by Fit Women Staff
Detox to Eliminate Belly Fat
In order for your body to BURN FAT, you need to eliminate the toxins first with a Nutrient-Rich Whole Food Detox.
You may be burning fat but if you haven’t done a detox you are not getting rid of the toxins that have built up in your body.
The Secret to Eliminating Toxins
The secret is to make the toxins in your body water soluble so they can be sweated and peed off, so then you’re REALLY BURNING FAT. As long as you are taking in more toxins then you are eliminating your body is not going to let you burn fat, because burning the fat will just put more toxins into your body. You have to address the fact that you are being assaulted by toxins before your body will allow you to let go of any weight.
Doing a Detox is an opportunity to recharge, rebuild, cleanse and heal your body inside and out. This cleanse is meant to be a jump-start to your overall long-term health and fitness plan.
Benefits of Detoxing:
Having done this Detox Plan for the recommended 10 days I can attest to the fact that it helped me to:
1. Sleep and Dream Better
2. Improved my energy levels
3. Better digestion, less stomach issues
4. Gave me a sense of relaxation
5. Felt in control of my sugar cravings
Let the Body Heal Itself
The body only wants to heal, its crying out to heal, the body wants to detoxify, you just have to give it a chance to do the healing. So the best thing to do first in any WEIGHT LOSS Plan is to Detoxify the body. Most people have been overfed and undernourished for years so their digestion is all messed up, but it can heal itself.
The diet we ate over millions of years was predominantly one of meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts, low-sugar fruits, which was rich in nutrient-rich whole foods and superfoods.
Today’s modern diet including starches, grains, pasta, legumes, and breads has only been consumed for a mere 10,000 years. In the last hundred years the increase in complex sugars and chemical additives in the diet has led to a huge increase in health problems ranging from severe bowel disorders to obesity and brain function disorders. We have not adapted well to eating this modern diet.
The Detox General Guidelines are:
• Eliminate Gluten grains & Flour–wheat, oat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, bulgar as well as corn, (but Continue to eat quinoa, rice, millet, amaranth and buckwheat)
• Eliminate Refine sugars – anything with added sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, or alcohol (cakes, cookies, candies, pastries, beer, wine, liquor, ice-cream)
• No processed, canned, packaged or preserved foods, no artificial sweeteners or flavorings or anything
• No Caffeinated drinks (sodas, coffee, caffeinated teas)
• No Dairy products and eggs, soy
Real food is whole, natural, and nutrient-dense.
- Organic
- Humanely raised (animals on pasture, not in factories)
- Grown locally when possible
- Whole and unrefined (real maple syrup instead of high-fructose corn syrup)
- Processed as little as possible (raw milk instead of pasteurized and homogenized)
- Nutrient-dense (enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and probiotics)
- Free of additives and preservatives
- Free of synthetic and chemical ingredients
- Not genetically modified
- Traditionally produced and prepared
For example, use real butter or lard instead of shortening or vegetable oil. Real milk from a cow instead of soy milk. Real sprouted flour instead of refined white flour. Real, natural sweeteners like honey or unrefined cane palm sugar instead of white sugar. Or try a super food variety of sugar like Yacon Sugar.
Live Superfoods Yacon Syrup
. If it’s highly processed and doesn’t come from nature, it’s not real food!
Food allergies are very common
Food allergy or intolerance can produce every symptom under the sun, from migraines, fatigue, PMS, painful joints and itchy skin to depression, hyperactivity, hallucinations, obsessions and other psychiatric and neurological manifestations. However, the most immediate and common symptoms in the vast majority of patients are digestive problems: pain, diarrhea or constipation, urgency, bloating and indigestion.
So there is nothing wrong with the food. What is happening is that foods do not get a chance to be digested properly before they are absorbed through the damaged gut wall. Thus, in order to eliminate food allergies, it is not the foods we need to concentrate on, but the gut wall. When the gut wall is healed, many food intolerances disappear.
How To Restore Digestive Health
- Eat the right foods.
- Take the right supplements.
- Remove the wrong toxins
Soups and Stocks
Soups and stocks made from animal bones and cartilage, have been almost eliminated from our diets, this has contributed to digestive problems as well as joint problems. Stock and soups made from the bones of chicken, turkey, duck, beef, lamb and fish are anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and contain nutrients which help build the integrity of the digestive tract. A soup based on bone stock can bring a person is suffering from a digestive disorder fast relief.
The Right Oils
Most individuals with digestive disorders have some inflammation which is exacerbated by an overabundance of omega-6 fatty acids. Avoid all Trans fatty acids & commercial liquid vegetable oils.
At the same time, you will need to increase your consumption of foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, including salmon and other wild-caught cold water fish, eggs from pastured chickens, walnuts, organ meats and flax seeds and a small amount of flax oil.
Cod liver oil, is high in special anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids but also fat-soluble vitamins A and D. Both of these nutrients help fight inflammation and build the immune system, so critical to restoring digestive health. Icelanders are blessed with great health & longevity and they consume cod liver oil regularly. It is even served at breakfast in their hotels.
Buy the Garden of Life Oceans 3 Cod Liver Oil liquid
Whole food probiotic
Essential to digestive health is taking a whole food probiotic. Healthy bacteria found in healthy soil and plants are missing from our modern food supply. They protect the plants in the soil, and also protect humans who ingest them. A major discovery in the battle against digestive disorders is how beneficial bacteria can help people with “leaky gut syndrome,” as the use of beneficial bacteria can reduce the hyper-permeability of the gut. Before the days of modern hygiene and chemical farming, these bacteria were in the soil and hence on the surface of our vegetables; they thus helped colonize the gut with beneficial flora whenever people ate raw fruits and vegetables and whenever kids played in the dirt.
Try the Body Ecology Innergy Biotic Gluten-Free Probiotic
Try the Body Ecology Dong Quai Probiotic Beverage
Lacto-fermented foods such as yogurt and sauerkraut also provided healthy bacteria in traditional diets and these should be part of the diet of any person suffering from digestive problems. But probiotic formulations can help “jump start” the system in those with serious digestive problems as they will quickly populate the gut with beneficial organisims.
by Fit Women Staff
The number one reason for failure in losing body fat is the lack of clearly defined, written goals.
Here are the steps to achieving your fitness goals:
STEP 1. Set Inspiring, Detailed & Specific Goals
Don’t say things like I want to lose weight and have more energy, that is not clear, detailed or specific. A better way to talk to your sub conscious brain is to say something like: By March 1st, I want to weigh 130lbs, with 18% Body Fat, and be wearing size 8 clothes. My Current waist size is 36 inches, and My GOAL is 28 inches. See the difference? Those are very specific detailed and attainable goals that you can now write down and measure by tracking your progress as you’ll see in Step 2.
Step 2. Set BIG Measurable Goals
Really look at some BIG goal that seems very far from where you are at the present moment. For instance, I said to myself, I haven’t weighed 130 lbs since I was 30, so it’d be a Big Deal for me to have that as my goal today. So, Yes its scarey, BUT I will look and feel totally different and people will SEE me differently, WHEN I have achieved my big scarey goal. This is Way outside my comfort zone of what I’ve thought I could do, but now I’m gonna do it & succeed, cause its time! I can See the Picture of my New Body in My Mind, and I will Visualize it Everyday…!
Then make sure you measure it everyday. Write down your goals somewhere that you can track your progress. So I might say, on my scale I want to weigh 130 lbs, but by measuring with the Body Fat calipers I want to get down to 17% Body Fat.
Step 3. Set Realistic Deadlines
30 lbs lost by May 1st. So 4 months (16 weeks) from now, that’s 8 lbs per month, or 1.9 lbs/week. In terms of body fat, that translates to about a half a percent per week.
Step 4. Daily goals & habits to do every day repeatedly
You develop good habits by setting daily action goals and working on them repeatedly until they become as routine as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Ninety-nine percent of the actions you take every day are habits. Write out a list of daily goals, to-do’s and habits you want to develop habits like eating small, frequent meals, cutting down on sugar, getting up early, making your meals in advance for each day and so on.
The next time you feel a craving, you’re tempted, discouraged, unmotivated or you feel like skipping a workout, focus on your daily goals, not on the huge amount of work that is ahead of you. Tell yourself, “All I have is today. All I have is this moment, this workout, this meal, the next 30 minutes, the next hour. If I just do what I know I must do now, then I know I’ll reach my ultimate goal eventually.” Concentrate on the task at hand in this moment. As the Zen masters of Japan remind us: “Be here now.” The point of power is always in the present moment.
Step 5. Write out an extensive goal list in the form of affirmations
Always use I AM or I HAVE. Write them in the present tense. I AM 30 lbs leaner. I AM 130 lbs of solid muscle. Always use positive affirmations, never negative. Never say “I’ll never see my abs again”, instead say “I HAVE a flat toned stomach. I AM getting leaner every day. I like the way I look. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it. I like eating healthy foods. I love working out. Training early in the morning is exhilarating.
Step 6. Read your affirmations (your goal list) at least twice a day and always keep your goals “in front of you” and “on your mind.”
Psychologists have proven that repetition is an effective way to penetrate and program the subconscious mind. Fortune 500 companies spend millions of advertising dollars every year based on this fact. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich and The Law of Success, said, “All thoughts which have been emotionalized and mixed with faith begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent.”
As you read your affirmations, mentally visualize them as already achieved. Visualization means making mental pictures or images – it’s thinking without words. The brain thinks in pictures. I’ve also put photos up of myself to help me through this visualization, the photos make it very real and I can see them everyday.
Step 7. Share your Goals with Everyone.
Your Friends & Family, your Workout Partners share your goals with everyone so you can feel good about what you’ve achieved and you can stay motivated by calling someone up to help you get to the gym or give you a high five for doing another exhausting workout. You’ll be amazed at how great a little bit of praise can help you through day.
Just to give you some motivation, Here are My GOALS:
1. I AM dramatically Changing my Outer Packaging, by being 17% body fat and 130 lbs, by May 1st.
2. My motivational positive affirmations are: “I HAVE a flat toned stomach. I AM getting leaner every day. I LOVE the way I look & how I FEEL. I’ll DO whatever it takes. I LOVE eating healthy foods. I love working out & training early in the morning is exhilarating and really starts my day off right. I feel healthy & have lots of energy.
3. I AM sharing my written goals, my workouts and my daily experiences with My Team.
4. I AM thinking constantly about My Goals & Being Constantly Mindful of what I AM accomplishing. I AM visualizing and seeing my goals photos everyday.
So, Before you eat your next meal or start your next workout,
THE MOST POWERFUL ACTION you NEED to do right now to achieve your ultimate fitness goals is to WRITE DOWN YOUR FITNESS GOALS, – TO DO IT NOW!
by Fit Women Staff
Last week, my 78 year old Mother had Open Heart Surgery unexpectedly after a heart attack that came seemingly without warning. Her heart attack only showed up as a burning sensation in her chest so she actually wasn’t sure what was happening to her because she had no idea she even had heart disease. Other than having high blood pressure and being on blood pressure medication, she was living a healthy lifestyle.
So what happened? And why aren’t women more aware of heart disease? From what I have learned it’s all about a lack of awareness and sometimes even denial.
“A recent national study conducted by the American Heart Association showed that fewer than 50% of American women know that heart disease is their leading killer.” – AMA website
“Heart Disease remains the number one killer of women in the U.S., and younger women are twice as likely to die after suffering a heart attack as men of the same age. – Vogue magazine (Nov 2011 issue)
Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States and it claims the lives of almost 500 000 women each year. There is more awareness and media exposure for about Breast Cancer which claims the lives of about 30,000 women each year.
I have seen denial about health issues first hand with my own family. My mother admitted she ignored the warning signs and how her body was feeling. She thought being tired all of the time, having a hard time sleeping and shortness of breath were just “signs of aging”. Having lived a healthy holistic life she is “shocked” she has heart disease. Like a lot of women she thought she was doing everything right.
Nieca Goldberg, M.D. a cardiologist at NYU’s Langone Medical Center, says, “Women don’t have what I call the Hollywood heart attack that men have – severe chest pain, for instance. They might be tired. They might just feel uncomfortable.”
Denial is common in women with heart disease.
Surveys suggest such denial is common in women with heart disease.
Now after an emergency 5 Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery which saved her life, my mother is asking the big questions. Why did I get this and why didn’t I know I had heart disease? And as her daughter, I am asking those same questions too. Both of my parents now have had heart disease, a genetic predisposition could be one of the risk factors of heart disease.
But noted genetic researcher Dr. Robert Hegele, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Lecturer at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, says “When it comes to heart disease, lifestyle usually trumps genetics.”
Dr. Hegele’s work is unraveling the nature vs. nurture debate that has intrigued scientists for years. He says that for about five per cent of patients, the effect of genetics is so strong there is little they can do, but that 95 per cent of us can override our genes by following a healthy lifestyle.
“To be sure diabetes, a result of the obesity epidemic, factors heavily in the recent increase in the heart disease, but there has also been a devastating lapse in awareness, particularly among women. Studies show, for instance, that women today are much less likely to call 911 and more likely to delay going to the hospital than they were just 5 years ago.”
“And yet any hesitation”, notes Elsa- Grace V. Giardina, M.D., a cardiologist and the director of the Center for Women’s Health at Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons, only makes matters worse. “ When you finally do get to the hospital, there’s been a lot of damage.”
Plus there has been a spike in deaths among younger women in their 30’s and 40’s.
When a heart attack strikes a young woman, she is likely to suffer debilitating damage or die. In a study that looked at gender differences among heart attack victims, researchers found that heart attacks were far more likely to be deadly if the victim was female. In fact, when Dr. Viola Vaccarino and her colleagues looked only at patients under age 50, they found that twice as many women as men died in the days following a heart attack.
Part of the explanation for this frightening statistic is that young women with heart attacks often get either no treatment or they receive delayed care. Sometimes women, and sometimes their doctors, miss the attack because they don’t realize that the symptoms of a heart attack may vary with the patient’s gender, says Vaccarino, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine.
EKG Electrocardiogram
Compared to men, during a heart attack women are much more likely to experience back pain, indigestion and nausea and/or vomiting, rather than chest pain, as their symptoms.
But, while doctors are at a loss to explain why heart attacks occur in otherwise healthy young women, they have pinpointed a group who are at an elevated risk. Women who smoke, are obese, have diabetes and/or high blood pressure are more likely than others to have a heart attack.
My mother had high blood pressure as an elevated risk, but she didn’t smoke, wasn’t obese or have diabetes. Having never taken medications in her life, she is now on a smorgasbord of medicines including a blood thinner called Coumadin,.
The following symptoms could signal heart ills:
1. Angina (chest pain). Can also include back pain or deep aching and throbbing in the left or right bicep or forearm.
2. Breathlessness. Also may include waking up having difficulty catching one’s breath.
3. Clammy perspiration.
4. Dizziness. Unexplained lightheadedness, even blackouts.
5. Edema. Swelling, particularly of the ankles or lower legs.
6. Fluttering. Rapid heartbeats.
7. Gastric upset (or nausea).
8. Heavy fullness. Also may include pressure-like chest pain between breasts and radiating to left arm or shoulder.
If you are experiencing these symptoms please do not wait, contact a doctor immediately for your own safety.
Being aware of personal risk and treatment options can empower a woman to live a long and healthy life.
Heart Healthy Cooking
These top 6 Lifestyle Changes are your first line of defense against heart disease:
1. Stop smoking cigarettes and avoid secondhand tobacco smoke.
2. Get at least 30 minutes of physical activity each day. See CrossFit >>
3. Blood pressure is optimal at less than 120/80 mm Hg. If there’s a slight rise in pressure, the first line of self-defense is to improve your lifestyle habits.
4. Cholesterol levels are important for women to know. Total cholesterol optimally should be less than 200 mg/dL; LDL (bad cholesterol), less than 100 mg/dL; HDL (good cholesterol), more than 50 mg/dL; and triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood), less than 150 mg/dL.
5. Eat a heart-healthy diet that includes fruits, vegetables, grains, low-fat or nonfat dairy products, fish, legumes, and sources of protein low in saturated fat (such as, poultry, lean meats, and plant sources). Limit intake of trans fatty acids such as those found in hydrogenated oils.
6. Maintain a healthy weight, balance the calories you eat with the amount you use up each day. Diabetes (high blood sugar) is becoming more common in the United States. Unhealthy eating habits and gaining too much weight are leading causes of type II (acquired) diabetes.
Overwhelming evidence suggests that heart disease can be prevented in women. Every woman should know what her risk level is and her prevention goals and the best way to reach them.
Need more ideas for Cooking Healthy Meals, then check out: The Healthy Urban Kitchen Cookbook The Healthy Urban Kitchen is a simple, step by step system for shopping, cooking and eating the world’s healthiest foods. It was created for busy people who want to improve health, have more energy, and prevent disease.
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by Fit Women Staff
What should you believe these days when everywhere you look there are contradictions in every nutrition & health book and article you read? Your Mom tells you one thing, your friend tells you another & then you read something else in a health magazine. Most advice these days seems to just contradict the other.
From your own experience you may have learned that what works for one person, sometimes doesn’t work for you. Scientific studies on nutrients are confusing because most conclude that while helpful to a certain percentage of people with a certain condition, they may not help or may even worsen the same condition in other people.
Why is there so much confusion and so many contradictions about what your diet needs to provide?
If you are reading this article, we might assume that you are a health conscious person, who already eats the best organic foods, exercises regularly, drinks plenty of fluids, gets sufficient rest, & take the finest supplements that money can buy. But still you don’t feel totally great and might feel worse without knowing why!
So, what is the answer?
The answer is to find out what is right for you!
Eating a meal that is right for your body type, should leave you feeling satisfied, energized, mentally alert and emotionally content. So, if you have any of these symptoms, you may have eaten an improper combination of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in your meal.
• You are physically full but still feel hungry
• You are craving sweets
• You feel sleepy & have an energy level dip
• You feel cranky, depressed, nervous, or irritable
Garden fresh tomatoes
The work of Dr Weston Price DDS, a Cleveland dentist, who has been called the “Charles Darwin” of Nutrition has been all but forgotten but the research he did and the principles he created are still very timely. Traveling the world in the early 1930’s, in his search for the causes of dental decay and physical degeneration he found that straight decay free teeth, & strong disease resistant bodies, were typical of local people eating their traditional foods. But once these people started eating the “impoverished foods of civilization” – sugar, white flour, pasteurized milk, and chemical filled processed foods, the results were crooked teeth, cavities & physical diseases, all based on nutritional deficiencies.
He found much variety in the healthy, happy people he studied. He found Swiss mountain villagers ate mostly unpasteurized butter & cheese and rye bread they had baked, while Gaelic people from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland ate no dairy but instead had fresh cod and other sea food but not much grain or vegetables due to an inhospitable climate. On the other hand, Eskimo ate a diet of 100% animal products & lots of fish, Blubber ( fat) and small amounts of nuts & berries. The Dinka people of the Sudan, whom Price said were the healthiest of all African tribes, ate mostly fish and fermented whole grains while the Bantu peoples who were the least healthiest were farmers who ate an almost vegetarian diet.
Dr Price saw several key similarities in all of these native diets. He noticed that most consumed fermented foods like cheese, fish, yogurt or grain drinks. He saw that even Swiss villagers made treks to the sea to find seafood, especially fish roe, seaweeds and shrimp. But his biggest finding was the fact that most native diets were rich in fat, mainly from animals, either from insects, eggs, fish or animals and that native people knew they needed fat to ward off sickness.
Paleo Dinner
Cut to the present day and we are still seeing the fact that foods “native” to what your ancestors ate are the key to your individual good health. As you can imagine, all of the foods that Price’s native peoples ate were natural and unprocessed. The foods they ate did not contain preservatives, additives, colorings, or added sugar. No white flour or canned foods & their milk products were not pasteurized, homogenized, or low fat. All foods were raised and grown on pesticide-free soil without growth hormones or antibiotics. So you see that your ancestors, always ate organic.
Read More:
Start off with: Dr Mercola’s Free Nutritional Typing Test
Dr Price’s Book:Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
“>Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation
The new Paleo Diet comes closest to this way of eating.
In the Paleo Diet they say ” We regulate the content of your diet, not the quantity, because your body has an amazing hormonal system that takes care of the caloric details for us already (and has been doing so for millenia before anyone even knew what a “calorie” was).”
In Dr Mercola’s new book, Take Control of Your Health
he writes specifically for people who are confused about how much information is out there about health and what you should really believe. As the author of one of the best newsletters on creating optimal health, Dr Mercola writes about the healing power of food, finding your correct body type and much more.
by Fit Women Staff
Our friend and fellow water person extraordinaire, Roz Savage, who is the First Woman To Row Solo Across the Pacific Ocean and has logged 11,000 miles, 3.5 million oar strokes, 352 days alone at sea,
has just been officially selected as an “Adventurer of the Year” by National Geographic.
Roz Savage arriving in Hawaii
Here is a message from Roz that she wanted me to pass along:
“I’d like to thank you for your support, which has undoubtedly contributed to my receiving this wonderful accolade. My boat and I may be the most visible part of the picture, but I couldn’t do what I do without the ocean of support from you and others like you, and so this title belongs as much to you as to me.”
“I see this as a vindication of the course that I plotted 6 years ago, when I chose to abandon my creature comforts to row across oceans, using my adventures to spread the message that we have to look after this Earth if we want it to look after us. When I look back over the years since I first set out across the Atlantic in 2005 as a nervous novice ocean rower, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the people and places and incredible life experiences that have enriched my life while I have worked incessantly to make my vision a reality.”
“I have a favour to ask you – would you please vote for me? Out of the ten of us who have been chosen as “Adventurers of the Year”, one will be voted the “People’s Choice Adventurer”. Between now and January 15, people will be voting for their favourite adventurer.”
Roz Savage, Ocean Rower
“It would really be the icing on the cake if I won this additional title as well. Besides the prestige, it would give a real boost to my efforts to raise profile and funds as I prepare for the last two years of my ocean-rowing career: the Indian Ocean in 2011 and the North Atlantic in 2012.”
“The Indian Ocean – dubbed “EAT, PRAY, ROW” – starts around 31st March next year. I’ll need $50,000 to complete the row and am asking people to sponsor $10 per mile of the 5,000 mile trip. There’s more about this campaign at http://www.rozsavage.com/eat-pray-row/”
“My final “Homecoming Row” is in 2012, launching from New York, heading out past the Statue of Liberty and heading for London, ideally arriving just before the 2012 Olympics. More info at http://www.rozsavage.com/homecoming-row/.”
“I want to leverage these expeditions to the max, reaching as many people as possible with my environmental message. The more resources I have at my disposal, in terms of (wo)manpower, budget, and media exposure, the more effective I will be in my mission.”
“I would be really grateful for your vote, AND for you to forward this message to your network of friends, family, colleagues, newsletters – whatever connections you have at your disposal. Please take a moment to think of as many people that you know who are interested in adventure, athletic endeavour, environmental issues, personal growth, rowing, or simply enjoy an inspiring success story – and ask them to vote for me.”
“Vote for Roz Savage”
Many thanks!
And warmest green wishes
Roz xxx
More on Roz’s website >>
