Tag: positive

Go Veg: Thicker Hair, Healthy Gut, Smooth Skin, and Strong Nails

Chef V

Veronica hair loss improvement

 

The study Chef V commissioned from an independent laboratory concluded that when study participants completed the Chef V detox and continued to use the Chef V Green Drink plan, they experienced a 39.8% improvement in hair loss.

The best veggies for a healthy gut, skin, hair, and nails are the same as the ones in Chef V’s mega-popular Green Drink. And it’s no coincidence that these same veggies are also the best for helping you cleanse and detox. Chef V covers how each of the veggies benefits your beauty.

I created the recipe for Organic Green Drink several years ago back when I was a private chef. Over time, demand grew for my Green Drink and that’s really the catalyst for launching Chef V.

I did a ton of research for the Green Drink recipe. I wanted to select the best veggies that would not only taste amazing cold-blended, but that would also be the best for a 3 day cleanse or 21-day detox. And as it turns out, the seven veggies in Green Drink not only happen to be the best for cleansing and detoxing, they also happen to be the best veggies for skin, hair, and nails.

Now I admit, it would be a pain in the behind to have to chop green kale, black kale, collard greens, dandelion greens, green chard, curly parsley, and green leaf lettuce every day. And then have to juice it. Then clean up.

The main reason why I transitioned from being a private chef to launching Chef V: making healthier easier for people just like you. And it doesn’t get any easier than having a bottle of our certified organic Green Drink delivered to your home.

Not only can you lose weight, gain energy and sleep more soundly by having Green Drink every day, but there’s also a very good chance your skin, hair, and nails will look better.

So let’s take a look at how the ingredients in Green Drink are the healthiest veggies for skin, hair, and nails.

meditate

Best Veggies for Skin, Hair & Nails: Kale

Sure, there’s some excessive kale craziness these days. But for good reason. Kale is rich in vitamin K. And it’s really hard for most people who eat the average American diet to get enough K. Vitamin K actually helps minimize dark circles in your eyes. That’s why it’s one of the best veggies for skin.

In fact, kale can even help tighten your skin. How? Well, one of the reasons why your skin isn’t as tight when you get older is that the aging process weakens your collagen. Collagen is the body’s main structural protein. In fact, over one-third of the thousands and thousands of proteins in the body are collagen proteins. Collagen provides strength to your tendons, ligaments, teeth, nails, hair, bones, gut lining, and much more….

The vitamin C in kale along with the antioxidant, lutein, promotes collagen regrowth and production. In addition, the vitamin A in kale helps prevent damage to the skin. It also repairs and damage to the epidermis.

There’s a good reason why kale has been added to several beauty products. Because it’s such an efficient detoxifying nutrient, kale can help clean your pores. It’s even beneficial for your hair pores. Moreover, kale contains fatty acids such as omega-3s. These fatty acids provide moisture to your hair and skin.

There’s even a nail polish with kale extract. Supposedly, it can help stimulate keratin production. Keratin is the other main protein that’s in your nails.

These facts about kale make it one of the best veggies for skin, hair and nails. So drink your Green Drink and schedule that kale facial!

kale

Best Veggies for Skin, Hair & Nails: Dandelion

Another incredible detoxifying green veggie in our Green Drink is dandelion. Dandelion widens your pores. That’s how it helps your body get rid of toxins. And according to this article, dandelion shrinks wrinkles. It may also help whiten dark spots and reduce fine lines.

Like kale, dandelion also contains lots of beta carotene and vitamin C. It’s also rich in the B vitamins and vitamin E, which is a standard ingredient in many skin care products. Moreover, the minerals and trace minerals in dandelion may actually help regrow hair.

dandelion

Lettuce

One of the main reasons why lettuce is good for your skin is it contains the following three minerals: silica, sulfur and phosphorous. You don’t need a large quantity of these minerals from the foods you eat. That’s why they are called trace minerals. But these three trace minerals are vital for maintaining healthy skin, hair and nails. Without doubt, you’re not going to get many benefits by eating iceberg lettuce, which is devoid of nutrition. But green leafy lettuce can also protect your skin against harmful UV rays.

So now do you see why I selected these six veggies (7 really; Green Drink includes two different types of kale)? Not only are they the best-tasting and most detoxifying, they’re also the best for your skin, hair and nails.

Veronica in kitchen with blenders

Lettuce

One of the main reasons why lettuce is good for your skin is it contains the following three minerals: silica, sulfur and phosphorous. You don’t need a large quantity of these minerals from the foods you eat. That’s why they are called trace minerals. But these three trace minerals are vital for maintaining healthy skin, hair and nails. Without doubt, you’re not going to get many benefits by eating iceberg lettuce, which is devoid of nutrition. But green leafy lettuce can also protect your skin against harmful UV rays. So now do you see why I selected these six veggies (7 really; Green Drink includes two different types of kale)? Not only are they the best-tasting and most detoxifying, they’re also the best for your skin, hair and nails.


50% off Chef V 21 Day Detox

5 Easy Ways To Stay Positive & Healthy

Chef V

Veronica, Brandon, Coco on beach

During the Long Dark Winter…

If you feel like eating tons of comfort food and hibernating this time of year, I don’t blame you. But it’s so important to stay active and healthy this time of year and I’ve got some easy, fun tips to do it!  Get ready for spring – it is almost here!

It’s 5:30 p.m. It’s pitch black outside and freezing. All you feel like doing is plopping down on the couch and vegging out for a few hours. If that’s what you’re feeling, should you give in? After all, aren’t you supposed to listen to your body? And if your body is telling you that you should grab the cashmere comforter, a few of your favorite snacks, a glass of wine and the remote … well … what's wrong with that?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with chillaxing—from time to time. But if that’s how you’re gonna roll from late fall until early- or mid-spring when the weather finally warms up and the days are longer, that’s not going to be good for your mental or physical health. 

So next time you’re feeling the winter blues, follow these tips to get ready for spring:

woman meditating

Stay Positive & Healthy This Tip #1: Meditate In Bed

This may not come as a shock but it’s important to state: In general, people who meditate on a regular basis are happier, calmer, and better able to attract what they want in life. There’s lots of research to support this—at least the part about people who meditate being more positive and calmer. 

The problem with meditation is that for people who have never tried it, it seems intimidating. But learning anything new is challenging. Beyond that, though, another problem with meditation is that many people assume that you have to sit completely still in the lotus position like a Buddhist monk, with your legs twisted into a pretzel. But that’s not the case at all…

I recommend starting each day meditating before you get out of bed, lying flat on your back. So how do you meditate? It’s simple. Listen to a meditation app. Try a guided meditation, which will tell you exactly when to breathe in and breathe out. Or, if you’d rather just listen to soothing meditative music, with Tibetan singing bowls or other ethereal sonic blissed out sounds, there’s no shortage of YouTube videos or smartphone apps for that. 

Start each morning with a 10-minute meditation before you get out of bed. It will really set the stage for an awesome rest of your day. 

woman performing yoga pose

Tip #2: 5 Minute Yoga Routine

After you’re done with your meditation routine (and your potty routine), despite how tired you are, force yourself to do a 5-minute yoga routine. 

Until the weather warms up and spring arrives, If you live in an apartment without central heating, before you start your meditation practice in bed, turn on your space heater in the living room where you do yoga. Get the room nice and toasty. If you’re not sure which 5-minute yoga routine to do or how to do yoga at all, there’s a ton of intro yoga videos, many of them free. 

I recommend doing a flow that keeps your body moving, from cat/cow to downward/upward dog or sun salutations. After just 5 minutes of a continuous flow yoga practice, you’ll feel like a new person, totally energized, in good spirits and ready to take on the day’s challenges. Try my easy yoga pose routine to stress less, feel better.

healthy snacks on a tray with flowers

Tip #3: Seasonal Snacking

Let’s fast forward to the evening hours when there’s no kids around, all your work and errands are done and it’s tempting to get your Netflix on and snack away. This is the most challenging part of the day. Because even if you were successful at incorporating meditation and a mini yoga session or two (or other activity), succumbing to late-night snacking can sabotage all your healthy habits from earlier in the day. 

And just like meditation is associated with a more positive attitude, snacking is more associated with depression. 

So what can you do when it’s 9:00 at night and it’s time to watch a few episodes of your favorite show? Personally, I try to stop eating and drinking anything with calories by 8:00—unless I’m going out to dinner. Studies on the health impacts of late-night eating are conflicting. 

If you have type I diabetes, it may be essential to have a late-night snack to prevent dangerous blood-sugar drops. If you want to manage blood sugar levels and don’t have type I diabetes, however, eating late at night has been shown to contribute to metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. 

But other studies suggest that having a small meal before bed does not appear to be harmful—especially if you exercise on a regular basis. 

I realize that not everybody can resist the temptation to eat something. So if you are going to eat while watching TV on the couch late at night, eat a healthy, delicious mini-meal. 

My favorite healthy mini-meals are seasonal roasted veggies with some healthy fats and spices. 

    • Sweet potato with a tbsp of grass-fed butter and a dash of cinnamon
    • Brussel sprouts with avocado oil and sea salt and pepper
    • Carrots with hummus and 'Everything But the Bagel' spice (Trader Joe’s) or Zhatar
    • High-fiber toast (100% rye) with canned pumpkin and a dash of local raw honey
    • Almond flour crackers with cucumbers and lemon and pepper seasoning

I’m not going to demonize late-night snacking. The temptation is much too great. But do try your best to avoid all snacks with white flour and wheat flour (even 100% wheat). These common flours get metabolized too quickly. That means they turn into sugar and get stored by the liver as extra body fat. 

But the healthy mini-meal snacks above metabolize slowly and may even help to keep blood sugar levels within a normal, healthy range. 

Veronica reading in bed with Brandon

Tip #4: Read

When’s the last time you read a good book? Many people go all day and all night staring at screens, hardly, if ever looking at printed pages, with the exception maybe of a restaurant menu. 

Reading actual books keeps your mind sharp. And when you get in bed, opening a book gets your mind and body ready for restful sleep. Sorry, reading on a tablet isn’t the same. In fact, studies show that the blue light emanating from tablets at night lowers sleep quality. 

“The use of commercially-available tablets may have consequences in terms of alertness, circadian physiology, and sleep,” the researchers concluded. Reading books has several health benefits, including keeping your mind sharp, reducing depressive symptoms, lowering blood pressure and heart rate. 

So crack open a book and get reading. If you fall asleep after reading just one page, so be it. Let reading be your best sleeping pill.

Tip #5: Eat Before You Party

When I’m invited to a party, I never know what kind of food will be served. Will it be pigs in a blanket, deli finger sandwiches and chips and dip? Most of the time, you get what you pay for, and if the food is free, it’s going to be low quality. So what I do is I have a little Organic Green Drink and then a little later, about an hour or two before the holiday party starts, I’ll eat a full healthy meal. That way, I won’t fill my belly with empty carbs and veggies that have likely been sprayed with pesticides. 

I’ll still indulge a little bit because I’m only human and when in Rome, ya know…

Hopefully, following these tips will keep you more positive and healthier this winter. 

Cheers,  Chef V

5 Easy Ways To Stay Positive & Healthy in a Hot Summer

Chef V

Veronica urban, gd

During the Heat of Summer…

If you feel like holing up in an air conditioned house and having a summer hibernation, I don’t blame you. But it’s so important to stay active and healthy and I’ve got some easy, fun tips to do it!  Stay fit and happy with my 5 easy tips.

It’s 5:30 p.m. It’s 104 degrees. All you feel like doing is plopping down on the couch and vegging out in front of a fan for a few hours. If that’s what you’re feeling, should you give in? After all, aren’t you supposed to listen to your body? And if your body is telling you that you should turn up the AC, grab a few of your favorite snacks, a glass of wine and the remote … well … what's wrong with that?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with chillaxing—from time to time. But if that’s how you’re gonna roll all summer that’s not going to be good for your mental or physical health. 

So next time you’re feeling the heat, follow these tips to stay healthy and reduce stress:

woman meditating

Stay Positive & Healthy This Tip #1: Meditate In Bed

This may not come as a shock but it’s important to state: In general, people who meditate on a regular basis are happier, calmer, and better able to attract what they want in life. There’s lots of research to support this—at least the part about people who meditate being more positive and calmer. 

The problem with meditation is that for people who have never tried it, it seems intimidating. But learning anything new is challenging. Beyond that, though, another problem with meditation is that many people assume that you have to sit completely still in the lotus position like a Buddhist monk, with your legs twisted into a pretzel. But that’s not the case at all…

I recommend starting each day meditating before you get out of bed, lying flat on your back. So how do you meditate? It’s simple. Listen to a meditation app. Try a guided meditation, which will tell you exactly when to breathe in and breathe out. Or, if you’d rather just listen to soothing meditative music, with Tibetan singing bowls or other ethereal sonic blissed out sounds, there’s no shortage of YouTube videos or smartphone apps for that. 

Start each morning with a 10-minute meditation before you get out of bed. It will really set the stage for an awesome rest of your day. 

woman performing yoga pose

Tip #2: 5 Minute Yoga Routine

After you’re done with your meditation routine (and your potty routine), despite how tired you are, force yourself to do a 5-minute yoga routine. 

During the heat of summer, the hours between dawn and breakfast are your best time for activity. Before you start your meditation practice in bed, open up the house and let in the cool early morning air. If it's cool enough, try getting outside. If not, the room where you do yoga should be at its coolest this time of day. If you’re not sure which 5-minute yoga routine to do or how to do yoga at all, there’s a ton of intro yoga videos, many of them free. 

I recommend doing a flow that keeps your body moving, from cat/cow to downward/upward dog or sun salutations. After just 5 minutes of a continuous flow yoga practice, you’ll feel like a new person, totally energized, in good spirits and ready to take on the day’s challenges. Try my easy yoga pose routine to stress less, feel better.

healthy snacks on a tray with flowers

Tip #3: Seasonal Snacking

Let’s fast forward to the evening hours when there’s no kids around, all your work and errands are done and it’s tempting to get your Netflix on and snack away. This is the most challenging part of the day. Because even if you were successful at incorporating meditation and a mini yoga session or two (or other activity), succumbing to late-night snacking can sabotage all your healthy habits from earlier in the day. 

And just like meditation is associated with a more positive attitude, snacking is more associated with depression. 

So what can you do when it’s 9:00 at night and it’s time to watch a few episodes of your favorite show? Personally, I try to stop eating and drinking anything with calories by 8:00—unless I’m going out to dinner. Studies on the health impacts of late-night eating are conflicting. 

If you have type I diabetes, it may be essential to have a late-night snack to prevent dangerous blood-sugar drops. If you want to manage blood sugar levels and don’t have type I diabetes, however, eating late at night has been shown to contribute to metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. 

But other studies suggest that having a small meal before bed does not appear to be harmful—especially if you exercise on a regular basis. 

I realize that not everybody can resist the temptation to eat something. So if you are going to eat while watching TV on the couch late at night, eat a healthy, delicious mini-meal. 

My favorite healthy mini-meals are seasonal with some healthy fats and spices. 

    • My guacamole recipe with mango and pomegranate
    • Popsicles made with fruit – blueberries and strawberries are a favorite
    • Carrots with hummus and 'Everything But the Bagel' spice (Trader Joe’s) or Zhatar
    • Blueberries and non-fat yogurt
    • Almond flour crackers with cucumbers and lemon and pepper seasoning

I’m not going to demonize late-night snacking. The temptation is much too great. But do try your best to avoid all snacks with white flour and wheat flour (even 100% wheat). These common flours get metabolized too quickly. That means they turn into sugar and get stored by the liver as extra body fat. 

But the healthy mini-meal snacks above metabolize slowly and may even help to keep blood sugar levels within a normal, healthy range. 

Veronica reading in bed with Brandon

Tip #4: Read

When’s the last time you read a good book? Many people go all day and all night staring at screens, hardly, if ever looking at printed pages, with the exception maybe of a restaurant menu. 

Reading actual books keeps your mind sharp. And when you get in bed, opening a book gets your mind and body ready for restful sleep. Sorry, reading on a tablet isn’t the same. In fact, studies show that the blue light emanating from tablets at night lowers sleep quality. 

“The use of commercially-available tablets may have consequences in terms of alertness, circadian physiology, and sleep,” the researchers concluded. Reading books has several health benefits, including keeping your mind sharp, reducing depressive symptoms, lowering blood pressure and heart rate. 

So crack open a book and get reading. If you fall asleep after reading just one page, so be it. Let reading be your best sleeping pill.

Tip #5: Eat Before You Party

When I’m invited to a party, I never know what kind of food will be served. Will it be pigs in a blanket, deli finger sandwiches and chips and dip? Most of the time, you get what you pay for, and if the food is free, it’s going to be low quality. So what I do is I have a little Organic Green Drink and then a little later, about an hour or two before the holiday party starts, I’ll eat a full healthy meal. That way, I won’t fill my belly with empty carbs and veggies that have likely been sprayed with pesticides. 

I’ll still indulge a little bit because I’m only human and when in Rome, ya know…

Hopefully, following these tips will keep you more positive and healthier this summer. 

Cheers,  Chef V

Enhance Your Detox With These Enjoyable Treatments

Chef V

older woman hiking

In addition to our Green Drinks there are other great ways to enhance your detox. Some of them can be done – with precautions – at a day spa, at private appointments, or at home. Here are a few of Chef V’s favorites….

Embarking on a 21 day detox will be one of the most transforming journeys of your life.

If it’s a struggle for you to stick to a healthy eating plan, our cleanses and 21 Day Detox will motivate you to eat healthy long after your cleanse is over.

If you’re reading this because you tried every gimmick under the sun that only had short-term success at best, like the Master Cleanse Detox diet, I understand your cynicism.

But please read on….

I, along with the Chef V team, will be with you every step of the way to support you.

My mission is to make it as easy as possible for you to breeze through. Whether it’s the 3-day intro cleanse or the 21 Day Detox Obsessive.

Our Green Drinks, Protein Shakes, Detox Soups, meal plans, and recipe book will nourish and guide you.

But there are other things you can do to support and enhance your cleanse.

Let’s take a look at some tips for a better cleanse. (They’re certainly more enjoyable than a strict master cleanse detox.)

To be sure, if you don’t follow any of these tips, you will still see great results from following our Cleanse and Detox programs.

stomachache

Enhance Your Detox: Colon Hydrotherapy

I’ll admit something. For those unfamiliar with colon hydrotherapy, the idea might sound not so, well, appetizing.

Here’s basically how colon hydrotherapy (also known as colon irrigation) works:

Save You lie on your side in the fetal position. A colon hydrotherapist ever so gently inserts a tube into your colon. Don’t worry, it’s not painful. Next, you sit up with your feet flat on the table. Then, gallons of water gush into your colon. The water navigates up towards your intestines.

After a short while, you will feel pressure. Before it becomes unbearable, the hydrotherapist will pull out the tube. Then, the detox flush occurs.

You can actually watch your toxic waste pass through the tube. This process repeats a few times during the average hydrotherapy session, which lasts about an hour.

I wholeheartedly believe in doing occasional colon hydrotherapy. Especially if you struggle with constipation, bloating, low energy or skin problems.

Your colon is a muscle and it needs to work out every day. So if you’re only going #2 every few days, the muscles of the colon wall weaken.

And as you can imagine, when you don’t poop regularly, toxins accumulate.

Keep in mind that staying hydrated is vital when doing a hydrotherapy session. Your therapist will likely discuss with you how much to drink (at least a half gallon) before the session. In addition, you’ll also need to fast for at least a few hours before.

Moreover, you’ll need to watch what you eat before your session. In the days leading up to and after your hydrotherapy session, you gotta eat clean. It’s the same with a Chef V cleanse or detox.

Although you may think that’s obvious, consider this unbelievable fact: I know people who actually ate a bacon cheeseburger the same day as their hydrotherapy session!

detox

Enhance Your Detox: Sweat Your Butt Off in a Sauna

Ah, shvitzing in a sauna … sounds more relaxing than having a tube stuck up your bum, huh? Though personally, I’d rather have a colonic instead of doing a master cleanser detox diet.

Indeed, soaking in a sauna is not only relaxing, it can also help you detox.

Byproducts of metabolism seep out your sweat pores in a sauna. This dietary waste includes lactic acid and uric acid. Your body also stores fat in the toxins. When you profusely sweat, toxins deep down under the skin move up closer to the skin surface. Keep sweating and some of these toxins escape to the nearest exit, which is out of your skin.

Sitting in a sauna also improves your blood circulation. And when your blood flows better, toxins can move the elimination organs more effectively. In fact, if your blood flow is stagnant, it’s not that different from a sluggish colon imitating a backed-up septic system.


steam

Enhance Your Detox: Open your Pores With Steam

Spending about 20 minutes or so in a steam room is another satisfying spa routine for detoxing.

Who says cleansing has to be a pain in the butt (no pun intended)?

Steam rooms for detoxing works for the same reason that saunas help purify your body. The main difference between sauna and steam is humidity. Saunas produce dry heat while steam rooms feel like a tropical, well, steam bath.

Here is how a steam room can help you detox. The hot steam can increase your metabolism even if it’s temporary. And once you start sweating, this means that toxins are coming out your pores.

In addition, there’s another benefit of steam rooms. They open your mucous membranes. This is a great thing if you battle with congestion frequently.

Another benefit of steam rooms is you’ll lose weight. However, it will be all water weight.

As a side not about weight loss, remember this: when you step on a scale, your weight is not telling you the whole story. What you want to feel is lighter and thinner and more energetic.

However, if you’ve got a wedding or event for which you want to squeeze into a tight-fitting dress, losing a few pounds is a bonus. Just remember to rehydrate!


facial

Enhance Your Detox: treat yourself to a facial

Spending about 20 minutes or so in a steam room is another satisfying spa routine for detoxing.

Who says cleansing has to be a pain in the butt (no pun intended)?

Steam rooms for detoxing works for the same reason that saunas help purify your body. The main difference between sauna and steam is humidity. Saunas produce dry heat while steam rooms feel like a tropical, well, steam bath.

Here is how a steam room can help you detox. The hot steam can increase your metabolism even if it’s temporary. And once you start sweating, this means that toxins are coming out your pores.

In addition, there’s another benefit of steam rooms. They open your mucous membranes. This is a great thing if you battle with congestion frequently.

Another benefit of steam rooms is you’ll lose weight. However, it will be all water weight.

As a side not about weight loss, remember this: when you step on a scale, your weight is not telling you the whole story. What you want to feel is lighter and thinner and more energetic.

However, if you’ve got a wedding or event for which you want to squeeze into a tight-fitting dress, losing a few pounds is a bonus. Just remember to rehydrate!

Enhance Your Detox: treat yourself to a massage

How can I almost forget enhancing your cleanse by getting a massage! It’s yet another oh so satisfying way to detox. I recommend it at least once a month if you can budget for it. Getting a massage releases metabolic waste from your tissues and improves your blood circulation.

Got any other tips for a better detox? Do you think these detox tips are better than the master cleanse detox? Got any detox cleanse recipes you’d like to share? Contact us below or post a comment on our Facebook page.

To your health!

Chef V

read

Digestive Bitters: Don’t Be Sad If You’re Bloated, Get Bitter

Chef V

older woman hiking

If your belly feels like you’re in the first trimester of pregnancy after a meal, don’t get down, just get bitter, digestive bitters that is. Chef V highlights a handful of her favorite bitters. 

I’ve been bitter these days. No, it’s not because of the new scary variant (“scariant”?) or anything like that. I’ve hopped on the bitter bandwagon because lots of my lady customers are of a certain age that let’s just say brings changes. 

And when the changes come, one of the first symptoms to manifest is compromised digestion. When your hormones are out of whack, it gets more difficult for the body to detox. It also becomes more difficult to lose weight and keep it off. 

That’s why I recommend digestive bitters for any age really, but especially for mature ladies. 

image above is of Gentian, an edible bitter herb

bitter face

What Are Bitters? 

Out of the roughly 10,000 taste buds tickling your tongue, you’re probably only getting a steady dose of sweet and salty. Unfortunately, that’s the American Standard Diet for you. 

Maybe if you eat a little yogurt, your sour taste buds will spring into action. But out of the five tastes our tongues can detect—savory is fourth—if it’s a slimmer belly and weight loss you want, seek out the fifth taste: bitter. 

There’s a good reason why the back of your tongue is reserved for bitter taste. If your bitter buds were in the front of your tongue, you’d have a perpetual bitter beer face. (Remember that funny commercial?) In fact, the four other tastes are peppered throughout the tongue. But it’s only bitters that are relegated to the back of the tongue, which, fun fact, is technically considered a digestive organ. 

We have an innate recoil response towards bitter food. Would you stuff your face with a head of the radicchio or an endive? No. But that doesn’t mean we should avoid bitters. Digestive bitters are bitter-tasting herbs that people have been using for thousands of years for bloated bellies and other digestive upsets.

red beet hummus

Chef V’s Favorite Bitters

Kale and dandelion are a couple of my favorite bitters. That’s just one of many reasons they are staple ingredients in CHEF V ORGANIC GREEN DRINK. 

Now, my next favorite bitters aren’t necessarily meant for weight loss, but they do have a part in a balanced diet: dark chocolate/raw cacao and red wine. Isn’t it nice to know that if a little square of dark chocolate and a glass of red wine is your only indulgence, it’s actually a very healthy one? 

If you want to experiment with digestive bitters, the best ones for bile production and metabolism that I recommend are:

● Citrus peel

● Ginger root

● Milk thistle (You can buy this as a supplement; take it if you drink alcohol because it’s great for liver detox!)

● Gentian root

● Chicory root

● Wormwood

Oh, and how can I forget the most widely-used plant-based bitter on the planet: coffee? Personally, I don’t drink coffee, but I’m certainly not going to judge you if you do. I don’t think coffee is good to drink when you’re trying to cleanse. But if you have a cup or two every day, it may even do your body some good. But I recommend cold-brew coffee instead of hot as it’s 60% less acidic and is much easier on your esophagus and digestive system.
In fact, women who drink coffee have lower rates of cardiovascular disease than women who don’t drink it. 


coffee

Conclusion

If you’re having trouble with weight management and no matter what you’ve tried, nothing seems to work, try adding more digestive bitters to your diet. There are several others, from broccoli to grapefruit, arugula and lots more. 

So don’t worry and don’t get mad if your digestion is off. Just get bitter.

read

Cleansing In A Winter Wonderland

Chef V

Veronica, Brandon, Coco on beach

It’s easy to do a cleanse in August, or RAWGUST, as Chef V calls it. When it’s warm, eating lots of light, raw foods like salad seems so satisfying and appropriate for the season. But in mid-winter, what are you supposed to do if you’re looking to give your digestive system and liver a fresh start? Chef V dishes out the tips for winter cleansing…

It will probably come to you as no surprise that most of my customers begin a CHEF V CLEANSE or 21 DAY DETOX in the summer. When it’s so hot you don’t even feel like eating and certainly not cranking up the oven to 425 degrees, it’s simple to go raw. 

But how can you give your digestive system a reboot and stay warm in the winter? This is the time of year when we crave starchy carbs like mashed potatoes, pasta and bread. 

For carnivores, the dilemma gets even more complicated. Freezing cold weather leads to cravings for red meat. But if your elimination is sluggish, eating a steak is like throwing more toilet paper into a backed-up toilet. 

The good news is that you can gently detox your digestive system with these smart winter cleansing hacks…

detox tea

Winter Detox Tip #1: Warm Yourself Up From The Inside Out

When you’re following a cleanse program like this one, it’s a good idea not to exercise too hard. That’s because you’re going to be consuming less calories than you ordinarily would. So it’s best to take it easy whether you’re just doing a 1 day cleanse or a 3-day or 5-day one. 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t crank up your internal thermostat without hardcore exercise. 

One of the easiest ways to quickly go from frozen to toasty warm without moving your body all that much is through kundalini breath of fire exercises. Just do a search for kundalini breath of fire for beginners on YouTube and you’ll come across several free videos. 

These breathing exercises involve short and powerful inhalations and exhalations and as a bonus, your abs get a workout. Practicing the breath of fire pattern for a few minutes will heat your body up and you might even feel tingly all over. 

You can also do a light yoga posture flow going from cat/cow to downward dog or full sun salutations for 5-10 minutes. 

Another simple tip for staying warm while doing a cleanse/detox in the winter is sipping hot beverages throughout the day. Duh, right? But not just any plain hot tea or water will do. To generate internal warmth, add a dash of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, cayenne pepper and ginger to herbal tea or water. 

And what to do about sipping on Organic GREEN DRINK? After all, on a CHEF V CLEANSE, you drink four of these refrigerated drinks on each day that you’re cleansing. If you’re lucky enough to have central heating in your home, maybe it’s not a problem to drink cold GREEN DRINK. 

But even if your cozy comfy home is set to 72 degrees, just knowing that it’s frigid outside might not put you in the mood for a GREEN DRINK straight from the refrigerator. 

So here’s what I do. In the morning after I wake up, one of the first things I do is pour myself a glass of green drink. I pour it in a mason jar and seal it with a lid to reduce oxidation. I let the jar of GREEN DRINK sit at room temperature for about an hour so it’s not so cold. 

Important side note: Make sure you put the bottle of GREEN DRINK you’re not using back in the fridge right away. Each GREEN DRINK is made fresh and because it’s raw to preserve all the phytonutrients, it has a shelf life of 7 days unlike dead, pasteurized commercial juice that never goes bad.

red beet hummus

Winter Detox Tip #2: We’ve Got The Beet

Beet juice is not a staple in a CHEF V CLEANSE. (You get 4 Green Drinks, 2 vegan protein shakes and 1 Detox Soup with your juice cleanse.) But I feature beets in many of my recipes including red beet hummus. For my customers who want a longer program to reset their metabolism, my 21 Day Detox features some of these recipes with beets. 

So why are beets one of the best winter cleansing foods? The answer is that because of the winter holidays, many people overindulge in added sugars. The excess sugar gets stored as body fat by the liver. If the liver is already overworked, this is bad news. Beets are a cleansing superhero because they protect the liver (this study shows). 

Sure, you can eat beets any time of year. You can add them to summer salads. But in winter, you can add them to a veggie soup.


bone broth

Tip #3: Sip On Bone Broth

Now, with my guided cleanses, I recommend going meat-free for the duration of the 1, 3 or 5 day cleanse and the 21 Day Detox. But if you’re following all my other instructions to the “V” I think it’s perfectly ok to add some chicken bone broth that you can sip on during the day to stay warm. 

If you want to learn how to make your own chicken bone broth, check out my video recipe here. 

Tip #4: Drink Your Greens & Cook Your Greens

In order to support my digestive system, I make ORGANIC GREEN DRINK a part of my daily routine 365 days a year. Even when I travel, I take GREEN DRINKS with me. But in the winter, I also make sure to eat a ton of cooked leafy greens. I sautee the leafy greens in a cast iron skillet with avocado oil. To feel full, I’ll add a scoop or two of healthy grains like quinoa or wild rice. 

Again, the CHEF V CLEANSE includes 4 Green Drinks, 2 vegan Protein Shakes and 1 Detox Soup per day. But you don’t have to do an official Chef V cleanse to give your digestive system some cleaner fuel. 

(But if you do want the quickest transformation then follow a CHEF V CLEANSE…) 

Eat a few servings of cooked leafy or cruciferous greens every single day in the winter. The healthy fats in the avocado oil and the clean-burning carbs from the quinoa, brown rice or quinoa will keep your tummy satisfied and give your digestive system a break from all those Christmas cookies and eggnog. 

To your health, 

Chef V

read

© 2021 Chef V, LLC.