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The Health Benefits of Chocolate Demystified! FREE TELESEMINAR

Have you ever wondered if that Snickers bar is good for you? Or
if Godiva truly is the premier chocolate of the world?

Well wonder no more! Chocolate's scientific name is "theobroma cacao," which literally translates to mean "food of the Gods." And in honor of one of the most cherished holidays of the year, I'm hosting a last minute free teleseminar on "The Health Benefits of Chocolate Demystified: Simple Steps to Healthy and Delicious Homemade Chocolate!" sure to befit any God in the solar system.

Join me on Thursday, February 11 at 8pm EST, for a discussion of everyone's favorite topic - CHOCOLATE!

On this call, we'll chat about:

* 16 SEXY substances that make chocolate healthy - raar ;)

* the healthiest kinds of chocolate around

* the health BENEFITS of chocolate

* who should and shouldn’t eat chocolate

* the SECRETS to finding and eating healthy chocolate

* which types of chocolate should be avoided

* whether chocolate can be part of a healthy diet

* how to make the healthiest and most delicious homemade
chocolate in your own kitchen

and loads more!

To register for the call, click here.

In addition, I'm gifting you a FREE RECIPE GUIDE with over 10
different recipes for making the healthiest chocolate on earth just for being on the call! But you have to register to be eligible.

Remember, click here to register.

You CAN feel good about indulging in one of the most mystical super foods on planet earth! Leave the guilt behind and join me next Thursday.

In peace, love and gratitude,

Angela

Wellness With Angela

PS: Don't forget to register! Click here.

PPS: No worries if you can't make the live event, I'll be recording it as always so you can listen in after the show's over!

Pantry Makeover

What to Keep, What to Toss

Everybody loves a makeover, and your pantry is no exception. Can’t you hear it begging you? “Fill me with healthy, delicious foods! Please, please, please!” Breaks your heart, doesn’t it?

Let’s give your pantry what it’s asking for. Here are some simple guidelines for what to keep, and what to toss, in your pantry.

What to Keep
Here’s the simple rule: Eat foods with ingredients you can pronounce. Easy, right? Here are some suggestions…

Whole Grains: brown rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, oats
Beans: lentils, pinto, black, chick pea, aduki
Snacks: LaraBars, Go Raw Trek Mex from Trader Joe’s, Mary’s Gone Crackers Flax Crackers, dried goji berries, Garden of Eatin’ Blue Corn Chips, dark chocolate
Soups: Shelton’s Turkey Chili, Amy’s Butternut Squash
Condiments: Wheat-free Tamari, extra virgin olive oil, sesame oil, dried spices, coconut oil, Amy’s Green Garlic dressing

What to Toss
Simple guidelines here, too: toss anything that has partially hydrogenated oil (be sure to read labels!), high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, white flour, or an ingredient list a mile long. Not sure if a food falls into this category? Here’s a simple test – if the food in question is heavily advertised, it’s probably in the toss pile. You don’t see a lot of advertising dollars spent on broccoli and quinoa, but there’s some serious bucks behind most processed foods.

Food Focus: Top Five Freezer Foods

We’ve given so much attention to the pantry, our freezers are starting to feel left out! Frozen foods are another great way to keep high-quality meals and snacks on hand. Here are our five favs:

1. Edamame – these delicious baby soybeans are ready in a snap, great with Celtic Seal Salt and fun to eat
2. Organic Frozen Veggies – make a fabulous stir-fry on the fly
3. Amy’s Frozen Entrees and Burritos – almost like mom used to make
4. Rice Expressions Frozen Original Brown Rice – individually portioned brown rice in 3 minutes
5. Organic Frozen Mixed Berries – perfect for yummy smoothies

Recipe: Simple Brown Rice Stir Fry
Use staples from your pantry and freezer. Serves four.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
4 Tbsp tamari (wheat-free)
1-2 skinless, boneless breast halves, thinly sliced crosswise
1 tsp honey
2 Tbsp olive
1 Tbsp sesame oil
4 tsp minced fresh ginger or1 tsp powdered
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups short-grain brown rice, cooked and cooled
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2/3 cup chopped green onion

Directions:
1. Stir walnuts in medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until lightly toasted (3 minutes). Drizzle 2 Tbsp tamari over walnuts: stir until tamari coats walnuts (45 seconds). Cool. These can be made ahead and stored at room temperature in airtight container for 3 days.
2. Combine chicken, 2 Tbsp tamari and 1tsp honey in a medium bowl. Toss to coat and let stand 15 minutes.
3. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add chicken and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add cooked rice, red pepper and sesame oil: reduce heat to medium and stir-fry until heated through (about 5 minutes). Season with salt and pepper. Divide rice mixture among plates. Sprinkle with green onions and walnuts.

Like what you read? Then sign up for our weekly Healthy E-newsletter here: Wellness With Angela

Did you know that most people who don't get the support and accountability to reach their health goals usually fail in the long run? Find out more about our 9-Week Nutrition & Lifestyle Complete Transformation System by signing up for an Initial Nutrition Assessment at Wellness With Angela

Eating Healthy On-The-Go

Let’s face it – we’re busy people! A flight for work, a busy day of errands, a road trip to a friend’s house, back-to-back meetings, a weekend away with someone special…. We’ve got places to go and things to do. So how do we fuel ourselves well when we’re on the run?

It easy! Just remember your “QTQs”. Nope, that’s not a stock symbol for a high-tech company. “QTQ” stands for Quality, Timing and Quantity, three easy concepts to keep in mind when eating on-the-go.

Quality: Aim to have the least processed foods available. The closer a food is to its natural state, the higher the quality.

Timing: Timing is crucial when eating on-the-go. Make sure you eat every four hours. If you’re ravenous, you’re far more likely to fall prey to the siren call of the drive-thru.

Quantity: It’s easy to mindlessly chomp on chow when you’re driving or bored at the airport. Take time to breathe and chew while you eat, so you can really feel when your body has had enough. Aim to eat to the point of feeling like you’ve refilled your energy stores, and then stop. You want to your food to fuel you up when you’re on the run, not slow you down.

So the next time you have a whirlwind day, all you have to remember is “QTQ”. To help you pick the highest Quality travel foods, check out our list below.

Food Focus: Top Ten Travel Foods

Here’s a Top Ten list David Letterman never published. Pack up, kids, we’re going on a road trip QTQ-style!

1.Ezekial sprouted wrap with organic almond butter and sliced dried prunes or figs
2.Veggie Surprise – cut jicama, cukes, celery, snap peas, and bell peppers
3.Fruit – fresh cherries, plums, apples, pears and oranges
4.Hard boiled eggs
5.Ezekial sprouted wrap with organic turkey slices, sprouts & spicy mustard
6.Plain yogurt with fresh berries
7.Hummus with veggies or Mary’s Gone Crackers Flax Crackers
8.Greens Plus Bar with Protein
9.Home Touch Trail Mix (see recipe below)
10.Quesadilla with sprouted corn tortilla avocado, organic cheese and salsa

(Notes: You could make the Home Touch Recipe a hyperlink to click-through to your website. You could also ask readers to email their favorite travel snacks – the best snack could win a prize from your company that you announce in your next newsletter.)

Recipe: Home Touch Trail Mix
from www.integrativenutrition.com

Ingredients:
2 cups almonds, raw
1 cup pecans
2 cups walnuts, raw
2 cups pumpkin or squash seed, raw
2 cups dried cranberries (unsweetened)
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)

Directions:
1.In a bowl mix together almonds, pecans, walnuts and seeds. Cover with water and soak overnight.
2.Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
3.Rinse and discard soaking water.
4.Add cranberries and add olive oil. Mix until everything is coated well.
5.Spread the mixture out evenly on baking sheet and place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until you can smell the roasting nuts and they start to turn a lot.
6.Cool and store in air-tight glass container.

Notes:
* Try any nuts and dried fruits you like
* The nuts and seeds can be soaked for a few hours to help their digestibility

Like what you read? Then sign up for our weekly Healthy E-newsletter here: Wellness With Angela

Did you know that most people who don't get the support and accountability to reach their health goals usually fail in the long run? Find out more about our 9-Week Nutrition & Lifestyle Complete Transformation System by signing up for a No Fee 30-Minute Nutritional Breakthrough Session at :Wellness With Angela

Clean With Greens

You’ve probably heard the words “detox” and “cleanse” a lot recently. They’re pretty big buzzwords in the nutrition field. But what do they actually mean? The words themselves are pretty interchangeable. Let’s start with dictionary definitions from Merriam-Webster.

Cleanse: to rid of impurities by or as if by washing
Detox: to free from an intoxicating or an addictive substance, or dependence on such a substance

Pretty much the same thing, right? So “cleansing” and “detox” mean taking out toxins and addictive stuff, like sugar, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and chemicals (coined “SNACCs” by detox doctor Elson Haas). But removing toxins is only one side of the cleansing equation. The other side, which is just as crucial, is adding in nutrient dense whole foods. So the formula is simple – reduce SNACCs, increase whole foods.

Now, keeping our formula in mind, there are different degrees of cleansing. You can go out in the desert and live on water for 40 days to cleanse, or you can simply eliminate one food that you rely on every day. It could be your morning bagel, your 3pm mocha latte or the fast-food drive through lane you find yourself in on the way home from work.

Remember, eliminating toxins is only one side of the equation. So you’ve decided which SNACC you are getting rid of. Great! Now what do you add to your daily diet? We suggest green vegetables, and lots of them! Some examples of green vegetables are kale, collard greens, dandelion greens, spinach, and arugula. They are the foods most missing in modern diets, and are loaded with beneficial phytochemicals and cleansing fiber. You may be thinking “But I don’t have time to cook green vegetables.” Not to worry! Wheatgrass is a great shortcut to getting more green veggie power into your diet everyday.

Wheatgrass first became widely known in the West in the 1930s, when a man named Charles Schnabel began touting its benefits. Schnabel claimed “15 pounds of wheatgrass is equivalent to 350 pounds of the choicest vegetables.” Although science hasn’t proven that claim, it has proven that wheatgrass has one of the highest concentrations of nutrients and is the fastest and easiest grass to grow. The best to way to absorb its goodness is by extracting the juice.

Wheatgrass works by filling nutritional gaps in the diet and cleansing the blood. It is high in vitamins A, C and E, containing the same amount of vitamin C as an orange. It is also an excellent source of essential B vitamins, which are necessary for normal brain and body development. Wheatgrass juice also contains many essential minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, sodium) that are necessary for healthy bones, teeth, hair and skin.

Wheatgrass juice contains natural enzymes, which help the body’s defense mechanism by strengthening cells and removing poisons from the blood stream. It helps eliminate toxins accumulated from eating processed food, breathing polluted air and drinking impure water. Wheatgrass is approximately 70% crude chlorophyll, which can alkalize the body and have a highly energizing effect.

Wheatgrass also has a dilating effect on the blood vessels, allowing blood to flow more easily. This improved circulation means valuable nutrients can be distributed more efficiently throughout the body. It also has an effect on red blood cells, increasing the iron content in the blood.

Where To Get Wheatgrass
- Juice bars (Jamba Juice, Robek’s Juice) sell shots of wheatgrass
- Whole Foods Markets carry frozen wheatgrass juices in individual containers
- Dynamic Greens

How to Take Wheatgrass
- Take on an empty stomach
- Start with a quarter of a shot and build up to a full shot, gradually
- Follow with a glass of water
- Mix with other vegetable juices, such as celery, parsley and spinach

Recipe: Simply Green Juice
from Wheat Grass For Life

Ingredients:
Stalk of celery
4 large spinach leaves
Half cup parsley
2-3 inch round of wheatgrass
1/4 cup water (optional)

Directions:
- Wash greens thoroughly, cut up celery and juice
- Dilute with water if desired

Like what you read? Then sign up for our weekly Healthy E-newsletter here: Wellness With Angela

Did you know that most people who don't get the support and accountability to reach their health goals usually fail in the long run? Find out more about our 9-Week Nutrition & Lifestyle Complete Transformation System by signing up for a No Fee 30-Minute Nutritional Breakthrough Session at :Wellness With Angela
.

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5 easy ways to keep New Year's resolutions

A lot of people begin the New Year by making resolutions. We’ve all been there. We take a vow to lose weight, exercise more or spend more time with our family. We start the year with great intentions, but then we quickly relapse into old habits. Why is it so hard to stick to those New Year’s resolutions?

Here are some ways you can make your intentions a reality this year:

1. Write down your intentions and keep them in a visible place, like taped to your bedroom mirror or the dashboard of your car.

2. Get to the source of whatever is keeping you in a rut. Are you in a stressful relationship that causes you to eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s every night? Are you stressed at work and feel too tired to exercise after work? If you don’t tackle the root of the behavior, it will be much harder to accomplish your goal.

3. Be clear about what your life would look like once you achieve your goal. If you resolve to go to the gym more, how will this benefit you? Get connected to the result of your action, and you will be more likely to stick with your plan.

4. Share your resolutions with friends and family. Hold each other accountable for achieving your goals. If you want to go to the gym more, have a friend call you two or three times a week to check on you or invite them to join you.

5. Reward yourself with every little accomplishment. If your intention is to lose weight and you lose 1 pound a week, pamper yourself with a massage.

Big changes do not require big leaps. Permanent change is more likely to happen gradually than through one big restrictive plan. Allow yourself to climb the ladder one rung at a time.

Visit Wellness With Angela to schedule a complimentary 30-minute Nutritional Breakthrough Session and find out more about our brand new 9-Week Nutrition & Lifestyle Complete Transformation System.