Healthy Chicks TOP 10 Choices for 2010

I fell in love with Celebrity nutritionist and health and beauty expert, Kimberly Snyder, (she was just on Good Morning America as well as other media outlets). For the first Health installment of The Healthy Chic for this new year, I'd like to share with you Kim's top ten list of ways to improve our health by changing few habits to improve are healthy for our up and coming Healthy New Year.

Lemons thin the bile and support the rebuilding of the liver tissue—so it will help detoxify us and help optimize our fat-burning processes. You can squeeze fresh lemon juice into your water and onto salads, and easily consume one or two full lemons every day. Full of toxic chemicals and scary fake sugars (and yes that does include Splenda), diet sodas overload our livers with caffeine and are among the most acid-forming of all foods. When our bodies are more acidic it has been shown to accelerate aging and we tend to hold on to excess weight.

Watch your energy skyrocket, your skin become more radiant and pounds drop off. This ONE blended drink will bring in a ton of easily assimilated amino acids and beauty minerals from more greens and fruit than you might usually have in a whole day or a few days! The easy recipe is on Kim's blog: kimberlysnyder.net. Dairy is pasteurized, very difficult to digest and break down, and acid-forming and mucus-forming in our bodies. It is much easier to lose and maintain weight if you give up dairy altogether, not to mention it could really help clear up that pesky adult acne. Switch to consuming almond milk and goat's milk cheese, which is easier than cow's milk dairy to digest.

Since fruit breaks down and leaves the stomach in only in 20-30 minutes, it should be eaten first or on an empty stomach. If we eat it as desert, or after heavier or cooked foods, it will have nowhere to go after it breaks down. Thus, we will create backup, the fruit will start to ferment, and we will bloat out. Not fun - and not good, as the vitamins and benefits compounds of the fruit will instead have turned into toxic fermentation in our bellies. Drinking a lot of water (or wine!) with your food will only serve to dilute thehydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes in your stomach, which impedes efficient digestion. This will also cause bloating. Hydrate yourself by drinking ample amounts of water at least 20-30 minutes before meals.

This includes Splenda, Equal, Sweet 'n Low, etc. Our bodies are not designed to break down these man-made chemical concoctions. The more we overload our bodies with artificial toxins to deal with, the less efficiently our organs will be able to perform other functions, like detoxification and cleansing. Products labeled "sugar-free" usually have one of these nasty culprits lurking in the ingredient list. Stevia is a natural, 0 calorie choice. Some other, better choices are raw agave nectar and xylitol.. Animal protein is the most complex of the food groups and requires a ton of energy to break down, and the bi-products of its digestion include ammonia and uric acid. These bi-products are acidic, and linked to visible signs of aging like cross-linkages and wrinkles. You are getting enough protein in your diet so that you can have a few meals without animal meat, trust me! Give your organs a break and have a few dinners where you load up instead on beautifying greens and vegetables, to get your beauty minerals in.

Get into the habit of being the last one at the dinner party to finish your food! The more you liquefy your food, the easier it will be for your body to extract nutrients from your food. Also, the breakdown of starch begins in your mouth. The more foods mix with our saliva and the more we break them down as much as we can in the mouth, the easier food will move through our bodies- helping to prevent bloating and weight gain. Celtic Sea Salt is unique among salts because it is sun-dried – a process that allows 70 minerals and elements, enzymes and even marine microorganisms to remain intact. Other sea salts are kiln-dried, which causes valuable magnesium and most other minerals to evaporate. Normal table salt is the worst of all, being irradiated and denatured sodium chloride. It not only has no nutritional benefit, it depletes the skin's natural hydration. So make the switch to Celtic Sea Salt. This TOP TEN list of healthy changes seems quite doable, I am very excited to share with you my daily diary, to become a healthy Chic for 2010 and for a life time. To our Good Eating, Jennifer