The 7 Day Detox/Jumpstart - For Weight Loss and Wellness

The time has come to stop the madness! What do I mean by that? Well I mean it’s time for me to stop stuffing food mindlessly in my mouth while I’m standing in the kitchen, running out the door or driving in the car. It’s time for me to stop saying I’ll go back to being “good” on Monday after the weekend is over and the celebrations are done. It’s time for me to stop treating myself after a stressful day with a huge bowl of guacamole and chips and a couple of glasses of wine.

The new year is here and it’s time for me to get back on track and recommit to being consistent with my fitness and nutrition again.

Don’t get me wrong I adore good food and I love to cook and I believe that delicious food is an integral part of a truly good life. I am also, as some of my friends might say, obsessed with nutrition and exercise. I like to feel good and I’ve learned over the years that I feel so much better on every level when I eat cleanly and properly for my body and I exercise consistently!

So it’s time for a 7 Day Detox/Jumpstart! I do one every Spring, Summer and Fall and Winter and I find it’s very helpful to get me moving forward fast and quickly back on track. It’s also a great way to start shedding those extra Holiday pounds and get going with my New Years intentions of being more consistent in nourishing my body with really good, clean food.

If you’ve been thinking it’s time for you to either get back on track or to start living a healthier lifestyle, I invite you to join in with me and share in my 7 day journey and experience your own. Everything is so much more powerful and lots more fun when you join with others and support each other along the way.

If you’d like to join me, just put your name and email address in the box below or to the side and you will immediately receive a copy of The 7 Day Jumpstart. There are no strings attached, it’s my complimentary gift to you to start you off on journey towards vibrant health and your own perfect weight!

Drink Your Veggies for Weight Loss and Health!

Raw foods contain something that cannot be found in any other food: live enzymes. Enzymes are the catalyst for every human function. We were born with the capacity to produce a great deal of enzymes and started life with a huge enzyme "bank account." However, the standard cooked American fare uses up enzymes during the digestion process without replacing them. Over time we become enzyme impoverished. We perceive this as our metabolism slowing as we age, but it is really because we are becoming enzyme deficient.

Enzymes are your body's workers. They clean up all the garbage and waste that slows your body down, makes you feel sick, tired and sluggish and pack on the extra pounds. The more enzymes you take in through eating raw plant food, the more fuel you will have to complete the chores that your body must do to keep you in a vibrant, healthy and youthful state.

Here's another way to look at the importance of enzymes. We are living beings. Although no one will dispute that, our civilization consumes food that is dead – or cooked. Ask yourself, how can dead food sustain living beings without making those beings less vibrant? Eating living foods makes us more vibrant-literally "full of life."

If you're skeptical about all of this, I invite you to try adding more raw fruits and vegetables to your diet and see for yourself how much better you'll feel. A simple way to start doing this is to start your day with a freshly juiced vegetable drink and a protein shake and then add a large raw vegetable salad to your lunch and dinner. Studies now show that drinking freshly juiced vegetables can triple your weight loss and women who have the highest intakes of phytochemicals had body fat levels that were 46 percent lower than those that took in the least! So drink up your veggies! Below is my favorite recipe.

Bonnie’s Veggie Juice
½  lemon
1 small apple
2 carrot
2 celery stick
½ cucumber
6 Kale leaves

Wash everything with "Veggie Wash" (I get it at Stop and Shop in the produce department) and then put it through your juicer. I find this juice deliciously refreshing and invigorating. I can just feel all those wonderful fresh enzymes going to work cleaning all the garbage out of my body!

If you've made a commitment to eat healthier and your best intentions keep going astray because of cravings for your favorite foods, check out my video - "Tap to Be Free" - EFT for Cravings

If 2013 Was the Best Year of My Life...

I love New Years’ Day! To me it feels like a chance at a fresh start, a new beginning. This day feels full of promise and excitement and an opportunity to create the best year of my life so far. I no longer make New Years’ resolutions. They never felt good to me, they just felt like another list of things that “I should do.” And so, usually by the time a few weeks passed, I stopped doing them. A few years ago I started something I called, “setting my New Years’ intentions.” “Setting my New Years’ intentions” starts off with a very general statement of me saying, “2013 is going to be the best year of my life so far!” And then I start asking myself how would I feel if I was having the best year of my life? This is what came to me for this bright and shiny new year of 2013.

If 2013 Was the Best Year of My Life…

• I would wake up each morning excited about the possibilities that this new day might bring.
• I would appreciate and focus on all the wonderful things that are good and are working in my life.
• I would look for the best in everyone I know and everyone I meet.
• I would expect good things to happen to me and those I love.
• I would trust that there is a greater plan and hand at work in all things.
• I would trust that everything is always unfolding perfectly.
• I would look for the best in everyone I know and everyone I meet.
• I would have more faith
• I would be kinder
• I would laugh more
• I would love more
• I would pray more
• I would play more
• I would remember that everything I have is everything I need.
• I would remember that I am never alone, always loved, eternally supported and everything is always working out for me.

I would remember that I hold the key and the power to create the best year of my life. I exercise that power by how I focus my thoughts. I would remember that whatever I put my focus on is what I get more of, and so I would be very careful about what I place my attention on. I would put my attention on the things that are good and are right and that I want to create more of and so allow myself to experience 2013 as the Best Year of my life, so far!

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all the Best Year of your life, so far!

Walk For Whatever Ails You!

I have always loved walking. I walk when I’m feeling off, I’m angry, I’m sad, I’m depressed, I’m worried, I’m frustrated, I’m stuck, I feel tired, I feel off, I feel blaa. Walking is what I do when I don’t know what to do. Walking is the way I clear my head and brighten my mood.  For me, walking is the ultimate therapy for whatever ails me!

I also walk for the sheer pleasure of it. I love feeling the soothing, rhythmic movement of my body and the refreshing air being pulled deeply into my lungs. I revel in the quality of the natural light and shadows and the sights and sounds that surround me as I stroll through the woods. I love the expectation of possibly coming upon a flock of turkey, family of deer, a fox, a beaver or seeing a hawk swoop through the trees.

I’m really lucky because I can walk out my door and be on a whole circuit of trails that go through the woods for miles and miles. There are streams and ponds, hills and fields and an abundance of tumbling down stone walls. A truly delightful potpourri of nature’s landscapes that change with each of the New England seasons.

We humans were designed as walking machines. A healthy, fairly fit body can walk for hours at a moderate pace without fatigue or wear and tear. Unfortunately, this may not be the case for a lot of us these days because of the life sedentary life styles we live. But no matter where you are on the scale with your health and fitness, most people can at least walk for short periods of time. And once you start walking a little, you can increase your time as you build strength and stamina.

There are tremendous health benefits to walking especially if you do it outside. Walking strengthens your heart and lungs; improves your circulation; strengthens your leg and core muscles; improves your balance; strengthens your immune system; moves the lymph fluid through your body; increases your metabolism and can help you lose weight; improves your mood and helps ease depression. There is a saying that says “move a muscle, move a thought” and the steady rhythmic motion of walking is highly conducive to the shift of negative thoughts.

So my advice to you is that if you’re feeling off for whatever reason, put on your sneakers or boots, grab your coat and head out the door! Have you taken your walk today? I have!

Is Your Exercise Routine Making You Fat?

New studies are finding that the way we’ve been told to exercise for the last few decades is totally counter productive to the way our bodies were designed to work. We are still genetically programmed the same way we were during our “Cavemen” days when we lived as Hunter/Gathers. Think about it - Our bodies were designed to move in short bursts of intense exertion, followed by periods of rest and recovery.

Nature has designed your body to adapt to whatever environment you encounter. If you ask it to perform activity, repeatedly and routinely, it will gradually change to meet the challenge more effectively.  Continuous endurance exercise produces unique challenges your body must overcome. It must not run out of fuel, overheat, or be overwhelmed with metabolic wastes. One of the ways your body adapts is by “downsizing” your heart, lungs, blood vessels and muscles so they can efficiently do the job required without wasting energy and using up fuel.

Your body’s marvelous efficiency works against you when it comes to burning fat too. Conventional wisdom tells you that you burn fat during exercise. But this only makes matters worse. This tells your body to make and store more fat so you’ll have something to burn during your next workout. This is why so many people get frustrated when they don’t see results after months of spending hours at the gym. Every time you burn fat during exercise, you body reacts by making more fat.

Studies show that the most reliable way to burn fat is with short, intense exertion periods followed by recovery periods.  The trick is to trigger an “after burn.” This happens when your body burns fat after you stop exercising. Here’s the secret: It’s all about what your body uses for fuel during exercise. During the first minute or two, your body burns ATP (adenosine triphosphate) for energy. This is your body’s most potent and available source of energy. It’s used for quick bursts of movement, but it doesn’t last long. After a few minutes, your body shifts gears and starts to burn carbs in your muscle tissue. This lasts for 15 to 20 minutes. When you stop exercising during this process, your body will automatically burn fat to replace the carbs you just burned. This “after burn” melts away the fat your body has put “in storage.” You’ll continue to burn fat up to a full day after you finish each Fit Fast session. This is largely due to the boost your metabolism gets from your training. Because your body needs extra calories to repair muscles, replenish energy stores and restore your body to its “normal” state, you continue to burn calories – and fat – long after your workout is over. After a few months of Fit Fast your body stops storing fat because it simply doesn’t need it.

This way of exercising also stimulates HGH Human Growth Hormone which degreases rapidly as we age. HGH is sometimes called the “fountain of youth hormone” as it is responsible for increasing metabolism and lean muscle and slowing down the aging process.