With eliminating soy and milk products from my diet, my morning smoothies haven’t been the same. I just love the thickness and smoothness that yogurt and flavoured soy beverage lend these delicious, healthy, easy-to-digest protein breakfast drinks.
However, I found a fabulous substitute! It’s guava nectar (although, I’m sure any fruit nectar will do). It’s extremely flavourful and compliments the other frozen fruit in the smoothie…er, I guess it’s called a froozie without the milk derivatives.
Earlier this year, my Naturopathic Doctor suggested that I try an elimination diet to help find the source of my digestive problems. To recap, an elimination diet eliminates all foods known to cause allergies or food sensitivities.
Eating hypo-allergenic foods gives your digestive tract a chance to heal itself. It also cleanses your body of offending foods so that it becomes more sensitive to detecting them. After a specific time (TBD by your doc), you slowly reintroduce foods you eliminated and note any reactions.
It’s a strict diet and I had troubles sticking to it in the Spring, so I decided to put it on hold for the Summer. It’s Fall now and since I’m trying to conquer my addictions, I thought I might as well do it all at once.I have a plan to completely cleanse my system, eliminating cravings for addictive substances and any possible foods causing me trouble.
There aren’t a lot of elimination diet-friendly recipes out there, so I’d like to share some recipes that I have in different print sources, some adaptations to them, and even some that I’ve created myself! Here are a couple to try, even if you’re not on an elimination diet. They are super healthy, nutritious and very yummy.Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re a regular reader, you know I love my morning protein smoothies. I’m an advocate for them and believe they help you lose weight, despite the critics who say they’re too high in calories. But now I have proof! Within 2 days I ran into 2 different sources that said if you want to lose weight, eat a big meal in the morning (meaning the most calories), a smaller lunch and an even smaller dinner.
The Metro published, “Don’t skip breakfast” this past Tuesday, and cited 3 different research studies all concluding that this eating pattern helps you lose weight. The alternative does the exact opposite, that is, skipping breakfast or gradually increasing your caloric intake during the day and into the night helps you gain weight.
The second source is an article, “4 Simple Breakfast Rules for Shedding Pounds” from Oprah’s favourite docs, Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen, on their Real Age website. Both articles clearly explain the multi-faceted benefits of breakfast, which increases brain power and your mood while helping you control food cravings and lose weight!
Have you ever done something that you didn’t really want to do but felt compelled to do it anyway, despite reason? If you have, it was most likely destructive behaviour, like over-indulging in substances or justifying your addictions. The reason you did it anyway is because all behaviour reflects subconscious beliefs. Until those negative beliefs are changed, it will be difficult to control addictive tendencies - especially when stressed as that’s when logic shuts down.
It’s Day 2 of my healthy living plan and things are going really well. I struggled a bit over the weekend, mainly because I was making up excuses why I wasn’t ready to stop smoking just yet. You see, my argument (with myself) was that because I haven’t identified which self-defeating beliefs are holding me back yet, even when I stop smoking, I’ll still struggle with any number of my other addictions !
My friend, Motivatorman, just published an interesting article which I found very helpful, “Take Control Now .” His post highlights the importance of “Just Do It!” Once awareness hits, keep calm, speculate what fears are holding you back, feel the fear, and take action anyways! You have the ability to consciously decide to (re)gain control of your life. No more excuses and don’t allow your subconscious rule you. You know what you want so go get it!
But guess what!? There’s test out there that will actually tell you what your subconscious beliefs really are! Ya, I know, freaky. If you want to find out what self-limiting beliefs are lurking in your mind and getting in your way, check out this 7 ½ minute YouTube video titled, “Number 2, What does your subconscious REALLY believe?”
And for a variation on this method, or if you just want to verify your results, check out this 2 ½ minute muscle testing video from Stephanie at backinskinnyjeans.com.
