I am so humbled and shaking with excitement to share this with you today. This experience has allowed me to grow and in sharing and giving, I have gained so much!
I stand in eternal gratitude that I've shared this time in Bali with my kids and my husband. So THANK YOU for coming along with us on this emotional, life changing journey!
Yous in Health,
Danette
P.S. I hope you will spread this message with everyone and I can't wait to read your comments below!
You workout everyday, you watch what you eat, yet your weight doesn't seem to budge!
It can be frustrating, but there is something more to the weight loss puzzle.
That missing piece of the puzzle is toxins. We pick up toxins everywhere! They're in our environment and in foods we eat.
Toxins could be responsible for making your struggle to lose weight even harder. I'll tell you what I do about it in a minute.
Toxins take a huge toll on health and body weight. They disrupt hormones and are terrible for your thyroid gland (metabolism regulator).
Toxins wreak havoc in your body. They:
Your body literally uses fat to protect itself from these harmful toxins.
It stashes these toxins in layers of fat. Once enveloped by fat, the toxins can't harm other organs. This is the body's natural defense mechanism.
This isn't a hypothesis. There is evidence that fat cells store toxins.
Toxins can make you fat by encouraging your body to produce fat cells.
A study on mice, showed that small amounts of BPA, a chemical in plastics, caused obesity.
The study found that BPA (common toxin in plastics)
- increased fat cell production in mice
- reduced insulin sensitivity
- had hormone disrupting effects.
All these factors lead to an increase in fat cells and weight gain for the mice.
These toxins could be why, despite your best efforts, you can't get rid of fat.
To lose weight, you need to get rid off toxins first, and limit your exposure too.
Wondering where you should start?
Avoid: Don't eat processed or packaged foods, they're full of toxins. Avoid frozen meals, seed oils and soybeans. Also skip foods with additives, colorants or preservatives.
Reduce: Reduce exposure to pollutants from air, water and other artificial items.
Plastics, cleaning agents and laundry detergents are common places the body picks up toxins.
FACT: Chemicals absorbed through your skin enter your bloodstream within 26 seconds.
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Personal care products – shampoo, perfumes and hand soap are just a few that most people come in contact with every day.
Shop around to find products that have fewer toxic chemicals. The Environmental Working Group lists products that are safe for use on their website.
Detoxify: Eat the foods below to detoxify and lose weight.
Fresh vegetables: Eat plenty of veggies like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.
They're full of antioxidants that fight free radicals. They actually help your liver remove toxins faster.
Dark greens: Choose green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, swiss chard etc.
They are potent detox foods. The antioxidants in these dark greens help liver functions.
Sulfur rich foods: Sulfur rich plant foods include garlic, asparagus, avocado, onions and shallots. They improve your liver's natural detoxification process.
Improve gut health: Include foods with plenty of good bacteria like kefir, greek yogurt and kimchi.
Here's what you should next:
Eat all of the detoxifying foods listed above in this gentle Three Day Detox. Do this every few months to detox your body, release “trapped fat”, and skyrocket your energy!
Remember to buy organic, they have less pesticides. Make clean eating a part of your daily life and watch the stubborn fat melt away for good.
Yours in Health,
Danette
P.S. Please share this with your friends. I love hearing from you so leave me a comment below!
You've stayed true to your meal plan for over a month. Now you may be wondering, how often should I have a cheat day? Or should it just be a cheat meal?
Or, maybe cheat days make you nervous altogether. Maybe it feels like having cheat meals is taking a step backwards? This is not the case.
There are a lot of advantages to having a cheat meal.
Here are a few reasons you want to indulge from time to time. I'll clear up how often you should be cheating to get the best results too.
1. You can finally give in to what you're craving.
Obvious, right? But, did you know that people who feel restricted on their diets rarely see long-term success?
The reason? Because eventually they cave in and eat the foods they want. Not just one meal either. They often end up eating just about everything in sight for days.
A cheat meal gives you the chance to eat something you love so that you don’t feel deprived. This will make it easier to stick with a healthier lifestyle, long term.
2. Cheat meals helps you keep a healthier relationship with food.
Some people who start eating healthy begin seeing food as black and white – good and bad. Soon, they become scared to eat foods not on their good food list.
They firmly believe that if they eat those foods at all, they’ll pack on pounds of body weight. This can set them up for an eating disorder.
By adding that cheat meal, you'll see that you can eat unhealthy foods, in moderation, and it won't send you backsliding.
3. A cheat meal can help you see faster results!
Wait, what?! You read that right.
Any time you go on a meal plan for a period of time, your body will begin to adapt. As it does, your metabolic rate will soon slow down thanks to a hormone called leptin. Before you know it, you’ll be stuck in a dreaded fat loss plateau.
By temporarily eating rich foods with a cheat meal, you send the message to your body that it no longer needs to conserve fat for fuel. This can increase your resting metabolic rate.
Studies show that leptin levels will return to normal levels after eating indulgent meals. This means faster progress.
Often the best way out of a sticking point where you just can’t lose any more weight is to do the opposite of what you think you should do – eat a cheat meal or two.
Try and follow the 80/20 rule if you aren’t trying to lose weight or the 90/10 rule if you are.
This means you should be eating right 80-90% of the time, then the other 10-20%, you can relax and have a little fun.
If you're eating 6 times a day that boils down to about 2 meals and 2 snacks each week where you can splurge a bit.
You don't want to get crazy with portions and I'm not saying to go eat an entire pizza. What you should do is indulge a bit on a Friday night or have that gooey dessert you love at Sunday Brunch.
I take my own advice and have cheat meals too. They can make me feel a bit more sluggish than I like so I always do this little trick after I enjoy a cheat meal.
If you stick with this rule and cheat once or twice per week, you shouldn’t find that the cheat meals slow your progress in any way. In fact, they may actually help you see better long term results.
Before you think about cheat meals, make sure you've been eating healthy foods 100% of the time for 30 days. This builds good habits that make it easier to get right back on track after the cheat meal is over.
Yours in health,
Danette
P.S. Please share this info. with your friends and I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
Check out this view! Couldn't you workout here ALL DAY ?!
I'm going to show you a whole new way to plank today. I've been researching the LLPT (Long Lever Posterior Tilt) plank and wow, is it effective! This type of plank combined with my total body moves, will get you quicker results in half the time.
So come on….let's get this Total Body Workout GOING!
Yours in Health,
Danette
P.S. Please share this quick workout with your friends and I love hearing from you so leave a comment below.
This is one of those recipes that's as fun to make as it is to eat.
My fruity dessert pizza is a huge hit at parties, plus it gives you a healthy dessert option.
If you have kids, they'll like adding the toppings and you'll have plenty of help eating it too.
Use any fresh fruit you have on hand to top your festive masterpiece. Get creative!
Makes 1 13-inch pizza (8-10 servings)
1. Line a pizza pan with parchment paper.
2. Blend dates, almonds, coconut, and cacao powder in a food processor until all is broken down completely.
3. Add the honey and almond butter and blend until a dough consistency forms.
4. Shape the mixture into a ball and press into the pizza pan. Press the “dough” to the edges of the pan.
5. Place the pan in the freezer for 10 minutes. (Wash and slice the fruit while you wait)
6. Mix the vanilla and Greek yogurt together and use a spatula to spread yogurt on the crust.
7. Top the crust with fruit in a circular pattern. Chill until ready to serve. A pizza cutter works well for slicing when you are ready to serve. Enjoy!
Yours in Health,
Danette
P.S. I hope you'll share this healthy, fun recipe with your friends and I love reading your comments below.
4 Festively Healthy Holiday Drinks
Fun and Festive Watermelon Pizza
Top 4 Must Have Ingredients For Clean Holiday Baking
Ever noticed how many superfood fruits are deep, rich, colors? Think blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, pomegranates, yum!
The deep reds and purples in these fruits are your clue to the good health that they hold. One of the most amazing of the gem-colored beauties is the tart cherry.
Fresh tart cherries are easy to find in the summer, and you can buy the juice (just be sure it's unsweetened) or dried cherries year round. If you can’t find tart cherries, black cherries are still a good choice. They just aren't quite as potent.
Almost all of the health benefits come from the fruit’s deep dark skin. That’s where you’ll find the antioxidant anthocyanin, which gives cherries their superpower.
1. Tart cherries have been shown to fight belly fat.
One study showed that lab animals fed a high-fat diet mixed with tart cherry powder didn’t gain as much weight as others fed the same diet without it. Plus they had lower blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides.
Pretty good for such a tiny fruit!
2. Tart cherries are a great recovery food for athletes.
Drinking one cup of tart cherry juice right after a workout is a great way to reduce soreness. Less pain means you’ll work out harder.
Tweet3. Suffering with arthritis or joint pain?
Drinking tart cherry juice twice daily for three weeks has been shown to reduce inflammation just as well as aspirin does.
Tart cherries have 3 times more anthocyanins than their cousin, the Black Cherry.
4. Want better sleep?
There have been lots of studies that say drinking tart cherry juice twice a day boosts melatonin levels. Melatonin is the hormone that makes us drowsy at night.
Just one ounce half an hour after you wake up in the morning and again after dinner is all you need.
5. They're a cancer fighting fruit.
Along with anthocyanin, cherries also have high levels of Vitamin C, beta-carotene and boron. Put those four together and you’ve got powerful protection against cancer.
Cherries help fight against genetic mutations, and they help slow the growth cancer cells.
6. Cherries are high in potassium.
That means that they’re great at helping you control your blood pressure. They also cut down on bloating caused by too much salt.
7. Tart cherries are one of the best fixes around for fighting gout.
If your uric acid levels are hard to control and you suffer from gout’s painful swelling, eating just 45 cherries after fasting has been proven to be a big help.
When cherries are in season, enjoy them fresh. Out of season, put dried cherries into your salad, or drink tart cherry juice. You can find it in the bottled juice aisle at your supermarket. Make sure you read the labels to avoid sugar and other additives.
Try adding tart cherries or a couple of ounces of their juice into your smoothie. Here's one of my favorite recipes that combines cherry and chocolate for a dreamy flavor combination.
If you like chocolate covered cherries you have to try this!
So all I have left to say here is…Life is just a delicious bowl of cherries! Pass them around.
Yours in Health,
Danette
P.S. Please share this with your friends and I'd love to hear from you. Just leave me your comments below.
Feel like you just can’t recall facts or events like you used to? Looking to boost your memory?
The foods you eat impact how your body feels and functions, sure. But did you realize food plays a huge role in how well your brain works too?
Adding a few simple foods to your diet can improve your memory and make you feel more focused.
These brain boosting foods work so well that I remembered to give you my delicious brain boosting recipe at the bottom!
These 4 Foods Will Help Sharpen Your Memory.
Consider swapping that morning bagel for some scrambled eggs instead. Eggs are a terrific source of choline, which is important for brain development and memory.
One study noted that babies who were given choline supplements, had changes in brain function. The result? Lifelong memory enhancement. Wow!
3 groups of people who need the most choline include:
If you're in any of the above, put special care into getting enough.
Salmon is another excellent brain boosting food thanks to the high dose of omega-3 fatty acids it contains.
Studies suggest that those who eat fish on a regular basis have up to 14% more grey matter volume in the area of their brain that’s responsible for cognition.
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The benefits don’t stop there.
They also have up to 4% higher grey matter volume in the brain areas responsible for memory.
The facts are clear: salmon is a super brain food!
Need another reason to add berries to your daily diet? Blueberries may help boost cognitive function as well.
One study noted that when test subjects drank blueberry juice for 12 weeks, they showed improvements in learning as well as fewer depressive symptoms.
Blueberries are rich in antioxidants, which can help protect your brain and body from free radical damage.
Try sprinkling blueberries onto a bowl of oatmeal or blending them up into a smoothie.
When offered your choice of nuts, always go for walnuts if memory improvement is your goal.
Walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and can help to improve learning and memory according to one recent study.
Walnuts are also an excellent source of healthy fat and even provide a little protein to your diet plan.
They're an excellent addition to your menu. They're quite energy dense so be sure to watch your serving sizes. Stick with a handful as a good guideline for portioning nuts.
It's easy to combine 3 of these brain boosting foods into one delicious recipe too!
Can you believe it's as easy as eating delicious foods like this to sharpen your memory? You may never forget to grab your gym bag on the way out the door again!
Yours in Health,
Danette
P.S. Please share this with your friends and I'd love to hear from you. Just leave me your comments below.
If you don't have poop problems, you probably don't give your bowels much thought. On the other hand, if you do have poop problems, that's probably all you can think about.
Either way, you should listen up because a few simple food hacks can do wonders for preventing digestive problems and for curing them too.
Having healthy bowels is key to feeling your best. This is how your body gets rid of all its wastes. You don't want those wastes sitting in your body for any longer than they have to be.
Sadly, at least 2% of the population under the age of 65 suffers from constipation on a regular basis and that number only increases after 65.
What you put into your body every day has huge influence on your bowels.
5 foods to eat for preventing and fixing “poop problems.”
Number one on the list to eat if you're feeling a little backed up is kefir. This yogurt-like drink is loaded with probiotics that your intestines will love.
TweetAnd research backs this up. One study noted that when people were given kefir, they had an increase in fecal moisture. Extra wetness in the digestive tract brings welcomed relief if constipation is a problem.
Plus, the probiotics in kefir help boost your immune system and keep your energy levels high.
Prunes gained their claim to fame for helping with regularity. That's because of their insoluble fibers and sorbitol (a natural laxitive).
As a bonus, prunes do a great job at lowering cholesterol levels.
Are You Going Enough?
Another fiber-packed food you’ll want to add to your diet plan if you need relief from constipation quickly is beans. Beans offer 10 grams of fiber (or more!) per cup depending on the type, so are a great option for those who are looking to really get things moving.
The complex carbs in beans are also excellent for controlling blood glucose levels. This helps you regulate insulin and ward off diabetes.
Try replacing the protein you eat a few night’s a week for some beans instead.
It's often overlooked but kiwi fruit is a must have.
One study had subjects eat 3 kiwi fruits every day. The percentage of people who reported at least 3 or more stools per week shot up from 82.61% to 97.78%.
Adding this fruit to your diet, if you're constipated, could be a way to find relief.
Just like prunes, this fruit has a natural laxative that can help with regularity.
It also has enzymes that are especially helpful for breaking down protein.
If you eat a meat-heavy diet, pineapple is a fruit that you want to be sure you're eating.
TweetIf you pay close attention to what you are (or aren’t) eating, you can lend your digestive system a hand and feel your best.
Yours in Health,
Danette
P.S. Please share this with your friends and I'd love to hear from you. Just leave me your comments below.
Ever wish you could just stop thinking about french fries? If so, you're not alone. After all, the average American eats 29 pounds of the salty side order every year.
I don't need to quote nutrition facts on french fries here. We all know they aren't the best way to fuel your body.
If you're someone who craves french fries this avocado fry fix could end your cravings for good! This yummy recipe hits the spot and you won't miss all the salt with a spicy, creamy dip to indulge your taste buds.
1. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
2. Cut avocados into “fry sized” wedges.
3. In one bowl add 1/2 cup oat flour or almond meal.
4. In separate bowl, beat 2 eggs until blended.
5. Add salt and pepper to the eggs.
6. Dip avocado slices into egg (one slice at a time) then directly place them in the flour making sure they are completely covered.
7. Place avocado fries on parchment-covered baking sheet, evenly spaced.
8. Bake for 25 minutes (or until brown)m flipping them once.
9. Serve hot.
1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.
2. Serve in a dipping bowl. Enjoy!
And if you don't have any avocados handy….here's another french fry craving fix.
Yours in health,
Danette
P.S. Share this yummy recipe with your friends and I always love reading your comments below!
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
