Creamy Vanilla Coconut Smoothie Recipe (Soy and Dairy-Free)

Exsoycise is now Awakened Nutrition & Training, a blog for health seekers, food lovers and dream body builders!

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If you read my very LONG post yesterday, you now know ALL of my personal business of how I went from thinking I had a binge eating disorder, to losing my sex drive, then finding out that both parasites and candida overgrowth have taken residency in my gut, to finally finding some life balance after I started naturally killing off the bad guys which helped to start balancing out my hormones again and getting my sexy back! Whoa that was a mouth full!

Like I said at the end of my post, this is really just the beginning of my journey and it's far from over. I am working hard to kill the parasites and candida albicans through a sugar, gluten, soy, and dairy-free diet and herbs. Since removing sugars of all kinds (yes, even fruit!), all my cravings and binging tendencies have gone away. I no longer feel like I want to eat an entire back of chocolates or face plant into a jar of almond butter and honey. It's a really good feeling and I'm hoping I can keep it this way! I know I will never be perfect and I'm sure there will be some stressful times in my life that will make me want to eat the world. But at least now I know that I am making progress and have removed the major trigger foods that were causing me to feel out of control.

So this summer, I had the honor of taking over Integrative Nutrition's Instagram feed during their #IINtakeover. I got to share what a day of my life as a health coach looks like with all 26,000 of their followers. It was really such an honor!

For my takeover I shared one of my favorite healthy treats to satisfy my sweet tooth which is my delicious creamy vanilla coconut smoothie! This smoothie is loaded with healthy fats and protein to keep you full and satisfy your sweet craving!

Creamy Vanilla Coconut Smoothie

• I use 1 scoop vanilla vegan protein powder
• 1 cup lite coconut milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 ripe avocado
• 2 Tbsp sunflower or cashew butter
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• a dash or two of organic powdered stevia

Blend well with a couple ice cubes, add extra cold water if needed, and enjoy!

Of course for my first post during my @nutritionschool #IINtakeover I had to share a before and after! So I posted my classic before shot from May 2009 and then a shot that Chris and I took at a beach bootcamp in Florida on July 4th.

"Hi my fellow health fanatics! I'm Amber Williford a Certified Holistic Health from @exsoycise and @awakenednutrition, I'm so excited to share my life through photos with you during today's #IINtakeover!Since I started my own journey over 5 years ago, I was on a mission to lose weight and get fit. With the help of IIN I realized that there is so much more to living a healthy life than just dieting to lose weight. Through IIN and my own research I've learned about eating nutritious foods that help to heal and fuel the body as well as how relationships, self love, stress, and environmental toxins affect all aspects of our lives.

I suffer from leaky gut syndrome which caused me to develop an allergy to soy as well as sensitivities to dairy and eggs. And I'm also working hard to get rid of candida overgrowth and parasites. The allergies plus uncontrollable bloating after eating the even healthiest foods and extreme food cravings that helped me to uncover the root cause of my issues.

It's my goal to help woman just like me to overcome digestive distress and get a handle on their weight loss through daily detoxification and stress management through coaching  AwakenedNutrition.com."

I don't want to bore you all with another mega long blog post, so I will save the rest of the photos for next weeks post! I hope you have a great weekend!

What's your favorite sweet tooth taming smoothie or snack?

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Disclaimer: I earn a small commission if you use the highlighted links to purchase the products mentioned in this post. I recommend only products that I would use in our own home or that I would recommend to my clients. Your purchases help to support my blogging activities such as creating yummy recipes to share with you and also helps me to bring even more helpful nutrition and training information to you on a weekly basis. Thank you for your continued support and for helping me continue what I LOVE to do!

How I Found My Sex Drive When I Didn't Even Know I'd Lost It

Exsoycise is now Awakened Nutrition & Training, a blog for health seekers, food lovers and dream body builders!

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It’s been a hot minute since I last posted on the blog. I hope you all didn’t miss me too much! ;) I’ve been doing a little self healing and running my Sexy Summer Detox which has kept me busy busy!

The last time I posted was when I was riding high on the GAPS diet. If you are unfamiliar with GAPS, it is a very strict whole foods diet designed to heal a leaky gut. I was going through the introductory phases of the diet and started to detox from a lot of the junk and toxins I was normally putting into my body. I felt so amazing, I was losing weight, my abdominal bloating was practically gone, my period was starting to normalize and I started to feel somewhat normal again besides the fact that I was eating an ultra strict and very limiting diet.

During the introductory phase of the diet, you go through stages where you gradually start incorporating approved healthy foods back into your diet and see how you react. Well after gracefully cruising through the first several stages, I got stuck. I gradually started to incorporate different foods such as raw honey, cooked fruits, nuts and nut flours back into my diet. I quickly started spiraling out of control and binge eating on whole bags of soaked nuts and the fruit. When I wasn’t binging on the foods I was adding in, I was going to town on butternut squash and roasted carrots. I would eat two and three bags at a time. I started to feel a little crazy. Was I just too deprived from these sweet foods that when I finally got my hands on them I just went wild?

I read other blogs and everyone else seemed to be going through GAPS with flying colors and here I was mixing gobs of honey, cinnamon and nut flour to create my own nut butters that I would binge on in secret. I tried to deprive myself of these foods even more and stayed stuck in the stages where I could only eat grassfed meats, oils, veggies and fermented vegetables. Even when I was back on my game, I still suffered from unexplained bloating and gas. But as soon as I thought I had a handle on my binging and would attempt to add another food in, it would happen all over again. One handful of nuts would quickly turn into a whole pound bag of nuts.

Then one night I broke down.

I was sitting in a friends kitchen alone, I started thinking how I was eating some of the healthiest food I’ve ever eaten in my life and should be making amazing progress, yet I felt more out of control than I ever had. I literally felt like I was going insane and I was going to be trapped in this vicious cycle of healing and self sabotage for the rest of my life. How could I ever heal myself if I couldn’t get my shit together? I want to be normal again one day, so the motivation is there. I want to be able to go to a restaurant and not have to be the weird allergy girl that everyone has to accommodate. So at that moment of weakness and disappointment, I took my binging to a whole new level and started going to town on some left over Halloween candy completely blowing the months of hard work that I had put in. I ate piece after piece of any chocolate I could find and literally couldn’t stop myself! I started getting full and each piece started to taste less and less delicious to me, but I still kept on eating it. Then, I moved onto kettle corn popcorn. I kept telling myself that I should stop eating because I wasn’t even enjoying the food anymore but I couldn’t make myself stop.

I felt like I wasn’t in control of my own body or mind. I felt like an addict.

After failing on the GAPS diet, I came to the conclusion that I had a binge eating disorder. Not only because of this incident, but also because of my struggles with binging over the last several years. I had a very emotional conversation with Chris about how I was pretty sure that I had an eating disorder and that I had been dealing with it for years. This made me feel like a failure. How was I supposed to be a health coach and help my clients when I couldn’t even help myself. We decided that it was best for me to take a break from the GAPS diet and any other strict eating program besides my food allergies until I could get a handle on what was going on with me.

This tear filled conversation brought up so many emotions that I was harboring deep down inside of me. With all of my binging, I had gained quite a bit of the weight I had originally lost which made me feel so insecure and unsexy. I was beating myself up because I felt like I had to live up to the amazing shape I was in when I got my fitness photos taken in June 2013. If that all wasn’t enough to deal with, I realized that I had nearly lost my once very vibrant sex drive! How could this have happened and how did I not even notice? I think with all of life’s craziness and stress, it just started to slip away and I was too busy and sleep deprived to even notice.

Chris said he could tell that I was a little off over the last several months, but he had no idea that I felt this way. He was shocked because it was totally out of character for me to feel so down on myself. The girl he fell in love with 4+ years ago wasn’t in shape at all, but had a bubbly personality and was super confident in her own skin. He was very understanding and told me he would support me any way I needed him too. He uplifted me with sweet words of encouragement and told me how beautiful I was more often. Chris's support has been beyond helpful and I'm so very blessed to have him by my side!

But I had to do some deep soul searching to find my own happy.

That came in the form of:

• dancing around the apartment to music I love
• spending time with God
• taking more time for myself
• limiting my workouts to once or twice a week and not beating myself up when I didn't go
• attempting to get more sleep
• eating nourishing foods that didn’t make me feel super restricted
• taking time for personal self care practices that made me feel beautiful

During these months of self care, I started to dig deeper into my detox practices by doing coffee enemas to help to support my liver and clean out all the junk that's been backed up inside me for my whole life. Through the enemas and taking some anti-fungal herbal tinctures, I found out that I had parasites. They literally came out of my body and I have the pictures to prove it but I will spare you those. Chris and I named my new visitors “The Frederickson’s”. ;)

This was not at all shocking to me because I suspected I had parasites while I was dealing with yet another month long sweets binge about 5+ years ago after I returned home from a trip to Jamaica, but I never had it confirmed. Once I found this out, I started to see a holistic practitioner that someone referred to me for colonics at The Piper Center For Internal Wellness in NYC. There I found out that I also had candida yeast overgrowth and because of this my body was creating a lot of mucus to help fight the inflammation they were causing internally.

The pieces of the puzzle started coming together for me.

Candida albicans and parasites both feed on sugar of ALL kinds. It can’t decipher between natural raw honey, fruit sugars, brown unprocessed sugar or plain old white sugar. It’s all the same to these guys and I was directly feeding them with most of the foods I was eating. They were taking over my mind and causing me to have such intense cravings that made me feel crazy! All of the times I felt like I wasn’t in control of my own body, I was completely right because I wasn’t. It is no wonder that I did amazing on the 21 Day Sugar Detox a couple years ago! Sugar cravings aren’t the only way that candida overgrowth can affect you, it is also very sneaky and will wreck your sex life as it did for me. It has the ability to mess with your hormones, adrenals, and in some people completely take away your sex drive. I can now only imagine the amount of woman today who are suffering from a low sex drive and wacky hormones due to candida overgrowth and feel like it’s “normal” for them to feel that way as they get older. But that is the complete opposite of what should happen to us ladies!

I immediately jumped on a completely sugar-free cleanse with special herbs that helped me to start getting eliminating some of the candida and The Frederickson’s that took residency in my gut. I felt like crap for about a week with low energy, fatigue and extreme brain fog as they started to die-off and release toxins in my body. After just 3 weeks, I started losing weight again, bloating less, and decreasing inflammation in my body. All cravings I had went away completely and I no longer wanted to the eat junk that the candida and parasites were making me crave.

Detoxing from these pests also helped my hormones to balance out again and I finally got my sex drive back! It was a Christmas (in July) miracle! I am happy to say that I feel beautiful, sexy, sane, and happy again! My physique is nowhere near where I was last June and I've even lost a little bit of muscle. But I feel SO great about myself now and that is what is most important!

This post is now entirely too long. I intend to go into more detail about this subject in future posts both here and on Awakened Nutrition so don't you worry. I am far from healed, in fact, I have a long road of recovery ahead of me but at least I have a clearer picture of where I am headed. But I just wanted to share my story because I know many women feel like the same way that I did and I want you to all know that you are not alone in this!

Have you or anyone you know ever had to deal with candida or parasites? I'd love to hear any tips or sugar-free recipes that you can share in the comments! 

What are some of your favorite ways to find your own happy?

3 Scary Reasons To Avoid Gluten NOW

I'm sure you know at least a handful of friends by now that are "Gluten-free". Am I right? Nowadays, "gluten-free" is definitely a buzz word we hear a lot. Everyone seems to be going gluten-free and for good reason.

Did you know that more than 55 diseases have been linked to gluten?

Or that 1 in 30 people have a gluten sensitivity and don't even know it?

That means that YOU could be walking around with a gluten sensitivity that's making you sick!

This reminds me of my good friend and detox partner Jill Hoffman's story. Several years ago before Jill became a health coach, she actually worked with her own health coach. After her coach recommended that she take out gluten from her diet, her life changed. She had more energy, her brain was clearer, her digestion improved AND she lost those last pesky pounds that would never budge.

I seriously hear stories like this time and time again.

So, if you still eating whole wheat bread and whole grain pasta and think you're doing yourself a favor, then keep reading.

What's the deal with gluten?

Gluten is a mixture of proteins commonly found in wheat products such as bread, pasta, and cereal and it's used mostly as a binding agent and provides that doughy texture we love so much.

3 Reasons To Avoid Gluten If You Are Sensitive:

1. Gluten sensitivities can lead to auto-immune disease. Gluten can cause an auto-immune response in your system where your body attacks itself. This happens because the protein in gluten resembles human tissue. So, when your immune system is trying to attack the foreign gluten invader, it might accidentally attack your other organs or tissues such as your thyroid or even your brain. There is massive research that connects the increase of auto-immune disease in people with the rise of gluten-containing foods.

2. Gluten is often responsible for resistant weight loss, poor sleep and skin conditions such as acne and eczema. Gluten causes an inflammatory response in your body which, over time, becomes chronic. Chronic inflammation, whether due to stress, food sensitivities or environmental toxins, almost always show up as weight and skin problems.

3. Gluten messes with our brain. Because gluten is hard to digest, our gut gets full of undigested food particles...yuck! This can lead to an imbalance of bacteria (dysbiosis) and eventually lacerations in our gut lining (leaky gut). Also, yeast feed on the undigested particles and so we can develop issues like candida, which can be extremely problematic. What does this have to do with your brain? Well, your brain and gut are very intimately connected especially when it comes to your mood. About 90% of your serotonin (a.k.a. happy hormone) is produced in the gut. When you have all this chaos on in your gut, then your brain is not getting enough serotonin, and then you're feeling the "Monday Blues" every single day.

How do you know if you are sensitive to gluten?

Based on my research and experience's that I've had with clients, the best way to determine if you have a gluten sensitivity is to go through a strategic elimination diet. This is where you would remove the food you are challenging (gluten) for a period of time and then reintroduce it back or "challenge" the food to see how your body reacts. A few notes about this:

• Gluten is something that can stay in your system for a long time because it is a large protein. So, to really test it out, you may need to remove it for more than the usual 2-3 weeks, perhaps even a few months to really get it out of your system.

• Many people who are sensitive to gluten are often sensitive to other foods such as dairy because the proteins mimic each other. What this means is that if you only do an "elimination" for gluten, then you might not see much of a change because you're still eating dairy and other possible allergens. It's recommended to do a full elimination diet for best results.

Gluten Free: Yay or Nay?

I think it goes without saying, that if you know you're sensitive to gluten then you should definitely avoid it as much as possible, if not completely. In our modern "fast food" world it can be difficult if not impossible to be 100% gluten-free.

But, for most of us, eliminating 90-95% of gluten from our diets can have a dramatic effect on how we feel and our susceptibility to disease.

Once you get over the initial hump of "gluten withdrawal" and discover a whole new world of delicious foods that can give you the same satisfaction as a bowl of cereal (sans the gas and bloating), you will never want to go back.

If you find out that you are not sensitive to gluten, then you have more wiggle room. BUT, gluten is very hard to digest and because of all the issues I mentioned above, you can develop a sensitivity that can eventually lead to symptoms and disease.

So, my recommendation, is to either minimize it or eliminate gluten completely from your diet if you want to stay healthy and symptom free. You want to do this by adopting a whole foods diet that's rich in organic veggies and fruits, along with healthy fats, clean protein, and gluten-free grains, if tolerated. I highly caution you to be skeptical of the "gluten free" products out on the shelves. If you flip over the box and look at the list of ingredients, very often you'll find a large list of processed and sugary ingredients that do more harm than good.

Stick to real food and you're good to go!

What are your experiences with gluten? I want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly down in the comments below!

Resources: Amy Meyers, MD

Why You Should Start Juicing Right Now + a Green Detox Juice Recipe

Did you know that when you make juice from raw vegetables, your body absorbs the nutrients within 15 seconds? Talk about an energy shot! No need to buy those sugary and chemical-ish concoctions from your local drug-store or mini mart. Juicing is an all-natural way to boost your energy and feel amazing. When you juice your fruits and veggies, you end up extracting all the water and nutrients from them and leave behind only the plant fibers. By separating the fruit or vegetable from its fiber, we gain access to all of the amazing vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and phytonutrients which are much more easily assimilated by our body than if we were to eat them.

This allows your body to absorb the nutrients more quickly, without having to digest the dense bulk of the plant. You can also fit an amazing amount of veggies into a single glass of juice, making it a great way to use up those extra veggies from your garden or CSA share. PLUS, you will end up with a glass of deliciousness that packs a powerful nutritional punch.

I bet you are thinking that stocking up on enough fresh organic vegetables to make daily juices can be somewhat expensive, and I totally hear your concerns. But the way I see it is if you cut back spending money at the local coffee shop each week or maybe even on many of the pre-packaged foods/snacks you may be buying, you will end up saving money in the long run on your food AND your doctor bills. The beauty is that organic veggies are getting easier to find and are not as expensive as they once were. I have actually been able to find some really great deals on organic vegetables here in NYC where EVERYTHING costs twice as much as every other city in America. I saved even more money and bought this amazing little juicer from Hamilton Beach (affiliate link) for less than $60 on Amazon and it has really fit my needs well since I started juicing this year.

Juicing is really fun and a great way to get your daily dose of vitamins and nutrients in especially if you aren't a big vegetable eater. I definitely don't want you to get discouraged by cost or know how because this is one of the best things you can do for you health. Just start slow, try a juice per week and work your way up to several per week - there is no wrong way to do it!

One more thing before I go:  while you can control the quality of ingredients when you are making fresh juice at home, always read your labels when it comes to buying store-bought juice. These juices can be high in sugar and have a high glycemic load, which may cause blood sugar imbalances.

Here is an amazing juice straight from my newSexy Summer Detoxprogram to get you started!

Slim & Sexy Green Detox Juice

• 1 bunch organic kale
• 1 organic cucumber
• 1 cup organic parsley
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 organic lemon
• 1 green (or red) apple
• 1 thin slice of ginger root

Have you tried juicing yet? What's your favorite juice recipe?

Never Skip Breakfast Again With This Strawberry Banana Bliss Smoothie!

Let's get real for a second. How many times per week do you run out the door in the mornings without eating breakfast? You and I both know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and sometimes it just doesn't fit into our schedule the way it should. How we begin the day will determine how the rest of the day goes. It will determine if we feel energized or if we feel dragging with a lack of energy. What we put in our bellies is directly related to how we physically feel. So if you are a skip breakfast and grab the coffee mug morning person then this blog is totally for you.

We all need and crave energy. I know I do! Sometimes it is so easy to want to grab a quick bowl of cereal or even forget breakfast and just get through the morning on 1-2 cups of coffee for the energy needed to survive the day. I don't want you to just survive through the day though; I want you to thrive through the day. I also don't want you to go on the "crash and crave" roller coaster for the entire day. If you begin your morning with caffeinated coffee and sugar, you will crash, and you will be either too tired to make it through your responsibilities or you will be reaching for another cup of coffee to get through a few more hours. Before you know it the craving will sneak up on you and next thing you know it's the afternoon and you have just finished off half a sleeve of thin mint cookies.

So we have to be smart and set ourselves up for success first thing! Smoothies are a super quick alternative to a fast breakfast that can help energize us throughout the entire day. When you toss in some greens, protein, a little fruit, and a healthy liquid like coconut water you are bound to feel energetic and ready to take on the day. Our bodies need protein, complex carbs and healthy fats in order to function properly and to prevent diseases. Starting the day with a smoothie also gives you well needed antioxidants which help protect our bodies from free radicals, and it is a great low glycemic start. Eating a low glycemic breakfast will help curb your sugar cravings for the entire day and it will also help with not crashing.

Next time you want a quick breakfast, try a delicious smoothie that will leave you feeling energized and motivated. To make this meal even quicker, go ahead and throw your smoothie ingredients together the night before and keep in your fridge or freezer. You could also use this trick to plan out smoothies for the whole week. A morning smoothie will help your body detoxify and will also provide your body with the nutrients it needs to produce natural energy and naturally boost your metabolism. Want 3 more yummy smoothie recipes to try out this week? Then download my free 3-Day Detox now!

So, what are you reaching for tomorrow morning? I know I will be pulling out my blender and getting ready for some long lasting energy.

Strawberry Banana Bliss Smoothie

• 1 cup coconut water or coconut milk
• ½ cup frozen strawberries
• 1 banana
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 Tablespoon hemp seeds
• 1 Tablespoon flax meal or chia seeds (if you don't digest seeds well, try Great Lakes gelatin or a clean protein powder such as grass-fed whey or a vegan protein)
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Stevia or raw honey to sweeten
• Ice (optional)

What's your favorite morning smoothie recipe?

P.S. Want a sneak peek into one of my 10-Day Detox programs that uses the elimination diet? Sign up to get myFREE 3-Day Detox and jump-start your weight loss now!

3-Day Detox

Disclaimer: We earn a small commission if you use the highlighted links to purchase the products mentioned in this post. We recommend only products that we would use in our own home or that we would recommend for our clients. Your purchases help to support our blogging activities such as creating yummy recipes to share with you and also helps us to bring even more helpful nutrition and training information to you on a weekly basis. Thank you for your continued support and for helping us continue what we LOVE to do!

How Food Allergies Are Making You Fat

Summer's (unofficially) here and it's that time of year when we're showing more skin and definitely more conscience of our bodies. All around me, I hear people jumping into juice cleanses and fasts to jump-start their weight loss. I'm not a huge fan of these aggressive detoxes because they can have serious consequences. In truth, most people will lose weight on these types of cleanses simply because of the calorie restriction, not because they are detoxing. But, these types of programs are pretty much impossible to maintain long-term and so is the weight loss. As soon as you stop juicing, the weight comes back on. I've seen it happen time and time again. There is a Better Way.

What if I told you that you could eat (yes, eat) as much as you want of delicious food without counting calories or carbs, and still lose weight? Say what?? Yes, you heard me. Look, it's no secret that excess weight is related to many other chronic conditions and diseases. In fact, we can really look at being overweight as just a symptom of inflammation - and inflammation is the root of all disease.

There are many things that can cause inflammation in our body but one of the most common causes is allergies and sensitivities from our food. An allergic reaction is inflammation. And, common sense tells us that when we constantly expose ourselves to something we are allergic too, this leads to chronic inflammation. Having a severe allergy to say, peanuts, can cause an immediate life-threatening response and if you're someone with that type of allergy, then you probably are very meticulous at avoiding such an exposure. Of course an allergic reaction doesn't need to be life-threatening. It could be something as simple as breaking out in hives.

BUT, what if you didn't have an allergy to peanuts but you had a more mild sensitivity? What's the difference here and how would you know? Well, unlike the allergy where you get an immediate response, a food sensitivity is an inflammatory reaction that is delayed, meaning your symptoms may not come out until about 24-72 hours after you are exposed to the culprit.

Symptoms vary, but the most common ones are:

• weight gain
• digestion issues (constipation, diarrhea)
• bloating
• gas
• fatigue
• brain fog
• headaches or migraines
• muscle aches
• stomach aches

You may not even know that you have a food sensitivity because most likely you are eating the culprit food every single day and any symptoms you are experiencing could feel totally normal to you. OR, you are aware of the symptoms but because of the delayed time lapse it's extremely difficult to make the connection that something you are eating is causing the reaction. The other side of this, is that it can be difficult and expensive to get tested. Most doctors are not testing for food sensitivities - just allergies. And this is why so many people are unknowingly causing chronic inflammation in their bodies that can lead to toxicity and excess weight.

How To Find Out If You Have a Food Sensitivity

The easiest, most cost effective way to identify food sensitivities is by doing, what's called, an Elimination Diet. This is the protocol that I use  as the foundation in my seasonal detox programs because it works. I believe in this protocol because it's also how I've uncovered my own food allergies and sensitivities. Although an elimination diet is not a new thing, it hasn't gotten nearly as much publicity as many of the other heavily marketed diets and weight loss programs on the market. And, although the goal is not to necessarily lose weight, that is more often than not, a happy side effect. Just recently, Dr. Mark Hyman was featured on The Today Show talking about the benefits of the elimination diet in helping people identify food sensitivities, decreasing inflammation and losing weight. You can read the article here.

In my seasonal detox programs, we focus on eliminating the most common food allergens for 10 days and then we guide you into a reintroduction phase where you would strategically add back each food one by one so you can determine which food(s) are causing the problems.

The foods we avoid for 10 days include:

• gluten and wheat
• dairy
• corn
• soy
• gluten-free grains
• nuts
• processed sugars

During the 10 days that you are eliminating the common allergens, we are replacing them with nourishing whole foods which support your detoxification. This 2-prong approach has been very successful in helping people jump-start their weight loss, detox, AND identify foods that they are sensitive to. For most people, this is a very powerful "first step" towards reducing inflammation and building their health blueprint for life.

Have you had success with uncovering food allergies or sensitivities with an elimination diet or detox? I would love to hear about it in the comments below!

P.S. Wanna sneak peek into one of my 10-Day Detox programs that uses the elimination diet? Sign up to get my FREE 3-Day Detox and jump-start your weight loss now!

Cranberry Chia Fresca Detox Cocktail

Mmm tastes like summer!

Here in NYC we've finally started having a glimpse of summer weather and it's been amazing! I'm from Florida so of course I love warm weather...but I'm also part snow bunny and get giddy any time I hear of snow fall. But I have to say the last two winters here have really made me long for warmer weather a lot sooner than I normally have in the past.

So with just a few weeks left of spring I'm already dreaming of my two summer vacations that Chris and I are taking in July. First, we are heading back home to Florida to celebrate the 4th of July and my birthday with my family. Then then in late July we are going to Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side for a friends wedding. I'm just imagining us laying on the beach drinking refreshing summer cocktails and getting a nice golden brown tan. Sounds dreamy, right?

Well I don't see why we have to wait for summer to have refreshing cocktails. Let's get this party started right now!

I have a seriously delicious refreshing cranberry chia fresca recipe to share with you that is loaded with amazing detoxing health benefits.

DRINK UP THE GOODNESS

• Chia seeds also pack a big punch with their high levels of Omega fatty acids , fiber, calcium, antioxidants and protein. It also contains the amino acid tryptophan which the body uses to produce the feelgood hormone serotonin.

• Cranberry is an amazing little fruit that is loaded phytonutrients such as Phenolic Acids, Proanthocyanidins, Anthocyanins, Flavonoids, and Triterpenoids which are known for their antioxidant, cancer fighting and anti-inflammatory properties. They also assist with UTI prevention, improves digestion and supports the immune system.

• Coconut wateris great for summer as it has a high amount of hydrating electrolytes. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, it helps balance blood glucose and insulin levels, it boosts the immune system, and as an added bonus it helps with elasticity in the skin which reduces age spots and wrinkles. Cheers to that!

These three detox ingredients help provide our bodies with protein, amino acids, essential vitamins, minerals, helps us to stay hydrated and keeps our digestion running smoothly. All of these things are essential for our body to eliminate toxins properly.

Cranberry Chia Fresca

• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• ½ cup coconut water or plain filtered water
• ½ cup pure cranberry concentrate
• Juice of a half a lemon and/or lime

1. Add chia seeds to the coconut water and cranberry juice and stir until combined. The chia seeds will begin to swell up. Aim to stir well into an even, gel-like consistency or drink it before the gel forms. (Use a lid with a jar for an easy way to shake up any clumps that fall to the bottom!)

2. Drink immediately if desired, or set aside for up to 10 minutes to let it gel.

3. Add lemon and/or lime and stir well again.

4. Drink and enjoy!

What's your favorite summertime cocktail to enjoy beach side? 

Sources:

The World's Healthiest Foods

Dr. Oz

SF Gate: Healthy Eating

Dr. Mercola

P.S. Wanna sneak peek into one of my 10-Day Detox programs that uses the elimination diet? Sign up to get my FREE 3-Day Detox and jump-start your weight loss now!

30 Healthy Snack Ideas to Bust Through Cravings + a Kale Chip Recipe

Have you ever had those days when cravings hit and you just want to eat everything in sight? Cravings happen even to the healthiest of us. Often, when a craving hits in the afternoon or the evening after dinner, we get the urge to snack. Snacking can be a bad habit to get into, because the snacks we choose are often junky, nutritionally void, and high in calories, sugar, or fat. I call this the "Snack Attack!" and it can sneak up on you like a ninja. There are many different reasons why cravings sneak up on you such as having a lot of stress in your life, lack of sleep, restricting certain foods from your diet too long, or maybe your body is lacking certain vitamins and minerals. It is key to try to identify what is causing your cravings and try to get to the root of the issue. But, I realize that it may not always be easy to pin point exactly what is going on when life gets busy.

So it's up to us to outsmart our cravings before they get the best of us. The trick to snacking without piling on the pounds is to find healthy alternatives to the regular snacks you might normally reach for.

Usually, when we get a craving it is for either something sweet (chocolate!), savory (potato chips!), creamy (ice cream!), or crunchy (crisps!). Obviously, my examples are foods you shouldn’t eat all the time if you want to be trim and healthy. But that doesn’t mean you have to fight your cravings for the rest of your life. Instead, you just need to substitute.

Next time you get a craving for something sweet, why not try:

• fresh organic berries like blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries

• apples and almond or sunflower butter

• no sugar added dried fruit and raw almonds or walnuts

• green or fruit protein smoothies

• banana “ice cream” (peel a banana, freeze, blend in a food processor, top with nuts, berries or unsweetened shredded coconut)

• dates stuffed with almond butter or other nut butter, and top with unsweetened shredded coconut

• 1 tbsp organic dark chocolate chips or Enjoy Life (soy, dairy & nut free) chocolate chips

For your savory cravings, try these healthy alternatives:

• hard boiled eggs with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and salsa

• olives, pickles, and pickled vegetables, such as carrot, daikon, beets, and lotus root

• homemade hummus (download my free 3-Day Detox to get this recipe)

• kale chips (recipe below)

• sweet potato chips

• zucchini chips with freshly made salsa or guacamole

• Sauerkraut (this will also knock your sweet craving right out!)

• chopped avocado and tomato with sea salt and pepper

Your creamy cravings can be met by eating:

• smoothies

• chocolate chia pudding

• dips and spreads, like hummus and baba ghanoush

• puréed soups

• puddings made with avocado, or mashed banana

• mashed sweet potatoes

• coconut milk

Finally, don't cave and reach for the Pringles, when you can eat these crunchy (but still healthy) snacks:

• apples

• frozen grapes

• rice cakes

• organic non-GMO popcorn (use coconut oil and sea salt to pop in a covered pan)

• carrots (particularly the sweet, organic baby carrots)

• celery and nut butter

• raw, unsalted nuts like cashews, almonds, Brazil, and walnuts

• small handful raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds (about 1 tbsp)

Don’t fight your craving. Instead, listen to what it is your body wants specifically and choose the healthier option that will be good to your waistline.

Make sure to keep plenty of these delicious healthy snacks around the house so you don't get in a pinch and grab something you will regret later. Another great way to avoid snacking is also to keep your trigger foods out of the house. When you do decide to splurge on your favorite treats, make sure you only buy as much as you are going to eat right at that moment. That way the bag of treats won't unexpectedly call your name from the kitchen pantry.

Kitchen tips and tricks:

• Pre-cut veggies for quick snacks. Store in airtight, glass containers in the fridge. Make sure to cover celery, carrots and radishes with water so they don't dry out.

• Freeze a few bananas to have on hand for an ice cream snack later in week.

• Never waste another avocado. Put ripe avocados in the refrigerator to stop the ripening process. They can be stored for up to a week in the fridge.

• Measure out and baggie up your nuts and dried fruit ahead of time so that you don't go back for seconds or thirds.

“You cannot change your destination overnight. You can change your direction.” - Jim Rohn

Kale Chips

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch lacinato kale

• Olive oil

• Sea salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350-375 degrees, depending on your oven. The kale chips burn quickly, so keep the temperature on the lower end if your oven tends to get hot or have hot spots.

2. Clean kale and remove the thick stem by folding each leaf in half lengthwise and cutting it away. Make sure kale is quite dry.

3. Pour a bit of olive oil into a dipping bowl. Dip your fingers in the olive oil and massage over each kale leaf, front and back.

4. Arrange kale on several baking sheets making sure not to crowd the leaves. Sprinkle sea salt over the top.

5. Bake for 5-7 minutes, keeping an eye on the chips to make sure they don’t burn. Turn the chips over and then bake for another 5 minutes more. You may need more or less time depending on your oven. The chips are ready when they are bright green and haven’t turned brown yet except maybe at the edges.

6. Add some flavor by sprinkling smoked paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, or curry on before baking.

Comment below and tell me some of your favorite craving fighting snacks!

Want to learn more about how you can stop bloat from happening?

Want to reduce inflammation and lose fat for good? Start by downloading our free guide: 5 Easy Steps to Beating Belly Bloat!

We are Chris and Amber, a husband and wife team dedicated to helping you improve your nutritional and personal fitness habits for a better lifestyle. If you have issues with bloating, inability to lose fat, brain fog, or are in need of a proven nutrition and fitness plan to get you out of a rut, then sign up for our 28-Day Beat Belly Bloat Program today!

Makeover Your Health With the Elimination Diet

When I first started on my health and fitness journey about 4 years ago, I started experiencing uncomfortable and embarrassing digestive issues which was starting to drive me crazy! I had never experienced these issues before or at least I never noticed because of all of the junky nutritionally void foods I was dumping into my body the many years prior. I was determined to figure out the foods that where working with and those that worked against my body in order to lose weight and be healthier. When you realize that your digestion is much less than optimal and you feel terrible, it is time to do something about it. I got to that point and started noticing that I had symptoms like gassiness and belly bloat that started happening frequently. I knew I needed a reliable way to find out WHY this was happening and, more importantly, WHAT was causing my discomfort. That’s when I found out about the Elimination Diet.

The Elimination Diet is the approach I use in my 28 Day Beat Belly Bloat program to help my clients figure out which foods they are sensitive to so that they can eat mindfully, keep their digestive symptoms at bay and start losing weight. About 80% of your immune system is in your gut and is considered the “second brain” in your body, so it is important to keep it healthy and keep things running smoothly. It's also been discovered that if your body is in a constant state of inflammation, it can prevent you from being able to lose weight.

In the elimination diet, you start by eliminating common culprits of digestive upset and common food allergens. You dial down your daily meals and snacks so that you are only eating real, nourishing foods that will not hurt your gut. In fact, you can begin to heal your gut with a proper elimination diet. The categories of food to eliminate are:

• Grains – The foundation of the Food Pyramid for decades, at one point the government suggested we eat 6-11 servings of grains per day. It has now been discovered that many people have a hard time digesting grains, including corn.

• Processed Foods – There are many toxic chemicals (like MSG, artificial colors, and flavorings) and other undesirable ingredients (like GMOs, trans fats, and high fructose corn syrup) in processed food that can impede digestion and even cause disease.

• High Glycemic Foods – Large amounts of starches and added sugars can feed a bacterial overgrowth (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth aka SIBO) and other gut dysbiosis problems.

• Gluten and Fructans – Found in many grains, gluten has been found to be one of the causes of leaky gut syndrome and autoimmune diseases. Fructans are found in FODMAPS (short-chain carbohydrates) and can also feed those bad bugs in your gut.

• Soy - Over 90 percent of all soy grown is genetically modified and is wreaking havoc on our bodies. Many people can't tolerate soy but have no idea because they eat so much of it on a daily basis via processed packaged foods. Soy phytoestrogens cause infertility, breast cancer and hypothyroidism. It contains high levels of phytic acid which reduce absorbtion of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum, which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

• Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Oil – The top offenders are corn, soy, safflower, canola and vegetable oils. These can cause inflammation throughout your body and destroy your health.

• Feedlot Meats and Dairy – Meats and dairy from the conventional food system are full of hormones, antibiotics, and even poisons such as arsenic. These animals are sick and stressed form living in confined polluted spaces.

• Eggs, Peanuts, and Shellfish – All are common food allergens.

• Gut Irritants – Caffeine and alcohol can wreak havoc on your gut. Avoid these while you are healing.

The Elimination Phase

All of the commonly known gut-irritating foods we talked about above will be eliminated for an initial 14 days. This is so we can allow enough time for food allergens and other gut-irritating foods to fully get out of your system and your symptoms to go away. Make sure to write yourself a list of all the foods you can and can't eat during the elimination period so that you are very clear on which foods you need to avoid. It's very easy to forget and slip up on the foods you are used to eating. It's important to stay on track during this time so that you can really figure out which foods work best for you!

Then, you will gradually reintroduce these foods back in your diet one at a time to see how your body reacts. With certain food, you may notice reactions from it immediately and with others you may feel the effects a day or so later. It is important to keep a food reaction journal during this time so that you can pinpoint exactly how you are feeling both mentally and physically. The entire elimination could take up to 35 days or so depending on how many foods you introduce back in. The great thing about the elimination diet is that it can be tailored specifically to your personal needs with your health coach or practitioner. In my Beat Belly Bloat program we start with only 28 days and then my clients have the freedom to add in extra foods if they would like to. I think this is more manageable for clients and their busy lives! 

The Reintroduction Phase:

For two weeks, follow the elimination diet without any exceptions. It is best to have your meals and snacks prepared ahead of time because you don’t want to risk eating foods that may be cooked with unapproved ingredients. If you do eat any packaged foods, you will need to check the labels very carefully for hidden ingredients such as soy, dairy and gluten.

After you have completed the 14-day food elimination diet, you will now start to add foods back in one by one. Introduce one allergenic food in two days increments for 3 meals per day (morning, noon, and night). You will then go back to the strict elimination diet for the next 2 days and monitor how you feel. Take notes on how you are feeling before, during and after the reintroduction. If you notice a server immediate reaction from a food, you can stop there and go ahead and remove the food from your diet and go back to the elimination diet.

Below is the schedule I use during my program with clients who do a general elimination diet of the top known allergenic foods. Follow the schedule below to keep track of what days you will reintroduce each food. Log your food during the elimination and reintroduction phases so you can go back and use it as a reference point.

During this time you will need to document how you are feeling, both during the two reintroduction days and the two days following it. Take note of any headaches, muscle aches, constipation, gas, bloating, low energy, mood swings, fatigue, foggy thinking, etc.

Day 15: Gluten

Day 16: Gluten

Day 17: Back to elimination diet

Day 18: Back to elimination diet

Day 19: Dairy

Day 20: Dairy

Day 21: Back to elimination diet

Day 22: Back to elimination diet

Day 23: Soy

Day 24: Soy

Day 25: Back to elimination diet

Day 26: Back to elimination diet

Day 27: Corn

Day 28: Corn

Day 29: Back to elimination diet

Day 30: Back to elimination diet

Day 31: Eggs

Day 32: Eggs

Day 33: Back to elimination diet

Day 34: Back to elimination diet

Day 35: Discuss

Eventually, you will come up with an eating plan that your body will love. Everyone is different and finding your own unique way of eating to feel good will change your life.

If you think the elimination diet might be just what you need to jumpstart your health and relieve annoying belly bloat, then click the button below to grab my freebie 5 Steps to Beat Belly Bloat!

Sources:

Dr. Mercola - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/12/04/soy-dangers-summarized.aspx

Dr. Axe - http://draxe.com/canola-oil-gm/

Dr. Mark Hyman - http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/01/27/inflammation-how-to-cool-the-fire-inside-you-thats-making-you-fat-and-diseased/

Eat Wild - http://www.eatwild.com/basics.html

*Heizer, W D., Southern, S, McGovern, S. The Role of Diet in Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Adults: A Narrative Review. JADA 2009; 109: 1204-1214

CalorieLab - http://calorielab.com/news/2011/01/01/big-8-food-allergies/

The Truth About Your Salad Dressing + a Healthy Swap Recipe!

I have a confession to make...I used to drench my salads in ranch and Caesar dressing! Not only did I cover my salads in these thick fattening dressings, but I also poured it over chicken, pizza, wraps, and quesadillas. Does this sounds familiar to you? The thing is that for a long time I wasn't aware that there was anything wrong with these dressings. I mean, I thought I was doing the healthy thing by choosing a salad and what else do you put on top of a salad? Creamy dressing, duh!

I'm not hating on salad dressings because they are high in fat, I hate on them because they are FAKE! That's right! These creamy delicious dressings are full of artificial flavors and colors, they are also loaded with sugar, salt, chemicals such preservatives and thickening agents, and rancid refined oils such as GMO canola and soybean oils that are high in inflammation causing Omega 6 fats. Who knowingly wants to eat chemical-filled fake foods that will wreak havoc on your health and your gut? Not this girl!

Once I realized what I was putting into my body and the destruction I was doing to my health, I started reaching for healthier salad dressing options that taste even better than those high calorie nutritionally void dressings. The amazing part is, I can make them at home in minutes and I don't have to worry about bad calories, excess sugars and rancid fats because I know exactly what is going into my dressing! I realize that life gets busy and you may want more of a convenience option, so you can also go for a healthier option like Tessemae's salad dressing which you can grab at Whole Foods.

Below is a super healthy recipe that you can whip together and enjoy on your favorite salad tonight! This dressing not only tastes delicious but it also has amazing health benefits such as: natural detoxification from the lemon and apple cider vinegar, fights inflammation with olive oil, boosts your immune system with garlic, orange and thyme. Let me know what you think!

Need some healthy salad ideas?

What's your favorite healthy salad dressing swap? Share your recipe below!

Weight Training 101: Choose the Right Weight for Strength

One of the biggest mistakes I usually see in the gym is guys lifting weights that are clearly too heavy for them and are either half repping it or swinging the hell out of the weight and lifting with momentum. On the other end, you see girls lifting too light of a weight to effectively challenge their muscles. Although  these criminal offenders are on the polar opposite of the weight spectrum, they both have essentially the same issue. They have chosen the wrong weight to create the appropriate amount of tension. In simple terms, how a muscle gets stronger is through a damage/repair cycle. By creating micro tears in a muscle through resistance training the body is sent a signal that it needs to repair those tears and increase  the strength of the given muscle fiber. If the weight is too light, not much is going on. If the weight is too heavy, the person is probably not going through a full range of movement or cheating in some form or fashion just to move the weight and isn't placing full focus on the targeted area.

For example swinging up a bicep curl and using a lot of momentum to carry you through the movement and/or leaning back to assist you in bringing the weight up is taking a lot of focus off your bicep and instead putting more work in your back and shoulders and hips to help generate the necessary force to bring the weight up. An important thing to remember is that our muscles are blind as a bat. They have no idea what weight you are picking up, all they know is what kind of tension is being placed on them.  We often get caught up with the number on a given weight (myself included) but you've got to remind yourself that what's most important is the tension.  One of the best ways to really emphasize the tension being placed on the muscle is to concentrate on the negative or eccentric part of the movement. For example, when doing a dumbbell chest press lower the weight down in a slow controlled manner (2-4 seconds) to increase the time under tension for the muscle and then continue to push the weight away from your body on a 1-2 count. You will quickly feel how much more difficult a given exercise becomes and how much greater the tension being placed on the muscle is.

For guys, this can be a great way to take a step back and make sure that you are lifting a weight that you can actually handle, going through a full range of movement with that controlled eccentric tempo sometimes means going down in weight but you can sometimes get much more superior results with that increased discipline.

For women, if you are feeling stuck at a given weight or don't feel confident in taking that next jump up this same technique is a great way for you to continue to squeeze out as much value from the same weight you have been using.  Remember if your goal is strong, lean muscle and you are able to do 12 reps, it's time for you to step it up in the weight department to continue to progressively overload the muscle to get stronger!

So the next time you are at the gym DON'T be that guy or girl. Now you know better!  Keep lifting and working hard and results will come.

Guiltless Chocolate Chia Pudding

Do you ever have those days when all you want is a delicious chocolate treat but you are agonizing over it because you are trying to lose a couple pounds? Well agonize no more because I am going to share a guiltless Chocolate Chia Pudding recipe from our 10-Day Spring Detox to bust those cravings! You will actually want to gobble this treat up because it is loaded with rich nutrients and antioxidants! Chia seeds contain healthy fats like Omega-3's, protein and fiber to help keep you full and keep things moving smoothly, and antioxidants which protect your body from free radicals. Raw Cocao also contains antioxidants and has more than 300 phytochemicals, including vitamins, minerals, and nutrients such as: fat, carbohydrates, fiber, iron, zinc, copper, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.

Chia chia

Chocolate Chia Pudding - Serves 3-4

1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond or coconut milk 1/4 cup chia seeds 1 tablespoon raw cacao powder 1 tsp cinnamon to taste 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 tablespoon raw honey or a few drops of stevia

1. Combine all ingredients well with a whisk and pour into a glass jar with lid. Shake it up and mix further if there are still clumps in the bottom.

2. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, stirring once an hour to keep from clumping

3. Serve topped with dried fruit, sunflower seeds, cacao nibs, or unsweetened shredded coconut.

What's your favorite guiltless dessert?

3 Ingredients to Kick PMS & Cramping to The Curb!

Recently, I got a little personal with everyone on our newsletter and shared for the first time out loud that I haven't had a normal period in over a year and a half - some of them lasting 2 and a half weeks or longer! Trust me, It is as awful as it sounds! Luckily for mine and Chris's sanity, I started to detox all areas of my life - starting with a 10-day whole foods detox and cleanse first, followed by continueing a diet of clean whole foods, then my beauty products and cleaning products, plastics, etc. - and in a pretty short amount of time after I dropped over 6lbs of fat, the sugar cravings stopped, my stomach got flatter and my hormones started balancing out! For the first time in over a year and half, I had a normal 5 day period without PMS, minimal cramping - I'm talking only a couple hours on one day(!), and no lower back pain! It was shocking and exciting for me to feel so good after months of discomfort, pain and flat out annoyance.

During that one evening when I did experience some cramping, I decided I wouldn't take any over the counter meds to ease my cramping...that was my crutch before and it doesn't fit in with my life detoxification any longer. I was going to ease my pain naturally! So today, I'm going to give you my super awesome recipe for dealing with menstrual cramps and PMS in a safer, relaxing and more natural way!

Instead of picking up the pain meds, I reached for some of my favorite daily detoxification tools: Epsom salts, lavender and peppermint essential oils and made an relaxing PMS detoxing bath! Soaking in the warm bath for about 20 minutes soothed my aches, pains and left me super relaxed the rest of the evening. Here is what you do:

1. Fill bath tub with very warm water, not scolding
2. Add in 1-2 cups Espsom salt
3. Just before getting in add 8 drops lavender essential oil and 2 drops peppermint essential oil, then swirl water around
4. Light a candle, play some calming tunes, soak and enjoy for about 20 minutes

Soak up the benefits:

• Lavender essential oil – Calms and supports normal hormone levels. It also produces calming and relaxing effects on the body which can be used to relieve cramping, stress and anxiety.

• Peppermint essential oil - Makes you feel cool, relaxed and energized, reduces inflammation, helps ease cramping, and may help balance hormones.

•  Hot Epsom salt bath – The magnesium-sulfate from the Epsom salts is absorbed through the skin and help reduce water retention and bloating. It reduces inflammation to relieve pain and muscle cramps, relieves stress. The heat from the water also heats up the body causing toxins to get sweated out.

Do you have any favorite natural remedies to relieve menstrual cramps or PMS?

The 24-Hour Detox

Don't you just wish you could hit the reset button after an off week or a wild weekend? Maybe you ate a bunch of junk food too many nights in a row or had a few too many drinks at happy hour. You feel bloated and gross, joints are achy, and you flat out feel off balance.When you have a bender of a week, weekend, heck even a month or year...don't worry, we've all been there...you are depriving your body of vital nutrients that it needs to support your main detox organs - the liver, gall bladder, colon and kidneys. Our bodies are already experiencing toxic overloaded from the many toxins we come into contact with on a daily basis which it makes it  harder for our detox organs to do their jobs and excrete toxins naturally. This overload is why we start feeling so bad and it shows up in the form of many awful symptoms that are often unexplainable!

WHERE ARE ALL THESE PESKY TOXINS COMING FROM?

The toxins that come in from outside sources such as those junky nutritionally deficient foods we eat and the many boozy beverages we had in excess are called exogenous toxins. You also accumulate even more exogenous toxins from air pollution - both indoor and outdoor, pesticides on our food and sprayed in the air, chemicals from beauty products we use on our skin, as well as cleaning products we use in our home and even the mercury dental fillings (amalgams) in your mouth. Each year, the number of chemical toxins that we are exposed to dramatically increases because currently there is no system set in place to regulate the amount and type of chemicals that companies can use in their products. Over time, these excess toxins build up in our body and create a heavy toxic burden.

If it's not bad enough that we are storing all of these toxins from our environment, our bodies are also trying to deal with the endogenous toxins that are created from inside our bodies - such as sex hormones, neurotransmitters, folate, iron, etc.

TIME FOR A DETOX!

Detoxing and cleansing occasionally is essential to keep our internal ecosystem balanced by removing the buildup of toxins that are wreaking havoc on your health. It's important to keep our detox organs running smoothly so we are able to excrete toxins efficiently. When our body is balanced, It's easier for you to manage your weight because your metabolism and digestion will be stronger, you will also have clearer glowing skin as well as stay healthier because your immune system will be stronger. 

Unfortunately, detoxing has become such a fad and there is a ton of misinformation out there so people often believe that they have to starve themselves by fasting or juicing in order to detox. But that's simply not the case! You can start right now just by eating delicious nutrient-rich detoxifying foods!

NUTRIENT-RICH DETOXIFYING FOODS

1. Carrots, garlic, onions, eggs and salmon to support Glutathione production
2. Brazil nuts are rich in Selenium which helps your body recycle and produce even more glutathione. Just two a day provides your body with all the selenium it needs.
3. Flaxseed provides Fiber to help your digestion move along. If your bowels aren't moving then toxins will build up in the colon creating a more toxic environment.
4. Carrots, eggs, and salmon contain essential B vitamins
5. Cilantro to assist with the removal of heavy metals
6. Grapefruit provides fiber, it's packed with vitamins and nutrients that will help to replenish the nutrients that your body needs in order to repair damaged cells in your body, and may promote weight loss

Now these are just a taste of a few great foods for detoxifying your body, there are tons more that you can incorporate into your diet daily!

THE 24 HOUR DETOX

This is a quick 24 hour detox modified from Alisa Vitta at Flo Living that will help get you to bounce back and reset your body! Use the detox as a guide, you will ultimately have to decide on the right portion sizes that you need in order to fuel your body. Just remember, THERE'S NO STARVING IN DETOXING! If you feel like you need a 48 hour detox, then you can just repeat this meal plan for the 2nd day. Make sure you are drinking a lot of water throughout the day to help flush out toxins!

Breakfast:

• Hot water with the juice of one lemon on an empty stomach
• Green apple with sugar free sunflower butter

Mid-Morning Snack:

• Green smoothie:
  • blend romaine lettuce, 1/2 inch ginger, cucumber, celery, juice of 1/2 of lemon, 1 Tbsp coconut oil

Lunch:

• Raw fennel celery, and apple salad
  • 1/2 fennel head, cored and sliced thin
  • 1 rib of celery chopped
  • 1/2 chopped apple
  • Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
  • Toss all ingredients together
  • Cilantro and onion omelet
    • Whisk together 3 organic eggs, 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, sea salt and pepper
    • Oil pan with 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, add 1/4 cup chopped onion and cook for a couple minutes
    • Add remaining ingredients into pan. Cook thoroughly, lifting edges of the omelet and tilting the pan to allow the uncooked egg mixture to flow underneath and cook evenly.

Mid-Day Snack:

• Melon in season or  Grapefruit (choose one)
• 2 hard boiled eggs

Dinner:

• Asparagus, onions & Garlic
  • Chopped and roasted at 425 degrees with coconut oil, with salt and pepper
  •  Salmon
    • See recipe below
    • Carrots
      • Steamed with cinnamon

Dessert:

• 2 Brazil nuts
• 2 dates

---

Garlic Dill Salmon - serves 4 

• 1 pound salmon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried dill weed or 1 Tbsp fresh
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp onion powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Rinse fish and put into a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté garlic in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add dill, lemon juice, and onion powder and pour over fish. Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes, basting with remaining sauce after 7 minutes. Do not overcook. Fish is done with flakes easily with a fork. Enjoy! 

7 Ways to Kick Your Cold to The Curb Naturally + Garlic Chicken Sweet Potato Soup Recipe

Tired of the winter yet? Despite the many ice burgs that we have to jump over to get around the streets of New York City these days, Chris and I still love snow! We are actually heading to Vermont early Friday morning to go snowboarding with friends for the weekend.

But as much as we love snow, cold and winter, we also have to face the facts that it is cold and flu season. If you aren't already, it's a great time to start eating homemade soup and bone broth to keep your body warm and your immunity strong. I was down for the count last week, first with a bad cold, then a 24 hour bug. It all really snuck up on me and I wasn't prepared for it. But as soon as the symptoms hit, I started eating as many healing foods as possible! I think for the first time in years, I resisted taking any cold or flu medications. I still had all my yucky cold symptoms, but I let my body have the rest it needed and go through the motions naturally. I've been so accustomed to heavily medicating myself anytime I feel bad, and I often overlook the power that natural remedies have!

Next time you are sick, try these 7 natural ways to kick your cold to the curb:

• Take a break from the gym and daily life to let your body fully rest. As much as we all hate to get out of our routine and slowing down, sometimes it's necessary for good health!

• Drink delicious teas like organic green, peppermint, ginger, and eucalyptus. Add in fresh ginger, turmeric, raw honey and lemon.

• Start the day by drinking warm lemon water in the morning to get some of its antiviral benefits. I even made this amazing sweetened raw apple cider elixir from Delighted Momma that tasted amazing! I subbed orange juice in for the fruit juices she suggested, for added vitamin C.

• Use more antimicrobial foods like organic cold pressed coconut oil, coconut flakes, cinnamon, lemon, ginger, raw honey and garlic. These foods have antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties that kill bacteria and viruses in our bodies.

• Get high amounts of vitamin C, which is an antioxidant, through natural and supplemental sources to help speed up recovery.

• Gargle with warm salt water every few hours to help relieve sore throat.

• Drink homemade meat stock and bone broth to help sooth and heal your gut lining to boost your immunity. I posted recently about how far off we've strayed from the traditional cooking methods of our ancestors. They would use not just the meat but also the bones of animals to make nourishing meals to cure the common cold and flu as well as many other digestive and physical ailments. Broths are great to keep on hand and in the freezer at all times. You can drink them on their own, I love broth with lemon, salt and ginger, or make a delicious soup in minutes, like the recipe below!

Garlic Chicken Sweet Potato Soup

2-3 serving

• 10-12 oz organic shredded chicken
• 4.5 cups homemade bone broth or meat stock
• 2-3 steamed medium sweet potato cut into chunks
• 2-3 cups organic kale
• 4 cup organic spinach
• 4-5 cloves chopped organic garlic
• Season to taste with cumin, ginger, and pink Himalayan salt

Precook shredded chicken and steam sweet potato ahead of time. Turn burner on high to medium-high heat. In a large pot add broth and let it come to a boil. Add kale and garlic, then reduce heat to medium-low heat. Once kale is cooked well, add in remaining ingredients and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

I hope that you all are staying healthy this winter! Leave us a comment below and tell us what some of your favorite cold busting home remedies are!

Ditch Empty Calories and Eat Real Food for Real Weight Loss

It's mid-December and everyone is already buzzing about their New Year's Resolutions to lose weight. You may be hearing a lot about detoxes or juice cleanses that will help to shed those pounds you gained over the holidays. But today we want to just stick with the basics: empty calories and exercise. We always hear so much about how to lose the weight the fast way but we want to talk about the reason so many of us are in this situation in the first place and what it would realistically take to lose the weight. NOT all calories are the same. In a day and age when so many foods we get are processed and packaged and picked up at a drive through window so many of the calories we are actually taking in end up being empty calorie foods which are calorie dense but are nutritionally devoid. Empty calories are the walking dead of calories. They pack all the punch calorically often have lots of sugars but are devoid of the fiber, vitamins and minerals that the body requires. All those empty calories that don’t truly feed the body also take a lot of effort to work off.

Here are some average calories burned after walking or jogging 1 mile:

100lb person: 70-90 calories 150lb person: 90-110 calories 200lb person: 110-140 calories 250lb person: 140-170 calories

Now let’s compare how much I would have to run just to simply burn off an order of French Fries.

1 order of small French Fries (230 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 2.1 miles 1 order of med. French Fires (380 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 3.45 miles 1 order of large French Fries (500 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 4.54 miles

I would have to jog more than a 5k race to burn off a large order of empty calorie French Fries!

To put that in context of bodyfat, there are 3500 calories in 1lb of fat. So if I wanted to burn off 3500 calories from those nutritionally devoid empty calories that I ate I would have to jog 31 miles.

We are just picking on French fries here, but you can replace this with any nutritionally devoid food. It is important to know the amount of calories your body needs daily and choose your calories wisely!

Now we can't sit here and talk about French fries all morning and not include an awesome recipe! So next time you have a hankering for French fries, make yourself a healthy version that won't hinder your fat loss goals. We found this amazing sweet potato fries recipe from Nom Nom Paleo!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries - via Nom Nom Paleo

Ingredients: 

• 2 large garnet yams
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted (I just nuke it in the microwave for ~30 seconds)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Smoked paprika (or your favorite seasoning – cinnamon works well, too!)

 Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F on convection bake (or 425 F in a non-convection oven).
2. Peel the yams and cut them into even matchsticks. Toss the yams with the coconut oil, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika and place them in a single layer on a foil-lined baking tray.
3. Pop the tray in the oven for about 30 minutes, flipping the frites and tray halfway through. The fries are done when they’re brown and crispy on the edges.

Serves 4 people as a side dish.

Leave us a comment and tell us what food what your favorite healthy food swap is?

Thanksgiving Day Bodyweight Workout

3 days until the big feast! Things start to get a little crazy as we get closer to Thanksgiving day, we all get in preparation mode with grocery shopping, party planning and of course food preparation. We understand that it gets harder and harder to make it to gym when family is in town and you have a million things on your todo list. Last week we gave you 3 solid ways to avoid holiday weight gain and we really want to keep the momentum up so this week we are giving you another tool to arm yourself with. So here is a at-home workout to help you stay on track with your goals this holiday season. This bodyweight workout can be done in your backyard, garage or wherever you can find space. Start thinking about when your ideal time to workout would be and have a plan, morning before everyone is still sleeping is probably best and you will feel motivated and ready to start the day!

THANKSGIVING DAY BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT ROUTINE

3 Sets of each workout with 90 seconds to 2 minutes rest in between each circuit before repeating

1)Prisoner Squat (4 seconds down, 2 second hold at bottom) – 20 reps                      *raise your heels up slightly with a book or something equivalent if you are having trouble keeping from folding forward too much in your squat or you can't get low enough in your squat

2)"Happy feet" for 10 seconds then drop and do 10 push ups – 6x (Happy Feet - find a straight line to step over, one foot at a time forward and then one foot at a time backward, as fast as you can.)

3)Reverse crunches on floor - 20-30 reps

4)Forward lunge to a raised step-up to back lunge on the same leg then alternate to the opposite side – 20 reps per side

5)Jumping Jacks – 30 reps

6)Vertical Jumps w. stabilization (2 second hold at the bottome of the squat) – 10 reps

7)Planks – 30-60 seconds

8)Dive bomber pushups – As many as possible

9)Side planks – 30 seconds per side

10) Shuttle Sprint – 30 seconds

We hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing all of your foodporn photos on instagram! If you have any questions about the workout, leave them in the comments below!

What are some of your favorite workouts to do when you have a crazy busy week?

3 Ways To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

TGIF! The week has almost come to an end and before you know it we will all be preparing our Thanksgiving feast! Do you have your menu and Turkey Day activities planned yet? For the past few years it's a tradition for us to wake up early to watch the Macy's Day Parade in Central Park, then go back home to cook and of course watch football. But that usually means we don't actually eat until late afternoon. Once all of our mess is cleaned up, the day is just about over. So this year we decided that we would skip the live parade and opt to watch it on TV that way we can have our Thanksgiving lunch and still have the entire day to do whatever we want! Movies, workout, walk in the neighborhood...the possibilities are endless!

Chris and I are still trying to decide what delicious food we want to eat on Turkey day. Last year we chose recipes from my Clean Eating Thanksgiving Pinterest board to make us a pretty healthy meal. We will probably do the same again this year because it all tasted really good and without a lot of guilt! I realize that we are lucky, in a sense, because we have total control over our menu and can make a healthy meal without the fuss of our relatives. The downside is that we are not with our relatives and we of course miss them a lot during the holidays! So I wanted to give you some clean eating holiday tips to help get you through day!

• Make some of your own healthy side dishes! Vegetables and sweet potatoes are pretty easy to prepare especially if you don't have to make a ton for the whole family. Find a few of your favorite holiday side dishes, swap out some of the less-healthy ingredients for healthier options {like replacing butter with coconut oil} and make a few portions just for you to enjoy!

• Choose your splurge! You don't have to feel deprived on Turkey Day in order to stay on track with your goals. Find one or two items that you REALLY love {like pumpkin pie with whip cream, a dinner roll, or stuffing} and enjoy a healthy serving with your meal.

• Turn your "I can't" into "I don't want to"! When your family or friends are lovingly pushing deserts in your face, tell them {and yourself} " I don't want a second helping of pumpkin pie" rather than say "I can't have the second helping of pumpkin pie". Telling yourself "I can't" will leave you feeling deprived and powerless, and will probably result in your giving in at some point. When you tell yourself "I don't" you are empowering yourself to make the decision because you know it will hinder your goals and are no longer restricting yourself because it is an active choice. Click here to read more on this topic.

I hope these tips help you get through the holidays without unraveling all your hard earned work!  Don't worry about what your loved ones will think or say about your lifestyle choices, just remember that you have to do what's best for YOU and your goals!

What are some of your tips for avoiding holiday weight gain?

My Top 6 Sexy Fat Loss Tips

Exsoycise is now Awakened Nutrition & Training, a blog for health seekers, food lovers and dream body builders!

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Here are my top 6 Sexy Clean Eating tips!

1. Eat as many whole unprocessed foods as you can throughout the day. Try eating foods in their natural state rather than out of a box or bag. This usually takes planning and preparation ahead of time unless you have a fortune to spend on eating out at healthy restaurants, which I don't know about where you live but there aren't many true health restaurant options around. So take some time each week to cook your meals. But remember even though your are eating healthy clean food, you can still overeat which can lead to weight gain or halt your fat loss goals, so be realistic and keep an eye on portion sizes.

2. Beware of "healthy" food that may cause you to pack on pounds. Meal replacement protein shakes and bars are a good example of this and can be beneficial in ones diet depending on what your goals are. These can be great after an intense workout like a heavy weight lifting day or after a race, but otherwise you probably don't need a fast digesting protein, sugar and sodium-filled "meal" especially if you are just hanging around the house or working in an office.  The powders that are used in these products are digested very quick in the body in order to help repair the muscle that you have just broken down during your workout, so if you eat them as meal replacement, you may soon find yourself hungry again and searching for more food. I realize that sometimes life gets in the way and these may be the only option but if you do have the time, try your best to eat whole foods with less sodium and sugar that will stick with you for a few hours.

3. Drink your water! Just to name a few benefits, water aids in the metallization of fat, helps to remove toxins, and it also helps to flush the water out from under our skin which makes us look bloated or puffy. So just except the fact that you will be running to the bathroom more than usual and think about the amazing benefits you will receive in the long run!

4. Take inventory of what you are eating. Like I said before it is still possible to eat healthy clean food and still gain weight. So it is important to eat enough protein, complex carbs and healthy fat to fuel your body throughout the day especially if you are exercising regularly. I recommend measuring and logging your food in an app such as MyFitnessPal or Lost It for a couple days to see how much food you are actually consuming. You will be surprised to find out that your may either be eating too much or at times too little food for your body and goals. If needed, seek guidance to find someone to help you get an idea of the macronutrients your body needs to fit your specific goals. Remember to use this as a guide, all of our bodies are different so if you feel like certain foods or amounts aren't working for you, then seek other options.

5. Don't let friend, holidays or other events determine your success! There is never a right time to start with a clean eating healthy lifestyle, there will always be friends, events and holidays that get in the way but you have to put yourself first and take care of YOU! Don’t wait to start because there will never be a right time!

"Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live." - Jim Rohn

6. Clean eating is not about being perfect. It’s about eating healthy unprocessed whole food most of the time, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun and still enjoy your favorite foods that you have always loved in moderation!

“You cannot change your destination overnight. You can change your direction." - Jim Rohn ”

For more clean eating tips sign up here for my FREE 7 day meal plan with tips, guide & shopping list! 

Immune Boosting and Gut Healing Bone Broth

I don't think you're ready for this gelly...

Your grandmother was right when she said to drink chicken soup to cure a cold or flu but she was referring to homemade bone broth and meat stock not chemical filled Campbell's or Progresso. Our ancestors were in the know and made gut healing broth out of the bones that came from the meats that they ate, nothing went to waste! But in the land of factory farming and processed food factories that practice faded out and chemically powders took its place for convenience purposes. I don't know about you, but I will take the extra effort along with the wonderful benefits over convenience any day! Bone broth and meat stock are great for supplying magnesium, calcium, glucosamine, amino acids arginine and glycine, collagen, other trace minerals, and much more. It aids in digestion, helps with achy joints, heals the lining of your gut to help boost your immune system and prevent diseases, sickness and leaky gut...just to name a few of the many benefits.

Talk to your local butcher about getting animal bones or use the carcass of a whole roasted chicken. Any bones, head, neck or feet will do! I can usually find organic necks and backs at Whole Foods throughout the week. These can be frozen until you are ready to use them. Also another great time to stock up is right after a big holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas because they will most likely have an overflow of turkey necks and backs, and will be sold even cheaper than the already low price!

Broth or stock can be used to make delicious soups, to cook your vegetables in for added nutrients, to boil your rice or quinoa, make sauces or gravy, or you can drink it alone from a mug throughout the day.

Classic Bone Broth

Ingredient:

• 2-3lbs of bones, preferably organic, free-range/pasture raised
• 4 quarts cold filtered water
• 2 Tbsp organic apple cider vinegar, Braggs brand
• 1-2 tsp sea salt

Optional:

• organic garlic, onions, celery, carrots and parsley

Instructions:

To make broth in your slow cooker or stove top in a stock pot:

Soak 2-3lbs of bones in 4 Qts cold water with 2 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar for about 30 minutes, this will pull the minerals out of the bone.

After soaking bring water to a boil and skim the gunk and fat off top of the broth with a spoon for the first hour. Add 1-2 tsp of sea salt, I use pink Himalayan salt.

Then, leave alone to simmer for the next 12-24 hours. For the last hour of simmer add in your favorite vegetables, I add organic garlic, onions, celery, and carrots. Add parsley and other fresh herbs for the last 10 minutes if desired.

Strain out the bones and vegetables, I use a sheet of cheesecloth or a nut milk bag (these are great because you don't waste as much and can wash the bags to use over and over!) to catch anything left behind.

Let cool and either store in wide-mouth mason jars to keep in the fridge or freeze to enjoy later or go ahead and use the broth as a base to make a huge pot of your favorite soup to eat throughout the week! Broth will last up to a year in the freezer and 5-7 days in the fridge. If you use the freezer, make sure to use wide mouth jars and leave about an inch or so extra room at the top so the jars do not crack. I also like to put the lids on loosely when I first put them in the freezer and then tighten the lids once the broth is frozen solid. 

*If making a meat stock you can cook your whole chicken in the slow cooker first for a few hours and once done, remove and debone meat, then throw the bones back in the pot and add more filtered water to cover if need and continue cooking for 12-24 hours.

Leave a comment below telling us your favorite way to enjoy bone broth?

Resources:

Sally Fallon - Weston A. Price Foundation "Broth is Beautiful" http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/broth-is-beautiful 

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