Time to listen: 27 minutes. Answer your cravings for chocolate with naturally sweetened, raw chocolate.  See and feel the results!  Now you can attend one of my Say Yes to Chocolate workshops from your office, sofa or while you workout at the gym.  Of course, you’ll miss the experience of actually TASTING the chocolate treats and accessing the latest healthy chocolate recipes.   Click the above video or this podcast link to discover tips on using chocolate to your healthy advantage.

Time to read: 2 minutes. No this isn’t an anti-coffee or anti-Starbucks rant. Keep drinking your coffee. But please stop suggesting that “healthy foods & drinks are too expensive” — all the while paying $3.50 for your morning latte.  My point is simple: Superfood-laced smoothies cost LESS THAN TWO BUCKS and can satisfy sweetness cravings AND need for long-lasting energy. Oh and did I mention the long list of customizable mental and physical health benefits? Read on for the proof that nature’s most healthy foods are more affordable than you think.  I’ll show you how to create them FAST in a daily drink you’ll crave.

Already convinced and just want the recipe for my Brazillian chocolate-acai smoothie?  Click here.

Quick analysis: Coffee’s cost and benefits

Beverage: Typical latte
Cost: $2.00 – 5.00
Beneficial ingredients: Milk (if organic!)
Watch out for: Processed sugars, syrups, synthetic supplement powders

Depending on your choice of size and where you buy your morning latte you’re looking at spending $3.50 or more. In return you get that familiar boost of energy, creamy enjoyment and perhaps sugar and spices.

Your latte does offer fat. But not essential fatty acids that your body needs.  Example: omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are essential to brain function.

But your latte’s fat is NOT the kind of fat that will nourish your brain. The right kind of fat helps you stay focused throughout the day — helps improve your job or school performance. Good fat helps provide energy for playing with your child or grandchild after a long day at work.

The fat in your latte is mostly good for only one thing — to be stored in your body as extra pounds. The same is true for a cup of coffee with sugar and cream. Drink it black? Ok… but you’re still spending $2.00 and getting nearly zero health benefit.

Quick analysis: Retail smoothie shops

Beverage: Typical retail smoothie
Cost: $3.50 – 5.00
Beneficial ingredients: Fruits, vegetables
Watch out for: Processed sugars & syrups, synthetic (non-natural) supplement powders

Most retail shops use simple syrup — processed sugar — in every smoothie they create. And the amount they use can be staggering. The use of these syrups (and syrups used to store fruit) virtually negate the health benefits of supplements you nay add. Again, these processed sugars are, by design, good for one thing — storage on your body. Oh, and maximum profit for the smoothie chain too.

Smoothie shops also use supplements — like protein powders.  Most often these supplements are synthetic, man-made substitutes that the body cannot absorb (make use of) OR get rid of. The result?  Our bodies store them… and that creates a variety of health problems AND promotes disease.

Quick analysis: Your kitchen smoothie

Cost: $1.89 – $3.25
Beneficial ingredients: Too many to list — the choice is yours based on taste desired!
Watch out for: Weight loss, mental clarity, increased energy, muscle strength, detoxification and more

Let see what a home made Superfood smoothie offers us and how much it really costs.  It can be as low as $1.89 using the highest quality, certified organic Superfoods.

Smoothies, pound for pound, are some of the most nutrient dense meals. A green smoothie with some fruit and berries can deliver more antioxidants and phytonutrients than most meals eaten by the majority of people around the world. They’re also easier to digest, since a good blender will break up the plant fibers for better absorption.

In place of processed sugars, Superfood smoothies use natural sugars like honey and dates.  These sources of sugar have a variety of health benefits.  These sugars have nutritional benefits — like honey’s ability to help digest all your foods (via vital enzymes) and a huge number of Vitamin B’s including B9.  PLUS they burn rapidly as they power your body’s routine functions.  Finally they often come pared with things like high fiber — such as with dates.

Easy and loaded with benefits

By preparing a smoothie every morning, you can start off your day with the protection of antioxidants.  Plus an incredible array of vitamins and nutrients. AND you get the energy and calories you need to power you through the day – all without getting hunger pangs an hour after your first meal!

Green smoothies are easy and fast to prepare.  You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to create your own drink.  They’re fun and help our bodies get all the nutrients we need to perform well.  Last but not least they’ll help your body detoxify (get rid of the toxins) we store in our fat cells.

The smoothies that I help people create:

• Increase energy levels
• Help foster weight loss — quickly and safely
• Detoxify and cleanse their systems from harmful pollutants and chemicals
• Build muscle and strength

By starting to incorporate green smoothies in everyday life you’ll share the message of great health to others too.  That’s the fun part!

The choice is yours.  Where are you going to invest your money? In McDonalds, Wendy’s, Starbucks — or simply in your HEALTH.

Ready for a South American taste sensation?

I’ll give you a little help by teaching you how to make my Chocolate-Acai  non-dairy ice cream.  You can, of course, make it as a smoothie too.  Just use less ice.  Your children and your husband will fall in love with it too.  Mine did!  We discovered it while on a public speaking, hang gliding and rock climbing adventure in Brazil.

1 cup almond milk

2 Tbs. cacao powder

1 Tbs Acai

5 dates

splash of raw honey

1/2 banana

1 cup ice

Put together in the Vitamix or any other blender. Blended for 2 min.   Voila! Chocolate Acai Ice cream to die for.  Enjoy.

Need to purchase the ingredients?  No problem — look here!