Nutrition

Weight loss is a journey. It takes time, thought and effort. There are no quick fixes. No flab to fab in 45 minutes. Still, we want to help you succeed. Pick up a copy of the Alive Smoothie Listand get step by step instructions.

This focus is on juicing fresh fruits and vegetables as one way to improve your health, nourish your body and lose weight.

Why juicing works:

Aside from the fact that juiced fruits and vegetables have very low calories and no fat, they are loaded with a variety of high quality vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes that help your body function at its best. Our bodies spend a good deal of time trying to repair, detoxify and protect cells. When we are undernourished our bodies go into protection mode and store fat for survival (yay, survival instincts, not). But, when your body is functioning at it’s at peak condition and being nourished it can focus energy on fat loss. Juicing delivers a concentrated health cocktail straight into your belly. No extra effort is needed to break down the juice and so it is absorbed quickly and starts working magic immediately.

Keys to weight-loss success while juicing:

Juice mostly vegetables and herbs while limiting fruit. Yes, fruit makes it taste so delicious and yummy! Yes, fruit sugar is better than refined table sugar… but it’s still sugar and will still cause spikes in your insulin and if your body cannot clear those sugars out they will convert to fat stores. Also, watch how many carrots you use, those sneaky guys have a lot of sugar too.

Save juicing fruits for before and/or after workouts. For the same principle as above, when you work out your body becomes primed for using glucose (sugar).

Skip snacking and start juicing. It seems that people always get hungry between meals. The solution to avoid noshing on things you probably shouldn’t be eating right before dinner is to juice up a big green glass of goodness. Hopefully the liquid will tide you over until your next meal or at least gets your brain thinking about health-conscious snacks.

Snack while juicing. Not on cheese and crackers or anything man made but on the vegetables you are getting ready to juice. Sometimes our brains like chewing and feeling food in our mouths and tummies, give it that satisfaction while nurturing you.

Healthy habits don’t end with juicing. Whether you are having 1 juice a day or 10, remember that beyond your green mason jar, you need to be eating healthy all day long. It kind of defeats the purpose of juicing for weight loss when you eat a big bowl of sugary cereal for breakfast, pizza for lunch and burgers and fries for dinner.

Fill up on fresh juice before meals or going out. Even though juice is digested quickly and doesn’t leave you full for long, your hunger may be quenched by the nutrients more than the feeling of full.

Vary you veggies. Two ways that this works: you don’t get bored and you get a variety of nutrients.

Add chia seeds, avocado, or oils. Healthy fats and fibers are not only good for you, but will keep you fuller longer. No one wants to diet, or live with someone who is dieting, who has a big hungry monster in their belly.

Create lasting healthy habits:

Remember,juicing for weight loss is not a diet. Let juicing be your caveat for healthy living. If you are taking the time to wash, chop and juice fresh fruits and vegetables than you should be making time to prep and cook healthy homemade meals.

Some people start cold turkey with a juice fast. Others like to test the water with one, slowly adding more as they feel necessary. If you prefer to start with a balanced, nutrition-rich eating plan, you will find that having at least one glass of vegetable juice per day will make it easier to reach your weight loss goals in the long run. Try replacing your morning, afternoon, or before-bed snack with a juice and you are on your way! And remember, we are in this together.

Morning-time concoction:

• 1 beet
• 1 pink lady apple
• 1 small slice of ginger

Before dinner:

• 4 tomatoes
• 2 green onions
• ½ green pepper
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery ribs
• Handful of parsley
• Handful of cilantro
• 1 peeled lemon

Before bed:

• 2 cucumbers
• 4 romaine lettuce leaves
• Handful of mint
• (+lime if you want a mojito)

When juicing for weight loss a lot of people email me and call me all the time asking how to do it.

Aside from the fact that juiced fruits and vegetables have very low calories and no fat, they are loaded with a variety of high quality vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes that help your body function at its best.

The reason juicing helped me was largely because I was consuming a whole lot of empty calories and I felt unsatisfied all of the time. In a state of being un-satisfied I did what anyone would do in my situation and I ate more. So much more in fact that it didn’t matter how long I would work out in the gym my body remained the same.

Desperate for answers and tired of the mundane complacency I had an wise old man tell me that if juicing worked to help him rid his body from cancer, what would it do for me? Healthy but not at the level of performance I wanted to be in I decided to take a chance and boy am I glad I did.

What started out as 1 green drink per day escalated to 2 and then the Alive Smoothie List that has transformed thousands of people all over the planet.

As summer approaches it’s important to feel your best, It’ time to finally get the body you want and deserve. Let’s talk about how you can go from average to awesome in the next 60 days before summer comes.

3 Tools for Maximum Weight Loss

1. How You Start Your Day is Everything

Starting your day with a little bit of lemon and warm water will alkalize your system.

2. A Juice Recipe

When Juicing for maximum weight loss, it is important to avoid a lot of fruit in your recipes. Sometimes people use too much fruit on the Alive Smoothie List and they wonder why they aren’t losing any weight.  Juice Recipe – Cucumbers (1 or 2), 3 Stalks of Celery, 2 Leaves of Kale, 1 Lemon, 1/2 Apple, 2 inches Ginger (will speed up your metabolism).

3. Automating Your Juicing Schedule so Success is Inevitable

Use your alarm function on your cell phone to remind yourself to juice!  Use the alarm to remind yourself when to eat and when to juice!  Don’t wait until you are thirty or hungry. Preparation is your key to success!

Aloe Vera is an amazing medicinal herb which has benefited mankind for over 4,000 years. Numerous benefits have made this plant popular all around the world. For many years now, the Aloe Vera plant has been used for the treatment of different kinds of illness and disease. The powerful blend of Vitamins, Minerals and Sugars contained in Aloe Vera, make it… The Natural Healer indeed!

• Aloe vera is one of the only known natural vegetarian sources of Vitamin B12, and it contains many minerals vital to the growth process and healthy function of all the body’s systems.
• One of the main reasons for hair loss is toxins in the small intestine. The detoxifying action of Aloe Vera leads to the removal of these toxins which helps remedy this problem.
• It has many vitamins and amino acids which make it immune – modulator, restorative and antioxidant.

If you’re buying aloe, some things to remember: Go organic; get 100% pure aloe; and make sure there are no green dyes or fragrance in there. You can get it at any health food store in gel form—which is the consistency of what comes out of the plant when you rip open a leaf.

I’ve talked about how grains in general are a poor choice for your health, but gluten containing grains like wheat, barley and rye require special attention because they can be particularly damaging to your health. All grains, including other non-gluten containing grains like oats and corn, are bad because they contain gut irritating lectins and mineral binding phytates, but you’ll learn here why gluten-containing grains and wheat especially can not only cause the same problems as other grains, but also cause much more trouble down the road.

Three main constituents are of interest here: gluten, WGA (wheat germ agglutinin) and opioid peptides found in wheat. Gluten is a compound protein that composes about 80% of the protein found in wheat, barley and rye and WGA is a lectin found in wheat that can be particularly damaging. Opioid peptides are psychoactive chemicals and those found in wheat are similar to those found in other well known psychoactive drugs like opium or morphine.

Contrary to what is believed by many, wheat is not to be avoided only by those who suffer Celiac disease, the autoimmune disease caused by a reaction of the immune system against gliadin, a gluten protein. Those with Celiac disease only react more strongly to wheat and gluten than those without the disease, but most people have a reaction in some way or another to wheat consumption, often in insidious ways.

Here are 10 reasons why consuming wheat or any of the gluten containing grains can be very detrimental to ones health:

11 reasons why gluten and wheat should be avoided

Gluten

1. Gluten causes gut inflammation in at least 80% of the population and another 30% of the population develops antibodies against gluten proteins in the gut. Furthermore, 99% of the population has the genetic potential to develop antibodies against gluten. Antibodies acting in the gut can actually be good news, because when the body doesn’t react against gluten right away, gluten proteins can enter the blood stream more easily, especially if the gut is already leaky, and trigger immune reaction elsewhere in the body.
2. Since gliadin, the main problem causing gluten protein, can be similar in structure to other proteins found in tissues of such organs as the thyroid or the pancreas, antibodies against gliadin can end up attacking those organs and ultimately cause autoimmune diseases like hypothyroidism and type 1 diabetes.
3. Gluten’s inflammatory effect in the gut causes intestinal cells to die prematurely and causes oxidation on those cells. This effect creates a leaky gut and a leaky gut can allow bacterial proteins and other toxic compounds to get in the blood stream, which can also lead to autoimmune attacks on the body. A leaky gut also means that food as not digested properly and nutrients are not absorbed fully, which can lead to nutrient deficiencies.
4. Antibodies against gluten have also been shown to attack heart tissues and cause heart disease.
5. Gluten has been strongly associated with cancer. It is potentially cancer causing, but at least cancer promoting.

WGA (wheat germ agglutinin)

1. WGA, like gluten, irritates and causes premature cell death in the gut and leads to a leaky gut condition, with all the detrimental effects that are known to follow.
2. WGA also disrupts the mucus membrane in the gut, which can cause bacterial overgrowth and lead to a host of digestive issues like GERD and ulcers.
3. The lectin also often ends up circulating in the body and in the brain, where it can cause leptin resistance and cause effects similar to insulin. Those two factors could be a cause or promoter of obesity as leptin and insulin are the two most important hormones to properly regulate in order to maintain a normal weight and energy balance.
4. WGA and another unknown factor in wheat cause vitamin D stores to deplete abnormally fast and can therefore lead to vitamin D deficiency, with all its accompanying issues like weakening of the bones, a weakened immune system and a vulnerability to infectious diseases and bacterial attacks.

Opioid peptides

1. The opioid peptides found in wheat are known to cause addiction to wheat in some people and withdrawal symptoms can happen upon the removal of wheat from the diet.
2. They have also been associated with Schizophrenia as a possible cause or at least as a promoter of the disease. Furthermore, Schizophrenics often see their symptoms reduce by a lot when removing wheat from their diet.

Conclusion

When it comes to things that we, humans, are not adapted to eat and digest, wheat and its gluten protein is probably at the top of the list. It’s very sad that wheat is so omnipresent in our society though and many health conditions would probably not even exist if it were not for our high consumption of wheat. Positive changes are often noticed immediately after removing wheat and other gluten containing grains from the diet.

Even though most people can indulge in less healthy choices from time to time without negative consequences, wheat and other gluten containing grains should, in my opinion and the opinion of many others in the Paleo diet blogosphere, be completely avoided, especially for those who suffer any kind of autoimmune disease or inflammatory condition.

Your kidneys are about the size of your fist. They may be small but they are powerful organs and have many functions. Every day your kidneys process about 200 quarts of blood to move to about 2 quarts of waste and extra water. (1)

Kidney Detox – Besides helping get rid of wastes, your kidneys are also responsible for releasing several hormones:

1. Your kidneys release the hormone erythopoietin. This hormone stimulates the bone marrow and “tells” it to make red blood cells. (1)

2. The second hormone that is released by your kidneys is renin. Renin is important in regulating blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the underlying risks of heart disease. The higher your blood pressure, the more your heart has to work to pump blood throughout your body. Over time if this continues your heart may enlarge. (1)

3. The third hormone that is release is called calcitriol. Calcitriol is the active form of Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps keep calcium in bonds and is important for proper chemical balance in your body. (1)

The two most common causes of kidney disease are diabetes and high blood pressure. (1) Both can be preventable and controllable. Many people have a risk for diabetes and high blood pressure in their family history, but even if you do you can do things to help prevent the risk for these conditions.

With all this functions that your kidneys are responsible for it’s important to help your kidneys function at optimal levels. This means you have to give your kidneys a break by first and foremost eliminating unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, eating processed foods and so on.

Use this simple steps to “help” your kidneys and detox them

Step 1

Eat fresh vegetables. Cut out the processed foods. Stop eating food out of a box. The more junk you eat the more your body has to work to get rid of it. Cook your own food. Knowing what you put in your body is important and when you cook your own food you know exactly what ingredients you’re using. Aim for organic products, especially if you eat meat.

JUICE! Juice. Juice. Juice fresh dark green leafy vegetables. Chlorophyll does wonders for your body.

Eat and juice alkalizing foods. Keeping your body’s pH at the desirable level (neutral pH) is important because you’re helping your body work at an optimal level without having to work overtime to get rid of unwanted and harmful toxins. The better you eat, the healthier you eat and the more you MOVE then the less your body has to spend time working to eliminate toxins and has more time to make you feel good by giving you energy and helping you feel your best.

There are simple things you can do to detox…like again eliminating processed foods and at least juicing fresh organic vegetables 2-3 times a day.

Step 2

Cranberries are excellent for your kidneys and bladder, especially for preventing and treating urinary tract infections. Cranberries contain a compound called hippuric acid. Hippuric acid helps acidify the urine and inhibit bacteria. This is important for people with bladder infections. Cranberries are great for your kidneys because they contain an antioxidant called proanthocyanidin. (2) Not only are cranberries beneficial for your kidneys and bladder but they are also great for reducing risks of heart disease, have anti-cancer properties, are great for your gums and much more.

It’s best to either juice fresh cranberries or blend them. Store bought juice (even organic) is packed with sugar. If you can’t find fresh organic cranberries, try frozen organic cranberries and blend them up.

Check out how to make your own cranberry blend yourself.

Step 3

Magnesium deficiency is not beneficial for helping your kidneys. Magnesium plays a key role in regulating blood pressure naturally. Magnesium supplements and a diet including plenty of fruits and vegetables, which are good sources of potassium and magnesium, are consistently associated with lowering blood pressure. Magnesium is also important for diabetes, preventing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and much more.

Step 4

Going on a simple 3-5 day juice fast is a great way to detox your body. When you juice dark green vegetables you are instantly getting high amount of nutrients and vitamins.

1. Many people ask me why they should juice when they could eat the vegetables or fruits. When you extract the juice from the vegetable all you are left with are beneficial micro-nutrients. Since your body doesn’t have to break down any components like insoluble fiber, your body is quickly absorbing micro-nutrients  antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and much more from the juice. That’s why often you get instant energy after having a juice!

2. Juicing also allows you to consume the needed vegetables and fruits that your body craves and needs for optimal health. If you find it difficult eating raw vegetables and fruit, then juicing is perfect for you. With juicing you are also getting a wide variety of different vegetables into your daily intake.

3. Juicing is a way to change the way you eat and will change the way you live. After you juice for a week, you will see and feel instant results. Often after the first week of the Alive Smoothie List, my clients tell me how much more energy they have, how their skin has improved and how much overall mental clarity  they have. Also, a juice detox program like theAlive Smoothie List, can help you change your taste buds and quit bad habits like smoking.

During your fast make sure you juice dark leafy greens, lemons, ginger, watercress, dandelion greens and more. The Alive Smoothie List provides juice recipes so you don’t have to worry about knowing what to juice.