It Doesn't Get Better Than (Healthy) Chocolate

A reason for living

If you believe that the four major food groups are milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffle, we really understand each other. But believe it or not, chocolate can be good for you.

Dark chocolate containing 72% cocoa solids or more, is best enjoyed when it hasn’t been treated with alkali... a standard process called Dutching, which destroys most of cocoa's beneficial polyphenols and anti-oxidants. Then there’s milk chocolate, which should be avoided (if you got the guts.) It’s high in calories, saturated fat and sugar. Dark chocolate contains more cacao and less sugar.

A 2006 John Hopkins study showed that eating a little bit every day is good for your health. Here are some of the health benefits associated with eating chocolate.

Food-Labeling Voodoo: Serving Size Manipulation

My friend Dr. Jonny Bowden's got this all figured out.  Find out below in this guest post, just how manipulated us consumers are by big (food) business.  You won't believe this!

How to REALLY read a label

Suppose for the moment that you are a manufacturer of little yellow snack cakes with a creamy filling inside.  

The "recipe" calls for tons of hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil, both of which are trans-fats. In the past, this manufacturer could easily get away with using all the trans-fats he wanted. After all, there’s no listing for trans-fats on the label, and for a long time most people didn’t know that partially hydrogenated oil was the definition of trans-fats.

But now people are paying attention. 

Turkey Apple Walnut Goodness

This recipe was given to me by my friend Evelyne Lambrecht of Health Coach San Diego (www.healthcoachsd.com.) Evelyne is a talented, educated, high-energy health coach based in the San Diego, CA area.  This is really a tasty and balanced breakfast creation that she passed along to us; thanks Evelyne! We love it.

Now for a REAL breakfast of champions

The Charlie Francis Training System

Old school training for TODAY'S sprinter

I first discovered The Charlie Francis Training System through Bret Contreras, someone whose work I admire and respect. Only available in Kindle edition, I wasn’t sure what to expect from an interview with a 1980’s track and field coach conducted by the coach’s wife; but it was excellent. Becoming acquainted with this coach and his athletes was more of an education than I anticipated.

Does anyone remember sprinter Ben Johnson for his incredible athletic talent and superiority as an athlete? Some do. but sadly, most people remember Ben Johnson for being the first athlete in the modern games to be stripped of his gold medals after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. What a shame. Johnson was a dedicated athlete who gave his all to be one of the greatest athletes of his day.

Valslide Hamstring Curls

Valslide Hamstring Curls - before and after

Valslides are the invention of celebrity personal trainer Valerie Waters.  Val had the clever idea of taking two pieces of plastic and gluing a square of foam rubber to each of them, packaging them, selling them, and is now getting rich. Actually, I don’t know how rich she is or isn't but the Valslide is a clever idea and lots of trainers in the fitness industry now use her tool.
 
The idea is, on a carpeted surface, these little pieces of plastic allow you to slide around and perform both upper and lower body exercises that challenge your core while also challenging other muscle groups at the same time for a total body exercise.

What is a Detox Program and Do You Need One?

High-quality herbs and botanicals help the detoxification process

Evolutionarily speaking, we’re way behind. Technology and our living environment may have changed drastically over the last few million years but on the inside, the human organism and how it functions, hasn’t changed very much at all. But in the last 50 years in particular, the amount and types of toxins and chemicals in our environment have changed…they’ve multiplied-and this has become a real burden on our bodies. Mankind has created chemicals and toxins that have been released into our environment that our bodies don’t even recognize or know what to do with.  Our bodies haven’t adapted to these toxins and pollutants that we are ingesting every day-that’s just the way it is.
 
It may seem as though the human body

Cookie Dough Fudge

It’s tough to be a foodie, a chocoholic, and an athlete at the same time!  So yes, I need to stay fit, wanna stay healthy, and I have to indulge! (especially during the holidays.) So what’s a girl to do when faced with this kind of dilemma?  As I always say, it’s all about choices. So I’m always on the lookout for healthy options or, makeovers of my favorite not-so-healthy foods.  I stumbled upon this website recently (thank you John Romaniello), and I will be back!! It’s called www.tgipaleo.com (clever!) There are some fabulous recipes there-most of which you could make a case for being healthier versions of some of your favorites.  But this one….oh…this one stole my heart :) …. 

www.tgipaleo.com  rescued this fudge