Back in the day, my grandmother would always keep a jar of bacon grease on the stove. I remember it very well because she used that bacon grease to fry bologna with to make me a sandwich.

I couldn’t wait to see the bologna rise into a dome shape, watch her cut slits in it, and place it on the bread. She would then add a little “mayo” and it was done.

Those were some of the “bestest” bologna sandwiches in the whole wide world. As I got a little older, the bacon grease disappeared from the stove only to replaced by a can of Crisco.

My bologna sandwiches were never the same because something just didn’t taste right…I wanted my bacon grease back! I was just a kid, so I had to go along with the Crisco craze.

I didn’t know it at the time but someone had gotten into my grandmother’s head. They convinced her that saturated fats cause heart disease and that they were bad for us.

I don’t think she was the only one who believed it. Some people still believe it to this day.

A long time ago, vegetable oils in supermarkets were non existent. During this time, very few people were obese and unhealthy.

It wasn’t until VO (Vegetable Oils) were introduced that obesity and heart disease skyrocketed! This isn’t by coincidence.

When vegetable oils are ingested into the body, they can cause inflammation which leads to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The body just can’t handle these types of oils because they aren’t natural.

Saturated Fats are natural and mother nature is no fool.

I’d like to focus on three main points for this article which specifically pertain to women who want to know how to become slim by eating more fat.

Ever heard of the glycemic index? If you haven’t, the glycemic index is based on blood sugar levels in the body.

There are foods which are higher or lower on the glycemic index. If a food is higher on the GI scale, it can raise blood sugar.

As a result of this rise in blood sugar, your body has to produce insulin in order to drive the blood sugar down. Once the blood sugar levels are reduced anything extra is stored as fat.

What do you think helps regulate blood sugar levels thus preventing unwanted fat storage? That’s right…saturated fats! Why would anyone tell women to stay away from them?  When in doubt, always follow the $$$$.

[ Research has shown that when women diet, those eating the greatest percentage of the total fat in their diets as saturated fat, lose the most weight. ]   Excerpt from 7 Reasons To Eat More Saturated Fat by Mercola.Com

One of the biggest issues surrounding many women today is hormone imbalance. If a woman’s hormones are not balanced properly, then more than likely will have an affect on her ability to shed weight.

What if there was a way to provide optimal hormone production to avoid this issue? There is and it comes from saturated fats.

Good fats (saturated fats) feed the body’s cholesterol mechanism which is a key ingredient to hormone production. Cholesterol is needed for optimal hormone production. I hope you’re seeing the connection!

[By the way, "Sat Fats" also increase HDL also known as the body's good cholesterol.]

Did you know your liver loves good fats? Part of the liver’s function is to metabolize fats and also filter toxins from the body.

If the liver needs fats to protect against toxins, alcohol, and medications, what does that tell you? Toxins can become lodged in fat stores and make it a nightmare to lose fat.

So, why not give your liver the good fat it needs to eliminate toxins and in turn, it can metabolize them properly for maximum fat loss? Here are a list of good fats just in case your wondering:

• Coconut Oil ( My personal favorite ) I usually take a spoonful or two coconut oil either before or after a meal.

• Butter ( Grass Fed)

• Beef Tallow

• Lard

• Ghee

In conclusion, staying away from “Sat Fats” can be detrimental to your health. Most women have been taught to avoid fats at all costs much to their own detriment.

According to Dr. William Castelli, of the famous Framingham Heart Study of 1948, which aimed to identify common factors for cardiovascular disease: ” We found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, and ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.”

 

Hmmm. Sounds like this should trump all the naysayers who want you to go low fat and no fat, right? I’m hoping it will.  Even after reading this, you’re still wondering how to become slim, the answer is to just eat more fat!

Now its your turn. What have you believed about saturated fats and have you made a change to using more of them in your day to day life? I’d love to hear your comments. I’ve also added Facebook comments to this blog so scroll down and leave one without having to log off Facebook! :0

If you’re interested in learning gore about saturated fats and other things to help you become healthy pick up the DARK SIDE OF FAT LOSS.

I ‘ve always believed answers and insights can come to us in many different ways. A recent experience I had reinforced that belief. While I was on the phone with a friend of mine, she said something I had forgotten but needed to be reminded of and that is what I’m writing about today. It has to deal with stories, more specifically the stories we tell ourselves on a day to day basis and how they create our reality. During the conversation, I was venting a bit about the frustration I’ve encountered with changing women’s health habits.

She sympathized with me but said part of the frustration I felt had nothing to do with me. It had to do more with the “stories” women tell themselves.

You’re probably asking what the heck does he mean by stories?

I came across the art of telling stories in a book called, “Money and the Law of Attraction”. I know you’re probably saying, “here he goes with that LOA stuff” and you’re ready to tune me out.

Yes…I agree with you that the Law of Attraction’s drum has been beaten to death but hear me out.

If you’ve ever read the book, there’s a chapter called, “Tell the Story You Want to Experience”. In that chapter, Abraham tells how you cannot hope to experience what you want if you keep telling yourself the same ol’ story you’ve been telling day in and day out.

In order for your life to shift, you must change your story even if its not currently your reality. Hold up, wait… does that make sense? If you don’t understand the concept, I’ll use myself as a way to illustrate it.

Before I got into fitness, I spent my life in various sales jobs. I didn’t think I was that great of a salesmen and as a result of that thinking I never made much money. I always made just enough to pay my bills.

Can you identify with that?

I made every excuse in the book for myself as to why customers didn’t buy for me. I told myself the economy was down or I was having a bad day.

I started to even tell myself this at the beginning of the sales cycle so when the customer didn’t buy anything I wasn’t disappointed. I got good at it, and my mediocre income showed it.

On the outside I wanted to change, but on the inside the old story kept skipping and repeating like an old 45 LP.

It wasn’t until 2008, that I actively committed to make a change. I felt like I deserved more. I know I deserved more. I came up with a goal to make 100k in the job I had at the time.

I didn’t know how I was going to do it but I knew I could do it. The process didn’t happen over night. It took a little work and most of it was changing the story in my head.

I no longer told myself only certain people would buy. I began to tell myself everyone would buy and everyone wanted to help me reach my goal.

If people didn’t buy or use my product, I never got upset I kept telling myself the next person would buy it.

I kept this up for a year and the end of the 2009 when I received my W-2, I made the 100k!

I attribute the whole process to changing the story in my head even though I wasn’t living it at the time.

What story are you telling yourself?

I talk to women a lot and its my belief some of you can’t get pass the story you’re telling yourself. Here are some of the common ones I hear:

• I can’t seem to eat healthy

• I’m fat

• I don’t have enough time to work out /exercise

• The exercise class is too hard for me

• I don’t have enough money to hire a trainer

• I can’t seem to get healthy

The list can go on an on and it can touch many different aspects of your life not just health.

What stories are you hitting repeat on and playing in your head all day? Our culture has an obsession with “telling it like it is” but in order for your story to change… you have to tell it like you want it be.

When you tell it like you want it be then and only then will it change.

Be careful of the stories you tell every day because those stories quickly become your reality. Its your turn now. I’d like to hear some of your experiences with changing the story in your head…please leave me a comment. Thanks!

“Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it”

 -Adolf Hitler

Is your fluoride toothpaste making you fat and unhealthy? For most of you, it’s second nature to get up in the morning and brush your teeth. It’s just something you’ve been doing ever since you were a kid. You would probably even classify it as a habit. It may be such a habit that you never give any attention to the toothpaste you’re using on your toothbrush…am I right?

I’ll be willing to bet you’re using the same brand you used as a kid and your parents probably used it as well. There’s nothing wrong with that but you can see how our environment skews our perception and willingness to explore other solutions.

As a kid, I always associated my dentist’s office with good things. My mother took me in to have my teeth cleaned every 6 months . After each cleaning, the hygienist would polish my teeth with this “stuff” and it tasted pretty good.

She would then tell me not to swallow it (too late, I already did) and make me quickly rinse my mouth out. I always wondered why. After that, I would get my brand new toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, and some of those color tablets.

You probably don’t remember the color tablets, huh? The color tablets showed you where plaque was lodged on your teeth so you would brush more. I loved visiting my dentist and couldn’t wait to get home to start using my new goodies.

I ‘m not a kid anymore and I realize my hygienist was doing me a lot more harm than good. I could actually say the dentist and his staff were in cahoots to kill me!

[I don't think it was intentional because they probably didn't even know the danger of fluoride toothpaste themselves.]

So what’s the big deal about fluoride anyway and how exactly does it make you fat and unhealthy? It has been established that fluoride has the ability to impair thyroid function. Scientists in Europe used fluoride up until the 1970′s as a way to treat hyperthyroid (over active thyroid) because it essentially slowed the thyroid down.

In a 2006 report called Fluoride in Drinking Water, it was reported:

” fluoride exposure in humans is associated with elevated TSH concentrations, increased goiter prevalence, and altered T4 and T3 concentrations” with “similar effects on T4 and T3…reported in experimental animals.”

This is the scientific way to state that over time fluoride has the ability to destroy the thyroid. Just think…you’re brushing your teeth with fluoride and probably using fluoridated water in your home.

Let’s back peddle for a moment and it will make sense. I did a post not long ago called Hypothyroidism Symptoms in Women. In the post, I mentioned fluoride toothpaste as one of the main contributors to slow thyroid function (hypothyroidism) in the female population.

Hypothyroidism is also one of the main reasons why most women struggle to reduce their weight. If you’ve been using toothpaste with fluoride your whole life, would it be safe to say that you could possibly have a thyroid issue?

Does this mean our young girls can “expect” to have thyroid problems as they mature? The questions and implications are endless.

Dump your fluoride toothpaste and save your thyroid!

If you’re afraid too because you think your teeth need it, just keep in mind that it has been shown it offers no real advantage to protecting teeth from decay. It not only offers no real benefits to dental health it also displaces iodine which the thyroid needs to function properly.

[It just so happens that many women are deficient in iodine which adds to the problem.]

Here are some interesting facts about fluoride you may not know:

• Adolf Hitler used fluoridated water in Nazi concentration camps as a way to make prisoners comply

• Fluoride is used in insecticide and rat poison

• Fluoride was the key element used in the Atomic Bomb

• The fluoride used in our water and toothpaste is industrial waste from plants which manufacture fertilizer

• Fluoride increases the absorption of aluminum in the body, high amounts of aluminum have been found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients

• Fluoride is toxic even in low doses

Dr. Robert Carton, former scientist at the EPA, says:

“Would you brush your teeth with arsenic?” … Fluoride is somewhat less toxic than arsenic and more toxic than lead, and you wouldn’t want either of them in your mouth.

Could your weight loss and health struggles be less about what you’ve been eating and more about the toothpaste and water you’ve been using? 15% of women are affected by hypothyroidism and most go undiagnosed…think about it.

What if the weight you can’t seem to get rid of is due to impaired thyroid function from the fluoride toothpaste you’ve been using all these years?

Now it’s your turn. So after reading this, will you still keep using the same flouride toothpaste? Are you going to change to a fluoride-free brand? Take action now. I’d love to hear your comments. Click on the links to order tooth powder or learn how to make your own.

How to make your own Toothpowder or Order Here and Search Teeth

Reclaim your health with the Dark Side of Fatloss

When I was a child some years ago, words like Autistic, Attention Deficit Disorder ( ADD), and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) didn’t exist. These terms are considered the “norm” now and no one gives them a second thought.

Have you ever given any thought as to why so many of our kids are being diagnosed with these conditions? I have and I can tell you these diseases don’t just happen. They are a direct result of what the mother ate or is eating during the pregnancy.

The things expectant mothers eat even as recently as 30 years ago are totally different then what they are eating now. Most, if not all the foods are processed and some aren’t even real. Think about that for a moment…let it sink in.

I had to do a bit of research to write this article and I can tell you what is advised for women to eat while pregnant isn’t what they should be eating. It seems as though the so called “experts” purposely mislead women in order to keep their sponsors happy. But… I tell the truth and nothing but!

First off, pregnant women have been told to adopt a low-fat diet. Is this right? Nope… it’s completely wrong.

In research studies where women used low-fat dairy products, they had trouble getting pregnant while those who consumed high fat dairy products had no problems at all.

So, why would anyone advise a low-fat diet to a mother before and during her pregnancy? The same high fat diet which allows a woman to get pregnant should continue as a way to make sure a healthy baby is born, right?

The principle way of getting saturated fats into the diet is by way of animal products not dairy. Animal fats are essential because they not only provide fat but they also provide cholesterol.

Yup, the big C word that you’re suppose to be afraid of. Did you know the brain contains more cholesterol than any other organ in the body?

It needs this cholesterol to function properly and its also excreted in the mother’s milk to help with the development of the child’s brain along with the gut (intestines) where the immune system is located.

There are several foods that contain high levels of saturated fats. These foods are butter, coconut oil, and meat fats. Just make sure your meats come from an organic, grass-fed source.

If the body doesn’t get these saturated fats, it will start to crave refined carbohydrates. A pregnant woman’s body can manufacture saturated fats from refined carbs but in the end it will rob the body of much needed nutrients.

Make sure you get your fats in!

Liver, egg yolks, and cod liver oil are also very important foods and supplements for soon to be mothers. These are rich sources of Vitamin A which many pregnant women are deficient in.

Vitamin A is important because its the primary nutrient for stem cells. Stem cells in the embryo become the baby’s heart, lungs, kidneys, and skin.

One other important nutrient needed to assist in having a health baby is choline. Choline is found in the foods mentioned earlier: egg yolks and liver.

Choline assists in making connections in the brain of the developing fetus. If the mother is deficient in choline, then these connections cannot be made which affects the developing embryo’s brain functioning.

What can pregnant women eat? Eat real food!

Real food meaning organic pasture fed meat, butter, eggs, coconut oil, and raw dairy. Now for what you should never eat.

As stated earlier, terms like ADHD, Autism, and ADD are new terms. It is my belief that these conditions evolved due to the mother’s low fat diets and also something called Excitotoxins.

Excitotoxins excite the brain and can be found in foods containing MonoSodium Glutamate (MSG).

MSG is a flavor enhancer which was banned from food but is still hidden under terms like hydrolyzed, autolyzed yeast, and textured protein. There are many others. Some of the foods you’re eating now like packaged meats, soups, and caesar salads may contain MSG but under these hidden names. Please read your labels as Excitotoxins disrupt neurological functioning in the brain.

Remember…what you eat…your baby eats.

What should pregnant women eat? Real food with real fat…case closed.

Now its your turn… have you changed your diet since you’ve been pregnant and are you eating the right foods? If you were pregnant some time ago did anyone recommend a low fat diet for you to follow? I love to hear comments!

Please Like, Tweet, and Stumble this post… It’s all Love and Health!

What is bad about soy? Actually, the question should be what is good about it? I’ve recently had two experiences which prompted me to write this post. I’m always a big believer in what I call the random question theory. The random question theory goes like this…if someone is asking the question, chances are more than one person wants the answer. So, during a presentation I did for a group of women I was asked what I thought about soy milk. You’ll see what I think below.

A week after I was asked the question, I ventured into Whole Foods aka Whole Paycheck to return an item with questionable ingredients and to my surprise a woman was in front of me returning Tofu. She was actually getting another brand as the one she had rung up wrong. Who would’ve thought?

Nothing happens by accident now does it?

There are many foods out in the market that have managed to disguise themselves as health foods. Soy just happens to be one of those foods. Not only is it bad, its especially bad for women. Soy Milk and Soy Foods if they aren’t fermented can cause a number of issues especially with women’s hormones.

If you go into any grocery aisle in america you can find soy protein bars, veggie burgers, and veggie cheese. What the manufacturers of these products probably won’t tell you is hexane is used in the processing of these foods.

Hexane is a derivative of the gasoline industry and is used in all soy protein products if they aren’t organic. What makes hexane bad? Well, to put it bluntly its an explosive neurotoxic chemical which poses serious health risks for those who consume the products.

Besides, who wants petrochemicals in their food?

Well, if that wasn’t convincing enough here are a couple of other reasons which should convince you run as far away from soy as you can, as fast you can.

For starters, soy contains something called phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are plant derived Xenoestrogens which serve the same function as the primary female hormone called estrogen. This is very dangerous because a woman’s hormones should be in proper balance.

You never want too much or too little estrogen in the female body. Women who consume soy products run the risk of developing too much estrogen.

Excess estrogen can contribute to conditions such as fibroids, infertility, foggy thinking, and osteoporosis just to name a few.

As I stated above, increased estrogen can be a contributing factor to osteoporosis in women. This condition can be heightened by consuming soy products because of the phytic acid content.

Phytic Acid reduces the assimilation of vital minerals in the body such as magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc. Magnesium is the primary building block for bone. PA can also bind to calcium rendering it useless to the body. Calcium is another building block of bone. I hope you’re seeing the connection.

Diets high in PA have also been shown to cause growth problems in children.

In addition to containing phytic acid, soy is Goitrogenic. Goitrogens work by preventing the thyroid from getting the necessary iodine it needs to function properly. And…your thyroid needs iodine to function optimally.

Your thyroid is the prime regulator for your metabolism. Once the thyroid is destroyed, the side effect is weight gain. Many women already have thyroid problems so why would you want more from eating or drinking soy?

Dr. Al Sears, author of the Doctor’s Heart Cure and Pace, says

Would you knowingly eat something that causes nausea, gas pains and indigestion? That leads to hormonal imbalance, thyroid problems, gout and even cancer? That contains “bad” fats and other unhealthy substances? Something that has no positive effect on your heart whatsoever? I certainly wouldn’t. And neither should you. For years now, you’ve been hearing about the “miraculous” benefits of soy-based products. But the reality is far different: In its raw, unfermented form, soy is inedible and foreign to your body. It’s not part of your native diet and your body has no way of successfully coping with it.

If you’re going to consume soy just make sure its fermented. Fermented soy is tolerated better by the body and consists of tempeh, miso, and natto.

These are the only forms you should consume as any others provide life threatening antinutrients to the body. You’re thinking,”what am I gonna do without my soy milk?”

Almond Milk and Coconut Milk are both great alternatives to soy and are in most grocery stores or you can order them online. So…what is bad about soy? Just about everything especially if you’re looking to be healthy.

Leave me a comment or question as I’d love to hear from you.  If you want to be healthy and not just lose weight check out the DSFL.

Don’t forget to like, tweet and stumble…let’s get the word out…It’s all love!

I have a client who comes to my bootcamp and her goal is to lose her stomach. Her 40th birthday is on the horizon and she has a trip planned for Jamaica to celebrate it.

I can relate to her goal because I hit the big Four O myself and my goal was to be in the best shape of my life.

Its something about turning 40 that makes people think the best days are behind them but it doesn’t have to be that way. But, back to my story. So…she wants to reduce the fat on her tummy and I told her you have to change your diet.

For many women, changing their diet is like asking them to stick their head in a lion’s mouth. It just won’t happen and that can be attributed to habit.

Old habits die hard, right? How many times have you said “I’ll change my diet tomorrow” but when tomorrow comes guess what? Tomorrow then becomes the next day, then the next, and pretty soon a month has gone by…or maybe a year.

I get it because I went through the same thing before I committed to making a change.

Today, I want to tell you how to reduce tummy fat the smart way. It may not be what you want to hear but it is the truth. I really believe we put the cart before the horse when it comes to fitness and health.

For all of you who’ve never heard that saying, it just means we do things backwards.

How many ab machines and magic pills are women going to invest in before they realize these things don’t work? How many crunches can a person do before they realize it isn’t crunches that make a flat stomach?

Many fitness trainers robotic-ally tell clients to “change their diets” but they don’t tell them to what extent. For the average client, changing the diet means giving up sweets or fast food and rightfully so. But..can this really be considered a change in eating?

Now more than any other time in history our bodies are under attack!

Most of the meat being eaten is being pumped full of antibiotics and hormones to make it grow faster and fatter. What do you think happens to you when you eat this stuff? Ok…you’re vegetarian, right?

Well, if you’re not eating organic then your plants and veggies have undoubtedly been sprayed with pesticides. Pesticides can make you gain weight and are also highly carcinogenic.

You’re not eating organic meat or vegetables and you don’t see what the big deal is, huh? Well, truth be told the body has to do something with the toxins its encountering. What do you think it does?

Its up the liver to detoxify the body but for many women the constant barrage of toxic food, pharmaceutical drugs, and drinks are too much for it. As a coping mechanism, the body takes the excess toxins and stores them in fat cells. That’s how most women gain weight.

We just covered what to eat now lets talk about when to eat. I’m not a big fan of eating 6 times a day.

Frankly, I think it makes you become obsessed with food. In my mind , its on the opposite spectrum of emotional eating. One person eats out of emotion and the other eats out of obsession, same thing different methods.

Its my personal opinion that eating 3 times a day is more than enough if your food is nutritionally adequate. If you’re not eating organic than chances are it’s not.

[You don't need to eat as frequently as you think but you don't want to skip meals either. Skipping meals for women is a no no because women must have adequate nutrients on a consistent basis or it will be difficult to lose fat. This is because women have a different "fat" profile than men.]

The final thing to reduce stomach fat is elimination. I know its not often talked about because its a yucky subject but whatever is eaten needs to be eliminated.

You can’t hope to get a flat stomach if you’re constipated all the time. Your body must get rid of waste. It’s important to have at least three bowel movements a day to get rid of waste, bloating, and gas. I know its yucky but its healthy!

Its not difficult to flatten the stomach but it requires changing the diet to one which provides adequate nutrition.

Proper nutrition then helps the body to reduce or eliminate toxins so optimal digestion and elimination can take place. If you follow these suggestions you can learn how to reduce tummy fat, the smart way.

Lose weight in a month without dieting? I know…sounds to good to be true, right? Let’s just pretend for a moment you just got invited to the party event of the year. It’s an evening gown affair and you want to look your best. You take a glimpse in the mirror and realize you have to lose those last ten pounds. Yup…those same last ten pounds that seem to hang on no matter what you do.

I’m about to let you in on a strategic plan to ditch those pounds and shed inches without ever dieting! And…you don’t have to count calories…woo hoo!

Well, this might go against the grain ( no pun intended) of what you’ve been taught but its always good to think different. If you didn’t think different, you’d probably be scouring the internet for the latest “in” diet or worst yet starving yourself, right?

Ok normal, healthy weight loss is about 2 pounds a week. You’re probably saying there are 4 weeks in a month so that means I can only lose 8 pounds.

This is true if we look at it in a possible way but we’re going to look at it in an impossible way. See, anything is possible if you only believe it is. Are you ready to do this?

The first thing you want to do is change your speech pattern. Here’s what most people sound like when they want to reduce their weight. Do any of these sound familiar? ” I need to lose weight” or “I can’t seem to lose weight.”

What most women don’t realize is reducing their weight is more mental than it is physical. Women litter their speech every day with the words “can’t” and “need”. The subconscious mind always grants our wishes, and the funny thing is our true beliefs are buried way under the surface.

Its like only seeing the tip of the iceberg without realizing most of it is under the water. So, whatever you can’t seem to do, you’ll ultimately get your wish. You really have to change your speech.

For instance don’t say “need to lose weight.” Do you like being around a “needy” person? Its a total turnoff, right? So what makes you think the universe answers to a needy vibe? It will answer more often times than not when you have a want or desire to reduce your weight.

So, just say I want to reduce my weight. Simple right?

Did you notice I didn’t say lose weight just then? That’s because as kids we’re taught not to lose anything. How many times did your mother or father scold you for losing something when you were a kid?

Losing has a negative vibe attached to it so you really don’t want to ever lose anything. Just say reduce or lower.

On another note, never ever say “can’t”. If you tell yourself you can’t do something, you always get your wish…trust me on this.

Now that we’ve got the mind stuff out of the way it will make it a little easier to cover the main points to lose weight in a month without dieting. Here we go:

• Detoxification – Before you begin any program to reduce your weight, its important to detoxify your body. Our bodies are being chemically bombarded like never before through the air, water, processed foods, and even electromagnetic frequencies. It’s not uncommon for most women to have 10 to 15 pounds of undigested fecal matter in their colon. This is a result of of eating overly processed foods. These foods actually stick to the intestinal walls and become lodged in the colon. You could do a colonic or colon irrigation therapy by searching for these terms via the internet in your local area. If you’re in South Florida just email me, and I’ll be glad to recommend someone for you, you can trust. If you want to do another type of detoxification, click on this link to view a video on what I USE. I’ve also used THIS. Ideally you should have a bowel movement at least 2-3 times a day.

• Probiotics – Pro what? These are the opposite of antibiotics which wipe out the body’s good intestinal flora. Antibiotics leave the body susceptible to many illnesses since the majority of the immune system is in the gut. This is why the gut is sometimes referred to as the second brain. Probiotics help put back the body’s good intestinal flora. Just make sure you get one that works with your body chemistry. Here’s what I USE.

•  Eliminate “Franken” Foods – Franken foods or Genetically Modified Foods are out there in a big way. GMO foods have been linked to acceleration in aging, insulin disorders, organ damage, and reproductive disruption. The key to all this is to Eat Real Food! At places like whole foods you can get organic fruits and vegetables but Whole Foods might aptly be called Whole Pay Check! Its the only place where literally three to four items can cost you 100.00 or more. For the best prices, I recommend local farmers’ markets or joining co-ops. If you’re in the South Florida area, here are a few places I get food from: BM Organics, Marando Farms, and Volunteer Park Farmer’s Market. Go GMO Free!

• Get Rid of Sugar – White sugar is the enemy and has no nutritional value. If you’re going to use sugar, use natural things like honey or molasses to sweeten foods. Don’t use artificial sweeteners. I know they are touted as zero calorie but they are carcinogenic and they open the cephalic response which tells the body to start storing fat. For the month give up diet sodas, sodas, sweets, etc. and you’re half way there.

• Go Gluten Free – Most women cannot tolerate gluten and it has been linked to the ” I can’t seem to lose weight” syndrome not to mention diabetes, arthritis, and other inflammatory diseases. Gluten is a protein found in wheat which comprises most breads, cakes, and pastries. Gluten can also be hidden in sauces and soups. If you don’t know if you have gluten intolerance, check out this Gluten Intolerance Post. Also… don’t over indulge in gluten free products either as they can contain starch and will made you gain weight. Along those same lines you’ll want to reduce your grain intake as well as it can cause weight gain. This means no breakfast cereals…you could eat oatmeal but it needs to be prepared properly.

• Go Easy On Starches – Things like rice and potatoes are always touted as health foods but they can stall the weight reduction process. You may even want to consider eating Paleo for the month. Paleo eating consists of meat and vegetables and yes, vegetables are carbs!

• Drink More Water – I can’t stress the importance of water enough. Most women walk around chronically dehydrated every day. Water flushes toxins out of the body and it comprises two thirds of our body weight. You want to drink good clean water preferably filtered before you get thirsty throughout the day. Contrary to popular belief, bottled waters aren’t the best but their are a few like Fiji and Penta which are great…just be careful with the plastic as they can leech into the water.

• Eat More Fats – Contrary to popular belief our bodies want fat to lose fat. Saturated fats such as butter, coconut oil, ghee, etc. are great. To add more into your diet you can take a tablespoon of coconut oil before each meal or cook your eggs in coconut oil. Additionally, using real butter and palm oil are great to boost saturated fat content.

 

["If you don't move your body, your brain thinks you're dead. Movement of the body will not only clear out the "sludge," but will also give you more energy” ]

― Sylvia Brown

***Move Your Body***

• Strength Training – Incorporate some form of strength training into your routine 3 days per week. You don’t always have to use weights, you can invest in a good set of resistance bands. These are great to use and portable for business trips and vacations. I have found them invaluable when working with women to help them trim and tone different areas of the body.

• HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training is what its called. No long boring cardio workouts! Don’t spend endless hours on the treadmill trying to reduce your weight. Its possible to get a great cardio workout in 20 minutes by challenging yourself and using an off-on principle. You can do one minute of all out effort on the stationary bike, stair climber, or elliptical followed by an active recovery period. This works to keep burning fat long after the workout is done. It challenges you but it works. See it HERE

If you incorporate these steps into a monthly program, you can reduce your weight significantly. These are not hard things to do. More importantly, it only takes 30 days for something to become a habit. So while you’re looking to lose weight in a month without dieting, you’re actually setting yourself up for an even bigger lifestyle change! Who would’ve “thunk it?”

PS… If you would like to know more about these strategies discussed and are fed up with the calories in, calories out weight loss model which never seems to work visit the Darkside. It is a must read for women who want to reclaim their health not just weight loss.

I hate Zumba Dance! That is what my bumper sticker should read. In this day and age when you disagree with something you’re aptly called a “hater.” So, I’m a hater because I really dislike Zumba Dance fitness and I’m cool with it. Some people will change their opinion or try to justify why they hate something but not me. As they say in the AA meetings, “my name is Darren, and I’m a hater!”

Every time I see a zumba commercial on the air on Saturday mornings it makes me want to puke. But, I will give them this, they do one hell of a marketing job to sell the product! If you want to learn how to market something just watch the Zumba commercials because they got it down pat.

Now that I’ve admitted to being a hater, I’ll have to tell you why. I am a big believer in doing things that are radically different from what the mainstream says. After all, its the mainstream that keeps telling people that the way to lose weight is through doing a lot of cardio. That is exactly what Zumba is…cardio. It’s fun cardio, but its cardio nevertheless.

Let’s use a bit of logic here…follow me. If Zumba promises to melt away pounds and inches just by dancing, why do you need the dvds or the classes? You could just go to your local nightclub three days a week and dance until 3 in the morning for the same effect, right? But wait…Zumba teaches you special dance moves that literally burn away fat just from dancing. I’m not sure about you but I’ve been in some nightclubs where it was hot and sweaty and I knew I burned tons of calories just from being in there. If I decided to dance, then I burned a lot more and I didn’t have to invest in any cute zumba outfits to do it.

Zumba dance is a nice concept but after the fun, music, and cute outfits I doubt it will truly transform a woman’s body. It’s missing the one key component all successful exercise programs must contain to transform a woman’s body. Here is how Zumba matches up to the one component you may or may not know about:

• Muscle Burns Fat – This is a simple equation that many women ignore when starting exercise programs. The fastest way to lose muscle and get a flabby body is doing lots of card, which is exactly what zumba is. Oh, wait a minute…I ‘ve seen those little maracas they have in the commercials but they hardly add enough weight to help any woman preserve or gain muscle. I think the creators of Zumba knew that it is virtually impossible to move around with a set of  heavy dumbbells in your hands and look cute. That would take all the fun out of it .

On another note, gaining muscle will help burn more calories when you are at rest. I imagine once you finish your zumba dance fitness session, you’ll go home and eat the calories right back on. Training with weights does the exact opposite.

• Osteoporosis – Women tend to suffer from osteoporosis or loss of bone as they age. How do you combat this…by strength training or lifting weights. Zumba provides nothing by way of strength training to help women with this condition. In research studies, women who strength trained maintained bone density and it some cases gained more density. Can Zumba do that?

• Hormonal Response – Some women have a tough time losing weight and its because their hormones are out of whack. Can Zumba fix this? Nope…probably not. But, when a woman strength trains using heavy weights it can activate her hormonal response systems in a good way.

• Aging – Zumba doesn’t do anything for keeping women younger looking. Strength training translates into less sagging body parts which can take 10 years off your age.

• You can do it principle – Ok…Zumba might give you that, “I can do it” feeling. But, when times are tough are you going to think about the cha cha cha dance move you were able to do or that heavy weight you thought you could never lift? Training with weights builds confidence, character, and self esteem.

• Blood Sugar – Zumba dance might provide a little bit of exercise but it doesn’t have the ability to help with issues of glucose levels in the blood. When women strength train it translates into lower diabetes rates which are on the rise.

Zumba dance fitness goes against everything that is wrong with women’s health right now. Women have systematically been fed the line that cardio and diets are the way to transform their bodies. Zumba not only perpetuates this myth, it also feeds off the principle exercise has to be fun. Exercise is as fun as you make it but not all things that are fun for you get the job done with real benefits and results you can see and feel.

I know what you’re thinking. Zumba gets results too, right? Well, ask yourself is it real or is it a product of a photographer with photoshop skills? Anything can be enhanced digitally and it often is, if it is on television. For most women, fun and easy wears off pretty quickly once they realize their spinning their wheels going nowhere fast. You have a choice.

You can continue to avoid the very thing that will ultimately transform your body or stay in your comfort zone doing something fun and easy like zumba dance. What will you choose? Whatever you choose just remember that “life exists outside of your comfort zone.”

PS…  I don’t usually sell anything in posts on my blog but if you still like Zumba but want to incorporate more strength training into your present routine that won’t make you big and bulky like some of the women you see on fitness magazines then check out Visual Impact for Women.

Can you learn to love yourself, ladies? Being that this is the time that celebrates love and all its endless possibilities, I thought it would be an appropriate topic to discuss. As a man, I can’t answer the question of learning to love yourself for you but what I’d like to do is offer a few observations from a male point of view. Yes, I know I’m not a woman and some of the women reading might take offense, but I am a conscious observer.

Recently, I’ve noticed more women are motivated by fear than they are by love. Don’t agree?

Being motivated by fear

Think of how many times you think about the repercussions of not doing something than you are of doing them. Because, you think about what might happen if you didn’t do it, you’re motivated by fear. Its the same reason why you’re told to get insurance. You hate to think anything will happen but just in case it does, you have that insurance as a safety belt. The whole insurance thing is based on a fear of something happening in the future.

It’s the same way with your body. For instance, women are told to get a yearly breast exam not because they love their bodies and value health but because they’re taught the fear of breast cancer looms over them. Its under this same pretense many women struggle with losing weight. Think about it. The majority of women want to lose weight because they are afraid of what may happen if they don’t. Where there is fear love cannot exist.

Women are motivated more by fear then they are by love

Its not anyone’s fault women are more motivated by fear than by love but it’s true. Think of all the times you’ve been programmed to believe you had to be a certain age, size, and weight just to have value as a woman. These things aren’t fair but the fear of not being perfect sends most women into distress and depression. This is why there has been a dramatic increase in unnecessary weight loss and cosmetic surgeries over the years. Its also sent countless women to mental health clinics, drug addiction specialists, and into an overall dissatisfaction with their lives. Now, there are some rare instances when cosmetic and weight loss surgery are necessary and serve a higher purpose. But how many of these surgeries can be attributed to love and not fear based expectations?

There are some rare instances where cosmetic and weight loss surgeries may be necessary

We live in a fear based society, no doubt about it. If you want to do things out of love, let go of fear. That’s all you have to do. For example, its true for most women they need to exercise and eat right but they only do it because they fear what may happen if they don’t. What about loving yourself enough to be healthy?

Love of Self

Can you learn to love yourself? Yes, you sure can. When you love yourself you want to give “you” the very best. That means taking care of yourself on a physical, spiritual, and mental level. Too many women give up on loving themselves or find it hard to do because of failed relationships or something that happened in the past. They let the past define them and it becomes the predictor for the outcome of their life. One failure or even twenty failures doesn’t define you if you’ve learned something about yourself from them. I’ve learned many things about myself from failures but more importantly I’ve learned love and fear can’t exist in the same place. Its either has to be one or the other. Which one exists within you?

Love is simply letting go of the fear of what might happen, could happen, or may happen. Only when you move from fear and see everything through the eyes of love can you learn to love yourself.

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Will recipes by Paula Deen give you diabetes? I’m not sure whether you heard it or not but one of america’s favorite chefs was diagnosed with diabetes 3 years ago and keep it hidden up until a few weeks ago. It came after she reportedly signed a deal with Novo Nordisk to promote their diabetes treatment Victoza. For most people, they would see nothing wrong with this but for me, I see a whole lot wrong with it and I’m going to vent about it right now! I really think people have loss their integrity and money has become top priority. How else can you explain withholding information about an illness then disclosing it when you’re able to profit from it? Paula Deen kept her diagnosis a secret for 3 long years until the right product came along for her to promote…just think on that for a second. Its like saying I found the cure to cancer but I’ll wait to disclose it after they offer me the right kind of money. How selfish would that be? But, l want to analyze this on a deeper level. Here are my observations from briefly watching her show as I channel surf to find something really worth watching on television:

 UnHealthy Dishes – One of her most viewed clips on Youtube is one where she puts a hamburger on top of a doughnut and adds a fried egg and a couple of strips of bacon. I saw an episode about this on an adult cartoon I use to watch called the Boondocks. They nicknamed it the “Luther Burger” and I thought it was funny until I actually saw it for real on Paula Deen’s clip. It is a heart attack and diabetes starter rolled into one.

Deep Fried – Sometimes you want something fried and that is ok but on more than one occasion I’ve seen her fry things and give them odd names like “deep fried stuffing on a stick”. She even fried a cheesecake! How the heck do you fry a cheesecake? That’s a double whammy! Come to think of it most of the recipes by her were described as deep fried. And…she fries with bad oils like vegetable and canola she could at least use coconut or palm kernel oils which are good for the body.

Butter Crazy – Paula just loves to use butter! While there really is nothing wrong with butter, you don’t have to use so much of it and I wonder if it is raw butter from cows that haven’t been treated with antibiotics and growth hormones? Probably not… so in addition to diabetes you’ll probably get cancer and other ailments from recipes by Paula Deen.

Dessert Doom – Have you seen her dessert recipes? I watched her make a cake which used a lot of processed white sugar which could shoot anyone’s blood sugar through the roof and make their pancreas work overtime. I’ve seen her do it in countless number of her dessert recipes and all I can say is wow. I am not surprised she was diagnosed with diabetes if she eats any of the stuff she cooks.

It is my belief that if you’re diagnosed with a disease such as diabetes you should be responsible enough to stop promoting the food that causes it. Paula Deen continued to cook the same food on her show without disclosing it until an opportunity came along for her to profit from her misery. In my opinion, she could have disclosed her illness a long time ago and changed her recipes and helped thousands of people including other diabetics but so often people live in fear. The fear of losing money, fame, or status is often greater than the responsibility to tell the truth so others can learn from your mistakes. I’m really hoping television networks will wake up and realize that a large segment of the population wants an alternative to these unhealthy cooking shows. Where’s Oprah when you need her? Until they do, people are going to be subject to recipes by Paula Deen which may give them diabetes and other ailments.

You be your own judge.

Do you think people in the public have a responsibility to disclose illnesses etc, especially if they are diet related and they have a cooking show? Leave a comment!

Worried about Diabetes? Fasting is a great way to great way to keep insulin levels in check naturally!!!

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