It’s quite easy to make your own Kombucha tea at home from a few basic ingredients found in your kitchen along with a SCOBY and a little starter. Kombucha tea is the result of a fermentation process which converts a sugary tea solution into what many cultures referred to as the elixir of life. This step by step Kombucha tea recipe should have you fermenting in no time at all.

This is a great squash soup recipe that uses either butternut squash or pumpkin as it’s base while adding almond butter to pump up the nutrients, fat and protein profile. Optionally spicy or very spicy, this butternut squash soup is perfect for the colder fall or winter months. Make extra and freeze it because you’ll want to eat it all week long.

This dairy free, gluten free coconut flour bread recipe is perfect for anyone wanting to cut carbohydrates and increase their protein. Slightly sweet, this bread is perfect for eating with a green soup and topped off nicely with a little nut butter. Coconut flour is a wonderful way to increase fiber and lower your net glycemic load of any meal. Wonderful recipe that anyone can make.

When asked how many eggs I eat, I respond with “at least 6 a day, and up to a dozen whole eggs”. This is my traditional morning breakfast of 6 whole eggs, with greens cooked in coconut oil, fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Washed down with a big glass of chia gel of course.

My fiance busts through some fears about singing and sings the Stuck on Band Aid jingle with friends. Not only is she singing in public, she’s now got it captured on video. Way to go Dar.

Four of my favorite things are carrots, kale, nut milk and chia seed, so I found a way to incorporate them all into a little green smoothie drink I make for the middle of the afternoon as a little pick me up. I also use this after a workout as my post workout recovery drink to build muscle and reduce catabolism. Most people might consider this a green smoothie, but I prefer to call it a blended salad because my definition of a green smoothie is a little different.

Rob’s Carrot Kale Cocktail with Chia seed

I have a drink I liked to call Rob’s Carrot Kale Cocktail which was basically just a special concoction I made up in a blender but it’s now morphed into this wonderful drink that also contains nut milk and chia seed. It’s still Rob’s Carrot Kale C,ocktail, but it’s version 2.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of sunflower seeds – pre soaked
10 to 15 almonds – pre soaked
1 carrot
1 kale leaf
a little parsley
1 or 2 Tbsp Chia seeds (see note)
1 tsp Dark maple syrup or a little stevia

Preparation: Soak 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds and 10 to 15 almonds in water overnight to activate the seeds.

Make the nut milk:
Pour off the soak water and put sunflower seeds and almonds into blender cup.
Add a cup of distilled water.
Blend.

I prefer the Magic Bullet because of it’s unique blending format which forces the liquid down onto the blades. Blend for about a minute or two. Add another cup of water to thin it out a little more. I find that blending in less water allows all the seeds to hit the blades more effectively.

Add a Tablespoon or two of chia seeds, stir into nut milk and allow 5 minutes for the nut milk gel (chia gel) to set up.

Make the Carrot Kale Cocktail
While the nut milk gel is setting up, cut the carrot into small bits so it doesn’t break the blender. De-stem the Kale and cut leaves into small bits (about an inch or so, just so it blends a bit better)

Put the carrot parts into the nut milk. Blend again until carrots are fully mixed in.

Add Kale and parsley, Blend again.

Taste.

If required, go ahead and add a tsp of Dark maple syrup for flavor. Maple syrup is optional. I suggest dark maple syrup because it has more minerals in it. Stevia may also be used. Taste it first though, you might find you like it just the way it is.

Note: Chia seeds will really gel this up if you use too much. Play with the amount of seeds to the amount of water. You should be able to sip it, not have to spoon it out.

Fiber Content:
The nut milk itself will provide a few grams of fiber. So will the chia seeds, so I’d approximate the fiber in this to be at least 5 grams (or more).

Blended salads are a great way to add nutrient dense foods to your day, as a mid afternoon snack, a post workout supplement or added to a meal instead of other beverages. Kale is a nutrient powerhouse – one of the preferred dark leafy green vegetables. Carrots add important vitamin A while the chia seeds add so much to the mix and slow down the absorption of it all keeping you full. Chia also provides important Omega 3 fats. The nuts and seeds of course provide protein, fats, fiber and many minerals.

Having a plan in place before you go to the gym should be your primary objective. You should know exactly why you’re going to the gym on any given day and what the purpose of that workout should be, because as they say, failing to plan is planning to fail.

New years resolutions bring a swarm of traffic to the gyms as people set intentions to lose weight and get healthier. You could argue that the summer bathing suit season is just as busy a time at the gym, but regardless of when you’ve made your resolutions to get fit and lose weight, it’s what you focus on that makes all the difference.

It was two new years resolutions that got me started on my journey of a 300 pound weight loss. The resolutions were to give up salt and to begin exercising. As part of my original weight loss story written years ago (and never quite completed), I posted a scanned image of my resolutions which were quite simple.

1. Lose weight by exercising
2. Give up salt

Focus On What You Want

Being absolutely clear with yourself and your brain is a critical part in getting that which you want. It’s fairly easy to set the resolution “to lose weight”, but being clear about how you’re going to lose weight is much more powerful. It’s the action steps that are going to take you there, so focus on them and you’ll get what you want.

The words we choose are powerful, so be clear about what you intend on doing.

“Exercise more” is general where “Walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week” is more action oriented
“Drink more water” is a good idea, where “I resolve to measure out four litres of water each morning and consume the entire amount over the course of the day before going to bed” is a lot more specific.

New Years Resolutions That Make Sense

I’m sure you’ve wanted to make changes to your lifestyle each year and have full intention of keeping them. With that in mind, would you be open to some new ways of thinking? Would you like some ideas for resolutions that make sense? Resolutions that you can take action on and get the results you’re looking for?

The list of new years resolutions that follow offer some ways of thinking that come from a place of focusing on your health rather than weight loss. Weight loss should be thought of as a side effect of becoming more healthy. Focus on making changes to how you eat, how you can improve the functioning of your body and you’ll get the results you’re looking for along with a lifetime of benefits.

Pick from a few of these and write them out on a piece of paper. In fact, for the first 30 days of the new year, write them down repeatedly saying them aloud as you do so. Say them with passion as if your life depended on it. Speak passionately, not loudly. Speak to yourself as if they were the most important and loving commitments you’ve ever made to yourself. This is you talking to yourself each and every day about the most important steps you’ll ever take towards your new self and the new direction you’re taking in your life.

• Resolve to walk for at least 30 minutes every day – and while you’re out moving, focus on taking in deep full breaths. Consider walking to be about oxygenating your blood rather than moving your legs. More often than not, walkers tend to consider the amount of calories burned during the exercise, but I’d rather you focus on the metabolism boosting function of having more oxygen in your body. Fat gets burned in the presence of oxygen, but it also improves your mood and allows your cells to do what they do best, produce energy. Walking is also one of the best ways to move your lymph system, which helps in the elimination of waste material. In essence, walking helps you clean your body from the inside out.
• Resolve to begin exercising your body using body weight exercises such as push ups or body weight squats – challenge yourself to do some of the most basic movements such simply getting into the squat position and lifting your body weight up and down a few times per day. Challenge yourself to do more per day, more per week, or more in a given amount of time. How many squats can you do in 2 minutes? Keep doing squats on a daily basis and repeat the challenge every week to see if you’re getting stronger. Working the leg muscles and making them stronger / more muscular is one of the easiest ways to get leaner and stronger all over your body. Join our body weight challenges for more inspiration.
• Resolve to measure out 4 litres of water (1 gallon) each morning and to consume it at regular intervals throughout the day so that all of it is consumed before bed – Water is your life and it’s not just enough to say “I will drink more water in the new year”. Water plays a role in almost all the functions of our body including digestion, elimination and energy production. It’s generally agreed upon that the correct amount of water to consume, on a daily basis, is half our body weight in ounces. If you weight 200 pounds, you should be drinking at least 100 ounces of water – per day, every day. If you exercise, you should drink more and if you live in a hot climate, even more again. Read this article on 50 ways to drink more water
• Resolve to eat less salt and more potassium – a very little thought about concept is the correlation of sodium to potassium that you have in your body. Our ancestors ate 10:1 potassium to sodium where the average North American today eats 1:4. We eat too little potassium and eat way too much sodium. Eating more potassium and lowering your sodium intake improves your bodies ability to hydrate itself, release retained water, lower blood pressure and cholesterol and generally improve the ability for your body to move nutrition into your cells while removing wastes. Read more about potassium containing foods and the role of potassium in your body. Just eliminating any salt you add to your foods is the best place to start. Then eat more vegetables and dark leafy green vegetables as well and your body will do the rest.
• Resolve to focus on what you want, not what you don’t want – The words you use have power, so focus on the things you want vs the the things you dont want. If you want to quit drinking pop, then focus on drinking more water. If you want to lose weight, focus on getting in daily exercise. If you want to watch less television, then focus on reading more books or going out for a walk in place of the TV.
• Resolve to replace the words “I can’t do that” with “How can I?” – One phrase turns the brain off, while the other turns the brain on. One statement ends the conversation while the other begins searching for solutions to that which you ask. There’s power in simply asking a question

Some people swear by new years resolutions and others hate them. Some experts find them useless because they’re set without any proper though given to the methods to achieve them and my friend James Jordan says “A day is a day and a moment a moment NewYears resolutions are for wankers who cant keep promises to themselves”. I think new years resolutions are a tool to new beginnings – and if you’re serious about them, you’ll write them down and look at them every day, regardless of the time of year. Any day can be your own personal first day of the year, it’s action and follow through that make all the difference.

Drinking more water is an important aspect of life. While many people realize this and make an effort to actually drink their required amounts of this precious fluid, drinking more water by itself might not be enough. In principle, it seems simple, but what may actually be a more important question to ask is, am I absorbing the water I’m drinking?

McDonalds chicken McNuggets are a favorite food like substance for many people, including children, but do you know what’s really in them? Chicken isn’t the only thing and even at that, you can barely call it chicken. Mostly, chicken McNuggets are made from ….