Woman Crush Wednesday: Lisa Washington
Ladies, I want to introduce to you a wonderful and spiritual woman I had the honor of having as a food and wellness speaker for the Influencers of Midlife Summit who shared her journey into changing her lifestyle and eating habits after living with kidney disease and later being a kidney transplant recipient, please meet my new friend, Lisa Washington.
Lisa was first bought to my attention last December by Sherri Adair the publisher of Best Self Atlanta and our media sponsor for the event. I was looking for a female over 40 healthy food expert and Sherri said she had just the person I needed to talk to, Lisa. Lisa won 2017 Over 40 and Fabulous contest held by the magazine and was also my perfect inspirational speaker who inspired all of us in the room with her journey into wellness and living a healthy lifestyle.
Professional Background
Lisa studied in Holistic Nutrition and Medicine from Clayton College of Natural Health to help herself heal and live longer with chronic kidney disease. She is now the CEO of B’Tyli Wellness and Beauty Co. and has her own skincare line B’Tyli Natural Skin Therapies that has been featured in New Beauty Magazine, Whole Foods Market, Cee Lo Greens GreenHouse Foundation, and spas and plastic surgeons offices around the Atlanta area.
Lisa is a Health, Wellness and Beauty Expert who is featured on the second season of Food Network’s All-Star Academy.
She has shared her approach to healthy living and eating in both medias of television and radio. She has been featured on Fox 5, Good Day Atlanta, 11 Alive, Atlanta and Company, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as well as radio, V103 and 104.7 The Fish and several magazine publications.
Power and Grace
It didn’t take me long to reach out to Lisa (through Instagram of course)and ask if she was available to speak at my event. I was delightfully amazed when she said yes immediately on the DM!
Her session at the summit inspired all of us. She talked honestly about her journey with kidney disease and said every weekend in 2008 was spent in the ER. Then when she was in need of a kidney transplant by fate her husband was a perfect match and donated his kidney.
Then this mother of two boys and two grandchildren brought her energy to the summit as a spiritual influencer who has walked the walk…..
Digestion
Lisa is all about making healthy choices in our journey through midlife. It’s not only about the healthy food we eat but how we digest positivity in our mind. Eat clean, drink clean, and breathe clean. Lisa is a believer in taking time to meditate and renew your spirit once a week. She does meditation workshops and I will be joining her this weekend in Alpharetta to be inspired once again. She recommends drinking lots of green tea and water and advises us using a small plate filled with colorful food for a healthy meal.
Elimination
I absolutely agree with Lisa on eliminating negative thoughts and negative people in your life. If you carry around in your head negative thoughts you will never believe in yourself. I practice eliminating negative energy from people I meet and people I know. Toxic people are often rude, insulting, and downright degrading. If you surround yourself with destructive personalities you will feel completely drained by their negative thoughts. Learn to put up boundaries with family members who may be toxic and eliminate friends or acquaintances completely from your life if they are toxic. You want healing people in your life not harmful people.
At the end of her session, she passed around her delicious Cacao Orange Cranberry Beauty Bites. They have been rolled in coconut and hemp seed, cacao powder and vegan chocolate syrup.
They are:
Vegan Gluten Free, Nut Free, Dairy Free and loaded with everything that’s good for skin and body! And oh sooo good!
Cacao Orange Cranberry Beauty Bites
* 1/2 cup dried cranberries
* 1/2 cup dried raisin
* 1/2 cup cold water or more
* 1/2- 1 cup gluten free oats
* 3 -4 tablespoons raw hemp seeds
* 3 -4 tablespoons raw, unsweetened coconut shreds
* 2-3 tablespoons raw cacao powder
* 2 tablespoons maple syrup
* Pinch sea saltInstructions
1. Add the dried fruits and water to the food processor or a high-speed blender.
2. Process until you get a nice, thick, dough-like paste.
3. Now, add the oats, hemp seeds, coconut,cacao, maple syrup and sea salt to the food processor/blender.
4. Process again. You may have to scrape down the sides in between and start again if you’re using a blender. Blend until you get s cookie dough paste.
5. Stop the machine, and scrape down the sides. Scoop into a bowl, and start rolling the mixture into bite-sized balls with your hands, Keep paper towels on hand, it’s a messy process.
6. Place the plate of bites into the fridge for at least 1 hour to set or the freezer for 15 minutes.
7. Remove and serve.
8. Store in the fridge, shelf life 3 days.
Note: Start off adding the less amount of ingredients first if the dough is too dry add more water, if the dough is too wet add more oats, if you would like more chocolate flavor add more cacao. When adding more cacao, you may have to add a bit more water. Raw food is very forgiving, just start out with the less amount first.
Lisa has written a healthy food cookbook and 2 inspirational books.
This is Lisa’s third book and is also a meditation book about the power of taking time out and being silent for a day each week and just listening to God.
Each chapter is an accumulation of spiritual lessons, positive affirmations, scriptures, and meditations, to help you be inspired to find your blessings inside the storms
Thank you for stopping by today, my friends! I have invited Lisa to join us next January for our second Influencers of Midlife Summit and we would love you to join us!
Hugs!
Very inspiring story about your guest speaker. I like the way you shared the information about her. Always helpful to hear about women who have made positive changes in their lives and are influencing others to do the same.
Yummy! It was such a treat to meet Lisa, and a privilege to hear her story. I can’t wait to whip up a batch of these this weekend! Thank you for sharing the recipe with Robin, Lisa!