REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN.

The four day transition is how I eat most days. I’m really looking forward to this detox, with a few modifications to account for my food sensitivities (e.g. I’m sensitive to fermented products and sometimes react to vinegar so I’m likely going to cut vinegar out, even apple cider vinegar).

I also intend to hit a hot yoga class this evening. Getting my health back on track starts today. Not that my health has suffered, as far as I know, but as I said in my first article about this detox, I have no desire to eat myself into illness or disease.

Registration gets you $5 off any ebook, guide or MP3 in the store. You can only get the coupon code if you register.

UPDATE (Jan 4):
I’ve now thoroughly read the book. I like it and think that it’s perfect for people who have never detoxed before or are new to the process. Because I’ve read most of Meghan’s other ebooks (I’m only missing The Veggie Transition now and yet have three copies of Everyday Superfoods), it’s also clarified the difference between “detox” and “cleansing” for me, though the two are used interchangeably. In “detoxing”, we’re removing toxins from our diet and lifestyle. More like “un-tox”. In cleansing, we’re removing existing toxins from our body. At least, that’s the distinction that I’ve chosen.

If you want to go deeper with the detox and cleanse, buy it, take that $5 coupon code and then buy the Green Smoothie Cleanse e-book and 21 Days to Health e-book and incorporate some of what you learn from those books. The Green Smoothie Cleanse book talks about other ways to cleanse your organs such as your skin, educates about cleansing herbs and gives lifestyle cleansing tips such as meditation, exercise and yoga, dry skin brushing, infrared saunas and enemas and colonics (in my opinion, people are way too scared of their own bums). 21 Days to Health gives 1 lifestyle change suggestion, every day for 21 days. They’re as simple as “drink lemon water” and “floss your teeth”. Nothing you can’t easily add to your daily routine and maintain.

Also check out Natural Body Care, because what you put on your skin absorbs into your bloodstream transdermally so what you put on it is as important as what you put in it.
Pro tip: I use coconut oil as my all over moisturizer (face, lips, body) and lubricant. I keep little jars that I refill from a big jar in my bathroom, on my dresser, on the table next to my bed (it should be in your “tickle trunk”) and in my purse. If I wouldn’t put it in my mouth I don’t want it other places on or in my body.

• Read all my blog posts tagged “21 Days to Health”.
• Read all of my blog posts that mention the Green Smoothie Cleanse.

(Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate with Meghan so I do get a small 8% commission when people click links from here to buy her products, but I don’t promote any product that I don’t believe in. I like Meghan and her philosophy so much that I spent my money on a week in St. Lucia with her last year.)

New year, new goals?

A week ago I told you about Meghan’s new guide, 21 Days to Health.

From Meghan’s blog:

We all know that creating a super powered community around healthy living is the surest way to:

1. Make it stick
2. Make it fun
3. Make us not feel like total and complete social outcasts.

For 21 days Meghan will use Facebook, Twitter and live video chats to help you through. At the end of 21 you may or may not have developed habit. It’s up to you. You’ve got to put in the effort and keep it up, yo.

Read all about it here.

Buy it here!
(An affiliate link, I get 8% of each sale if you buy via that link. 8% is $1.12 on a $14 book.)

Meghan is back with another guide, 21 Days to Health.

What This Program’s All About

You know how they say that it takes 3 weeks to form a habit? 21 Days To Health is about incorporating very simple changes everyday for 21 days. By the end of those three weeks, you will have tried out and gradually added more healthy living practices than you ever thought possible- and done so with virtually no stress and minimal effort. You will have broken old habits and established new ones.

This program has nothing to do with whether you should eat organic or not, or what the best kind of fish oil is. This is about 21 simple transitions that cover off the 20% of the effort that will give you 80% of the results. This is the important stuff. The changes in this book are not rocket science, they are things we inherently know we should do, but for whatever reason, don’t do.

How to use the guide:
In the guide, Meghan has made a series of 21 recommendations for enhancements to your healthy living. The idea is that on day 1, you take on the first task, on day 2 you add a second, on day 3 a third until after 21 days, you have made 21 simple, easy changes which you will then carry on for another whole week.

Each day contains a checklist. There are suggestions for making the tasks even simpler. There are recipes. There are reasons why each task is worth doing.

This program answers that every popular question when it comes to transitioning to a healthier way of eating.

Watch Meghan’s video explaining the tutorial.

I’ve already got my copy.  The recommended for Day 1 is warm lemon water in the morning. I already do that. Day 2 is a reminder to floss daily. I do that too! (Most days.) I’m already ahead.

I recommend printing it out in color because it’s beautiful. Bind it if you can. I didn’t, but I did hole punch it and began a binder for all of the Making Love in the Kitchen books/tutorials/e-guides that I own. Of 9 I think I own 7, but could only find 6 that I had kept together in the same place. Her Guided Meditation recording is on my “to buy” list.  Speaking of buying other Making Love in the Kitchen books/tutorials/e-guides…

Did someone say Boxing Day Sale?

Today only, this book and all others in the Making Love in the Kitchen catalogue are only $10 rather than the regular price of $14. You save $4. At either price, that’s a steal! Personally, I think that Meghan could be charging more than $20 for these guides. They’re worth more than that. Their low price makes the guides – and therefore access to tips for improved help – accessible to all while also enforcing their value and allowing her business to make money.

Learn more and buy!

(Tell her I sent you.)

Eat well, be well.

Hey look! Meghan’s doing her 5 Days Low Glycemic Eating program again!

Curious? Read about it at Making Love in the Kitchen. It starts in two days.

Get the e-guide.

Have you thought about going vegan but needed some support? Didn’t know where to start? Perhaps you went to this past weekend’s Vegetarian Food Fair in Toronto an omnivore and left inspired. Maybe you’ve have decided that with the new season or the Jewish new year it’s time to begin new habits?

Meghan’s next group transition program (formerly known as the daunting-for-some “5 days vegan”) begins this Friday.

About the program

In Meghan’s words (emphasis mine):

The Veggie Transition (Formerly entitled 5 Days Vegan)

Only good can from adding more plant-based foods into our diet. There is not a single study out there that could argue that point. The challenge however is that so many people have forgotten (or maybe never knew) how easy and delicious these foods can be.

The purpose of this Veggie Transition Program is not to convert you to being 100% vegan. The idea and intention behind it is simply to ease a transition to healthier way of eating, to introduce you to new foods. I am simply attempting to open your eyes (stomach, taste buds and likely bowels) to a new way of eating, for a short time. You can than take what you like of it, leave what you don’t and still get the benefit. In most cases (I said most) doing something a little bit, is better than not doing it all.

To join the program

(adapted from the Making Love in the Kitchen website):

• Get yourself a copy of the guide.

+ Optional Group Involvement

• Signify that you are on The Veggie Transition team by posting a comment on the Making Love in the Kitchen Facebook Fan Page
• Leading up to and on September 17th through the duration of the 5 day transition program, Meghan and her team will be coaching you along in a variety of ways:
  • They’ll post questions and moderate discussions on the Facebook Fan Page Discussion Board
  • Meghan and Co. will support your transition activity via Twitter Coaching (Tweet and search tweets with the hashtag #vegtransition)
• Share your posts and videos! Meghan’s team encourages you to document your experience either via a blog journal or perhaps video diary.  Sometimes being accountable makes all the difference and they want to follow your progress.  Please post links to blogs/videos on the Fan Page and they’ll make sure the group gets to see them for more group support!

Click here for more information and here to buy the tutorial.  If you buy it from my website I get $1.12 – or 8% – from each sale. It’s not much financially but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Jews might notice that the second day of the transition is Yom Kippur so if you intend to fast anyhow that’s two meals that you don’t have to eat.  It kind of feels like cheating.   (On the other hand it’s easy to eat everything in sight when you break the fast when you should eat light and slowly – I’ll do a blog post about prepping and recovering for the fast this week.)

It’s the perfect time of year to change eating habits and transition.

Who knows, you may get vegan super powers.
(That’s a nerdy Scott Pilgrim reference.)

This time it’s on a weekend, which I think makes it even easier. In the past – and she’s facilitated, what, four of these now? – it was during the week. I imagine that a weekend Friday-Sunday smoothie cleanse is ideal because it removes the challenge/excuse of planning smoothies for work. The remaining challenge is social commitments, but weekends are a good time to relax and recharge and take a break from the social commitments. Personally, most of my social plans tend to be during the week. Some weekends I want to be a hermit.

I encourage you all to participate in this relatively simple, three-day, mid-summer cleanse. You may be skeptical but it’s worth a shot, right? You might get something out of it. If you don’t feel positively affected by it in any way after participating fully and with an open mind you’ve got more ammo for your argument about why you think they’re pointless. (I believe that you don’t know unless you try and one can’t insist that something health related doesn’t work without having experienced it.)  Here’s what Meghan says to first timers, cynics and those who live “on beer and fast food”.

Buy your copy here.

Of course, if this weekend doesn’t work for you you could do a three-day cleanse on your own if you feel like you could fully participate without the support, or wait for Meghan’s next facilitated cleanse. If memory serves (Meghan, help me out here?)  since spring 2009 she’s lead 3 or 4. Knowing her she’s got the next dates planned. I can see how a weekend at a cottage with barbecue and frosty alcoholic beverages (even Smirnoff Ice) would be more appealing than 3 days of nothing but smoothies. Hell I want such an invitation (minus the Ice). In this case I’d actually encourage you to wait for the next facilitated cleanse if it’s your first time so that you can get the support, but that’s just me. Why not buy the tutorial now if you haven’t already, read through it, and participate when the timing is best for you? Or, incorporate some of the ideas into your every day life now and do an actual cleanse when the time feels right. Every change, no matter how small, makes an impact.

This edition has recipes submitted by her blog readers. One of those recipes came from me, another from my sister. It really is new and improved.

Click here to hear how you can win a copy of Meghan’s brand spanking new Guided Meditation Program! Enter by day end Friday.

I’ve started tweeting “smoothie of the day” (sometimes referred to as “SmOTD”) every morning from Monday to Friday. I’ll try to get into the habit of hashtagging these.

Eat well, be well.

Meghan’s running another contest. The winner will receive a delicious assortment of teas from nourishtea as well as the box collection of e-guides from Meghan valued at over $130.

Pop on over to her blog, check out the contest and tell her your favourite herbal tea or tea blend. If you feel so inclined, tell her that I sent you.

The next three-day challenge begins on August 6!

Read all about it here and watch her video.
Buy a copy.

This edition has recipes submitted by her blog readers. One of those recipes came from me, another from my sister. It really is new and improved.

It’s smoothilicious!

Eat well, be well.

5 Days Healing with Superfoods

The first group challenge will start on Sunday, April 18th. The tutorial is now available for purchase, for the low price of $12.

You don’t have to participate in the group challenge in order to use the tutorial but here are a some advantages to the group challenge:

• Themed posts on Meghan’s blog all week.
• Twitter coaching (@meghantelpner)
• Group support through Meghan’s blog.

5 Days Healing with Everyday Superfoods, in Meghan’s words:

If food is what is making us sick in our society, what if we amp up our diets and use food to resolve the problem too. What if we looked at food as our fuel, as our medicine and made it easy, delicious, and so uber powerful that our body had no choice but to heal and repair itself? That is what this tutorial is about.

The more I began to learn about the healing properties of these superfoods, the more of them I wanted in my diet. What was missing for me, in everything I was reading, was the inherent lack of practicality. Some might argue that being able to throw everything into a blender, stir it together, and drink your meal down is the ultimate in practical. True, it might be for some people. But what about the people who have families to feed, who want to sit down to a meal with others, who get genuine pleasure from being in the kitchen and finding creative ways to blend raw superfoods, cooked superfoods and plain old whole, unprocessed foods into delicious meals?  That is where this tutorial comes in.

I will show you how to incorporate these superfoods into your everyday eating.

The guide contains 60 + pages of info including (but of course not limited to):

•    The Definition of a Superfood
•    Benefits of Whole Foods
•    Food as Fuel
•    Food as Medicine
•    Challenges with Food Guides and Diets
•    Calories Versus Nutrition
•    Benefits of Raw

Additional Resources
•    Conscious Eating
•    Sprouting 101
•    Food and Mood Journal
•    Whole Foods Shopping List
•    Blank Meal Plan Template

Even if this is not a program you want to follow full on right now, or even in the near future, the information included will  enlighten many of your food decisions and help you to understand how easily you can super-power your eating everyday!

You can read more about the Healing with Everyday Superfoods tutorial on her website here and here.

Also check out Meghan’s other e-tutorials: Green Smoothie Cleanse, Low GI eating, 5 Days Vegan, and The Lunar Cycle: Hormone Balance.

Meghan’s tutorials are her answer to the many questions and comments she gets via email and on her blog from people who are feeling challenged in their endeavors to transition to a healthier way of living but don’t know where to begin. She synthesizes years of nutrition education, kitchen experience, teaching experience, client/consultation experience, and her big book shelf into the vital information you need to know in one concise package. The guides are interesting, inspiring and at some points quirky, like Meghan herself. Meghan tries to make the meal plans and recipes easy, achievable and sustainable.

Regarding her e-tutorials, she says: “I am in no way working to convert anyone to any single way of eating, only to explore new and healthy foods, and new and healthy practices so my readers can decide what works for them and what doesn’t on an individual basis.”

Visit Meghan’s store to see everything she has to offer (for sale, that is).

Eat well, be well.

Edit: No, I’m not running a contest. Maybe I will in the future but I don’t think I have enough readers to make it fun. I’d want people fighting for it.