Dawna Stone

You Can Have A Better Life

Healthy Made Easy

4 Stress-Busting Foods

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Stress is unfortunately all too common in our lives and can affect us both mentally and physically; it can weaken the immune system, cause headaches and fatigue, irritate our digestive system, and raise blood pressure. Fortunately, what we eat can help us manage our stress and keep stress-induced symptoms at bay. Check out these four stress-busting foods that can easily be incorporated into our every day diets and keep us feeling good.

Berries

Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries are antioxidant-rich and high in vitamin C, which has been shown to fight stress while strengthening the immune system. My favorites are blueberries and blackberries. Although I love cooking with berries—cobblers, crumbles, etc. I find it so easy to simply add berries to cereal, oatmeal and baked goods like muffins and breads.

Fish

Fish, like tuna and salmon, that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids can boost serotonin (the feel-good hormone) and keep the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, under control. I love topping grilled fish with chutney or relish made with fresh fruit and vegetables. Try this Grilled Salmon with Corn and Tomato Relish recipe.

Oats

A bowl of warm oats can help boost serotonin levels, which helps combat symptoms of stress and anxiety. High in fiber, oats will also keep you full longer helping to ward off emotional eating that often accompanies stress. Try this Apricot Almond Oatmeal recipe—its one of my favorite quick and simple breakfast recipes.

Spinach

Rich in magnesium, a natural muscle relaxant and stress-reducer, spinach can help calm you therefore lessening the symptoms of stress. When your body is under stress or anxiety, you can deplete your magnesium levels. Spinach can help reverse this. I love using spinach in soups and stews. This Chicken and Wild Rice Soup recipe is not only packed with spinach but it’s a true comfort food. Other magnesium-rich foods include navy beans, lima beans, broccoli, bananas and oats.

What I Eat in a Typical Day

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People always ask me how I stay so slim and healthy. I wasn't always this healthy. When I was younger, I packed on 40 pounds and felt horrible. Fortunately I took off all the excess weight and have been able to keep it off for years. Whenever I get off track (and yes, I get off track) I follow one of my own programs to drop of few excess pounds and get back on track. I use my 5-Day-Detox as a quick and simple kick in the butt. I am always amazed at how just 5 days can make such a huge difference. If I'm feeling like I need something longer, I do my 14-Day Clean Eating Program: How To Kick Start Weight Loss In 2 Weeks.

Although I still enjoy a glass of wine, piece of chocolate, or after-dinner dessert on occasion, here’s what a typical day looks like for me.

8:30 AM: Breakfast

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I usually wake up around 6 a.m., get my kids ready for school, and then work out. I rotate between group fitness classes, yoga, or running.

Once I'm back home, I like to refuel! A smoothie made with almond milk, fresh berries, and a scoop of protein powder has me starting the day off right.

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
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10 AM: Mid-Morning Break

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I used to be a huge coffee drinker, and although I still grab a soy or almond milk latte about once a week, I often choose a cup of dandelion tea. I get the roasted variety and it actually tastes a little like coffee.

12 PM: Lunch

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By the time lunch rolls around, I’m usually ready for a healthy but hearty meal. If I have the time, I’ll make a large salad, which usually contains dark leafy greens like kale or spinach, a healthy carbohydrate like roasted sweet potatoes, and a healthy fat like avocado. I also enjoy making my own salad dressing. It’s one of those things that only takes two or three minutes but tastes 10 times better than bottled dressing.

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
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3 PM: Snack

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Like most people, I tend to experience a mid-day lull, and if I don’t have a healthy snack on hand, I’m afraid I might run down to the corner store for a chocolate bar. That’s why I always bring a healthy snack with me to the office. My go-to snack is a homemade trail mix made with all my favorite ingredients: almonds, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, dried apricots, figs, and coconut flakes.

6:30 PM: Dinner

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Weeknight dinners always seem a little more hectic than lunch. After picking up my kids from after-school club or sports, I empty lunch boxes, get showers and baths started, finish homework, and make dinner. Luckily, both my husband and I are big fans of stir-fry. My favorite is my shrimp and snow pea stir-fry, but I also make it with ginger chicken or salmon. I like how easy stir-fry is to make, and I love that it gets my husband and kids to eat more vegetables than they would otherwise.

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
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8 PM: Dessert/Snack

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Kids are finally in bed and have stopped making excuses for why they have to get out of bed and come find me. I’ve always been a “snacker,” and although I’ve tried to forgo any after-dinner eating, I’ve always found it extremely difficult.

Instead of struggling to skip an after-dinner snack, I try instead to find healthy alternatives like a yogurt and fruit bowl made with plain yogurt, honey, vanilla, and warm blackberries.

Need to kick-start your healthy eating, check out my quick and simple 5-Day-Detox or my 14-Day Clean Eating Program: How To Kick Start Weight Loss In 2 Weeks.

 

7 Little Choices That Helped Me Lose Weight

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Like many people, I struggled for years to lose weight. These are the habits that not only helped me shed my excess weight but also helped me keep it off for good.

P.S. If you want eat better or lose some weight, check out my simple 5-Day Detox for Better Health.

1. Curbing late-night snacking

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a late-night snacker. Even if dinner was filling and satisfying, I always find myself wanting a sweet treat.

Cutting out my after-dinner snack showed immediate results on the scale. Another benefit of not snacking after dinner was getting a better night's sleep. When I eat late at night — especially sugary or fatty foods — I have difficulty falling and staying asleep.

In order to lose weight, steer clear of after-dinner snacking during the week and only allow yourself an occasional evening treat on the weekends.

2. Keeping alcohol consumption to weekends or special occasions

Although I admittedly enjoy a couple drinks on the weekends or the occasional glass of wine with my husband, it's undeniable that eliminating or reducing alcohol makes the weight loss process much easier.

We often only associate calories with food and forget that beverages can also be highly caloric. If you're trying to lose weight, be smart about your alcohol consumption. Save the alcohol for special occasions, or drink only once a week.

Once you attain your weight loss goal, you should be able to drink alcohol in moderation without gaining back the pounds you've shed. When it comes to alcohol, moderation is key!

BONUS: My favorite disease-fighting, anti-inflammatory recipes!
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3. Cleaning out my pantry

Most of us have a few foods that always seem to sabotage our diets. For me, it’s anything containing chocolate, but my mom can't resist anything salty.

I’ve learned from trial and error — some big errors, might I add — about how to cope with my trigger foods and prevent them from ruining my well-intentioned weight-loss plans.

To start, determine which foods trigger you to overeat. For example, I can keep a gallon of my favorite ice cream in the freezer for months without overindulging; I simply enjoy a scoop when I feel like it.

But I can’t keep a bag of chocolate candies or chocolate chip cookies in the house without losing control. Once you've determined which unhealthy foods prompt you to overeat, remove them from your kitchen.

Simply getting these unhealthy foods out of the house will allow you to make better choices and lose weight.

4. Moving a little more

Although you can successfully lose weight without exercising, you can accelerate your weight loss by incorporating a very manageable exercise program. Whenever I need to lose a few pounds, I simply add another 10 minutes to my exercise routine.

This 10-minute addition is a small change and is very manageable, but it makes a huge difference in how quickly I can lose those extra pounds and keep them off.

5. Journaling

Keeping a journal is an effective weight-loss tool. Journaling or maintaining a food log makes you more aware of what you’re eating so you can stay on track with healthier habits.

For me, recording my progress in a journal makes me more honest with myself and helped me lose weight.

Even today, when I gain a few pounds (as I did over the holidays), tracking my food for just a week or two can be enough to get me back on track and lose the excess weight.

Join Now: 5-Day Detox!
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6. Eliminating or reducing diet soda

Many people believe they are doing themselves (and their weight) a favor by using artificial sweeteners or drinking diet soda. But artificial sweeteners and diet sodas may actually work against you in the battle of the bulge.

According to Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity and weight-loss specialist at the Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital, artificial sweeteners overstimulate our sugar receptors and may change the way we taste food — making healthy foods less appealing and even making us crave sweet foods.

In fact, a study in the Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience shows that artificial sweeteners, which people often believe help prevent weight gain, actually induce hormonal and physiological responses that can have the opposite effect.

Trying to lose weight? Ditch the diet soda and opt for water or herbal tea instead.

7. Enlisting friends or family

Try to find a friend, family member, or coworker to eat healthy with you. Over the holidays, my husband and I both gained a few extra pounds. Although I only gained four or five pounds, the excess sugar and alcohol I consumed during the month of December left me feeling sluggish and heavy.

My husband and I decided to tackle losing weight together. Doing it as a team made it so much more fun. We were able to plan special dinners with each other and even made it a point to visit restaurants that offered healthy fare. Doing it together made it that much easier to stay motivated.

Want a little extra motivation to eat better and lose weight? Join me for a 5-Day Detox. I will personally walk you through the program and provide you day-by-day meal plans, recipes, shopping lists, daily motivation and more!

Clean Eating Helped Me Lose 40 Pounds and Keep it off!

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I originally wrote this piece for MindBodyGreen.com and when it received such an enthusiastic response, I decided that I also wanted to share it with you here. Read my weight loss story below and how I achieved my goal through clean eating. And if you're ready, take The Healthy You Challenge with me! Starting January 1st, I will be hosting a New Year’s Healthy You Challenge and will personally guide you step-by-step through the program that changed my life and my weight! Read my story…

I was fat, exhausted and desperate to lose weight. Clean eating changed my life and my weight!

I know being overweight is unhealthy but when I was in my 20’s and 40 pounds overweight my health wasn’t my main concern. I was more concerned with fitting into the clothes in the closet than I was about the health consequences of being overweight. My minuscule clothes budget couldn’t keep up with my ever-expanding waistline. My closet became a war between my “fat” clothes and my “skinny” clothes and unfortunately my fat clothes were winning the battle.

I went from being an extremely fit teenager to being a somewhat fit college student to a 40-pound overweight working-woman in my 20’s.

I still remember turning down company get-togethers and blind dates because I was so uncomfortable with my weight. I was fat, tired and unhappy. I was desperate to lose weight and I tried just about every diet available.

As a true lover of food, none of the fad diets satisfied my craving for good food. On each weight loss attempt, I would lose a few pounds only to give up and gain all the weight back and then some.

It wasn’t until I realized that the media-hyped fad diets weren’t a viable solution for me that I started to work on a solution. After years of failed attempts to lose weight, I finally found a way to drop all 40 pounds and keep it off for good—I’ve been at or near my goal weight for nearly 20 years!

The solution wasn’t about depriving myself of good food or starving myself in order to see the number on the scale drop. The solution was simple—the solution was clean eating.

Eliminating excess sugar, processed foods and artificial sweeteners, chemicals and preservatives was just the start. When I finally found a way of eating that had me dropping the pounds quickly and allowed me to eat good food (like Fish Taco’s with Mango and Avocado Salsa, Chicken Skewers with Chile-Lime Sauce, Kale and Maple Roasted Sweet Potato Salad, Wild Rice and Spinach Soup, Three Bean Chili and even wheat-, gluten- and dairy-free triple chocolate brownies) I knew I found my weight loss silver bullet.

I know what it feels like to be overweight and unhappy but I also know what if feels like to finally fit into a smaller size pair of pants and smile when you step on the scale. I wish everyone who is struggling with their weight and feeling hopeless, like I felt, could know what it feels like to finally lose all the excess weight.

That’s why I wrote The Healthy You Diet: The 14-Day Plan for Weight Loss with 100 Delicious Recipes for Clean Eating. I know what it’s like to lie in bed and cry—thinking you’ll never lose weight. I know what it’s like to turn down invitations because you have no clothes that fit. But I also know how great it feels when the weight starts melting off.

Nearly twelve thousand people have already found success with my 14-Day Healthy You Challenge—the jump-start to clean eating.

If you’ve just about given up on ever reaching your goal weight, if your tired of depriving yourself of good food and if you’re tired of seeing the number on the scale creep up rather than down, clean eating may be just what you need to jump start your weight loss and once and for all reach your goal weight.

Now that I’m in my 40’s, I believe the most important benefit of being a healthy weight and eating a clean diet is countering disease and keeping your body working well/healthy. But I can’t lie; I also love the feeling of fitting into my skinny jeans!

Whether you join me for The Healthy You Challenge or embark on another clean eating program, I hope you’ll give clean eating a try. You have nothing to lose but your excess weight!

To your health!

Dawna

Want To Lose Weight? Eat More Of This Food

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Everyone's looking for a magic weight-loss pill, but maybe we should be looking for the one food that can help us lose or manage our weight instead.

Want to lose weight? Here’s a quick tip – eat more leafy greens. Not only are they packed with vitamins A, C, E and K but they’re also loaded with fiber to control your hunger and keep you feeling full longer. Use leafy greens as the base for your salads or toss in soups, stews, stir-fry or omelets. Check out four leafy greens worht trying below.

P.S. If you want to jump start your healthy eating, join me for a quick and simple 5-Day Detox! It's the perfect way to clean up your eating, lose weight and improve your health.

4 Leafy Green Worth Trying!

Swiss Chard

Not only is Swiss chard beautiful (I used it on the cover of my new cookbook), but it is packed with vitamin A and C. Swiss Chard is often sautéed but I also find it great for juicing.

Kale

Kale has become today’s most talked about leafy green for good reason. It’s loaded with vitamin A, C, K and B6. It’s also rich in folate, potassium and calcium. Kale is extremely versatile and can be used in everything from soups and stews to salads and omelets.

Spinach

This leafy green isn’t just for Popeye! Raw or cooked, spinach is rich in vitamin A and C. Use it as a healthy pizza topping or add it to soups, pasta sauce or smoothies.

Collards

Collard greens are a great source of calcium and are rich in vitamin A, C and K. Looking for another great way to incorporate collard greens into your diet? Take your favorite lettuce wrap recipe, and try swapping out the lettuce leaves for nutrient-packed collard greens.

Other great leafy greens include, broccoli, red or green romaine, endive and cabbage.

If you haven’t already, check out my quick and simple 5-Day Detox! It's the perfect way to clean up your eating, lose weight and improve your health.

Dawna

 

6 Foods To Keep In Your House To Help You Lose Weight

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As a health coach and cookbook author, I provide weight loss and healthy eating tips every day. When someone is struggling to lose weight, it’s very common for me to suggest removing his or her “trigger” foods from the house.

For me, that’s anything that contains chocolate — chocolate chip cookies, ice cream bars, etc. I believe in the saying “out of sight, out of mind” when it comes to junk food.

What people often forget is that “out of sight, out of mind” can also work against us. If your healthiest food is hidden in the back of the pantry or refrigerator, or isn't even in your house, you’re less likely to eat it.

Having healthy options in your refrigerator or pantry and having them readily available can help you make better choices.

Join me for a quick and simple 5-Day Detox

Losing weight isn’t always easy, but keeping your pantry and refrigerator stocked with these six foods can help:

1. Leafy greens

Leafy greens like spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and collards provide an abundance of vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, C, K, and B6. They're also rich in foliate, potassium, and calcium. A salad loaded with leafy greens and other fresh vegetables is a great way to fill up without a lot of calories.

Keep it interesting and find other healthy ways to incorporate leafy greens into your diet like juicing, adding them to soups and omelets, or topping a healthy flatbread. Try making your own kale chips for a savory and healthy snack.

2. Nuts

People often steer clear of nuts when they’re trying to lose weight due to their high-calorie and -fat count. However, adding a small amount of nuts to my diet actually keeps me satisfied longer and allows me to eat less overall.

Enjoy a small handful every day for a dose of healthy fat. Try adding walnuts to a healthy cookie recipe, use almond meal in your muffin or bread recipes, or sprinkle pistachios over your afternoon salad.

3. Seeds

Seeds such as pumpkin, flax, sunflower, chia, and sesame are not only rich in fiber, protein, and healthy fat, but they also provide a satisfying crunch to salads, cereal, oatmeal, and yogurt.

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4. Fresh fruit

Fresh fruit is a healthy and natural way to curb your sweet tooth. I love kiwi, watermelon, and just about any type of berry: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

Try adding berries to your morning oatmeal or using them in baked goods. Does that midafternoon lull have you searching for a candy bar or cookie?

Have one piece of fruit or a half-cup of berries instead — it’s sure to keep you satisfied.

5. Dried fruit

Dried fruit, although high in sugar, can find its way into a healthy diet. In fact, I’ve found that it can help when trying to lose weight, as it can be a great alternative to other sugary treats.

A small handful of dried cherries or a sprinkle of plump raisins on your salad or mixed into some plain yogurt can help keep you from feeling deprived when on a weight-loss diet.

6. Eggs

With their abundance of high-quality protein, eggs can keep you full longer, helping you reduce your overall food intake. Although an omelet or scramble is a great way to start the morning, eggs can also be added to lunch or dinner.

Try adding a hard-boiled egg to a salad, or make healthy cookies with egg whites, banana, and oat flour as your base.

Want to jump start your healthy eating? Join me for a quick and simple 5-Day Detox 

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