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!

If You Want to Lose Weight, Eat More Lean Protein

If You Want to Lose Weight, Eat More Lean Protein

Did you know that your body creates heat when you eat? It’s called diet-induced thermogenesis, which means the creation of heat/energy by the foods that you eat. A good example of this is when you get a little hot and sweaty eating a big meal like on Thanksgiving day.

This is what happens…

The level of insulin in your body increases when you eat certain foods. This creates energy or heat. And as your body temperature goes up, your metabolism starts to kick into high gear. When that happens, your body starts to use energy stored in fat cells to support this additional output.

The higher the thermic effect of the foods you consume, the easier it is to burn stored fat. For example, fats are easily processed by your body and have little thermic effect. But proteins take longer to process and have a higher thermic effect than other types of foods. So eating a protein-filled diet helps trigger thermogenesis.

The problem is people have a hard time triggering diet-induced thermogenesis in our modern world. We eat processed foods without the proteins and fiber our bodies were designed to eat and very often when we do eat protein it’s high fat or paired with high carbohydrate food which impedes the thermogenic  process.
Lean protein such as white meat turkey, chicken, fish and especially high quality whey protein can raise your metabolism as much as 30%. Whereas, processed foods can decrease it by as much as 50% depending on the food. This means that if you eat 1000 calories of lean protein, 300 calories would be burned during the digestion process. So even though you consumed 1000 calories you only had a net gain of 700 calories. Now that’s what I call a good deal!

Start Your Day With Whey Protein

One of the easiest ways to eat more protein and boost your metabolism all day long, is to start your day with a high quality whey protein shake. Studies show that those who start the day this way lose 30% more weight then those who consume the same amount of daily calories but are eating a typical lowfat, high carb breakfast such as cereal.

More and more nutrition experts are coming to the conclusion, that the best type of diet for weight loss, health and energy, is a diet that's high in lean proteins and fresh vegetables, with moderate amounts of healthy fats such as olive oil, avocados, nuts and coconut oil. Not only is this diet effective for helping you achieve your weight loss goals but it will leave you feeling satisfied and full of energy!

Give it a try I think you might like the results!

If you’d like some more information about a great program that follows these concepts click here.

Sea Salt, Kelp and Sesame Kale Chips

Have you jumped on the latest trend and tried Kale Chips yet? If not I suggest you give them a try. They are deliciously addictive and really, really good for you!

1 bunch Kale

2 tablespoons Sesame Seeds

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon Kelp powder

Ground Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

Rip Kale off tough center membrane and into bite size pieces. Put in basket of salad spinner and spray with vegetable wash. Rinse thoroughly. Spin in salad spinner until dry. Place in large bowl.

Drizzle with olive oil and toss until covered. Add Sesame seeds, Kelp and Sea Salt toss until evenly distributed. Lay out on cookie sheets and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until edges curl and Kale is crispy. Enjoy!

Nine Reasons to Eat Kale Often

Diet and Digestion
One cup of kale has only 36 calories and zero grams of fat, which makes it a great diet aid. Furthermore, one cup contains nearly 20% of the RDA of dietary fiber, which promotes regular digestion, prevents constipation, lowers blood sugar and curbs overeating. Finally, kale contains the glucosinolate isothiocyanate (ITC) that fights the formation of H. pylori (Helicobacter pylori), a bacterial growth in the stomach lining that can lead to gastric cancer.

Antioxidants
Kale is a superstar in the arena of carotenoids and flavonoids, two powerful antioxidants that protect our cells from free radicals that cause oxidative stress. The key flavonoids kaempferol and quercitin (not to dismiss the 45 other distinctive flavonoids in kale) have also been shown to specifically fight against the formation of cancerous cells. With the addition of high doses of well-known antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin A, and manganese, kale is certainly a smart choice in the battle against cellular oxidation.

Anti-Inflammatory
One cup of kale provides about 10% of the RDA of omega-3 fatty acids that helps regulate the body’s inflammatory process. A megadose of vitamin K further aids to fight against excessive inflammatory-related problems, such as arthritis, autoimmune disorders, and asthma.

Cancer
Not only do kale's antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities work together to prevent and even combat cancer, a healthy diet of kale also provides glucosinolates, which have been shown to prevent colon, breast, bladder, prostate, ovarian cancers, as well as gastric cancer.

Cardiovascular Support
The high fiber content of kale lowers our cholesterol by binding with bile acids that the liver produces from cholesterol for digesting fat. Because many of these bile acids are coupled with fiber, the liver is charged with producing more bile acid to digest fat, and therefore requires more cholesterol to so, ultimately lowering the amount of cholesterol within our bodies.

Detox
The isothiocyanates (ITC) from glucosinolates found in kale aid in the body’s detoxification process. The high sulfur content of kale has further been shown essential for detoxification.

Vitamin K
Kale provides a whopping dose of vitamin K (providing 1327% of the RDA in one cup), which is necessary for the synthesis of osteocalcin, a protein that strengthens the composition of our bones. Vitamin K also prevents calcium build-up in our tissue that can lead to atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease and stroke. Finally, vitamin K is essential for synthesizing sphingolipid, the fat needed to maintain the myelin sheath around our nerves, and therefore our nervous system as a whole.

Vitamin A
With over 192% of the RDA of vitamin A, one cup of kale is an effective antioxidant, boosts immunity, maintains healthy bones and teeth, prevents urinary stones, and is essential to our reproductive organs.

Vitamin C
One cup of kale provides (over 88% of our RDA), is not only a powerful antioxidant, but also lowers blood pressure, ensures a healthy immune system, and fights against age-related ocular diseases, such as cataracts and macular degeneration

Eating Mindfully - 4 Rules For Conscious Eating

I have been using these "rules" for conscious eating from Paul McKenna's "I Can Make You Thin" for years and I have found that they have really changed my relationship with food for the better! Bonnie

 1. When you are hungry, EAT

Why would anyone eat if they weren't hungry?Because it is simply a habit. Many people are so desensitized to their body's messages that they've forgotten how to pay attention. Real physical hunger is different than emotional hunger (which we will deal with later). Physical hunger comes on gradually. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, when you feel bored or upset. If you starve yourself you will end up binging. That's how your body gets thrown off balance. In future when you feel physical hunger, eat! When you starve yourself your body goes into 'survival mode' it slows your metabolism and your body starts to store fat. When you eat when you are truly hungry you tell your body there will always be enough food and it speeds up your metabolism.

The Hunger Scale

Take a few moments right now to look at the hunger scale and tune in to your body. How hungry are you right now? Each person is different, but as a general rule, you want to eat whenever you notice yourself between 3 and 4 on the scale – that is when you are fairly hungry, but before you become ravenous. If you wait until you get down to one or two your body will go into starvation mode and you'll wind up probably eating more than your body needs and storing the excess as fat. Ideally, you'll want to stop eating at right around 6 or 7 on the hunger scale – when you are feeling pleasantly satisfied or full but not yet stuffed or bloated. From now on never go into the RED areas!

Of course, if you have been a serial dieter you may be so used to overriding your body's signals that you may at times 'forget to eat' until you're ravenous or keep eating until you're full or even stuffed before noticing it's time to stop.

If you think this might be you, practice tuning in to your body once an hour until you begin to notice differences between different points on the scale. The more you practice tuning in to your own hunger, the sooner you'll be able to recognize your body's subtle signals long before your stomach growls and your brain starts to get fuzzy.
 
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should.

As soon as you tell yourself to not eat certain foods, (usually because you've been told they're bad for you), you upset the natural balance of your relationship to them. Rather than wanting it less, that 'forbidden food' instantly becomes more attractive to you. The inner battle between your positive intention and your resistance to being controlled (even by yourself) can be exhausting. As you begin to make peace with food and learn to listen to the wisdom of your body, you experience freedom from the tension and guilt that comes from NOT following your intuition.Also, as you stop resisting and start to follow your natural intuitions about what to eat when, you may notice your tastes changing. You may even find yourself naturally attracted to the very foods you're 'supposed' to be eating now.



The problem is that even though they feel temporarily high from cramming in lots of food, they feel fat and guilty afterwards. In fact, they feel so bad that they repeat the whole ritual of unconsciously stuffing themselves again in order to anaesthetize the bad feelings they just created!
Here is perhaps the single most important key to success:
You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, so long as you fully enjoy every single mouthful.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Put the knife and fork down whilst you are chewing your food and really enjoy it - savor the taste, and enjoy the wonderful textures and sensations as you thoroughly chew each mouthful of food at least 20 times!
If all you did for the next two weeks was to slow your eating speed down to about a quarter of what it used to be and chew each mouthful thoroughly, you will find it easy to leave food on your plate.

 4. When you think you are full, STOP eating

The natural design of the human body is to eat when we're hungry and stop when we're satisfied, but many of us are conditioned to eat until we think we're full - or even worse, until whatever food we put on our plate is gone. When you've eaten enough, your stomach sends a signal – a sensation that says "I'm satisfied – that's enough." Most people experience this gentle, clear, satisfied sensation in their solar plexus (the area below your rib cage but above your stomach).Of course, if you miss this warm feeling of satisfaction when it first occurs, you'll notice that each subsequent bite of food becomes a little less enjoyable than the one before. The more you pay attention to it, the more obvious it becomes. If you are not sure whether you are full or not, just guess. You will soon find it becomes easier to tell.
 Can it really be this simple?

Yes! Let's review the four elements:

1. Eat whenever you are hungry
2. Eat only what you want, never what you think you 'should'
3. Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful
4. Stop when you even think your body is full 

3. Eat CONSCIOUSLY and enjoy every mouthfulPeople that are overweight often shovel food in to their mouths as quickly as possible in order to get high from the happy chemicals we release in our brains when we eat. Unfortunately, because they are eating unconsciously, they never notice the signal from their stomach that lets them know that they are full. So they keep on stuffing their faces, expanding their stomachs and putting on weight.