Meet Sheree Clark, (as seen on Life Dare TV) the Life Dare Nutrition Expert and Health Coach
- Fork in the Road
- (515) 249-2992
- www.fork-road.com
A Juicing Challenge and a my BEETING HEART juice recipe…do you DARE?
This challenge is an important “next step” on the road to optimal health. And guess what? I’m not going to ask you to do something new…you have too much on your plate as it is (!), so I am going to challenge you to a subtraction! The subtraction for this next 30 days is the elimination of nighttime eating. For the next four weeks I challenge you to stop all solid food consumption by 6:30 p.m. Why, you ask? Because food eaten during the day is mostly digested by nighttime, allowing for more restful, more rejuvenating sleep. When your body is relieved of the chore of breaking down meals it is free to build and repair muscles the ones you’re growing during your daily workouts! This small step will do wonders for your ability to get out of bed more easily each morning.
NOTE: You may— if you’re truly hungry and feeling desperate—have a 12 ounce serving of fresh juice after the 6:30 p.m. cutoff; please make your selection is a lower sugar one (more vegetables than fruit) to avoid a sugar spike that could interfere with your rest. An even better plan if you’re hungry at night may be to distract yourself with a walk, a small project or just hit the hay early.
My Beeting Heart
This would make a nice juice nightcap. The ingredients can help you feel calm and won’t keep you awake.
1 small beet
4-5 kale leaves
½ cucumber
1 small apple
1-2 ribs celery
Run all ingredients through your juicer. Get to bed early!
Try these challenges and create amazing momentum for 2012:
This challenge is an important first step on the road to optimal health: I challenge you to juice every single day for the next 30 days! juicing is powerful medicine, when you take it seriously. We’re not talking cans of concentrated orange juice here, I mean freshly made (by you or the health food store) juice—at least 24 ounces each day! My recommendation is to get your juicing in early in the morning. In addition to starting off on the right foot (maybe you won’t need that coffee after all!), you’re sure to get it done that way AND juicing is most beneficial on an empty stomach.
Juicing is the first step of six week detox program I developed to help people make changes in their health. If you decide to accept this challenge, shoot me an email I’ll send you the first week of information—at no charge! The information will guide you through selecting a juicer and includes several tasty recipes. Here is a sample recipe to get you started!
Green Lemonade
This is my personal favorite! Substitute any kind of leafy greens such as chard, collards, spinach—I even use beet greens sometimes!
- 6-8 kale leaves
- 1 head romaine
- 2 apples
- 1 whole lemon
Run all ingredients through your juicer (no need to peel the lemon). Feel the energy buzz!
Handling the anxiety of eating out!
The biggest challenge in transitioning to a healthy way of eating can be peer pressure, and the first step in being able to handle the anxiety of “eating out” is to reconcile what the event really is about. Most of the time the occasion is about something other than the food, and your challenge then becomes how to replace old patterns in a way that serves you better.
Here are some tried and true secrets to help you know how to take control of your next social occasion:
1. Eat before you go.
It’s harder to resist a slice of cheesecake when you’re famished than when you’re genuinely satisfied from the green smoothie you just had an hour before. If you can
honestly say, “Oh, it looks wonderful, but I am full right now,” you’ll be that much closer to being able to stay the course.
2. Practice the art of dodging.
I have learned how to identify the most opportune time for me to go greet a friend across the room or simply “take a powder”: and usually it is when there is something being served that I do not choose to eat. I know that sometimes the easiest way of handling a potentially awkward situation is to simply avoid it. Just sensing when to make an exit can be a valuable skill.
3. Have an alibi.
Sometimes having a ready-made reason why you’re only eating a salad or skipping dessert
makes it easier to avoid having attention directed at your plate. A few examples of alibis that have helped me over the hump were:
- “My stomach has been acting up: I’d better not.”
- “My doctor has me on a special diet.”
- “It looks great but I am stuffed from a late lunch…maybe in a little while.”
Yes, the social pressure can be tough at times. But if you keep in mind that for most shared events it really isn’t about the food, you’ll be in a better place.
For more from Sheree:
Holistic Health & Nutrition Counselor