As a vegan, I’m always getting asked how I’ve stuck to an entirely plant-based diet for all these years. Which is really just another way of asking, “How do you stick to a diet?”

The answer? It has a lot to do with detoxing. But, really, that’s just the beginning.

The better you treat your body, the more you feed it real food, the stuff that’s bad for you slowly becomes less and less appetizing.

And it’s not a mental thing. It’s a real physical change.

Before I describe what I mean, though, let’s do a quick refresher on what a detox actually is.

What’s a Detox?

You hear a lot of detoxes these days (mostly in the form of expensive powders and juices designed to shed pounds quickly and easily, all with virtually no effort on your part). But, a detox is really much simpler.

A detox is, at its essence, a process of cleansing your body and bloodstream of the toxins that we’re surrounded by each day.

Here are some of a detox’s benefits:

1. Your body’s natural detoxification systems are reset
2. Free radicals, which contribute to premature aging and other bad things, are eliminated from your body.
3. Your immune system gets a big boost.
4. Your organs get happy and start working better.
5. Your overall health and life improve.
6. You get rid of some of your old bad habits and start with a clean slate to begin building newer, better ones.

So, as number 6 above shows, when you’ve done a detox, you’re primed to build healthy habits. And part of that process also includes the fact that you’ve essentially gotten rid of all the junk in your system and your body feels good. From there, because the detox has shown your body what it’s supposed to feel like, your body will naturally take over from there. Feed it good food and it will let you know. Feed it garbage, and it will let you know that you shouldn’t have done that.

Listening and the Physical

I used to love french fries. But after detoxing often and sticking to a plant-based diet, if I eat a french fry now, my body will let me know. Loudly.

And that’s the key to maintaining a healthy diet. Staying in tune with your body. Feeding it what it needs. And, when you screw up, it will let you know.

And, again, it’s not purely a mental shift. No, it’s a physical one. An honest-to-gosh gut reaction in the most literal sense.

It’s an amazing transformation, one that you definitely deserve to experience, no matter where you are in your health journey!

The post Why Detox Has to be Part of Your Diet appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

One of our members recently told me a story about a chili dog. Which reminded me of my life-long temptation with potato chips. Which taught me an incredible lesson about why people fall off their diet.

So, a quick story:

A few months ago, I was talking with one of our members who was ready to graduate from our program. She was doing great! She’d stuck to the plan we’d created together and she’d completely turned around her health. As we were talking, she mentioned that after she was at the point where she could begin adding different items back into her diet, she was at a barbecue where they were serving chili dogs.

She tried one.

Nine months before that day, she would’ve eaten it and felt normal… or, she would’ve felt terrible (she now knew) but she always felt terrible so there wasn’t much of a difference no matter what she ate back then.

On this day, though, she could feel it instantly. The chili dog was not good. It didn’t taste good. And, moreover, she didn’t feel good after eating it.

And she told me, as we talked, that it was amazing that once her system had been reset, once she’d eliminated all the terrible food she’d eaten her whole life, and gone full-in on a plant-based diet, her body could tell instinctively when it was fed something that wasn’t giving her the nutrition she needed

Overcoming the Misconception

I think this is an amazing example of what people who haven’t gone through a detox or thorough dietary transition don’t understand. The idea of giving up soda, hamburgers, or potato chips (once my kryptonite, as I’ve mentioned before) sounds impossible from the outside. Won’t you have constant cravings? Won’t you think about nothing else, every minute of every day?

The truth of it, though, is that yes, it’s hard at the beginning. But as you get in touch with your body, learn the “why” behind your cravings, and face them directly, eventually, your body, as you feed it what it needs, will learn what works for you—and what doesn’t.

And, more than that, you’ll learn to listen for the signals it’s sending you.

If you begin building the habits that provide the foundation for so much of our health—awareness, consideration, transformation (which you can read more about here)—your body will tell you what it needs. It will tell you when you feel great and will communicate when something is wrong.

You, as we’ve said before, are your own best doctor. And when you feed it what it needs and respond naturally to its signals, the cravings for the junk you used to eat—the garbage that’s slowly killing you—eventually disappear.

Good News, Good News

So, there’s a double heaping helping of good news here.

The first is that if you fall off your diet, it’s not the end of the world. It just means that it’s time to hit the reset button again (with, for example, a detox) and get your body, mind, and soul realigned.

The other bit of good news is this: If you’re doing something wrong, your body will be sure to let you know!

The post Why Your Cravings Don’t Have to Define You Anymore appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

This recipe is not only detox friendly, but it’s delicious too! It’s perfect for the fall weather that’s soon to be here. We topped this with our Basil “Ricotta” Sauce and we used just about the same ingredients for this recipe as we did to make the Creamy Coconut Zucchini Casserole. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Button Mushrooms
• 2 Shallots
• 6 Garlic Cloves
• 5-6 Zucchini
• 3 Raw Banana peppers
• 1 can coconut milk

Directions:

1) Cut up garlic and let it sit for 10 minutes

2) Cut up shallots and mushrooms

3) Add shallots, mushrooms, and garlic in a pan and start to sauté in vegetable broth for 10-15 minutes or until brown

4) Add coconut milk and continue cooking.

5) Cut up zucchini and add it into the pan with mushrooms, shallots, and garlic

5) Cook for about 10-12 minutes

6) Serve as a soup and add toppings like the Basil “Ricotta” sauce. 🙂

The post Cream of Zucchini and Mushroom Soup appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

For this month’s Cooking Day recipe, we used up some FRESH zucchini that one of our members generously gave to us (along with many other veggies!). We are so grateful to have such amazing gardeners who think of us. And check out the size of this zucchini!!

We made a Creamy Coconut Zucchini Casserole with Basil “Ricotta” Sauce and a Cream of Zucchini and Mushroom Soup. If you’re someone who isn’t new to our recipes here at WTI, you will notice a pattern and that is… COCONUT MILK! We use this as a substitute for regular dairy milk. It adds such a GREAT and UNIQUE flavor that is bound to set your dish apart at any party.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Button Mushrooms
• 2 Shallots
• 6 Garlic Cloves
• 5-6 Zucchini
• 3 Raw Banana peppers
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 bottle of tomato sauce (we used organic Bello Spicy Marinara)
• 1 1/2 cup Basil “Ricotta” Sauce

Directions:

1) Cut up garlic and let it sit for 10 minutes.

2) Cut up shallots, mushrooms, and banana peppers.

3) Add shallots, mushrooms, banana peppers, and garlic in a pan and start to sauté in vegetable broth for 10-15 minutes or until brown. Add coconut milk and cook for an addition 2-3 minutes. 

4) Cut up zucchini into little discs and add them to a glass pan while mushrooms are cooking.

5) Start layering tomato sauce, zucchini, and mushrooms mix in your glass pan.

6) Add a layer of Basil “Ricotta” Sauce on top.

7) Cook in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

8) Let cool down and serve 🙂

The post Creamy Coconut Zucchini Casserole appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

We’ve all seen it. A very smart person who does very dumb things. The question, though, is why?

I have a friend who is a very smart, very successful guy. He’s a professor at a major university, has a successful practice on the side, and has spent his life accruing knowledge and providing guidance for everyone around him. But when it comes to his health, though, he hasn’t spent much time on himself.

A few years ago, as a result of this lack of care, he developed a form of prostate cancer. Now, of course, any cancer is a problem. But the type he developed has been shown in numerous studies to be reversible with some simple lifestyle changes.

He had two choices. He could make those lifestyle changes and, playing the odds, have a very high probability of healing himself. Or, he could have the prostate surgically removed.

When I heard about his condition, I told him that the smartest choice would be to change his lifestyle. But, ignoring me, he decided to have the prostatectomy instead. He knew the risks of the surgery and, unfortunately, is now living with those side effects.

My friend now has erectile dysfunction. He’s incontinent. He has to wear adult diapers. And his health is still poor across the board.

Side note: I recently talked to a young urologist about the complications of a prostatectomy. I asked him if a lot of people become incontinent afterward. He replied that no, most people don’t become incontinent. When I pressed him for percentages, he said, again: “Not a lot. Only about 40% have those issues afterward.”

That’s success? Three out of five people won’t have to wear Depends for the rest of their lives? I found the whole conversation even more shocking when I thought about the options again: You can have the surgery and have to work adult diapers into your weekly shopping list from now until you die…or you can just eat some vegetables.

The Answer

So, why do smart people make such stupid decisions when it comes to their health?

Here’s my honest answer…

I don’t know.

I wish I knew, but I don’t. Part of me is convinced that some really smart people think they’re overweight and sick simply because that’s the card life has dealt them. They eat like everyone else but they’re the only ones who are getting cancer or heart disease from it.

Another part of me, though, is sure that deep down everyone knows that they don’t know what they’re doing, that they really aren’t eating well even though they claim to.

I also think that there’s a disconnect between our hearts and our heads. We might understand on a rational level that we ought to make some changes so that we’re not miserable and riddled with disease. But knowing it and allowing ourselves to feel it on a level deep enough to prompt us to change are different things altogether. We make a lot of decisions—including the decision not to make a decision—out of nothing more than fear of the unknown. We tell ourselves that we’d rather die than, say, give up cheese, even for a little while.

Rationally, that’s a dumb thing to think. But emotionally? It has real power.

Whatever the answer happens to be, it is going to depend on the individual person. We’re alike in many ways. But the internal forces that drive our decisions—the big fat “WHYs” of who we are and how we choose to live our lives—can be markedly different from person to person.

And until we’re able to answer that question for ourselves, health is going to elude us. We’re not going to live freely. We’re not going to allow ourselves to be happy, to be healthy. We’re going to continue to make stupid decisions—opting for surgeries instead of eating something green with dinner, for example—and those decisions are going to steer us, quite literally, toward death.

One of the things that sets the Wellness Training Institute and our programs like Healthful Evolutions wholly apart is that along with teaching you how to live free, healthy, happy lives, we know that to get there you have to dig down and find your WHY. You have to understand why you make the choices you do. You have to identify the root of the emotions that influence the decisions you make. You have to learn habits that allow your mind to communicate with—and listen to—the rest of your body.

And you have to learn those habits in a community. You can’t do it on your own.

Built into our programs are tools to get in touch with the things that drive you. Because that’s where health starts. You need to reconnect with yourself. Because, once you do that, the future is suddenly bright. You find freedom. You find happiness. You find health. And you can begin making smart decisions about how to live the one and only life you have to its fullest.

The post Why Smart People Do So Many Stupid Things appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

December 7, 2017

A good detox, a detox that works, is one that provides nutritional and emotional support in an effort to let the body reset.

Detoxes seem to be one of those things that people either love… or love to hate.

You’ll see a lot of people in the medical profession speak out against detoxes, and they’re not always wrong.

The problem we all run into with detoxes is that there are some serious misunderstandings about what a detox does, as well as how it works.

A detox is not about mixing a bunch of things together (lemon, cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar, to name just a few of the most popular DIY ingredients). It not about choking the resulting concoction down. It’s not about starving yourself and using a stimulant to rev up your digestion to “clean” yourself out. There’s no magic potion that you can drink that takes all your toxins, gathers them together, and then flushes them out of your system.

When you hear criticisms of detoxes, this “magic potion” myth is generally what they’re talking about.

As someone who’s both done a lot of detoxes, and helped hundreds of others through the detoxification processes, I know how effective they can be…

As long, of course, as you understand what’s actually happening during a detox.

Here’s what a detox is really all about.

What a Detox Actually Does

At its simplest, here’s what a detox does FOR your body:

A detox is a process of cleansing your body and bloodstream of the toxins that we’re surrounded by each day. Here are some of a detox’s benefits:

1. Your body’s natural detoxification systems reset
2. Free radicals are eliminated from your body. (Free radicals can radically speed up the aging process, among other nasty things.)
3. Your immune system gets a big boost.
4. Your organs start working better.
5. Your overall health improves.
6. You get rid of some of your old bad habits and start with a clean slate to begin building newer, better ones.

But what is happening inside your body when you’re going through the detoxification process? How does a detox work?

Glad you asked.

Enter the Ninjas.

The Three Phases of Detoxification

Detoxification happens in three phases.

The first phase is when the body, given the proper food, generates the proper water-soluble intermediaries that will, in the second phase, help turn the toxins inside your body into neutralized, water-soluble substances, which the body will, in the third phase, easily move along the GI tract and out of your body.

It’s kind of like your body trains up the ninjas in phase one, deploys them upon the enemy in phase two, and then provides the plan for eliminating those enemies once and for all during phase three.

Again, criticisms about detoxes coming from the medical establishment generally point out that the body already detoxifies itself.

And, they are partially correct. But I also think they misunderstand that the body needs a ton of nutritional and emotional support throughout the process. It’s not something that you can do over a weekend. It takes around three weeks for the process to complete and allow your body to reset.

A good detox, a detox that works, is one that provides nutritional and emotional support in an effort to let the body reset. Again, the liver does a lot of the heavy lifting, so just drinking a bunch of lemon juice laced with cayenne pepper isn’t going to “flush” the toxins out of you just like that.

A good detox instead focuses on supporting the body’s natural detoxification processes, feeding them what they need and eliminating what they don’t.

A good detox takes all three ninjas, gets them prepped, and lets them loose… leaving a trail of health and happiness in their wake!

Watch more below!

The post Releasing the Ninjas: What a Detox Really Does for Your Body appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

October 16, 2017

Looking to do a detox? Start here first…

Detoxes have become popular over the last few years. Every celebrity out there seems to either promote one that they use or sell one they’ve branded themselves.

These detoxes can take a lot of forms. Juice cleanses, pills, grabbing a few things from the back of your cupboard, mixing them up, and consuming the resulting solution—and only that—for days, weeks, even months. These detoxes can range from the mildly humorous to the grossly (and dangerously) absurd.

Even though some of these take things way too far, for the most part, their creators’ hearts were in the right place. Each is designed to be a solution to a big problem we’re all facing.

Namely, our increasingly toxic world creates a significant burden on our bodies.

Exposure to the air we breathe, the stress we feel, and the food we ingest can add up to over 14 pounds of pesticides, herbicides, food additives and preservatives per year for the average American.

Out of more than 100,000 commercially used chemicals, more than 25,000 (that’s 25%) are known to be hazardous to human health.

Are you ready to lose weight… FOR GOOD? Register for our FREE Wellness Dinner Seminar and learn how here.

The liver and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are responsible for removing these toxins.

But if the liver is not working at full strength, every other system in the body is at risk because fat-soluble toxins, which are hard to get out of the body, instead get stored in the process.

So this is why doing a detox at least once or twice a year is so important.

What’s the Best Detox?

But what separates one detox from another? Your Pinterest board is full of them, and they’re all wildly different. It can be hard to know which ones work, and which ones don’t.

Well, the key to a good detox—and by “good,” I mean one that does what it’s supposed to—is to find one that doesn’t just deal with your liver, or your GI tract, or any other single system. Instead, you need a detox that doesn’t just focus on your body but also takes into account the importance of your mind and spirit in the process.

Keep These in Mind

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you choose your detox.

1. You need a detox that views you as a complete human being.

2. It needs to be long enough to allow your body and mind to reset—usually, 20+ days is ideal.

3. The detox shouldn’t claim to not “flush” your body of toxins. Instead, it needs to support your natural detoxification systems.

4.It should NOT make you miserable. If the detox covers the first 3 of these checkboxes, this point should take care of itself.

So, if you’re looking to do a detox, each of these boxes needs to be checked off.

But, whichever one you find, remember this: Detoxing is a wonderful thing to do for yourself. Take that next step confidently.

Watch this next:

Or listen below!

The post Why You Should Start a Detox… Today appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

February 21, 2017  

There are a lot of options out there for detoxes. Obviously, some are better than others.

But no matter which one you choose (if you choose one at all), there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.

We have a member who once went on a forty-day “water detox”—which is exactly what it sounds like. He managed to lose about 40 pounds… but he also lost his gall bladder in the process. Rapid weight loss is a big stressor on that organ, and halfway through the process, his failed completely.

(He’s doing great now, by the way. He’s working through the program, losing weight, and has fallen in love with legumes.)

So, here are three tips on doing a detox:

Work up to it

The main thing you hear about detoxing is that you’re going to feel awful for the first few days. This is true, in some respects, but at the same time you can mitigate that misery by working up to it. At The Wellness Training Institute, we spend a full six weeks getting our members prepared for a detox.

Do an elimination diet before.

It’s going to sound obvious, but the hardest part of detoxing is not being able to eat. But beneath the actual physical need to eat, there’s a whole host of emotions tied to those foods you might not even be aware of. And that’s where an elimination diet done before the detox comes in. Among other things, it reveals the emotions you have towards the food you eat. Being aware of those is an important factor in a successful detox. (and don’t worry, on our detox program you will still be eating lots of food)

(For more info on elimination diets and how to do one, click here.)

[Want more great information about the foundations of a healthy life? Download the first installment of our NEW 7-part eBook series The 7 Habits of Highly healthful People for FREE right now, right HERE!]

Start with a gratitude Journal

The last tip here is actually the first step in a detox.

The whole point of a detox is allowing your body to rest. You’re giving it certain, targeted nutrients, which in turn allows you body to heal itself. But it’s not just your body that is effected in a detox… it’s ALL of you. So we start every detox with a daily, 3-minute Gratitude Journal exercise. This allows your mind and spirit to be in the best possible position to gain all the benefits of the detox you can.

(Not sure what a Gratitude Journal is, or why you should start one today? No problem. Just click here!)

I hope this information helps you in your health journey. The real key in any detox, no matter which one you feel is right for you, is the old adage, “Slow and steady wins the race.” Health is a gradual process, and a detox should be as well.

Your body—and vital organs—will thank you.

We’ve got so much more great health information on our brand new YouTube Channel. Here’s a little taste:

The post The Right Way to Do a Detox appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.