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Summer’s the perfect time to finally capture that slim, svelte figure. After all, there’s great weather, there’s great beach activities to try out (volleyball, anyone?) and there’s always that  (loved and hated) bikini to get you motivated to lose weight. But when you need that extra push to shed those extra pounds you can always turn to….your computer?

According to recent medical studies, people (and women in particular) were more motivated to lose weight and get active when they received constant support through the convenience of online diet programs….making this the perfect time to try out the all-new, stylish BalanceD diet program.

BalanceD provides members with online 24/7 nutrition and weight loss support. The online portal provides  cool features like access to hundreds of delicious recipes, meal planners, workout tips, exercise examples, and even a Virtual Assistant to show you how to get started. Members are also able to write in to fitness and diet experts and receive a personal answer via email, and also share success stories and tips with other members. The custom diet, fitness tools and diet coaching are all available for a lifetime membership price of $99.

Sure, we might be a bit biased (elements launched this amazing diet program), but with this total approach to weight loss that includes diet, fitness, beauty and mind, who wouldn’t get excited about it?

BalanceD is available online at www.balanceyourelements.com and will also soon be available in elements clubs across the country.

We might already be at the mid-point of summer, but there’s still plenty of time to get the body you want. Are you ready to get BalanceD ?

On a hot summer day, is there anything more refreshing than a sparkling ice cube?

 

A community of ice chewers think not! This large group of munchers have proclaimed their love for the practice of chewing ice (www.icechewing.com) and praise it as a calorie-free treat that they engage in pretty much at all times of the day. Some buy cups and even bags of ice from fast food places. Some have special ice machines installed in their houses. There are even "teeth-friendly" ice cubes being manufactured that are easier to chomp on.

 

It does offer a quick, calorie-free alternative to popping in a stick of sugary gum or sucking on a sugary popsicle. But is ice chewing bad for your teeth? The American Dental Association says that ice chewing can lead to gum and tooth injuries. They recommend sucking slowly on ice or allowing it to melt on the tongue. And many medical professionals now link excessive ice chewing to pagophagia , a type of pica associated with anemia and iron deficiency. (Many people who chewed ice constantly found they no longer had the obsessive desire once iron levels were restored within their bodies through supplements or their diets.)

 

But whether you're new to this trend, a confirmed ice chewer, or think the whole idea is crazy, you can still cool down this summer with an icy treat. Try this cool and refreshing trick: Combine 100% fruit juice with 50% water. Pour into ice cube tray. The next time you have a craving for something sweet, pop one of these cubes into your mouth and savor the natural sweetness without the sugar!

Picture this: a recuperating loved one reclines on a bed, surrounded by sky-clogging helium balloons, wilting flowers and massive gift baskets that contain 90% overripe apples and pears and 10% candy, all sent to help them “feel better.”

We’ve always thought there was something wrong with this scene…and we’re glad someone else did, too. Introducing AntiOXinabox, the “healthy gift alternative”!

Founded by two cancer survivors who were tired of receiving gift baskets crammed with sugary, fatty treats, AntiOXinabox creates gift boxes filled with healthy, antioxidant-rich foods and spa products, which are shipped in recyclable, reusable boxes.

Gift boxes are stuffed full of goodies like Dark Chocolate Antioxidant-rich Cocoa mix, Tulip and Sweet Clover Dark Honey, Organic Acai Berry White Tea, dried berries and fruits, and an array of luxurious RejuvaHeal spa products. (Here at elements, we’ve got a major craving for the Dark Chocolate Covered Dried Cherries and Antioxidant Raspberry Rhubarb Spread!)

Items are also sold individually, and you can even send gift cards or create your own gift box combination for the perfect present.

Boxes start at $25, which is as much as you’d expect to pay for a halfway decent bouquet of flowers. And as if this isn’t reason enough to give them a try, AntiOXinabox also donates a portion of each sale to cancer research.

AntiOXinabox is a great gift idea for friends and family whether they’re sick or not. And maybe they’ll get the hint the next time you’re feeling under the weather (and no, a bad hair day is not enough to get you hospital time). 

Find out more at www.antioxinabox.com and receive an exclusive 10% discount by entering ELEMENTS at checkout. 

We’ve all been there. You’ve got a meeting in 15 minutes. Or you’re waiting to pick Junior up from band practice. Or you skipped breakfast and now you’re paying for it. Your stomach is howling, you need something to sustain you, but you’ve got no time to actually get anything. That’s when you reach for the reliable energy bar. But with a million options out there, how do you know which won’t taste like you’re chewing on gravel?

We here at elements are partial to the Dr. Melina Protein Bar . After getting fed up with options that loaded on the calories, tasted horrible, or just didn’t satisfy, Dr. Melina Jampolis , a board-certified physician nutrition specialist, created a lip-smacking bar that only contains 180 calories and packs 14 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber, vitamin D and calcium into each one. And did we mention tasty? Three flavors (Lemon Raspberry, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Cinnamon Almond) taste fabulous and contain no high-fructose corn syrup or trans fat.

They’re so good, you might want to think about stocking some at your desk or in the car. But be warned: these bars really do keep you going for a long time. As a friend told us an hour and a half after snacking on one, “I know I should be getting ready for dinner right now, but I don’t feel like it. Is that wrong?”

 

If it’s wrong, we don’t want to be right.

 

Find out more at www.drmelina.com.

The perfect snack? Well, we sure think we are close on this one. During a visit recent visit to Whole Foods Market in Greenwich, CT, our well-intentioned shopping list was getting interuppted by a nagging chocolate craving. Even in healthy  markets, the snacking choices are generally less-than-perfect, especially in the middle of bathing suit season! Imagine our surprise to find a Chocolate cookie snack which is delicious, and fits out healthy foods bill.

Just so you know... our endorsements come from the heart... we receive nothing for them. So we will tell you exactly how it is! In this case, we thought the company said it best on their own website, Ococos.com and their mantra "celebrate Snackitude"

"We don't know about you, but everyone on our little team agrees that chocolate is an emotion. Another thing we share is a love of foods that go crunch in the night.

Now, we all reside in California, where health, fitness, natural foods, organic ingredients, peace, love and hedonism are a way of life. So of course, we're well aware that chocolate and crunchy things tend to be fattening, unhealthy, or both. Not fair, we said. This is 2006. Surely we can invent healthful, delicious food obsessions for the new millennium!

So, under the expert direction of our Foody Godmother, an impressive group of knowledgeable chefs - who by the way also love chocolate and crunchy things - worked on The Perfect Guilt-Free Hedonistic Snack. Their goal was to achieve just the right amount of "favorable attributes": dark chocolate flavor, baked crispy crunch, low calories, low fat, zero bad fat, tasty flavor variations, all-organic ingredients, sensible portions, etc etc, Ambitious? We thought so. Doable? Umm. Maybe.

It took nearly a year, but lo and behold, they finally found the grail. Voilá, we said. They're perfect. We called our new snack "O'Coco's (we still don't really know why), and the rest is hysterical..."

Sounds like we found a perfect elements snack... we will certainly be keeping them handy.  Got a better snack suggesion? Let us know in your comments below!

When used in moderation, red wine has been linked with reducing the chance of heart disease.  Red wine contains antioxidants and a mystery ingredient, resvertrol.  This ingredient is also found in peanuts, blueberries, and cranberries.

Condesa de Laganza of the La Mancha wine region of Spain was left devastated when her husband whittled away their fortune in a gambling habit.  All she had left was her winery, so she poured her heart into making a delicious and unique wine. 

 

In a recent trip to Spain we found ourselves in a wine tasting... look, smell, taste, repeat.  I don’t know if it was the beautiful story or the spicy, light taste of the wine that made us fall in love with Condesa de Laganza wines.  

Wine.com describes the wine as complex, voluptuous, and soft.  Who wouldn’t want to try that!?!

These selections pair well with lamb, grilled meats and hearty vegetarian fare (as we have already found!)

Spanish wine has a distinctive taste.  Much different than the French and Italian wines.  Try a glass to keep your heart healthy and your body happy!

Not a wine drinker? Did you know that blueberries have many of the same heart-healthy properties as red wine?  

Move over seaweed! There is a new superfood to contend with. Acai is the Brazilian berry that is being hailed as “nature’s perfect food” by the US Health Science Institute.

Dr. Ralph Carson, PhD, RD, LD, Chief Science Officer, led experts to find the perfect variety of fruit, one that would top any other fruit juice combination. His star ingredient: acai, a rare berry found in the Amazon with multifaceted strengths—antioxidants, phytonutrients, essential fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, and dietary fiber.

It contains all that good stuff we don’t get enough of in our diets. He combined acai with 18 other fruits, ranging from the wolfberry (or goji) fruit to the banana.

 

MonaVie, or Tree of Life as it is called in the Amazon, is the name of this nutritional beverage blend. Vogue magazine has declared it as the “next big workout cocktail.” It comes in 4 varieties: MonaVie (Original) juice, MonaVie Active juice, MonaVie (Original) Gel, and MonaVie Active Gel. MonaVie (Original) is the classic blend. MonaVie Active (juice and gel) offers the additional benefits of glucosamine to help maintain healthy joint function. MonaVie’s gels come in a convenient gel pack.
To order MonaVie, or for more information, visit www.monavie.com .

 

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Back in the days when Prevention Magazine was the only one talking about health food, and diet books had not yet become instant best sellers, there were no Wild Oats or Whole Foods Markets.

Even before hippies had gathered in garages to order exotic whole grain flours and debate over how one should pronounce the word “tofu”--Dannon Yogurt professed to the world the advantages of consuming fermented milk products on national television.

The secret ingredient in yogurt is, of course, the live cultures that help maintain one’s natural digestive processes in balance. It’ the thing you should be eating every time you take an antibiotic, because while antibiotics take their toll on invading germs, they also create havoc on the helpful bacteria.

Activa is wonderful for restoring your body’s natural flora because not only does it come in six fabulous flavors, the live cultures make it past your stomach acids to where they are needed most. Pick up your favorite flavors at the grocery and take them up on their two week challenge, one a day for two weeks and feel the difference.

Of course, if you are one of those people who don’t want to eat your probiotics there are a variety of choices still available. Also try Now Acidophilus (Stabilized) Three Billion. You can keep it in your briefcase because it doesn’t require refrigeration. But again, with just a quick google we're sure you will find more than a dozen brands that you can keep in your bag.

We're not sure if its the skimpier clothes, or the plethora of fresh fruit and vegetable options, but there is definitely something about summer that just makes you want to eat healthy... Today we are on the hunt for the perfect summertime salad. Salads have come a long

way since our mothers cut some iceberg lettuce and added tomatoes - today salads can be any conceivable combination... lettuce or not!

 

We thought we would start the entry with this healthy combo - watercress and shrimp, with miso dressing. You can improvise with any sturdy green (such as arugula), vegetables such as avocados, carrots, sugar, and snap peas. Radishes and fruit (such as Asian pears) will add a nice accent. For the protein, we loved the poached shrimp or seared tuna.

Think you can top our salad? Send in your recipes for a change to have them featured on our online magazine. Submit to info@elementsforwomen.com.

Like your salads quick, cheap, and delicious? Try the Cosi Signature Salad. Made with mixed greens tossed with red grapes, pears, pistachios, dried cranberries and gorgonzola. Request Fat Free Balsamic Vinagarette for a filling salad with 15 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, and 375 calories!