DAY 4~Detox Daily

TODAY'S MISSION: DETOX DAILY There are many cleanses and detox regimens on the market today. Many of the ones I hear about take you one week or more to complete. The most popular cleanse I hear about consists of drinking nothing but maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper for 10 days. That sounds YUMMY... um, NOT!! Since most of us don't have the option to sit around all day not moving and drinking this concoction, all this deprivation happens while you're trying to power your body to work and exercise, attempting to fuel your brain to think and focus, and dealing with everything life throws at you. That takes fuel you don't have, with the exception of drinking what basically amounts to spicy sugar water. Your body is smart. It doesn't burn fat when it thinks you're starving. It will hold onto that for dear life. It will burn other things: organ tissue and muscle, for starters. In my personal opinion: that's just nuts. And unnecessary. Your body is made to be self-cleaning. That's what it does, naturally--if you don't put more yucky gunk in it, and eat fresh, clean foods it understands, along with plenty of water. Give it a chance, not by removing all food, but by removing the food it can't deal with, and it will do just fine. Plus, you will then have the vitamins, minerals, protein, complex carbs and healthy fat your body requires to make its systems work. Your brain, for example, needs calories to work. So do all your organs, including your filtering organs and digestive system. Take your body's fuel away and I don't know how optimal your detox program can really be. Starvation cleanses, or diets that make you eat below 1200 calories a day also lower your metabolism, and make you lose lean muscle mass, so when you start your regular diet again, you're operating in a metabolic slowdown and a calorie burning deficit where you have to eat less, or gain weight. This is why so many of my clients come to me frustrated after their "cleanse" had them losing 5 pounds (water and muscle), and then they gained it all back, plus extra, right after it was done. In addition, you can do a 10-day detox or the latest powered diet mix, all you want, but what have you learned about eating more healthfully? Sure, you've gained an appreciation for food, any food, and you may learn that you never want to see cayenne pepper or maple syrup ever again, but you are likely to come back to your same old way of eating that got you wanting a detox in the first place. Today, I want you to begin re-framing what it means to keep your body clean. Instead of eating and drinking things you know aren't good for you, then doing a radical program once in a while, I suggest that you make every day an opportunity to detoxify. Look at each food and beverage choice you're about to make for the next few days. What are your habitual defaults when you need energy? Can you turn that cup of coffee with sugar into a chai tea with vanilla almond milk and honey? Do you need that much cheese on your salad, and is the cheese processed or something aged and recognizable to your body? Are you getting enough fresh fruits and veggies, and if not, what are creative ways you could add them to every meal? If you move into a detox lifestyle, where food becomes your ally in cleansing instead of something you need to cleanse from, then you're well on your way to having your clean, clear body...and your health and energy, too! TODAY'S HEALTH TIP: ACCELERATE YOUR METABOLISM WITH LEMON Like I shared on day 1~ simply squeezing ½ a lemon into a cup of warm water with a touch of honey and drinking that before your breakfast, that you will super-detoxify and clean your filter organs, as well as ramp up your digestion and metabolism? It's true! Now you can have your cleanse and your food too. Lemons are very alkalizing to our bodies and when you drink them first thing in the morning, about 20 minutes before eating anything else, they help to stimulate your digestive juices, enzymes and HCL--literally giving your metabolism a wake up call! Also, try to add fresh squeezed lemon to your ice tea during the day. Even adding fresh squeezed lemons to your cocktails this evening would be a good way to get balance while drinking & celebrating! Enjoy this drink while you get ready for the day (and then take the following breakfast smoothie I've designed for optimal morning nutrition along for the ride to work). This sweet little cleansing cocktail will make a big difference to give you a boost, decrease your cravings (lemon is a natural appetite suppressant) and curb the need for caffeine to get you going. Bottoms up! BONUS RECIPE: Detoxing Green Power Smoothie This incredibly nutrient-packed smoothie gives you everything you need to cleanse, nourish and feel vibrant all morning long! 1/2 cup almond or rice milk Large handful of spinach or kale 4 dates Small banana and ¼ cup frozen blueberries 1 scoop either 100% Whey Isolate or Vegetarian Vanilla protein powder 1-2 ice cubes Put all ingredients in a blender, and blend on high for 30 seconds. TODAY'S YOGA TIP: DOING IT DAILY In this program, I have a built-in yoga practice to get you moving and detoxifying every day. However, I understand how life gets in the way, and it's all too easy to choose our responsibilities to others over our own self-nourishment. If you dedicate to doing the yoga video every day, you will create a habit that will make it easier for you to take out the 20 minutes needed to make a big difference. You will begin to crave health and the feeling of empowerment, centering and vitality you get from your practice, instead of the dimmer, less confident you that you'll cultivate if you skip your body-balancing time. I don't do yoga every single day. But I do something each day to get moving, like a long, brisk walk or dancing for 30 minutes to my favorite songs, to keep my body burning bright, and assist my systems to keep me healthy. On the off day where I don't engage my body, I feel the difference. It sucks and that difference adds up. Skip two days in a row and you're back to feeling like your old, not so healthy & happy self! Today, commit to doing your practice no matter what else pulls at your attention. Do it early to ensure you get it in before the day comes at you with its myriad requests. Do it late if you have to. My friend set her alarm early & swears that the 20 minutes of sleep she gave up to do this practice each morning has become something she doesn't even miss, because she feels more awake and her whole day becomes more centered and clear because of it. I usually do my yoga in the evening before bed, but ..hmm... it's the 4th of July and let's get real. The only exercise I might do this evening is brief interludes of shaking my tail feather. So, I woke up early this morning, did 20 minutes of yoga & viola, here is your Day 4 material earlier than any other day. It's safe to say, I'll be continuing the morning workout & perhaps even adding the evening as well! Even after the 21 days is over, keep in mind all the benefits you can't afford to miss, like anti-aging, weight loss, and detox...and do what it takes to ensure you carry your healing power with you for a lifetime. Never deprive yourself of that! TODAY'S HOMEWORK: Ok, seriously.. if you manage to get all of the above read and done on this holiday.. congrats!! No extra assignment is required of you today. If your journal is missing you today, open it up and draw yourself a big star under today's date =) TODAY'S POSITIVE AFFIRMATION: "I am fully prepared for anything life throws my way." Good luck with day 4 -Stephanie Chasles

DAY 4~ Detox Daily

TODAY'S MISSION: DETOX DAILY

There are many cleanses and detox regimens on the market today. Many of the ones I hear about take you one week or more to complete. The most popular cleanse I hear about consists of drinking nothing but maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper for 10 days. That sounds YUMMY... um, NOT!!

Since most of us don't have the option to sit around all day not moving and drinking this concoction, all this deprivation happens while you're trying to power your body to work and exercise, attempting to fuel your brain to think and focus, and dealing with everything life throws at you. That takes fuel you don't have, with the exception of drinking what basically amounts to spicy sugar water. Your body is smart. It doesn't burn fat when it thinks you're starving. It will hold onto that for dear life. It will burn other things: organ tissue and muscle, for starters.

In my personal opinion: that's just nuts. And unnecessary.

Your body is made to be self-cleaning. That's what it does, naturally--if you don't put more yucky gunk in it, and eat fresh, clean foods it understands, along with plenty of water. Give it a chance, not by removing all food, but by removing the food it can't deal with, and it will do just fine.

Plus, you will then have the vitamins, minerals, protein, complex carbs and healthy fat your body requires to make its systems work. Your brain, for example, needs calories to work. So do all your organs, including your filtering organs and digestive system. Take your body's fuel away and I don't know how optimal your detox program can really be.

Starvation cleanses, or diets that make you eat below 1200 calories a day also lower your metabolism, and make you lose lean muscle mass, so when you start your regular diet again, you're operating in a metabolic slowdown and a calorie burning deficit where you have to eat less, or gain weight. This is why so many of my clients come to me frustrated after their "cleanse" had them losing 5 pounds (water and muscle), and then they gained it all back, plus extra, right after it was done.

In addition, you can do a 10-day detox or the latest powered diet mix, all you want, but what have you learned about eating more healthfully? Sure, you've gained an appreciation for food, any food, and you may learn that you never want to see cayenne pepper or maple syrup ever again, but you are likely to come back to your same old way of eating that got you wanting a detox in the first place.

Today, I want you to begin re-framing what it means to keep your body clean. Instead of eating and drinking things you know aren't good for you, then doing a radical program once in a while, I suggest that you make every day an opportunity to detoxify.

Look at each food and beverage choice you're about to make for the next few days. What are your habitual defaults when you need energy? Can you turn that cup of coffee with sugar into a chai tea with vanilla almond milk and honey? Do you need that much cheese on your salad, and is the cheese processed or something aged and recognizable to your body? Are you getting enough fresh fruits and veggies, and if not, what are creative ways you could add them to every meal?

If you move into a detox lifestyle, where food becomes your ally in cleansing instead of something you need to cleanse from, then you're well on your way to having your clean, clear body...and your health and energy, too!





TODAY'S HEALTH TIP: ACCELERATE YOUR METABOLISM WITH LEMON

Like I shared on day 1~ simply squeezing ½ a lemon into a cup of warm water with a touch of honey and drinking that before your breakfast, that you will super-detoxify and clean your filter organs, as well as ramp up your digestion and metabolism? It's true! Now you can have your cleanse and your food too.

Lemons are very alkalizing to our bodies and when you drink them first thing in the morning, about 20 minutes before eating anything else, they help to stimulate your digestive juices, enzymes and HCL--literally giving your metabolism a wake up call! Also, try to add fresh squeezed lemon to your ice tea during the day. Even adding fresh squeezed lemons to your cocktails this evening would be a good way to get balance while drinking & celebrating!

Enjoy this drink while you get ready for the day (and then take the following breakfast smoothie I've designed for optimal morning nutrition along for the ride to work). This sweet little cleansing cocktail will make a big difference to give you a boost, decrease your cravings (lemon is a natural appetite suppressant) and curb the need for caffeine to get you going. Bottoms up!



BONUS RECIPE:

Detoxing Green Power Smoothie
This incredibly nutrient-packed smoothie gives you everything you need to cleanse, nourish and feel vibrant all morning long!


1/2 cup almond or rice milk
Large handful of spinach or kale
4 dates
Small banana and ¼ cup frozen blueberries
1 scoop either 100% Whey Isolate or Vegetarian Vanilla protein powder
1-2 ice cubes

Put all ingredients in a blender, and blend on high for 30 seconds.




TODAY'S YOGA TIP: DOING IT DAILY

In this program, I have a built-in yoga practice to get you moving and detoxifying every day. However, I understand how life gets in the way, and it's all too easy to choose our responsibilities to others over our own self-nourishment.

If you dedicate to doing the yoga video every day, you will create a habit that will make it easier for you to take out the 20 minutes needed to make a big difference. You will begin to crave health and the feeling of empowerment, centering and vitality you get from your practice, instead of the dimmer, less confident you that you'll cultivate if you skip your body-balancing time.

I don't do yoga every single day. But I do something each day to get moving, like a long, brisk walk or dancing for 30 minutes to my favorite songs, to keep my body burning bright, and assist my systems to keep me healthy. On the off day where I don't engage my body, I feel the difference. It sucks and that difference adds up. Skip two days in a row and you're back to feeling like your old, not so healthy & happy self!

Today, commit to doing your practice no matter what else pulls at your attention. Do it early to ensure you get it in before the day comes at you with its myriad requests. Do it late if you have to. My friend set her alarm early & swears that the 20 minutes of sleep she gave up to do this practice each morning has become something she doesn't even miss, because she feels more awake and her whole day becomes more centered and clear because of it. I usually do my yoga in the evening before bed, but ..hmm... it's the 4th of July and let's get real. The only exercise I might do this evening is brief interludes of shaking my tail feather. So, I woke up early this morning, did 20 minutes of yoga & viola, here is your Day 4 material earlier than any other day. It's safe to say, I'll be continuing the morning workout & perhaps even adding the evening as well!

Even after the 21 days is over, keep in mind all the benefits you can't afford to miss, like anti-aging, weight loss, and detox...and do what it takes to ensure you carry your healing power with you for a lifetime. Never deprive yourself of that!

TODAY'S HOMEWORK:

Ok, seriously.. if you manage to get all of the above read and done on this holiday.. congrats!! No extra assignment is required of you today. If your journal is missing you today, open it up and draw yourself a big star under today's date =)

TODAY'S POSITIVE AFFIRMATION:

"I am fully prepared for anything life throws my way."

Good luck with day 4
-Stephanie Chasles

DAY 3~Core Growth Principle

DAY 3

TODAY'S MISSION: CORE GROWTH PRINCIPLE

I see some clients who have been saying for years that they want to transform their bodies, lose weight, burn fat and get strong and lean. But they don't. We discover a major reason for this when they come to me for guidance: they are practicing the very definition of insanity in their approach to diet and workouts: doing the same unsuccessful thing over and over again and expecting successful results. 

Sure, once in a while, these people may eat a little healthier, take the latest diet supplements or exercise once or twice a week. But the Core Growth Principle states what exercise physiologists, spiritual leaders, financial advisors, psychologists, yoga teachers and career coaches all know to be true. We know that in order to gain more strength,stamina and results in any area, you must consistently ask more of your muscles, mind, emotions, or experience, than you have before, learn to endure it, let it make you stronger and then even as your new actions transform you, you continue to parlay your new results into more focused actions, more of that drive that helps you reach your greatest goals.

In another twist, it's not simply doing more that's the answer, but what kind of more you do. In the case of burning calories and fat, it's not enough just to do tons of cardio. First off, you'll end up spending hours in the gym that you could be using to do something more important, like having a beautiful meal with friends, or writing another chapter in your novel. In fact, like you'll learn over the next 2 weeks, if you work out smarter, you don't need to work out longer. 

Today, I want you to stop wasting time and energy wallowing around in your same old situation. To grow, you must wade out of the muck and get your boat on a river that will take you where you most want to go. 

The Core Growth Principle asks that you show up specifically, economically, do your best work in a way that expands what you thought possible, and then your actions continue to bring you riches and results 24-7.

 
TODAY'S HEALTH TIP: EAT MORE=LOSE MORE

Depriving themselves in order to lose weight is one of the most common errors my clients make. Eating fewer calories than your body requires actually makes you gain more weight--not lose it. Here's how: 

Initially your body may shed some extra pounds because you have stopped eating enough, but that can be mostly water and lean muscle tissue, which will lower your metabolism, not raise it! The scale says a lower number but it's actually not a good thing. 

Plus, once your body realizes that those needed calories aren't going to be making a return anytime soon, it will become defensive and begin to hold onto fat instead of burning it for fuel. Instead, it begins to catabolize (use up) lean muscle tissue as your fuel source. You have now just defeated the purpose of your exercise practice.

To reverse this, support your life, not sabotage it, and gain the benefits of all your fat-burning and body-toning efforts, eat three whole food meals with 2 small, healthy snacks in-between. Eat until you're satisfied, not stuffed, and work mindfully but strongly in your consistent yoga or exercise program. You'll have a happy, healthy body, and will feel amazingly energetic too!





TODAY'S BONUS RECIPE: SUPER LUNCHTIME BURRITOS 

Here's a perfect, filling lunch that won't have you reaching for sugary, processed foods later.

Ingredients 
2 whole grain wraps
1 avocado, chopped
1 grated carrot
1/2 grated beet (optional)
2 lettuce leaves or handful of sprouts (sunflower sprouts)
1/2 can black beans
2 tbsp. grated cheddar cheese (optional or nondairy alternate)
2 Tbsp. hummus spread

Makes 1-2 Wraps: Spread hummus over the Ezekiel wrap and place a lettuce leaf or handful of sprouts in the middle of the wrap. Place small handful of chopped avocado, grated carrot, grated beet, black beans and 1 tbsp. of grated cheddar cheese. Roll up burrito and cut in half. Enjoy!


TODAY'S YOGA TIP: PRESS PAUSE 

Lean muscle mass burns far more calories all day and night than cardio-only, which stops the elevated calorie expenditure almost the moment you step off the machine. If you want your body to constantly be humming along in service of your weight loss or toning goals, you'll want to focus on building long, dense muscle fibers. Notice I said "long". Short, contracted, bulky muscle is not going to build mass as effectively, tends to limit your motion, and compress the joints and spine, causing pain. Not cute. 

Instead, we'll employ the Core Growth Principle here. To build long, stronger muscles, you must hold some poses throughout your workout to fatigue. Fatigue doesn't mean you fall on the floor. It means that you cannot hold a pose or repeat another movement in good form. Your muscles will feel very intense at this point, and some burning or shaking is normal. I've learned to love this place, or, okay, at least get along with it, since it strengthens not only our muscles, but our hearts and minds to endure the intensity of life with grace and focus. 

Every time you do your yoga video from here until Day 14, I want you to press "pause" and hold at least 3 moves until you can't hold them in good form anymore. You can pick different ones each day, but I'd make sure that one targets your legs, one your arms and one either your abs or your back. 

When you add longer holds into your practice, then stretch during and after the moves, as yoga instructors have you do naturally throughout the sequence, you will notice a supercharge in your muscle tone, even as you gain more flexibility and freedom. 

TODAY'S HOMEWORK

Make a list of improvements you wish to make in any area of your life. Brainstorm with yourself and decide on the next steps you'll take to grow in your body, mind, heart and life, but make sure to do them in ways where you get a bigger energetic or financial payoff for less effort. 

TODAY'S JOURNAL ENTRY

Imagine yourself in a situation where all things are perfect. You are the ideal weight. You are financially stable & secure. You have an abundance of energy. What exactly are you doing and who are you with in this moment? Be descriptive as you visualize this perfect day. 

Begin your journal entry like this...

All conditions in my life are perfect. I am so happy as I..... 

  

TODAY'S POSITIVE AFFIRMATION

"I trust in my body and mind to be perfect in every situation."

Good luck with your Day 3! 

~Stephanie Chasles 

DAY 3~ Core Growth Principle

DAY 3

TODAY'S MISSION: CORE GROWTH PRINCIPLE

I see some clients who have been saying for years that they want to transform their bodies, lose weight, burn fat and get strong and lean. But they don't. We discover a major reason for this when they come to me for guidance: they are practicing the very definition of insanity in their approach to diet and workouts: doing the same unsuccessful thing over and over again and expecting successful results. 

Sure, once in a while, these people may eat a little healthier, take the latest diet supplements or exercise once or twice a week. But the Core Growth Principle states what exercise physiologists, spiritual leaders, financial advisors, psychologists, yoga teachers and career coaches all know to be true. We know that in order to gain more strength,stamina and results in any area, you must consistently ask more of your muscles, mind, emotions, or experience, than you have before, learn to endure it, let it make you stronger and then even as your new actions transform you, you continue to parlay your new results into more focused actions, more of that drive that helps you reach your greatest goals.

In another twist, it's not simply doing more that's the answer, but what kind of more you do. In the case of burning calories and fat, it's not enough just to do tons of cardio. First off, you'll end up spending hours in the gym that you could be using to do something more important, like having a beautiful meal with friends, or writing another chapter in your novel. In fact, like you'll learn over the next 2 weeks, if you work out smarter, you don't need to work out longer. 

Today, I want you to stop wasting time and energy wallowing around in your same old situation. To grow, you must wade out of the muck and get your boat on a river that will take you where you most want to go. 

The Core Growth Principle asks that you show up specifically, economically, do your best work in a way that expands what you thought possible, and then your actions continue to bring you riches and results 24-7.

TODAY'S HEALTH TIP: EAT MORE=LOSE MORE

Depriving themselves in order to lose weight is one of the most common errors my clients make. Eating fewer calories than your body requires actually makes you gain more weight--not lose it. Here's how: 

Initially your body may shed some extra pounds because you have stopped eating enough, but that can be mostly water and lean muscle tissue, which will lower your metabolism, not raise it! The scale says a lower number but it's actually not a good thing. 

Plus, once your body realizes that those needed calories aren't going to be making a return anytime soon, it will become defensive and begin to hold onto fat instead of burning it for fuel. Instead, it begins to catabolize (use up) lean muscle tissue as your fuel source. You have now just defeated the purpose of your exercise practice.

To reverse this, support your life, not sabotage it, and gain the benefits of all your fat-burning and body-toning efforts, eat three whole food meals with 2 small, healthy snacks in-between. Eat until you're satisfied, not stuffed, and work mindfully but strongly in your consistent yoga or exercise program. You'll have a happy, healthy body, and will feel amazingly energetic too!





TODAY'S BONUS RECIPE: SUPER LUNCHTIME BURRITOS 

Here's a perfect, filling lunch that won't have you reaching for sugary, processed foods later.

Ingredients 
2 whole grain wraps
1 avocado, chopped
1 grated carrot
1/2 grated beet (optional)
2 lettuce leaves or handful of sprouts (sunflower sprouts)
1/2 can black beans
2 tbsp. grated cheddar cheese (optional or nondairy alternate)
2 Tbsp. hummus spread

Makes 1-2 Wraps: Spread hummus over the Ezekiel wrap and place a lettuce leaf or handful of sprouts in the middle of the wrap. Place small handful of chopped avocado, grated carrot, grated beet, black beans and 1 tbsp. of grated cheddar cheese. Roll up burrito and cut in half. Enjoy!


TODAY'S YOGA TIP: PRESS PAUSE 

Lean muscle mass burns far more calories all day and night than cardio-only, which stops the elevated calorie expenditure almost the moment you step off the machine. If you want your body to constantly be humming along in service of your weight loss or toning goals, you'll want to focus on building long, dense muscle fibers. Notice I said "long". Short, contracted, bulky muscle is not going to build mass as effectively, tends to limit your motion, and compress the joints and spine, causing pain. Not cute. 

Instead, we'll employ the Core Growth Principle here. To build long, stronger muscles, you must hold some poses throughout your workout to fatigue. Fatigue doesn't mean you fall on the floor. It means that you cannot hold a pose or repeat another movement in good form. Your muscles will feel very intense at this point, and some burning or shaking is normal. I've learned to love this place, or, okay, at least get along with it, since it strengthens not only our muscles, but our hearts and minds to endure the intensity of life with grace and focus. 

Every time you do your yoga video from here until Day 14, I want you to press "pause" and hold at least 3 moves until you can't hold them in good form anymore. You can pick different ones each day, but I'd make sure that one targets your legs, one your arms and one either your abs or your back. 

When you add longer holds into your practice, then stretch during and after the moves, as yoga instructors have you do naturally throughout the sequence, you will notice a supercharge in your muscle tone, even as you gain more flexibility and freedom. 

TODAY'S HOMEWORK

Make a list of improvements you wish to make in any area of your life. Brainstorm with yourself and decide on the next steps you'll take to grow in your body, mind, heart and life, but make sure to do them in ways where you get a bigger energetic or financial payoff for less effort. 

TODAY'S JOURNAL ENTRY

Imagine yourself in a situation where all things are perfect. You are the ideal weight. You are financially stable & secure. You have an abundance of energy. What exactly are you doing and who are you with in this moment? Be descriptive as you visualize this perfect day. 

Begin your journal entry like this...

All conditions in my life are perfect. I am so happy as I..... 

  

TODAY'S POSITIVE AFFIRMATION

"I trust in my body and mind to be perfect in every situation."

Good luck with your Day 3! 

~Stephanie Chasles 

DAY 2~ Stay Whole!!

DAY 2




TODAY'S MISSION: STAY WHOLE

There's nothing that will impede you from your progress with this or any other fat-burning program more than going to pieces. What I mean is this: exercising with parts of your body instead of the whole thing at once, and eating processed or partial foods instead of whole foods. 

A huge part of knowing how to make the physical changes you seek is to understand how the body communicates with food, movement, and itself.

When you do something as nature intended, such as a Plank Pose, that recruits hundreds of muscles at once, or eat a whole, fiber-rich orange instead of drink a sugary, caffeinated Vitamin 'shake'--um, I mean, 'supplement'--your body rejoices. 

When you eat something your body recognizes, it is far more likely to take what it needs and excrete the rest. If, however, you give it a food that's been processed and modified from its original version, it is going to store in you longer, and make you more bloated, overweight, toxic and sluggish. Ew! 

When it comes to exercise, using your body resistance instead of external weight sources or machines helps your body tone itself in harmony instead of looking strangely misshapen for your body type. It also burns more calories to work 100 muscles instead of your biceps only for 5 minutes. So if I'm going to spend my precious time working out, I'm going to go for the consistent, total-body strengthening yoga practice over a parts-and-pieces approach. 

The other things that can make you look amazing are natural exercises like walking, running, biking, skating, rock climbing, hiking, snowboarding--and all the workouts that ask your body to do what it does best: come together on your behalf. 

When it comes to your diet, do the same. Whenever possible (and it's almost always possible), choose foods that come from nature. Eat (and exercise) like you were born to do. You'll spark your entire system to shed fat, build muscle and keep your metabolism burning bright. It wants to do this. Help a body out! 

TODAY'S HEALTH TIP: EAT MORE CARBS!! 

Yes, I said it. No, I'm not joking!! 

Fierce Foodie Myth = CARBS MAKE YOU FAT!

In fact, carbs are necessary for a balanced diet and to ensure you have enough fuel to get through your life--or this 21-day challenge. Carbohydrates do not inherently make you gain weight. Calories made from crap can make you fat. Also, let us not forget, carbs are the ONLY food ingested that feeds your brain. Literally, if you were to completely cut carbs out of your diet, you would slowly but surely suffer brain damage! 

Often it's eating too much sugar and fat, which can be contained in some forms of carbohydrates store more fat. Also a lot of carbohydrates are processed, so you don't get the advantage of feeling full from the fiber found in unprocessed, or whole carbs. 

For example, whole grain pasta is more filling and keeps you satisfied longer than white pasta, though both have the same amount of calories. Choose the whole food, and you'll end up eating less overall. To free yourself from the weight gain-promoting carbs, focus on choosing healthier types of carbohydrates--not avoiding them entirely. 

Try using whole grains like quinoa, millet, spelt, kamut and brown rice more often. These wheat-free and (some) gluten free options will be much easier on the body to digest and break down, which allows you to burn and use what you need for fuel--not for fat.

If you can not make the jump to "new" gluten free options just yet, at the least, try out whole grain pasta. I am Italian and make pasta of various types most nights for dinner. Let me say this, I've switched to whole-grain pasta and my family didn't notice. If the sauce you use is homemade & delicious, it will cover up the slight difference in taste. And, it does in fact, make you eat less when eating whole grain. Pasta was my nemesis prior to my first challenge. I could easily eat 2 or even 3 bowls of pasta at dinner. Since switching to whole grain, I am satisfied after the 1st helping! 

Not to mention, as well, during my college days (also, my thinnest time) I lived off carbs!! I ate brown rice for lunch every day & plain regular pasta every night. This was the fastest, cheapest way for me to eat and although it wasn't a completely healthy, balanced diet, it was 90 percent carbs and I was 100 percent skinny!! 

So, carb away at your hearts desire, please. Just make good, whole grain choices and you'll feel full, energized and most importantly, your brain will be fed and working. Maybe it's just me, but I really like my brain working??



BONUS RECIPE OF THE DAY
Toasted Chickpea Snack

This snack provides all the crunchy satisfaction of chips but offers protein, calcium and fiber too. You can vary this recipe by changing the spices and herbs. Try curry, chili powder, Thai or Cajun blackened spice mix for an exotic twist.

1 can of chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry
Olive-oil spray
Sea salt (or coarse salt) to taste
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place chickpeas on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Shake them every now and then. They are done when they are crunchy and golden brown.

Pour into a large bowl, lightly coat with olive oil spray and sprinkle on the salt and herbs. Toss to coat. Enjoy!! 

My kids ages 13 & 11 (including my niece, 1 & nephew, 3) absolutely LOVE toasted chickpeas!! You can make them alone for lunch or as a side dish with dinner. It pairs great with whatever you are making, just adjust the spices to match the theme of dinner. We love making it with spicy salmon.


TODAY'S YOGA TIP: DO THE WAVE

As you do your yoga workout today, pay attention to the way you move. Just before, and often during every pose, you do something I call The Wave. It's a movement that aligns your pelvis, spine, ribs and head more safely and recruits more inner body muscles in a holistic way, rather than lifting yourself into every pose with your poor lower, upper back and neck muscles, or putting too much pressure on your joints and low back spine. 

The Wave goes like this, in this order, every time: 

• Press your feet into the mat
• Lift your inner thighs up and out the sitting bones to widen them apart
• Draw your front, top hip crests in and up (lengthens tailbone down)
• Move the front of your low back spine into your body and up toward the heart as the back of your low back spine does the same.
• From this wave now moving up your spine, your front low ribs draw in and up too.The inner chest, neck and top of the skull all lengthen away from the pelvis. Finally, find a lightness as you reach into your final expression, like lifting your arms, now from the floor and the core spinal wave--not from a partial outer body activation. 

If you can't remember all of that, just:

1. Press your foundation (hands, feet, seat--whatever's on the ground) down firmly.
2. Pull your front hips and spine in and up.
3. Roll, or Wave your spine long into your pose's expression. 

The trick is to not do the movement in choppy parts-and-pieces. In time, when you learn to Wave more smoothly, it will become second nature in and between your poses, and you will never again return to the more empty, and less transformative piecemeal poses of times past. Time to get back to wholeness.

TODAY'S HOMEWORK:

1. First, how do you feel today?? Be honest!! If you can't be honest with yourself, with whom will you be honest? Are you sore?? Apprehensive? Be real!! 
2. Now, it's time to weigh & measure yourself. Make note of all your 'before' stats here. 
3. Lastly, and completely optional, take a 'before' picture.

Remember, this journal is for your eyes only unless you choose to share. All of these assignments are aimed for you to see your progress over the course of the next 3 weeks. Will it not be amazing to look back in a few weeks & see your entry about how sore & unsure you were on day 2, to see how much you have actually lost in numbers and what you've gained in confidence & spirit? 

TODAY'S JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT:

If you could look at yourself in the mirror, 3 weeks from now & see your perfect body, what would it look like? Literally 'see' yourself in your mirror visualization and describe it in FULL detail.

Begin your journal entry with this:

Now that I have the crystal clear vision and can see through obstacles and challenges, I know that I am creating my perfect body and that my dreams will come true. My miraculous body looks like ....

TODAY'S POSITIVE AFFIRMATION:

"I can clearly see the fulfillment of my dreams"

Good Luck with your Day 2!!
~Stephanie Chasles

DAY 2~ Stay Whole

DAY 2




TODAY'S MISSION: STAY WHOLE

There's nothing that will impede you from your progress with this or any other fat-burning program more than going to pieces. What I mean is this: exercising with parts of your body instead of the whole thing at once, and eating processed or partial foods instead of whole foods. 

A huge part of knowing how to make the physical changes you seek is to understand how the body communicates with food, movement, and itself.

When you do something as nature intended, such as a Plank Pose, that recruits hundreds of muscles at once, or eat a whole, fiber-rich orange instead of drink a sugary, caffeinated Vitamin 'shake'--um, I mean, 'supplement'--your body rejoices. 

When you eat something your body recognizes, it is far more likely to take what it needs and excrete the rest. If, however, you give it a food that's been processed and modified from its original version, it is going to store in you longer, and make you more bloated, overweight, toxic and sluggish. Ew! 

When it comes to exercise, using your body resistance instead of external weight sources or machines helps your body tone itself in harmony instead of looking strangely misshapen for your body type. It also burns more calories to work 100 muscles instead of your biceps only for 5 minutes. So if I'm going to spend my precious time working out, I'm going to go for the consistent, total-body strengthening yoga practice over a parts-and-pieces approach. 

The other things that can make you look amazing are natural exercises like walking, running, biking, skating, rock climbing, hiking, snowboarding--and all the workouts that ask your body to do what it does best: come together on your behalf. 

When it comes to your diet, do the same. Whenever possible (and it's almost always possible), choose foods that come from nature. Eat (and exercise) like you were born to do. You'll spark your entire system to shed fat, build muscle and keep your metabolism burning bright. It wants to do this. Help a body out! 

TODAY'S HEALTH TIP: EAT MORE CARBS!! 

Yes, I said it. No, I'm not joking!! 

Fierce Foodie Myth = CARBS MAKE YOU FAT!

In fact, carbs are necessary for a balanced diet and to ensure you have enough fuel to get through your life--or this 21-day challenge. Carbohydrates do not inherently make you gain weight. Calories made from crap can make you fat. Also, let us not forget, carbs are the ONLY food ingested that feeds your brain. Literally, if you were to completely cut carbs out of your diet, you would slowly but surely suffer brain damage! 

Often it's eating too much sugar and fat, which can be contained in some forms of carbohydrates store more fat. Also a lot of carbohydrates are processed, so you don't get the advantage of feeling full from the fiber found in unprocessed, or whole carbs. 

For example, whole grain pasta is more filling and keeps you satisfied longer than white pasta, though both have the same amount of calories. Choose the whole food, and you'll end up eating less overall. To free yourself from the weight gain-promoting carbs, focus on choosing healthier types of carbohydrates--not avoiding them entirely. 

Try using whole grains like quinoa, millet, spelt, kamut and brown rice more often. These wheat-free and (some) gluten free options will be much easier on the body to digest and break down, which allows you to burn and use what you need for fuel--not for fat.

If you can not make the jump to "new" gluten free options just yet, at the least, try out whole grain pasta. I am Italian and make pasta of various types most nights for dinner. Let me say this, I've switched to whole-grain pasta and my family didn't notice. If the sauce you use is homemade & delicious, it will cover up the slight difference in taste. And, it does in fact, make you eat less when eating whole grain. Pasta was my nemesis prior to my first challenge. I could easily eat 2 or even 3 bowls of pasta at dinner. Since switching to whole grain, I am satisfied after the 1st helping! 

Not to mention, as well, during my college days (also, my thinnest time) I lived off carbs!! I ate brown rice for lunch every day & plain regular pasta every night. This was the fastest, cheapest way for me to eat and although it wasn't a completely healthy, balanced diet, it was 90 percent carbs and I was 100 percent skinny!! 

So, carb away at your hearts desire, please. Just make good, whole grain choices and you'll feel full, energized and most importantly, your brain will be fed and working. Maybe it's just me, but I really like my brain working??



BONUS RECIPE OF THE DAY
Toasted Chickpea Snack

This snack provides all the crunchy satisfaction of chips but offers protein, calcium and fiber too. You can vary this recipe by changing the spices and herbs. Try curry, chili powder, Thai or Cajun blackened spice mix for an exotic twist.

1 can of chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry
Olive-oil spray
Sea salt (or coarse salt) to taste
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place chickpeas on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Shake them every now and then. They are done when they are crunchy and golden brown.

Pour into a large bowl, lightly coat with olive oil spray and sprinkle on the salt and herbs. Toss to coat. Enjoy!! 

My kids ages 13 & 11 (including my niece, 1 & nephew, 3) absolutely LOVE toasted chickpeas!! You can make them alone for lunch or as a side dish with dinner. It pairs great with whatever you are making, just adjust the spices to match the theme of dinner. We love making it with spicy salmon.


TODAY'S YOGA TIP: DO THE WAVE

As you do your yoga workout today, pay attention to the way you move. Just before, and often during every pose, you do something I call The Wave. It's a movement that aligns your pelvis, spine, ribs and head more safely and recruits more inner body muscles in a holistic way, rather than lifting yourself into every pose with your poor lower, upper back and neck muscles, or putting too much pressure on your joints and low back spine. 

The Wave goes like this, in this order, every time: 

• Press your feet into the mat
• Lift your inner thighs up and out the sitting bones to widen them apart
• Draw your front, top hip crests in and up (lengthens tailbone down)
• Move the front of your low back spine into your body and up toward the heart as the back of your low back spine does the same.
• From this wave now moving up your spine, your front low ribs draw in and up too.The inner chest, neck and top of the skull all lengthen away from the pelvis. Finally, find a lightness as you reach into your final expression, like lifting your arms, now from the floor and the core spinal wave--not from a partial outer body activation. 

If you can't remember all of that, just:

1. Press your foundation (hands, feet, seat--whatever's on the ground) down firmly.
2. Pull your front hips and spine in and up.
3. Roll, or Wave your spine long into your pose's expression. 

The trick is to not do the movement in choppy parts-and-pieces. In time, when you learn to Wave more smoothly, it will become second nature in and between your poses, and you will never again return to the more empty, and less transformative piecemeal poses of times past. Time to get back to wholeness.

TODAY'S HOMEWORK:

1. First, how do you feel today?? Be honest!! If you can't be honest with yourself, with whom will you be honest? Are you sore?? Apprehensive? Be real!! 
2. Now, it's time to weigh & measure yourself. Make note of all your 'before' stats here. 
3. Lastly, and completely optional, take a 'before' picture.

Remember, this journal is for your eyes only unless you choose to share. All of these assignments are aimed for you to see your progress over the course of the next 3 weeks. Will it not be amazing to look back in a few weeks & see your entry about how sore & unsure you were on day 2, to see how much you have actually lost in numbers and what you've gained in confidence & spirit? 

TODAY'S JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT:

If you could look at yourself in the mirror, 3 weeks from now & see your perfect body, what would it look like? Literally 'see' yourself in your mirror visualization and describe it in FULL detail.

Begin your journal entry with this:

Now that I have the crystal clear vision and can see through obstacles and challenges, I know that I am creating my perfect body and that my dreams will come true. My miraculous body looks like ....

TODAY'S POSITIVE AFFIRMATION:

"I can clearly see the fulfillment of my dreams"

Good Luck with your Day 2!!
~Stephanie Chasles

Day 1~ Let's light it up!

TODAY'S MISSION:

Let's light it up!

When it comes to embarking on any new course of action, there is only one place to start:

Right where you are.

It's great to set your intention toward making the changes you desire, whether it's to lose weight, learn to cook more healthfully, incorporate mindful exercise like yoga as a part of your life, or anything else. However, only setting intentions is but one small part of the equation.

The difference between the people who reach their goals, and don't, and the people who maintain their deeply energetic, dynamic, attractive inner flame in each moment and those who go dark, is that those who everyone else looks to as role models for health and happiness all have one thing in common.

The biggest indicator of whether you'll succeed--or sabotage--your best intentions is whether or not you can make one thing happen:

Just do it.

We all know what we have to do to shift to that next state of living out loud. Very few of us, however, take the specific actions enough times to create a new lifestyle Most people try a few things, get excited for, say, 21 days, and then when the old life creeps back in, off they go, back to what didn't work and won't ever work to create change.

This 21-day fat-blasting challenge will get you kickstarted on the actual action steps (called steps because they should move you forward toward your wildest vision of the most incredible you, ever), and consistency of doing those steps regularly that it takes to make a real difference.

Yogis say" repetition is magic" and what they mean is that by doing the things that serve your ultimate goals right here and now, you'll literally create a love, health and empowerment-filled matrix --a beautiful experience of your self and your life that seems to come out of nowhere, as if a magician waved a wand and--poof!--an extra amazing version of you appeared where just weeks ago there was someone much different standing there.

Today we begin with the foundation, which is really present-moment awareness. This experience you're having now, whatever it is, is always inviting you to focus in on the place where you find yourself standing, even if it's not comfortable. Yogis have learned to drop any story that says we're "bad" (particularly difficult shift of thought for us Catholics:) or feel "guilty" for anything we have chosen in the past, or that anything going on now is "not what's supposed to be happening" and in so doing, we drop one of the biggest roadblocks to transformation: a refusal to look in the mirror, and see what limiting behaviors got us here in the first place.

If you can do that, then you're well on your way to doing something about it, instead of going through life with blinders on, getting the same sub-par results year after year.

TODAY'S HEALTH TIP: DRINK MORE WATER!!

Water, water everywhere and plenty of drops to drink will make you radiantly healthy, and, yes, even happier too. Especially if you implement any of the tips or techniques I am about to suggest here. First and foremost only drink filtered water. ONLY DRINK FILTERED WATER. I won't go into all the reasons that tap water can continue to slow down the elimination processes of the liver and digestive systems which can then slow down any active efforts at body reshaping to best body ever. You can read all about that for yourself. 

You need to drink AT LEAST eight glasses of spring, artesian or even distilled water every day. Water flushes toxins from fat cells which will then, in turn, shrink. Starting each day with one to two glasses of distilled water will also flush any toxins that have built in the body during the nighttime hours while also allowing you a 'fresh' metabolic start to the day. 

Sipping as little as 5 ounces of water 20 minutes before each meal will shrink your appetite and your body as well, according to a recent study conducted by Vanderbilt University. This study says that water has the power to flip the body's stop-eating switch while also revving the metabolism and keeping your radiant, healthy and happy body hydrated as well. Studies also show that even mild dehydration can cause a drop in the metabolism rate.

TODAY'S YOGA TIP: LIGHT YOUR FIRE!

When it comes to the most important foundation of all your yoga poses, it isn't actually your feet or hands, or even the pose itself! The core of any successful yoga practice is your breath. Without it, you can't burn fat properly, detoxify your body--or even stay alive for more than a few minutes.

Today I invite you to learn the signature Golden Flame Breath, or Core Breath technique. It will help you detox and stimulate more heat and fat-burning power every time you inhale and exhale! Now that's a foundational tool you can use on and off the mat for a lifetime!

Golden Flame Breath Benefits:

• Instantly lights agni, and fires up your metabolism
• Promotes more energy and detoxification through deeper breathing
• Calms and focuses your mind, busts anxiety
• Brings new circulation to the belly area, improving digestive and reproductive health
• Tones the pelvic floor and pelvic diaphragm, an often-overlooked muscle group which can prevent loss of bladder control, uterine prolapse and other yucky situations.

• How To Practice It: 
• Come to sit on the floor or in a chair. Place your hands on your knees. I've closed my first fingers and thumbs together in Gyan Mudra, or a hand gesture that's symbolic of being open to gain knowledge. Om! 
• Sit up tall, and begin to breathe more slowly and a little more deeply through the nose. You don't need a ton of oxygen here, so don't pump the breath too hard. Keep it slow and easy.
• Pause for a brief moment after each inhale and exhale.
• Close your eyes, and imagine a golden flame sitting in the center and base of your pelvis. It's not touching the floor, but is a few inches higher--or halfway between the navel and floor, deep inside your low belly.
• On your inhales, let the flame drop and turn downward as you relax the muscles of your low belly, pelvic diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles. Let this action soften your pelvis and infuse it with heat. Imagine torching all that old stuff in your 'basement' that's holding you back!
• On the exhales, contract the 'bathroom' muscles at your pelvic floor, and also the higher ones, the ring of muscles inside your pelvic bones,. Hug around that flame and lift it up behind your navel. The flame lifts higher, creating more heat, circulation and detoxing what you are burning away up and out with your breath.

~Note: especially if this is a new practice to you, or you've had children, the pelvic diaphragm muscles might be elusive at first. Don't worry--they will build in time, and you will begin to feel them, first subtly, then more obviously. At first, you might try squeezing and lifting the muscles of the more superficial pelvic floor, like you're trying not to go to the bathroom, but eventually you want to localize the muscular action higher than that.

Do this breath for 1-2 minutes, then move on to the next pose--BUT--make sure to use this breath throughout every pose in yoga & even at any moment when you need instant stress relief or a feeling of being grounded back to the here and now, so to speak. 

When you physically come into the present with higher quality, and reunite your attention to your deeper core relationship, your results will be increased a hundred fold too. And of course, this is true on every level of your life!

TODAY'S HOMEWORK:

Without judgment, please list the Top 5 Roadblocks that get in the way of your happiness and health. Don't think so much...just write. You know what they are:

Now, write down how you can do the opposite of those things. List 10 Super Action Steps you can take away from those old behaviors and stories. They can be big or small actions, but they should move you unerringly toward the benefits you want, not away.

At the end of your list of 10 super actions, add these 5 below.

11. Eat whole, living foods instead of processed, dead ones.
12. Act with personal integrity when interacting with yourself or others
13. Make more time to nourish yourself each day. Take the time or time will take you over.
14. When you feel old habits creeping in, push to do the opposite, and take actions that invest in your health.
15. Be aware of all the small and large opportunities that present themselves each day to do all of the above....and then do all of the above.

I am so excited for you to torch everything that no longer serves you. Get ready to throw old, toxic behaviors, stories, and yes--excess body fat--into the fires of transformation

TODAY'S JOURNAL ENTRY: (EXTRA CREDIT:)

When you use your imagination and your power of visualization to see yourself as being 'radiantly healthy' and 'happy' what does your BODY look like in that visualization? Actually imagine or recreate a time where you would feel or have felt radiantly healthy and happy and describe what your body looks like in that imagining.

Begin your writing process by framing the question like this:

I am radiant, healthy and happy right now. My best body ever looks like...

TODAY'S POSITIVE AFFIRMATION: 

"I give thanks for my radiant health and happiness now and forevermore."

When you close your eyes to go to sleep tonight, repeat this affirmation in your head as many times as necessary. I, also like to repeat affirmations as I workout, whether that be doing yoga, walking or running. I will provide you with a new affirmation to help shift your thoughts to align with the new radiant YOU.

Ah, how I love DAY ONE!! Everything's new and all systems are on on 'GO'. You know how raring to go you are right now? Well, I want you to do your best to keep that sense of enthusiasm, hope and FAITH alive all throughout the entirety of this whole challenge. Keep in mind, I KNOW this challenge works and soon enough so will radiantly, healthy and happy YOU! As your goals are fulfilled and 'to-do's' are getting done, I will be here with you every step of the way. 

Good Luck with your Day One.. I know mine was spectacular!! 

I can't wait to hear about yours!! 

~Stephanie Chasles

The Day Before you Begin your Challenge

Here we go again. It has been requested that I begin the 21 Day Challenge again. So, I've taken the challenge down off the blog and I will repost each day by day starting tomorrow morning. So, if you want to join us this time around go to this blog's homepage and put your email address in the right corner box that's labeled 'follow by email' and each morning (before 5am, I promise!) you will get emailed the day's post.

Please remember, this challenge is not a itinerary telling you exactly what to eat and/or do every minute of every day, rather it's more a collection of all the best information available on diet, exercise and overall wellness (mentally and physically). If you'd like to spend hours of time researching all of the latest and greatest information available out there to discover what I've found, go for it. Or, you can simply use the info I've found (from places like the NIH and Nutrition Studies conducted by all the major universities) and from there create your own perfect lifestyle that will include the very best possible You!!


Each day we will cover...

1. The Mission of the day (to help you work effectively from the inside out)
2. The Yoga Tip of the Day (which is to be used with the 20 minute video below, unless otherwise stated)
3. The Health Tip (to help you make better choices while you're creating your own meal plans)
4. A Bonus Recipe of the Day (most days~to add to your collection)
5. Homework assignment/Journal Entry
6. Positive Affirmation 

Before you begin, today, you may want to....

1. Get yourself a journal (on the 1st page.. write down your weight/measurements/goals)
2. Take before pictures from every angle in your workout clothes or bathing suit
3. Head to the grocery store and buy lots of fresh fruits (lots of lemons) and veggies, chia squeeze* and Emergen-C vitamin mix* 
4. As a rule of thumb, every day I usually... 
1. Begin with the morning detox ((hot water w/one tea bag, half of lemon and honey to taste))
2. Do the Yoga Video below
3. Then have some fresh fruit w/greek yogurt OR
4. The chia squeeze thing*
5. Then drink the vitamin mix*
6. For lunch fresh veggies
7. For dinner, a meal with the family using some of the recipes included
8. However, you will find that as you do this yoga video every morning your metabolism is going to kick into overdrive and you'll be able to eat much more than before!! Just remember to keep your snacks healthy. If you're not sure how to do that, don't worry, you will soon!
5. Set your alarm clock for 30 minutes earlier than normal. If you take a few minutes to read the days post while sipping on your tea, then get on the floor and do the 20 min yoga video below, you are headed in the direction of Greatness!!  

*Both the Chia Squeeze thing and the Vitamin Mix are pictured below and both can be found at Costco or any health food store. I promise, these are the only "supplement-like" things you will need for this challenge! 

Both are under 10 bucks for a two week (or more) supply and totally worth adding to your daily diet forever!! Caution, drink the chia squeeze thing very fast, in big gulps. Don't try to chew the chia seeds, just get them into your belly for long lasting hunger-sation that will hold you over till lunch the healthy way (w/ omega 3's and not caffeine that'll drop you on your bum on its departure!) 

The best of luck during your 21 Day Challenge.. begin tomorrow and you will be wrapping up your Day 21 just before the kids head back to school!! What better way to start this school year?? Show off your new body to all the other parents on the 1st day of school and more importantly have the energy necessary to handle, yet another, chaotic school year!! 

Enjoy! ~Stephanie Chasles 

Hello success... how You doing???

I watched my numbers drop as I made healthy choices and felt the difference when I switched from running daily to yoga, however nothing is greater proof of success than comparing my before pictures to my after pics!! My 21 day challenge has strengthened every single muscle in my body and I'm not ashamed to say that it shows! Thanks for reading along as I embarked upon this journey. If you haven't already begun, I hope you decide to now!! As always, I'm here to help along the way!!