This soup is a pure antioxidant bomb. Rose hips are one of the best plant sources of vitamin C and the almonds add the vitamin E you need to keep biological age young.

Wild roses can be found all over the word so the best thing you can do is get out there a pick them fresh.  If you don’t feel like going outside most health food stores sell dried rose hips.  The soup is sweet, creamy and very well suited as dessert or snack. However, with it’s high levels of vitamin C serves great an immune system booster when you feel that you’re coming down with something.

When I was a child my mom would serve this soup hot on cold winter days or when I was sick. As a special treat she would add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I loved it.

Here is how to make healthy homemade rosehip soup:

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh rose hips or 2 cups dried rose hips
6 cups water
½ cups sugar
1,5 tablespoon potato starch or cornstarch
10 slivered blanched almonds (optional)

1.    Rinse the rose hips, if you are using dried rose hips crush them carefully without crushing the seeds.
2.    Boil rose hips for about 10 min in a covered pot.
3.    Mash with a fork and strain thoroughly.
4.    Heat the strain stirring while adding sugar and starch. Heat until the soup thickens and set aside to cool.
5.    Serve the rose hip soup hot or cold with slivered blanched almonds.
If you’re looking for a treat serve the soup hot and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum.

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Flowers in your salad is not only very pretty it can also give your food a health boost.

Dr Jim Duke is a famous ethnobotanist. He was recently featured in the Daily Health News letter with these great ideas on edible flowers. Make sure to pick the right once though we don’t want you to add a non-edible flower to your summer salad.

• Violets, kin of the vivid Johnny-Jump-Up, add a grassy flavor to garnishes and desserts. These are a good source of rutin, believed to reduce capillary fragility.

• Squash blossoms contain Vitamin A precursor carotenoids.

• Borage, which hints at cucumber, is good in salads. It should be used sparingly, but can be helpful when you have a cold or cough.

• Lavender petals taste sweet and contain chemicals thought to benefit the central nervous system.

• Roses have a sweet, astringent flavor. Rose petals are rich in antioxidant-like polyphenols that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Different colors have different bioactive pigments — and white has the least. Eccleston cautioned against eating the ones you buy in stores as they are grown with chemicals and dipped in fungicide.

• Nasturtiums, lemon gem marigold and calendula (petals only) are all delicious in salads, each bringing its distinct earthy flavor and color to the table, so to speak. The orange calendula (marigold) petals contain lycopene and other cancer-fighting nutrients, while the yellow ones are rich in lutein, which is good for the eyes.

• Daylilies contain Vitamin B and chemicals associated with reduced risk of heart disorders.

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Don’t through away the pumpkin seeds. They are both healthy and tasty. Most people toast them for best taste. Just follow this toasted pumpkin seed recipe and enjoy more of your pumpkins.

Ingredient:

• Fresh pumpkin seeds
• Olive oil
• Seasoning: salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper or paprika.

Here is how to Oven Toast Pumpkin Seeds:

Rinse pumpkin seeds and remove all the pulp with your fingers.

Spread out the seeds on a flat surface  and dry overnight.

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Toss pumpkin seeds in olive oil and seasonings of your choice for example: salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper or paprika.

Bake in oven for about 1 hour, tossing every 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Let the pumpkin seeds cool before eating.

Store the toasted seeds in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months or refrigerate up to 1 year.

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Doing a Breast Self Exams is an important part of women’s health. It’s easy and you can and should do this on a regular basis. Follow these step-by-step instructions.

What You Need to Look For:

• Any lumps (may or may not be painful or tender)
• Unusual thickening or swelling of your breasts
• Any changes in the skin of your nipples or breasts, such as puckering, dimpling, scaly skin or other skin changes
• Any unusual increase in the size of one breast
• Bloody or sticky discharge from your nipples
• If one breast unusually lower than the other

How to Check Your Breast : Breast-Self Exam

1.    Start by standing in front of a mirror. Look at your breasts with your arms at your side, then with your arms raised behind your head, and last with your arms on your hips and your chest muscles flexed.
2.    Now raise your left arm and use the pads of your first 3 fingers of your right hand to feel in and around your armpit.
3.    Do the same thing with the other armpit.
4.    Next, lie down with a pillow under your left shoulder. Put your left hand behind your head and feel your left breast with the pads of the 3 middle fingers on your right hand. Start at the outer edge and work around your breast in small circles, getting closer to your nipple with each circle. After you’ve finished checking your breast, squeeze your nipple gently and look for fluid coming out of the nipple.
5.    Do the same thing to your right breast with a pillow under your right shoulder.
Your breasts can also be checked while you are taking a bath. It is easier to feel lumps when your skin is wet.

When Should You Check Your Breasts:
If you are 20 years of age or older you should check your breasts monthly, preferably one week after your period.

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Bad breath has been rated the most unattractive feature a person can have!

It is very embarrassing to have bad breath and it is very unpleasant to talk or, even worse, kiss a person with a smelly breath. However there are tons of home remedies to get rid of the problem.

Here are the best home remedies to cure bad breath:

1. Gargle baking soda dissolved in water.

2. Eat sugar-free yogurt.

3. Drink a lot of water throughout the day.

4. Check of fresh basil leaves and then rinse with water.

5. Drink green tea.

6. Eat citrus fruits.

7. Eat fresh parsley.

8. Drink tea from Fenugreek seeds

9. Chew on sunflower seeds and drink water after every meal

10. Chew on a clove after every meal.

11. Eat apples.

12. Drink pineapple juice.

13. Chew cardamom seeds.

14. Chew on mint leaves.

15. Use probiotics.

16.. Use tooth paste for dry mouth.

17. Brush your teeth twice a day.

18. Clean your tongue with your toothbrush, the edge of a spoon, or a tongue cleaner.

19. Wash your mouth with lukewarm salt water before going to bed.

20. Floss with tea tree oil. Fill up the dental floss container with tea tree oil so the whole spool of dental floss gets some tea tree oil on it.

21. Brush with tea tree oil. Add 2 drops of tea tree oil on your tooth brush with your tooth paste.

22. Eat avocado

If you really want to be sure to get rid of your bad breath. Check out this secret formula of common household ingredients that eliminated the bad breath problem 96 times out of 100!

You can get some more ideas on how to get rid of bad breath with home remedies in this video.

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Then you want to learn more about the Eat Stop Eat program. It’s a program for people who want to lose weight fast but do  NOT want to change their whole lifestyle. Brad makes a good point in this article. Losing weight is all in your own mind.

Today is the day that you make up your mind to start losing weight!

Have you ever stopped to take an inventory of all the things you currently do for weight loss, fitness, nutrition and your health in general?

If you do you’ll quickly find out what you’re doing for your body that is working and what you’re doing that might not be working so well.

You might be following a regular workout routine, and have some nutrition guidelines like ‘never drink calories’ or ‘always choose the low fat version’.

But if you honestly take a really good look at everything you’re doing, can you honestly say which things are working and which things aren’t?

And specifically what is working for weight loss?

Weight loss seems to be more of a mental battle than a physical one. Sure there are some hunger cravings to deal with every now and then, but 90% of the battle is in your mind. If you can win the battle in your mind you can also win the battle around your waist or butt (or wherever you store your fat).

The most important thing you can ever do to lose weight is to re-program the way you think to believe that not only is weight loss possible, but that it’s possible for YOU.

Whatever thoughts you hold in your mind will become reality regardless if they are positive or negative.

I can best explain what I am talking about by a rather Profound Statement:

Our Brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts that we hold in our minds. And, by means which no man is familiar, these magnets attract us to the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts*

This is a quote from Napoleon Hill, and believe it or not it explains EXACTLY what I’m talking about.

Because if you bend and twist this quote, you get this:

It is up to YOU to choose to believe that you DESERVE to lose weight.

(And you can’t wait, not even another day. You need to choose to believe RIGHT NOW!)

Every day that goes by that you don’t take action, is a day that you learn to accept that you DO NOT DESERVE to lose weight.

And if you don’t believe you deserve it, it’s never going to happen.

Positive thoughts alone will NOT create weight loss… (You can’t ‘wish yourself thin’)

You need a plan

And Eat Stop Eat is that plan.

Eat Stop Eat is a PERFECT map that lays out EVERYTHING you need to do to lose weight while maintaining your muscle mass.

And it’s much simpler than you probably think.

It is not complex nor is it confusing.

Everything that you need to do (and everything you don’t) is clearly laid out for you.

But it’s up to YOU.

Everything you need is RIGHT HERE in Eat Stop Eat.

It’s completely up to you to take action, TODAY.

So Eat Stop Eat is a belief that you deserve to lose weight, AND it’s the plan to help you get there, but if it were just a plan, it would be an average book at best.

It will open your eyes to just how simple weight loss can be, and how you can lose weight without totally complicating your life. There is nothing preventing you from losing weight besides your own mind…

…And it’s time to change your mind.

Get Eat Stop Eat, change your mind and start losing weight today.

Your friend,

Brad

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Do you feel like you’ll never have success with your weight loss?

Without knowing it, you might be making these weight loss mistakes. They may seem harmless but reaching your goal weight can be hard and you want to make it as easy as you can on yourself.

1.    Skipping meals
Skipping a meal usually has an adverse effect on your diet goals. You are much more likely to fall for unhealthy snacks and most people will compensate for the saved calories by eating more later during the day. Always eat 3 meals and 2 healthy snacks a day.

2.    Grocery shopping hungry
It’s almost as if the unhealthy, fast sugar and fat products just jump into the chart when you’re grocery shopping hungry. Ideally eat a meal before you go to the store but if you find yourself there with a screaming stomach simply purchase a fruit and eat it. Then continue your shopping.

3.    Eating in front of the TV
The TV is one of the places that we are most likely to eat unhealthy food. We usually do it without even noticing. A great rule is not to eat in front of the TV, period. An even better rule is not to watch TV. The time easily flies when we’re on the couch and it’s important to listen to your body. Maybe you are hungry. If you are, have a fruit, a sandwich, some nuts or another healthy snack. One key here is eat when you’re hungry and drink when you’re thirsty instead of filling your body with calories without noticing.
4.    Following impossible diets
Your diet should be healthy, give you plenty of energy and keep you at healthy weight. On top of that you should enjoy your diet and you must be able to stay with it. Keeping a healthy diet is not about restricting yourself for a couple of weeks and then going back to normal. Don’t even bother trying a diet that is unhealthy in the long run for example a diet without carbs. Less carbs and complex carbs are fine but not no carbs.
5.    Drinking calories
This is probably one of the most important reasons for weight gain: we drink calories. The problem with these calories is that they don’t make you satisfied and it is very easy to drink a lot without noticing, especially with all the free refills. How about diet products? Sorry, they trick your brain to think that you get sugar and when the kick doesn’t come the body makes you hungry since it’s still waiting for a sugar rush.  Avoid juice, pop (soda) and alcoholic beverages.
6.    Your food is too soft
Your jaw and your digestive system needs to work. If you only eat soft food you won’t get a feeling of satisfaction and you’ll want to eat more. Whole grain, carrots and beets, a piece of meat instead of ground meat are perfect foods for a full and satisfied feeling.
7.    You don’t move enough
People who live a very sedentary lifestyle don’t have room for many calories in their diet. The best solution is always to move more. You don’t have to spend hours in the gym or go out for an hour long run. Go for a walk with a friend, play ball with the kids, go play at the pool, take the bike to the park and never, ever take the elevator.

Use these seven ideas to have great success with your weight loss or to keep a healthy weight.

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Do store bought cleanses work?

Or are they a waste of money?

Maybe you’re done with spring cleaning your house. How about your body?

I just watched a video about whether cleanse products mean effective weight loss or a waste of money.

The main reasons that people do a detox is to:

1. Lose Weight
2. Get clearer skin
3. Increase your energy

Does it work? Yes, a detox works. But not the cleanse products, according to the experts.

Eating more fruit and vegetables is really what makes a difference during the cleanse. The actual product doesn’t matter.

I think this is in individual choice.

Once a friend of mine tried the same cleanse product at the same time. She lost weight and all her eczema disappeared. While I felt noticed nothing.

To really understand that you must look at our normal diets. She ate a “normal” reasonably healthy American diet. While I had a large very large percentage raw food in my diet, avoided preservatives and additives and did not drink any coffee or black tea.

The conclusion is probably that she needed a detox I didn’t.

I’m firm believer in detox. A couple of days, every now and then. I always gives me huge amounts of energy. So does a 1-day fast.

Adding a couple of days of fast or detox into your weekly schedule can have amazing results on your body fat. You consume less calories so you lose weight. It’s really quite simple. However there are not a lot of weight loss diets that can promise you increased energy levels.

If a store bought cleanse product will help your motivation. Then that is the prefect choice for you.

If you have the will to do it on your own. I would recommend to spend that money on your favorite raw foods are create your own personal detox. It is really quite simple. You can find all the information you need in the article how  to detoxify your body naturally .

Read my diary from the first day I was fasting for weight loss.

Image by D Sharon Pruitt.

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Do you want to lose weight without  going on a diet?

Would it be great to lose a couple of pounds before the summer? With smart eating habits you can lose 10 pounds in just 50 days.

It’s not like dieting; depriving yourself from the foods you like or following a strict regime that might jeopardize your health. It’s about eating tasty food and adding the magic tricks that will make those extra pounds melt away. More protein and less simple carbs is the current best method to lose weight.

By following these smart diet guidelines you will feel satisfied on less calories.

5 Effective Weight Loss Foods

1. Eat more protein (about 150g per meal)

2. Eat less more often (eat one smaller portion every 3 hours)

3. Eat less carbs (30-40 grams per meal)

4. Eat healthy fat with every meal

5. Eat food with with solid or semi-solid texture (eat veggies raw or slightly steamed or sauteed)

With these foods you can cook delicious meals and still lose weight. You can go to restaurants and have friends over for dinner. There is no need to deprive yourself from tasty food and you don’t even have to let anyone no you plan to lose weight.

If you want more easy fat loss tipsdownload our free fat loss e-book. It is jam-packed with the latest shortcuts to effective weight loss. No more strict diet. No more hard work. Just easy and effective weight loss.

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The so called Captains Chair has been called the worlds most effective abs exercise. You can find them in most gyms.

The beauty of this great exercise to get flat belly is that you don’t need to go to the gym to do it.

It’s really easy to do and you can do it during 1 minute a day at home of at the office and you will see results fast.  So No More Excuses!

How to do the best  flat belly exericse  in only 1 minute a day:

1. Sit on a chair that does not allow you to touch the floor.
2. Put your hands under your legs.
3. Move your body weight to your hands (as if you plan to lift your body).
4. Bend your knees and lift your legs about 6-8 cm from the chair.
5. Lower them a again in slow controlled movement.
6. Repeat for at least 1 minute.

What other abs exericse can brag about results in just 1 minute a day?

Here is a video with the traditional captains chair exercise in the gym.

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