Worried that your fitness level will deteriorate this month and that you won’t be able to fit into your skinny jeans by the end of the holiday season? Don’t be. Each day this month, I’ll share a tip or trick to help you stay on track with feel-good, look-good living.

Week 1

1. December 1st – Tip #1: Stay On Track This Holiday With a Weekly, One Day Juice Fast
2. Tip #2: Holiday Detox: Make the Switch To Steel Cut Oats
3. Tip #3: Holiday Detox-Friendly Treat: Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate
4. Tip #4: Boost Your Immune System
5. Tip #5: Detox Breakfast: Holiday Cranberry Smoothie
6. Tip #6: Holiday Detox: Cut Back On Coffee? Reduce Cellulite?
7. Tip #7: Go Nuts Detox: Raw Nuts and Their Place in a Feel-Better Diet.




Week 2

8. Tip #8: Healthy Holiday Inspiration: Fitness Beauty Emily Parr
9. Tip #9: Tasty Bite: Better For You Prepared Foods – Garden Lites
10. Tip #10: Refresh & Invigorate: Dr. Bronner’s Chemical-Free Peppermint Soap
11. Tip #11: Freshly Picked: Eat Kale To Cleanse + Rejuvenate
12. Tip #12: Chemical-Free, Better For You Deodorant
13. Tip #13: Detox Monday: Boost Your Bod’s Slimming Power
14. Tip #14: Detox Smoothie: Matcha Green Tea + Apple




Week 3

15. Tip #15: Roasted Root Vegetable “Fries” – The Crunchy, Salty Goodness Without The Fat
16. Tip #16: Holiday Sweet: Mom’s Maple Syrup Blueberry Muffins
17. Tip #17: Stay Thin This Holiday With These 5 Tips
18. Tip #18: Holiday Treat: Breakfast Rice Pudding
19. Tip #19: Yummy Coconut Butter + Banana Pudding
20. Tip #20: Beet + Carrot Juice: Rebound From Weekend Fatigue (+ Help Varicose Veins)
21. Tip #21: A Mid-Day Workout To Cleanse + Rejuvenate




Week 4

22. Tip #22: Heading Home This Week? Airplane Detox
23. Tip #23: My Favorite Feel-Good Stocking Stuffers
24. Tip #24: Want to make a simple, healthy change in 2011? Invest in a Blendtec blender.
25. Tip #25: Happy, Feel Good Tidings
26. Tip #26: Nourishment On The Run: Vega Whole Food Smoothie Infusion
27. Tip #27: Look Good, Feel Awesome: Lululemon Stretch Pants
28. Tip #28: Soft + Fabulous Party Hair: Coconut Oil Deep Conditioning Treatment




29. Tip #29: Feel Good Treat: Infrared Sauna Session
30. Tip #30: At The New Year’s Table: Chocolate Zucchini Cake
31. Tip #31: New Year’s Eve Midnight Lemonade

A few of you have emailed me looking for a bit more information on an all raw food diet. I hope this post helps answer a few of your questions. I’ve also included 5 healthy eating ideas to inspire you below. After all it’s not about restrictive diets (move over raw food diet!) it’s about feeling and looking your best.
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As we all know (and have probably found out numerous times), any dietary change that is quick to take place – no matter how healthy it’s supposed to be – never lasts. But making small, consistent changes gives your body the foundation it needs to support optimal, long-term health.

In this case, it’s tough to go from years of eating lots of hot dogs and chips to then eating raw overnight without some truly uncomfortable detox symptoms. Alcohol, refined sugars, processed wheat (found in store shelf breads and pastas), coffee and even meat and dairy are stimulants for your body. You just get a little bit of a “pick up” when you eat these foods. And that’s not always a bad thing! To truly get a sense of what I’m talking about when it comes to these foods as being “stimulants”, try eating only uncooked and lightly steamed vegetables, leafy greens and fruit for a day and see for yourself. This way of eating can definitely be a refreshing change for a few days after a holiday splurge or a Thanksgiving turkey overload. But immediately shifting your diet to this way of eating for longer than a few days will set you up for massive withdrawal and potential bingeing on your “old” hot dog and chip foods later on. There is no reason for such an uncomfortable, drastic change! Plus…eating all raw is a fairly restrictive way of eating….

Rethink A 100% Raw Food Diet

When the raw food movement started gaining momentum decades ago, the point was to use uncooked vegetables, fruit and leafy greens as “natural cleansers” to scrub the body of old crusty gunk from years of poor eating and overeating. While the body does a pretty rockin’ job keeping up with what you pour into it, it often can’t keep up with your lifestyle all the time (hey, those chips and hot dogs can be hard to process!). Waste then accumulates from what the body is unable to effectively metabolize AND release. Physical and emotional imbalances as well as excess weight then follow; Excess waste in the body = excess weight.

The awesome thing is that you can achieve all the beautiful, feel-good benefits of a raw diet by simply eating a greater quotient of raw foods in addition to some beautiful roasted and steamed vegetables and whole grains. Even meat and dairy can have a place in this “high raw” lifestyle if you choose. Many people that begin with the goal of an all raw diet, actually find that it is too difficult and restrictive over time and actually come back to more of a middle ground where they are eating lots of live, organic, veggie-centric foods. Others choose to eat mostly veggie-centric foods, but occasionally do enjoy some goat and sheep cheeses (believed to be easier for the body to digest), along with an occasional serving of a quality meat or fish. It really is hard to put a label on how people eat these days. So skip the labels, and the restrictive eating. Venture into the feel-good benefits of a veggie-centric diet with these 5 ideas:

5 Ideas Toward A Feel Good, Look Good Diet-Free Lifestyle

1. A green smoothie for breakfast: Green smoothies are a great way to get in a serving of leafy greens in your day, while also enjoying the natural sweetness of fruit. Contrary to what you might think, green smoothies don’t have to taste like a rabbit patch just because they are green. This Classic Green Smoothie and this Creamy Green Smoothie are the two smoothies I recommend to all my friends just getting started with drinking anything GREEN. Green smoothies are the gateway to the fountain of youth and vitality in my opinion.




2. One additional veggie-centric meal a day: Try and incorporate a few additional servings of vegetables and leafy greens in your weekly routine. Enjoy some of your veggies roasted or lightly steamed. But also try and enjoy some of your veggies and leafy greens uncooked – that’s the key! If you are skeptical about how to eat more leafy greens at first, I highly encourage you to give this Classic Green Smoothie a try for breakfast. You won’t be disappointed – I promise. Roasted vegetables are also delicious! They caramelize in the high heat, and are just so flavorful. This Parmesan Roasted Broccoli recipe by Ina Garten is my all-time favorite. Kids and adults both love this! A plate of crudites can also be fabulous if served with the right dip. So give this Thyme Pesto a try next time you are looking to jazz up freshly sliced carrots, celery, peppers and radishes.


3. Switch to a more wholesome snack, with ingredients you recognize: I love Lara Bars for when I’m on the go. They are made with only two ingredients – fruit and nuts. These bars taste good and most importantly don’t contain any additives or preservatives or anything else that’s going to gunk up your system and eventually show up as cellulite. Ick.




4. Dabble with almond milk and coconut milk (found in your dairy section): “You will pee in your pants when you see how much weight you lose from giving up dairy.” – Rory Freedman and Kim Barnounin, Skinny Bitch. These almond milks and coconut milks are great in morning coffee and in these good-for-you fresh fruit cereals.





5. Get moving: Nothing helps inspire you to eat healthy foods like a good, daily sweat. Consider a yoga class, a jog, a walk with a girlfriend or a sunset bike ride.

Additional thoughts when it comes to tasty treats…

When you are eating a more balanced diet-free lifestyle the occasional enjoyment of a glass of wine or other “vice” (maybe yours is a delicious piece of cheese! or a sumptuous piece of dark chocolate) under today’s increasingly popular take on a raw food diet is encouraged if it enables you to continue along a sustainable cleansing and rejuvenating diet-free lifestyle path. No one eats perfectly all the time. And of course there is no perfect way of eating! Everyone is unique. Eating well is just about eating more wholesome, natural foods including vegetables, leafy greens and fruit. The occasional chocolate brioche pudding with a scoop of ice cream also has a place.

Good luck with your journey. Don’t forget this diet-free lifestyle has a broad range of eating options because one way of eating is not right for everyone. And let me know how your healthy journey progresses! We could all use some inspiration!

These articles on the raw food diet may also be interesting to you.

1. Today’s Raw Food Diet – 6 Things You Should Know
2. Raw Food Diet – What We’re All Missing About It
3. Raw Food Diet: Skip the War on Cooked Food
4. Raw Foods: Feeling Bloated? Not Losing Weight?
5. Eat More Real Foods, Feel Better
6. Easy To Digest Foods

Today in your purview, there’s a chocolate cake in the work pantry, M&Ms on a co-workers desk, and a Pumpkin spice Frappuccino catching your eye at Starbucks. It’s a sweet world; you just live in it.

As you start this journey into eating healthier, real foods, dessert will still be on your eating roster. The dessert “consensus” among many women new to eating more whole, natural foods with less refined sugars is that a good piece of dark chocolate (>70% cocoa) finishes off a meal nicely.

And why shouldn’t it? From campfire s’mores to hot fudge sundaes, chocolate has been an integral part of your sweetest childhood memories.

Switch to a few dark chocolate covered almonds, or hot cocoa with almond milk

The goal of course is to try and whittle down your sugar and enriched flour dependence – so the bakery pastries are obviously out. A small piece of dark chocolate bark with a few almonds or walnuts is also a nice option. A few chocolate covered nuts would be fine too. A sweet potato harvest smoothie made with rice milk, a half of a cooked sweet potato and a bit of honey is also a favorite of mine. Some women love a date or two with almond butter.

In the wintertime, perhaps a cup of almond milk with some cocoa would also work for you – it is surprisingly satisfying. Definitely go with this hot cocoa route if you find yourself starting to nibble on an entire bar of dark chocolate per day. It really does hit the spot.

If you do drink, wine is better than liquor or beer

If you do choose to drink, Miss Scarlet, red wine is better than liquor or beer in this way of eating. All good things in moderation, of course.

Just make sure and skip fruit based desserts

The only thing that you want to avoid is a fruit based dessert. Fruit digests so quickly that if eaten with other food tends to ferment and cause gas…not good for you as you work to boost your lightness and energy. Gas also gets trapped in the body and ultimately can contribute to cellulite.