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!

Healthy Protein Balls

Did you know that most commercial protein bars are filled with chemicals and sugars? Even though they might be high in protein they aren't very good for you. If you are looking for a quick and healthy high protein snack that you can make yourself and then bring with you wherever you go. Check out this recipe!

Healthy Protein Balls

1 16 oz jar Natural Peanut butter

2 cups vanilla-flavored whey protein powder

Unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

Unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)

Stevia (optional)

Thoroughly combine peanut butter with the protein powder The easiest way to do this is with your hands, adding a bit of the protein powder at a time while you knead. This will make a stiff but somewhat crumbly dough). Roll the dough into 1” balls. You can coat these balls with coconut or chocolate or both! I like to add a little stevia to a mixture of cocoa and coconut and coat the balls with that. A Delicious and healthy snack with 10 grams of protein per ball!

Why Reduce Grains and Sugar?

Should You Reduce Grains and Sugar?

This article was originally published by Dr. Joseph Mercola http://mercola.com

For several million years, humans existed on a diet of animals and vegetation. It was only with the advent of agriculture a mere 10,000 years ago - a fraction of a second in evolutionary time - that humans began ingesting large amounts of sugar and starch in the form of grains (and potatoes) into their diets. Indeed, 99.99% of our genes were formed before the advent of agriculture; in biological terms, our bodies are still those of hunter-gatherers.

While the human shift to agriculture produced indisputable gains for man - modern civilization is based on this epoch - societies where the transition from a primarily meat/vegetation diet to one high in cereals show a reduced lifespan and stature, increases in infant mortality and infectious disease, and higher nutritional deficiencies.

Contemporary humans have not suddenly evolved mechanisms to incorporate the high carbohydrates from starch- and sugar-rich foods into their diet. In short, we are consuming far too much bread, cereal, pasta, corn (a grain, not a vegetable), rice, potatoes and Little Debbie snack cakes, with very grave consequences to our health. Making matters worse, most of these carbohydrates we consume come in the form of processed food.

That 65% of Americans are overweight, and 27% clinically obese, in a nation addicted to sesame seed buns for that hamburger, with a side of French fries and a Coke, is no coincidence. It is not the fat in the foods we eat but, far more, the excess carbohydrates from our starch- and sugar-loaded diet that is making people fat and unhealthy, and leading to epidemic levels of a host of diseases such as diabetes.

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, chances are very good that the excess carbohydrates in your body are, in part or whole, to blame:

• Excess weight
• Fatigue and frequent sleepiness
• Depression
• Brain fogginess
• Bloating
• Allergies
• Low blood sugar
• Persistent Headaches
• High blood pressure
• High triglycerides

We all need a certain amount of carbohydrates, of course, but, through our addiction to grains, potatoes, sweets and other starchy and sugary foods, we are consuming far too many. The body's storage capacity for carbohydrates is quite limited, though, so here's what happens to all the excess: they are converted, via insulin, into fat and stored in the adipose, or fatty, tissue.

Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates generates a rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rise, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream, which lowers the glucose. Insulin is, though, essentially a storage hormone, evolved over those millions of years of humans prior to the agricultural age, to store the excess calories from carbohydrates in the form of fat in case of famine.

Insulin, stimulated by the excess carbohydrates in our overabundant consumption of grains, starches and sweets, is responsible for all those bulging stomachs and fat rolls in thighs and chins.

Even worse, high insulin levels suppress two other important hormones - glucagons and growth hormones - that are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle development, respectively. So insulin from excess carbohydrates promotes fat, and then wards off the body's ability to lose that fat.

Excess weight and obesity lead to heart disease and a wide variety of other diseases. But the ill effect of grains and sugars does not end there. They suppress the immune system, contributing to allergies, and they are responsible for a host of digestive disorders. They contribute to depression, and their excess consumption is, in fact, associated with many of the chronic diseases in our nation, such as cancer and diabetes.

For a great way to get started eating a diet that includes less grains, download my free copy of “The 30 Day Detox Diet” - Bonnie