation doesn’t require a big commitment since most spots offer classes for anywhere between one and seven days. And, it’s okay if your culinary skills are limited to boiling pasta. The programs we’ve listed below are taught in small groups of six to ten and cater to every level of home chef from novices to experts. They’re also set among scenic locales including the vineyards in Tuscany and rice paddies in Thailand. Best of all, you end each five or six hour day by feasting on the meal you prepared yourself. Food lovers, gear up for a new kind of epicurean experience.

Villa San Michele of Cookery, Florence, Italy

Situated in a 15^th century monastery on the outskirts of Florence, this school teaches students about Tuscan cuisine in eight different classes ranging from two to six days. You might go for “A Symphony of Pasta,” a three-day class on the art of pasta or the “Single is Beautiful and Tasty Too,” a package where participants learn to prepare Italian dishes for one person. Classes are usually five and a-half-hours a day. All guests stay in the villa itself which has 46 rooms overlooking the surrounding Chianti vineyards. The villa also arranges wine tasting trips and excursions into Florence.

Cost: Courses start at $1,300 and include accommodations and cooking classes.

Visit www.villasanmichele.com for more information.

Gourmet Retreats, Casa Lana, Calistoga, California (Napa Valley)

It’s hard not to get into the spirit of cooking at this one-acre property. Aromatic herbs grow along all the walkways, and the land is rich with a vegetable garden and numerous fruit trees including peach and fig. The one to five day classes change focus seasonally. While all cover basics such as knife skills, winter courses emphasize braising and slow cooking while the summer is more about grilling. The six-hour days also include excursions to local olive oil makers or beef producers. Students enjoy their meal with wine and also receive a manual with everything covered in class. There are two guest rooms on site and several bed and breakfasts within walking distance.

Cost: Classes start at $160. Accommodations add on another $175 a night.

Visit www.gourmetretreats.com for more information.

La Villa Bonita, Cuernavaca, Mexico

Located just outside of Mexico City in a traditional 16^th century hacienda, this school offers four and seven day classes on Mexican cuisine. The six participants start each morning by visiting the local markets with their instructor to select the ingredients for the day which include making tortillas, salsas, mole dishes, empanadas or flan. There are also trips to nearby villages to sample regional cuisine. Guests stay in the villa itself in spacious, light-filled rooms and can enjoy the property’s pool during their downtime. At the end of their stay, they get a set of Mexican cooking utensils including a comal, the flat-iron used to make tortillas.

Cost: Classes start at $1150 and include accommodations, airport pickup, classes, breakfast, lunch, all tours and one on one time with the chef.

Visit www.lavillabonita.com for more information.

The Conscious Gourmet, Six annual retreats in various U.S, locations including Santa Fe, the Catskill Mountains and Sedona.

You won’t pack on the pounds at this healthy culinary academy which has three and five-day programs taught by Diane Carlson, the former co-president and chef of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health in New York City. The emphasis is on fresh, unprocessed, high-quality food. Students prepare multi-course meals starting with a soup and ending with dessert (all sweets are made using natural sweeteners). Haddock with kalamata olives, tomatoes and basil and chocolate mousse cake with fudge frosting are just some the recipes participants will learn. Mornings start with yoga classes or hikes, and evenings consist of related lectures such talks on the relationship between food and mood. The classes are typically held at retreat centers.

Cost: Classes start at $795 and include yoga, breakfast, lunch, classes, lectures, hiking trips and, in most cases, accommodations.

Visit www.theconsciousgourmet.com for more information.

Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School, Chiang Mai, Thailand

This famous school in northern Thailand offers one to five day courses on Thai cooking. Students get an introduction to Thai ingredients and make pastes and noodle dishes and learn how to carve fruits and vegetables. Each recipe is demonstrated by an English speaking chef, and after preparing four dishes, students sit down to enjoy their food while surrounded by miles of lush green rice paddies. Accommodations are at the nearby Jasmine Rice Village, a resort that features balconies, ethnic Thai décor and views of rice fields and water feeding buffalo from its 15 rooms.

Cost: Classes start at $130 and include accommodations, cooking classes, dinner and a tour of the local handicraft village.

Visit www.thaicookeryschool.com for more information.

Editors Note: After a really challenging August, I am so excited to see that things are shaping up and calming down come this September.  I always feel so much more confident after reading these horoscopes, or after I meet with Patrice directly for our consultations because she has such an amazing perspective when it comes to our stars and planets and how they align.  Is this month going to be full of joy for you?  Take a look! ~Nitika~

After last month’s unprecedented astrological activity, we find we are all standing on new ground.  Have you readjusted your vision to a new reality yet?

While on the surface, things may appear the same, internally you have ended one chapter permanently and begun a new life cycle.

The cardinal cross of 2010, which had been developing for the entire year, hit exactitude on August 7th and 8th.  There was a very clear sense that life and the way you see the world was permanently altered.  This was further implicated by events around the 21st of last month.

We are rapidly heading into the energies of 2012 and certainly by next spring 2011, we will be in the thick of global and personal consciousness awakening.

This month we will experience a few cleaning up transits that trail in the wake of August’s dynamic energies.

As the month begins, Mercury (planet of communication) is retrograde in the sign of Virgo.  We are offered the chance to go back and look at behavior and lifestyle patterns and see which ones need a little tweaking.  When Mercury turns direct on September 12th, we will have heard and begun to integrated the necessary changes.

Two days later, Pluto stations direct in Capricorn, re-activating the t-square energy of the summer.  Once again, we are dealing with issues of deep transformation, personal and corporate integrity, and a further disabling of the current reality paradigm.

A few days later, we have the second of three Jupiter/Uranus conjunctions, signalling some personal and public breakthroughs and awakenings.  While the June 8th conjunction occurred in the sign of Aries, this months and a third one in Jan of 2011, are happening at the late degrees of Pisces.   Since 2002, we have been breaking free of victim behavior and idealistic thinking in our Pisces houses and electrifying new dimensions of  universal spirituality and creative expression.  The Jupiter/Uranus conjunction on Sept 16th will reveal the core kernel of brilliance culled from all the previous years that Uranus has been in Pisces (2002 through 2011).

While these aspects correlate with breakthroughs in science, technology, culture and art, whatever is culminating now still may be underneath the radar of the public.

Think Steve Jobs in his garage inventing the personal computer back in 1976  or Jung writing his  Interpretation of Dreams in 1900  .  At the time, the authors/creators knew they were onto something, but had no idea how far-reaching and consequential their ideas were.  Similar paradigm shifting inventions/concepts are happening now as we speak.  Do not discount an idea even and/or especially if it is futuristic, humanitarian,  because this is a once-in a lifetime cycle of accessing and igniting this quality of brilliance.

Fortunately with all the dynamic cosmic activity, we also get a chance for some private time and soul merging.  Mars (planet of life force energy, sexuality, male essence)co-mingles with Venus (attraction, beauty, feminine nature) in the sign of Scorpio from September 28th through Oct. 9th.  The cosmic lovers are intertwined to manifest love, sexual bonding and psychological transformation and will continue to do so in different combinations throughout the next nine months.   This is very hot stuff and next month, when Venus goes retrograde in Scorpio, you may be attracting lovers from the near or far past.  (The last time Venus retrograded in the sign of Scorpio was fall of 2002).  God knows we need a little seduction thrown into this huge conflagration of growth we are experiencing.

So be happy with what has left your life because the energies are amping up to bring you your soul’s desire.  Enjoy the rapids!

ARIES

Rockets are blasting off in your career house, after months of delays and setbacks.  You’ve been working the kinks out in your daily routines and  now it shows in a more refined presentation.   There are still some behind the scenes rumblings that are the result of several years of soul searching.  Your reward is a potent love connection that screams karmic.

TAURUS

You may have heard back from an old lover or resumed work on a side-tracked project.  You really can’t go back to the way things were, whether in love or in friendship because your beliefs are changing rapidly and you are no longer the same person.   This fact is reflected back to you in the very different social contacts you are attracting as well as the seriously sexy love interest who has newly arrived at your door.

GEMINI

You’ve had to reestablish proper boundaries with your family because after years of care-taking them, you now have to focus on your self and your burgeoning career.

The growth is now taking place in the depths of you, requiring you to bring your A game to intimate encounters of a profound nature.  You’ve got some help in the

lifestyle department where some highly creative individuals help you add sizzle to your step.

CANCER

Hopefully this is the last time you have to go back and review the part in your childhood that said you had to think small or worried.  Expansion is the name of the game in terms of your vision and the serious playmate you want to bring along.  Break free from the past because it is time for a major redefinition of self that includes the words

resourceful, powerful and and magnetic.

LEO

Yes, Leo, your fires have been somewhat dampened these last five years, what with releasing your past expectations and limitations and re-aquainting yourself with your

inherent talents.  The universe recognizes the hard work you’ve done, and while your work life will continue to go through a major transformation for quite some time, right now you are being blessed with some unusual financial opportunities and love of a very hot and serious nature.

VIRGO

Put the last flourish on the part that reads” I“.  It’s been a tough two years or so of reconfiguring your self image and you are beginning a new chapter in self-realization.

And while you Virgos sometimes like to play things safe, thankfully the universe has some surprises in store for you.  Don’t be afraid, however, as they involve

unexpected creative, romantic and community connections that will get your heart and mind sizzling in a very good way.

LIBRA

Release those doubts of not being good enough.  As a Cardinal sign, you are a major recipient of the current cosmic cycle of change.  Not only do you not have to remain at the beck and call of mom and dad (or partners that remind you of them), but you get to reconfigure the entire family structure with you at the helm.

The healthy integration of male and female pans out in brilliant opportunities in your day job, but also more potent financial and sexual relations.

SCORPIO

What happened to all your old friends?  If they hadn’t understood the real you, it’s time to relegate them to past tense once and for all.  Perhaps they hadn’t recognized your serious intellectual bent (which is deepening as we speak) or your very futuristic vision on art and/or relationships.  No worries, there are now new people who not only see you, but can’t wait to burst into your inner circle to sample the seriously delectable creature that is you.

SAGITTARIUS

All the work you’ve put into career has not gone to waste as you will discover when some old projects/connections return for completion and further development.

Certainly it’s time to be seen as an equal, if not leader.  So much is happening in your inner psyche that is of a deeply emotional nature that you can be forgiven for

wanting to step out of the limelight temporarily.  That is fine because there is a behind the scenes love interest who would like to spend time with you and you alone.

CAPRICORN

Like your opposite sign Cancer, the last vestiges of guilt and shame can now be released.  You are in the midst of a major re-birthing, one that is the result of your own inner promptings and desires.  Where you may have been conservative or reticent before, you are now expressing concepts and ideas of a truly enlightened manner.  Those with depth and perspicacity find themselves irresistibly drawn to you.

AQUARIUS

When it comes to love or love making, you don’t have to do things perfectly.  You are realizing that despite your outer zaniness, you are rather structured and self critical in your thinking.  But with Pisces as your second house of self-worth and talents, you have access to a wellspring of fluid and highly inspired creativity.  Opportunities to show that creativity and be paid for it are coming your way.  Likewise, those who crave intensity and depth are your greatest allies.

PISCES

Old lovers may have returned to give you a taste of where you were and most likely, what you will not countenance again.  You’ve done without for the last several years when it comes to getting your needs met and in that time, have learned to generate the love within.  That transformation now leads you to greener pastures where

you are recognized for your gifts and offered alliances that will truly feed your heart, mind and soul.