Lately, I have been seeing a bit of a “who’s diet is better”
warfare going down on the net and on social media.

Uggh.

One person is over one corner shouting, “You MUST be Vegan!”

The other person is shouting, “NO! Paleo is where it is at! It worked for me
and damn it, it will work for you too.”

And everyone in between is trying to have their say.

Frankly, I am over it.

It’s this kinda thinking that has gotten us in such a mess!

I say a mess because most people are walking around so confused about
who the hell to listen to, what will actually work, and what to believe
that they either take no action or run from one camp to the other.

Now, to be clear, I don’t take sides. (Which kinda has pissed some
people I know off.. I won’t say their diet is the best and so they
get kinda angry at me…weird!)

I truly, truly believe that some people can thrive eating more meat and
some others can thrive off an entirely plant-based diet and everything in between.

I have studied enough about nutrition to have seen the data from both
camps to see how, ironically, BOTH have merit.

What I do like about both of them is that there is an emphasis on eating
more food from the planet than from a factory. I dig that.

But here’s the big problem…

We are still stuck in an old paradigm that only ONE way is the RIGHT way.

I hate to break it to you but it is not that simple.

Each of us are unique and have unique needs that change over time. What works for one person may totally jack up another, and what worked a year ago may no longer allow us to thrive now. I can attest to this.

And a lot of us are walking around with damage to our guts from years of
toxic eating and/or antibiotics, birth control pills, and undiagnosed food allergies.

To further the problem along, we are also taking in almost 5 pounds a YEAR from
toxic chemicals via our environment and so called beauty products (that
means your shampoo, perfumes, lotions…yeah, for real!), not to mention the other
toxins that come at us from our food supply.

Even though our bodies naturally do detoxify, they can’t keep up
on a day to day basis with the load we throw at them. They weren’t designed for that.

And guess where all those lovely toxins love to store themselves?

In your fat cells. Yep, right in your cellulite that you damn so much. They LOVE themselves some fat!And when those areas “fill up”, they make their way on over to other super fat-condensed area known as our BRAIN. This is even scarier because this can lead to neurological disturbances.

So I bet you are thinking, “I’ll just lose weight! Since toxins like fat, I’ll just get rid of the fat. Let me follow that diet plan my friend told me about..she lost
a lot of weight on it!”

Not so fast…

When you simply “lose weight” without properly detoxifying and making toxins go from fat soluble to water soluble, those toxins recirculate in your system. Once those toxins and their mucus are released they must get out ASAP! If not, they can damage our cells, disrupt our bodies systems, and go right back into our circulatory and lymph systems, causing great damage.

(And a scale or dress size won’t tell you that is happening.)

That’s why we not only need to detoxify but we have to also get those
harmful toxins OUT!.

So, we can waste our time fighting all day about who’s got the better diet

OR…

We can spend our time not just losing weight but getting HEALTHY. (And…gasp!… respecting one another’s personal choices instead of attacking one another!)

This is why a high quality detox is so important.

During that time we:

1) Eliminate foods that create an inflammatory response in the body and reduce the amount of work the digestive system has to do so we can enter detox mode more rapidly, releasing toxins.

2) We make sure that once these toxins are neutralized and released from our system as quickly and efficiently as possible. The two MUST go together!

3) We spend time healing our gut and getting rid of sugar-feeding yeast, like candida, that keep us sick, overweight, and in a “constant craving” mode.

It takes time to HEAL our bodies. It doesn’t matter if the scale says you lost 10 pounds…that’s just the external. What really matters is what is going on at a cellular level. I know plenty of skinny people who aren’t so healthy and I bet you do to!

After the detox is done, then you need to systematically test for adverse food reactions.

Again, this is why deciding to follow Paleo or Vegan or whatever without cleaning the slate first can be problematic.

I have had many clients discover they had hidden food allergies that they never
knew about until they did my detox.

And of course, there is the emotional element as well. Clean food and water mean nothing without being in a good head space and starting to uncover where you get blocked! Our emotional health and happiness is probably THE most vital nutrient you can have. When you are overly focused on following the “right” diet, you are actually distracting yourself from really taking an honest look at your life and what needs to shift…that can be extremely painful and scary for many.

Look, I am totally behind each person finding a way of eating that works for them.
It’s a great relief when you can say, “Wow! I feel amazing when I eat these foods. I think this is something I want to stick to.”

But just know that if you want to truly heal your body and help her run
at her optimal level, running from one diet trend after another in search of some
magic number on a scale is no way to go.

Take some time to heal your body, move the junk out of her, and let HER tell YOU
what foods she likes best.

Maybe it is chicken…or maybe it is a quinoa patty…and surely she will probably also tell you “more sex, more sleep, more movement, more FUN!” YEAH!!!

Just don’t let someone else dictate to you what you “should” be doing, not even me!
You have to be willing to experiment a bit.

And if you are ready to find out for YOURSELF what works, then I want to warmly
invite you one last time to join me for my Lean, Clean, and Sugar-Free™ 21-Day Detox.

>>http://www.anitaavalos.com/leancleansugarfreedetox-regpage/<<

It starts April 12th, love, and it’s an investment in your best health ever.

Yes, most likely, you will release weight…

But you will also actually take the time to release toxins, restore you gut health,
gain more energy, and so much more….safely and effectively.

How much longer do you want to wait until you start living at peak health?

I’m here to support you 150%.

This is more than a diet or a weight-loss plan…

This is your invitation to living your best life.

I hope you will take me up on it.

Lots of love,
Anita

Back in the fall, I filmed a pantry overhaul.

What is that you ask?

Basically it’s when I go to a client’s house, go through their pantry, frig, and freezer, take out all the toxic stuff and get them educated on how they can refill it with high quality food.

Now sometimes when clients hire me to do this I find lots of high calorie,
sugar-laden, low quality junk food…the obvious suspects.

But many times when I do a pantry overhaul, I find that my client is a traditional dieter who,thanks to the jacked up dieting industry, has been sorely mislead into thinking that diet foods would help her lose weight.

Her kitchen is filled with low calorie this, Weight Watchers that, not to mention 100 calorie pack snacks and fat free garbage.

At the end of her rope and feeling utterly confused about what to eat and why, after doing all the “right” things, she can’t release the weight, she comes to me for help and for some answers.

I literally get tears in my eyes just writing about it because I was that woman for so many years…it breaks my heart…

You see, true health, happiness, and living in my own personal empowerment (which is HOT, BTW!) wasn’t really on the agenda.

I was at war with my body and my whole life was just stuck around trying to control her, control food, and really, I lived in fear of real food….I thought if the label said “diet” or “low-calorie” then it was the right “food” to eat.

I looked for those stupid points, calories, fat grams…
the counting game….

As a result, I was so freaked out about food and my body that I completely put myself in a stress response, which only jeopardized my body’s chances to release weight that much more. My poor body was flooded with toxic processed foods and toxic thoughts to boot.

Oh my…I couldn’t have been further from the mark, and I don’t want that to happen to you.

So today I am giving you an inside look into that pantry overhaul I filmed months ago… (I’m so grateful she let me film it )

See if you recognize any foods/drinks that you currently have in your home…

then dump them ASAP!

Pay special attention to all the hidden sugars…so freakin
nuts!

Let me know what you think…

What you are taking out of your kitchen TODAY?

And if you are inspired and want more guidance, I warmly invite you to be a part of my Lean, Clean, and Sugar-Free™ 21-Day Spring Detox.

This could be the jumpstart you have been looking for to get out of dieting, toxic foods, and toxic thinking and into a whole new way of living….into healing your body from the inside out.

Make health your goal, not weight-loss. When you do that, your body, kitchen, world, plate, mind will all be filled with the best of the best…you deserve it!

Loving YOU,

P.S. Yes, I do pantry overhauls and grocery store tours for peeps living in the Los Angeles area. If you are interested, send me a message and we can set yours up!

Spring is here, baby! Longer, warmer days mean more time outside to play and get moving. It feels like a natural push from Mama Nature to get let go of the introspective time of winter, release any and all stagnant energy, and reenergize our lives.

With that kinda energy brewing, spring feels like the best time to detox aka cleanse (In next week’s post, I’ll talk more about the way Mama Nature supports cleansing our systems, especially from sugar, during springtime). Everywhere I look, I see the word detox splashed on magazine covers, blogs, and ads.

Obviously, I’m not against detoxing itself. I lead and do seasonal detoxes myself and know their incredible benefits. They can be an amazing JUMPSTART to creating a new lifestyle and giving your body a much needed time of rejuvenation/healing. (In fact, my Lean, Clean, and Sugar-Free™ Spring Detox is coming April 12th, and I’m having a special free preview call next week that you can sign up for here.)

But I do have some beef with how people misuse the word, conduct them, and basically turn them into another diet (which is truly a four-letter word to me!)

So today, I want to give you 3 tips on how to get savvy on detoxing and know if you are being sold a bunch of irresponsible “diet in disguise” detox hype or if you are getting your hands on the real, truly healing deal.

I also want you to get hip to when you, my dear, are using even the most nutritionally sound detox as yet another diet and how to break yourself from that kinda thinking so you can truly benefit from your next detox.

So when is a detox just another diet with a cuter name?

1) It is extreme in nature and is solely centered around weight-loss.

Dieting by definition is about restriction and is almost always centered around weight-loss, not health. And what usually happens when we lose the weight on a diet? We are so damn happy the thing is over (because usually we are STARVING) that we jump at the first brownie we see. We walk away with little to no knowledge about how our bodies work, what they need, or how to keep them happy and healthy. In short, we haven’t learned jack about how to create a sustainable lifestyle change. We just learned a quick gimmick on how to lose weight.

Bottom line: If the detox you are looking at is simply promising weight-loss and/or has you feeling hunger-pangs throughout, I would highly advise you run the other way. The truth is a great detox will have you enjoying (yes, I said ENJOYING) real food that will promote health, healing, and instilling practices and tools that you can use long after the detox is over so your body can run more efficiently and stay in more of a detox mode. You’ll walk away with knowledge about what foods make your body feel and look amazing and have a game plan for how to keep the benefits going after the detox is over. A beautiful side-effect of this is that you naturally will release weight (if that is indeed what your body needs), no hunger pangs required.

2) If the detox comes in a pill, bottle, or tub, with no high quality nutrition to go with it, something ain’t right!

I see this all the time…a so-called detox plan in the form of a pill, drink, or shake (and it usually, again, promotes instant weight-loss). This is not to say that high quality supplements can’t enhance our health or the detoxing process; they absolutely can. But if someone is telling me to take a pill, drink, or a shake 3x’s a day AND THAT’S IT, then hello, I smell scam and diet in disguise.

Bottom line: High quality supplements can enhance a detox by aiding the release of toxins and aide in healing our bodies, but using them without the aide of high quality nutrition is like throwing a glass of water on a burning building…no progress will come of that. If someone is promising a magic-bullet pill, take your money elsewhere.

3) If the detox gives no mention to other lifestyle factors, such as movement, stress, toxic thought patterns, and quality of life, that’s a red flag in my book.

By definition, a detox is about enhancing the body’s ability to release toxins and giving it a unique opportunity to rest and repair itself, more than we often do in our daily life.

Therefore, looking at food and water solely as the avenues to detoxing is missing a big piece of picture. You can eat the best food, take the best supplements, drink the best water BUT if you aren’t addressing the other factors in your life that are keeping you toxic, true healing and detoxing won’t occur.

Bottom line: Don’t overlook the importance of examining the other ways your life needs to be detoxed. It’s important that your detox program gives you the tools and the space to detox your environment, your body, your heart, and your mind aka your thoughts. This will lighten your toxic load ten fold.

BONUS TIP: YOU must be super honest with yourself as to why you are detoxing. If you are doing it JUST to lose weight, this is not a detox you are embarking on. It’s just another diet and you will have a very small chance of creating a lifestyle switch. Plus, you are more likely to be pulled into these false and unhealthy detox programs which are a dime a dozen these days.

Bottom line: There’s nothing wrong with wanting to release unwanted weight, especially if you truly know that you are holding onto unhealthy extra weight. However, your goal should be obtaining the best possible health and happiness for your body and for your life, not just the dropping some weight. If you make having crazy good health and happiness your top goals, then you are coming from a place of true love for your body and treating her to a special time of healing and rejuvenation during your detox. And when she feels loved and appreciated, I promise you, she will pay you back in large dividends.

And what could be more detoxifying than that?

Did this post speak to you? What about it was your big takeaway?

Let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to share this post with your friends…we don’t want them getting scammed either!

Love,

P.S. Make sure you sign-up for the call on March 22nd. It’s going to be crazy good. Get in on the action right here.

The world of nutrition can be a daunting place for sure! There is rarely one thing that all the experts can agree on; this is part of the reason that navigating through the world of health and wellness can be so damn confusing! Who do you believe? What way of eating is right for you? How can one expert explain a dietary theory so well, have it so well researched, and then the next one throws a study at you that is in the complete opposite direction?

Although this can make finding the way of eating that works best for you difficult, it also goes to show us that one way of eating is not the only way nor the right way for everyone.

At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), where I graduated from, we learned over 100 dietary theories and conflicting theories on nutrition were thrown at us weekly.

But with all that, there are two pieces of nutritional wisdom that were a common thread in all these theories. This became evident again this past weekend when I attended the IIN Mega Conference in Long Beach, CA where I got hear a variety of amazing lectures from some of the nutrition world’s top authorities on health and wellness, including Mark Sisson, Julia Ross, John Robbins, Geenen Roth, and David Wolfe, just to name a few!

Ready to hear the two themes that kept reoccurring?

1) Sugar is toxic. Period. Now, let me preface this by saying that I fully realize that never having sugar again in your lifetime is highly unrealistic. That might be ideal nutritionally speaking, but “never evers” are highly unlikely when we are talking about a lifetime. However, when you consider that sugar

– has been proven to be 4 times as addictive as cocaine
– is deemed the “chief architect of heart disease”
– can cause toxemia in pregnancy
– causes gallstones to form
– decreases growth hormones and is linked with premature aging
– can cause candida
– feeds cancer
– increases glucose and insulin, thus keeping you overweight

…just to name a few, I think you can agree with me and the experts that kickin sugar to the curb is a must if you want to
live a happy, healthy, and hot life! It’s one of those things that if you are going to have it, you want that to be as rarely as humanly possible.

On the emotional tip, I truly believe that we turn to sugar more when we are lacking sweetness in other areas of our lives, when our lives get way out of balance and our emotional needs are not getting met.

Which brings me to the next common theme from the experts:

2) Love, joy, connection, and self-acceptance are vital for true health and are the keys to a life that is truly sweet.

I’ve seen this time and time again with clients and even with myself. When the joy is lacking in your life, you will search for false substitutes for the sweetness you desire.

Which is why I am SUPER excited about my upcoming Lean, Clean, and Sugar-Free™ Spring Detox coming April 12th, where I am going to help you kick sugar to the curb (including the hidden ones and the sugar alternatives that are keeping you from your health goals), detox your body from toxins and inflammatory foods, AND allow you to start to make room for the relationships and experiences that are truly sweet and satisfying (trust me…when you are authentically happy, the crappy, sugar-laden foods look way less enticing!)

Stay tuned for an upcoming FREE preview call that will get you hip to sugar’s hidden sources so you can start living happier, healthier, and hotter! There’s nothing hotter than a woman (or man) who is well informed! (Registration page coming early next week!)

Now I want to hear from you. What about this post intrigued you? Where in your life do you need to take out more of the white stuff and add in more of the love stuff?

Thanks, as always, for reading and watching. And if you know someone who could benefit from this, please feel free to share it with them.

Love,