Drum Roll Please: The Nutribullet Detox results are in!

After 21 days of the Nutribullet Detox my participants were eager to find out how they did. So was I. The winner of my challenges is always determined by how much body fat was lost and how much muscle gained. Losing weight isn’t that important but what matters is that your body composition changes. You may have started at 150 pounds and finished at 150 pounds, but what matters is what happened to your body fat. If your body fat drops and your weight stays the same, that means you lost fat and gained muscle. That’s a great change because muscle increases your metabolism, makes you leaner and smaller and when fat is lost, then toxins are released from the fatty tissue. 
The challenge is always to keep the muscle on our bodies. Typically when you reduce your food intake, you lose muscle. That’s fine up to a certain point. If you lose too much muscle, you’ll slow your metabolism down. That’s why we eat protein 5x a day and exercise. 
A conventional juice fast always promotes muscle loss. Take, for example someone who spend $350 for one of the currently popular juice fasts for 5 days. Yes, you would lose weight, but the weight loss is the result of you emptying your bowels and losing muscle. You rarely lose body fat because on a low-or no-protein diet your muscle cannibalizes itself. Even worse, once you eat real food again, all that weight is back in a matter of 2-3 days, plus more because now your metabolism is even slower, thanks to the muscle loss. Got it? That’s why the Nutribullet Detox produced fat loss galore. We ate, were never hungry, felt energized, our mood was balanced and we slept like babies. 
Let me show you the winners: 
1st Prize of $500 goes to DENNIS:
Weight loss: 8 lbs
Body fat loss: 9.4%
% of body weight lost: 5.5%
Lean muscle gained: 6.7 lbs
Fat lost: 14.7 lbs
2nd Prize of 10 Boot Camp sessions goes to BARBARA:
Weight loss: 8.8 lbs
Body fat loss: 4.1%
% of body weight lost: 6%
Lean muscle: .26 lost (Barbara managed to maintain her muscle mass, which is great!)
Fat lost: 8.5 lbs

3rd Prize of 5 Boot Camp sessions goes to Laura:
Weight loss: 12.1 lbs
Body fat loss: 2.7%
% of body weight lost: 8.3%
Lean muscle: 3.3 lbs lost
Fat lost: 6.7 lbs

 Here are a few others with remarkable results. Just for inspiration!

Nicole lost 7.6 lbs, 2.3% body fat. That translated into 6.3 lbs of pure fat lost!

 Kelly lost 12 lbs and .6% body fat (that measurements is inaccurate due to dehydration) and 7 inches!

Wade has lost close to 40 lbs in the last year and absolutely deserves a big mention here for his consistent working out and eating clean. What an incredible change!

Samantha dropped an “easy” 10.4 lbs!

Gwynne dropped 10 lbs as well and started feeling great again.

Leslie dropped 10 lbs and 2% body fat!

Liz got a new body. Check this out: 4.4 lbs lost and 8.5 inches down!

Or, this might just say it all: Kick Ass!!!!

Here’s more interesting stuff. 27 People did the final weigh-in and here’s how many lost that amount of weight:

1 lb: 1 person
2 lbs: 2
3 lbs: 1
4 lbs: 5
5 lbs: 5
6 lbs: 2
7 lbs: 1
8 lbs: 3
9 lbs: 2
10 lbs: 3
12 lbs: 2

 Congatulations to all who participated. You made some amazing changes in your life and it shows. Keep on it as this is only the beginning!

Do you love almond milk? Make your own!

I recently bought a NutriBullet/Magicbullet and am hooked on that nifty thing. I’ve been having 2-3 green blended juices every day that are loaded with veggies and fiber. I love making a sweet treat at night with almond milk, dark chocolate powder and half a banana with ice cubes. I’ve researched recipes for almond milk since someone told me that you can make it easily in the NutriBullet. I came across this great description and wanted to share it with you. If you’ve been buying packaged almond milk, please check the ingredients. If it contains carrageenan, you want to switch brands or make your won. The refrigerated Trader Joe’s brand is great, as is the Silk brand. Here’s why carrageenan can cause your digestion and stomach quite some issues, so give the homemade natural version a go. This blog post is reposted from Frugally Sustainable. 

I love almond milk.
But you know what I love more…homemade almond milk.
You can absolutely drive out to your local store and buy almond milk – but once you’ve had it fresh, the rich taste will keep you coming back for more! And guess what? It’s super easy to make.
Let me show you how.
Homemade Almond Milk
Ingredients
-pure, filtered water for soaking
-1 cup raw, organic almonds
-4 cups pure, filtered water
Optional Add-Ins
-sweetener to taste (i.e. maple syrup, honey, stevia, or my ultimate fave…4-6 medjool dates)
-homemade vanilla extract (I like to add 1 teaspoon to the mix)
-carob powder (Chocolate almond milk anyone!?!)
-spices (i.e. cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cardamon…get creative)
Method
1. Allow the almonds to soak covered in pure, filtered water for up to 48 hours in the refrigerator. Overnight will do, if you’re in a pinch. But, I like to give mine a good couple of days.
2. After soaking, strain the soaked almonds and toss the soaking water.
3. Place your almonds, four cups of pure, filtered water, and any optional add-ins in a high-speed blender — I love my Vitamix for this — and blend on high until the mixture becomes frothy…approximately 1-2 minutes.
4. Pour the contents of the blender through a cheese cloth lined strainer — or if you have one, a nut milk bag — into a 1 quart glass canning jar. Squeeze to extract all the goodness of the almond meal.
5. Store the milk in the refrigerator. It should keep for up to 3 days. Shake the jar prior to use.
Note
I don’t like the idea of wasting all of that almond meal/pulp. Now granted, most of the nutrients are gone into the milk, but I still find it useful for recipes like these brownies…yum! Or you could dehydrate them for use as a coating for chicken and fish. Perhaps make almond butter. What about using them as a body or facial scrub?
The possibilities are endless really!