Good morning.  I’m in Las Vegas, celebrating my annual girls weekend with my college girlfriends.  We do this every year and I’m so honored to be part of such a lovely group.  Other than some sore feet from way too much dancing last night, we’ve been having a blast.

But there was something I needed to share with you today about the dreaded bread bowl.  Last night we walked around for about an hour trying to find a good restaurant to eat at.  And despite our best efforts, we couldn’t find anything that had less than an hour wait.  So by the time we all sat down to eat we were starving.  The waiter put the bread basket down on the table - and we were like wild animals who hadn’t eaten in days.  Despite the fact that I haven’t eat white bread in months, I was right there with them.  And then I noticed that I was yawning a bit more last night as a result of all that white flour making me sleepy.  Does this sound familiar?

Here’s the situation.  The problem is not the bread - actually the bread is just an innocent bystander.  When you wait too long between meals and you get to dinner starving- the problem is your blood sugar level.  You haven’t eaten anything and your body is looking to bring your blood sugar levels up to normal FAST.  The fastest way to do that is BREAD (or sugar, pasta, chips, pretzels - whatever you fancy).

Suddenly you are transformed to a manic bread-eating crazy person - and all of your best intentions get thrown out the window.  Now for the record, I don’t think bread is an enemy.  Everything in moderation is perfectly healthy.  But when you are on the third slice…you know what I mean.

So what’s a girl (or guy) to do?  First, don’t let yourself get to the starving point, especially if you are eating at a restaurant.  Get used to carrying around small snacks so that you can eat a little bit every 3 hours or so.  Also, it helps to just eat a quick snack before you sit down for dinner, this is true if you know you’ve already waited to long and are going to eat anything put in front of you.

Here are some snacks that may help:

* a hard boiled egg
* 12 ounces of water
* whole-wheat crackers
* a healthy protein-bar
* nuts
* apples, pears and other fruits
* healthy, high fiber cereals

Snacking is the best way to get over hunger and keep yourself from ravaging the bread bowl or the chip basket.  So the next time you feel like yelling at the bread - try to deal with your hunger instead.

If you want more inspiration with recipes or a complete snack list, check out week 3 of our Life and Body Makeover Program.  We’ve got everything you need to get healthy, lose the weight you want and stay that way forever.  Check it out here.

Try eating a new leafy green such as kale, collard, chard or bok-choy. The easiest way to cook them is to sauté 2-5 cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil.  Next, add some chopped greens.  Finally, add a cup of liquid, broth, juice, or water and cover the pot.  The steam will make the greens soft.  Enjoy.

Plan to cook a new healthy recipe this weekend. It doesn’t need to be complex, nor time consuming. Here’s a list of healthy recipe ideas to get you started. Just try one this week.

What is your favorite recipe?

An easy way to make your vegetables

Samantha walked in and sat down in my black leather chair, looking a bit disgruntled. I asked her what was wrong and she replied, “I’m cleaning out my kitchen and I have this crazy expensive juicer that I never really use. I used it a ton when I first bought it, and then I just got tired of all the peeling and cleaning of the machine. Then I stopped using it. Do you think I should try it again, or just get rid of it? I just feel bad for buying it in the first place.”

I can’t tell you how many clients I know who have similar stories. I’ve even given it a name, “Juicer Guilt”. Yes, if you too have a juicer that is sitting at home un-used than you understand what I am getting at. It takes up counter space and stares at you with that friendly, “if you only used me, you would be healthier look”, but you still can’t get yourself to cut, peel and clean.

Well, I am making an official announcement “TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF JUICER GUILT”. I’m making this announcement for two main reasons.

First, while juice can be quite healthy, it is only healthy in small amounts of 4 to 6 ounces. Most of us can’t handle the high sugar content in juice and it sends us on a blood sugar level roller coaster. So your body just wants more and more sugar. With each serving, you get more and more tired. It is a vicious cycle.

Yes, vegetable juices are better since they are lower in sugar content, but since the juice does not contain any of the fiber and minerals that exist in the pulp, even veggie juices could be better.

Second, to make the juice you have to get rid of the best parts of the fruit, the skin and the pulp - which contains many vitamins and minerals and all of the fiber.

There is a solution that allows you to eat more vegetables and still keep the fiber and pulp - use a very powerful blender such as a Vitamix Blender. I’ve been using a Vitamix blender for years. This morning I put a whole piece of celery, half an apple, half a carrot, a handful of broccoli florets, 2 ounces apple juice, water and some rice protein powder into my blender. In one minute, I had a drink that was at least three servings of vegetables. It is also a great way to sneak spinach into your berry shakes. You can’t even taste it!

Oh and if you are wondering, broccoli and celery actually turn quite sweet when they are blended. You can hardly taste them.

The other great thing about the Vitamix is that you can make soups that warm themselves up in the blender. Yesterday night I made a black bean soup in five minutes.

The only downside to the Vitamix is its steep price, around $400. In fact I always joke that the most expensive thing in my IKEA and hand-me-down filled apartment is my VitaMix Blender! My sisters gave me mine as graduation present when I graduated from business school - no briefcase and suits for me. I had some serious blending to do.

But, if you aren’t getting any graduation presents soon, there is another version of this type of blender that runs much less expensive,The Magic Bullet, which runs around $100. I can’t speak for the quality of this machine because I haven’t used it, but I do have some friends that really like it.

In fact, there are a couple different blender models out there that work the same way, essentially really powerful blenders that can handle apples, carrots, seeds and the like. Just make sure you read the box before you throw something tough in your blender. I’ve broken a couple of blenders that way.

So here’s to the end of juicer guilt and to the beginning of more whole fruits and vegetables for all! Yeah!

“I’m so healthy–I eat a salad every day for lunch,” said Sandra, one of my newer clients.

“But,” she quickly added, “I can’t stop snacking in the afternoon. At 4:00 I tend to ravage the leftover cookies and bagels from the breakfast and lunch meetings.”

I know that I and many of my clients feel the same way. When I used to work in an office before I started Ideal Balance, I often felt like salads were just “appetizers” which left a dangerous amount of room for me to ravage the vending machine. It took me some trial and error to learn the art of making a truly healthy and filling salad. I’ll show you the ropes.

Salads are certainly healthy meals, especially if you can add some dark leafy greens such as spinach or kale. According to Chinese medicine, leafy greens help clean the blood, and since the blood pulsates through our whole body, that is a very good thing. My personal favorite reason for eating greens is that they help lift my mood. The world always appears to be a lighter, happier place after I eat a large and satisfying meal of dark, leafy greens.

But for many of us, a salad simply does not offer enough calories to stabilize the blood sugar between lunch and an afternoon snack. If you are a salad eater who loses focus, gets sleepy, and craves sugar one or two hours after lunch, I’m talking to you. This is not the rule across the board, but many people need to have three components in their salads in order to feel satisfied and “full”: healthy protein, good fat and a whole-grain complex carbohydrate, bean or legume.

Here are some suggestions to make your next salad more satisfying:

1. Add good fats: olive oil, olives, avocados, nuts. Fats make food actually taste good and alert your body that you are eating. They also make you feel fuller, longer and keep your blood sugar levels stable, so you can think properly during that 4:00 meeting. And for those of you that are still afraid of fat, you need not worry. It is much better for you to fill up on some avocado, then raid the pretzels in the afternoon.

2. Add enough healthy protein: lean meats like chicken and turkey, eggs, beans, soybeans. If you are someone who gets incredibly hungry one hour after eating a salad then you may need to add two servings of protein. Play with your salads and see what your body likes best.

3. Add a whole-grain complex carbohydrate: This part is tricky. Often the only really healthy complex carbohydrates are beans and legumes. These are a great addition to a salad. But if you feel like you need more, then keep a stash of whole-grain crackers or pita breads at your desk to munch on with your salad. I like the AK-MAK sesame crackers best. Just make sure the first ingredient on the list says 100% whole-grain or whole wheat.

4. Don’t forget your 3:00 or 4:00 Snack: Eating healthy light foods will make you feel energetic, light and focused. But they don’t last as long in the belly as pizza and steak. So you are going to need to eat some snacks to keep you satisfied. It is normal to be hungry about 3 hours after lunch and it is important that you keep your blood sugar level stable by eating a snack, preferably one that contains a combination of a carb plus a protein - such as an apple and peanut butter, or chicken and whole - wheat crackers.

Thanks for reading and let me know if this helps!