If you want to eat a little healthier in the fall, it doesn’t require completely changing your diet. In many cases, you can just make a few substitutions with the foods you already enjoy, and will have lower-fat foods that are tasty and nutritious. Here are some healthy food swaps that use fall superfoods.
 
Use Pumpkin in Cake Mixes
One of the easiest healthy food swaps you can do with your fall superfoods is to use pumpkin puree with cake mixes. This turns your cake or cupcakes into just 2 ingredients, including the cake mix of your choice and pumpkin puree. The pumpkin replaces all other ingredients you would have mixed in with the cake mix, like oil and eggs. This is often done with a spiced cake mix that goes well with pumpkin, but don’t be afraid to experiment with vanilla and chocolate cake mixes as well.

Sweet Potatoes Instead of White Potatoes
Many people enjoy potatoes, especially in the fall when you want more savory dishes, but they tend to be high in carbs and fat, and not very nutritious. Instead of having traditional white potatoes in your dishes, try sweet potatoes. These are a superfood, so they are filled with nutrients, and are amazing to enjoy during the fall season. You can have stuffed sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, or even sweet potato soup.

Use Cauliflower for Low-Carb Options
If you are on a low-carb diet, then you should become familiar with cauliflower. The bland taste and slightly rough texture of cauliflower makes it perfect as a substitute for many of the carb-rich foods you can no longer have or rather you choose not to have anymore. You can use it to make mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes, make lots of types of rice with it, or even make cauliflower steaks. Be creative and find different ways to substitute the higher-carb ingredients with cauliflower.
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Quinoa Instead of Rice
The last substitution you can make for a healthier superfood-rich meal is to replace your rice with quinoa. Most types of rice, including white rice and brown rice, are okay in moderation, but they lack the nutrition you need for a well-balanced meal. Quinoa is considered a superfood, so it is the perfect alternative when you want to have a rice dish. You can make a harvest quinoa side dish with squash, pumpkin, and spices, which is simply to make and very good for you with all the superfoods included.

I love fall superfoods and I hope these are helpful ideas to switch up your menu at home during this season!  

​Thanks for reading!

Does this sound familiar? You hear about this wonderful diet that will guarantee weight-loss, so you try it, only to gain even more weight back once you’ve lost it?
 
Don’t feel bad. You are not alone. Just because a diet works for one person, does not mean that it will work for you. Diets are destined to fail, and it should come as no surprise. After all, the word “die” is within the word “diet”. That should be your first sign. You want to live your life.  This is why I am always going on and on about LIFE style, not diets!
 
Here are the top 5 reasons that diets are doomed to fail:

1. People choose to use a diet to achieve a short-term goal. That goal is usually to lose weight before an upcoming event. Diets are perceived from the onset as a temporary action used to obtain an immediate result. Once that result is achieved, the diet is stopped and old eating habits return.   
2. The yo-yo diet or weight cycling. As mentioned, many people go on diets, lose weight, and then gain          weight, often more than they lost. And, for some reason, the cycle is repeated. To quote Albert Einstein:  “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This repeated failure can have negative effects on a person’s mental health and could result in an eating disorder.  Or really you just end up feeling badly about yourself because you have failed again, when really it's the system that you were following failed.
   
3. Many diets are based on the premise of counting calories using a formula meant for the general population as opposed to the individual. Everybody processes calories differently. This formula supports that caloric expenditure exceeds caloric intake and will therefore promote weight loss. It has become clear that this premise is no longer true. Every calorie is not created equal. Calories consumed from spinach or sweet potatoes are much more nutrient-dense than calories consumed from a processed, low-fat muffin. In addition, if you were to consume too few calories, your body goes into survival mode, slowing down the metabolism. You run the risk of your metabolism remaining sluggish once you start consuming more calories. 
4. Before even starting a diet, people believe that they will be depriving themselves of foods they love. Entering into a program with this mindset clearly does not support success. This constant experience of deprivation will bring on food cravings that will be difficult to ignore.  This one was a big one for me!
   
5. This brings me to the last reason why diets do not work. They do not address food cravings and how to handle them. Everyone has cravings. Having the tools to help navigate through those cravings and reach for healthy food alternatives will help to eliminate them.

 
Unfortunately for many individuals, diets only offer a quick fix to a larger problem.  Learning which foods nourish the body and which don’t is the best approach to eating in order to obtain weight-loss and optimal health.  And everyone is unique, that is why I often say you have to become your own body detective.  Learn what really feeds you, what makes you feel amazing and makes you the person you can be instead of just a survivor.

If you are interested in going on this journey of self discovery please join me on the 24th as I start the Fall Cleanse for Weight Loss!  I give you recipes a plan to follow and tools to help you along.  I will be there everyday in the forum celebrating your simple steps to what can be an amazing life change, all you have to do is show up!

Go here to sign up!

Superfood Green Juice and Smoothies for Autumn
You may think about spring or summer when you think of juice and smoothies, but they definitely have a place in the autumn. The fall season has a lot of amazing superfoods that go perfectly in a green smoothie, or any type of healthy juice or smoothie with fruits and veggies.  I also have a Low Sugar Smoothie challenge going on right now so I thought this would be a perfect time to share this yummy information!
 
Pumpkin Green Smoothie
This is an interesting green smoothie because it is great in the fall with lots of seasonal superfoods, but it is also similar to a classic green smoothie. It truly is a perfect combination of both. This smoothie gets its green from the spinach (1 cup), which is also going to increase the nutrients of it immensely. Then you have some fall flavors with pumpkin puree(1 cup), ginger(1 tsp), cinnamon(1 tsp), and nutmeg(1tsp). Feel free to play with the portions of the spices because not everyone enjoys the same taste.  You can also add more creaminess to it with unsweetened almond milk or soy milk(1 cup), and some plain Greek yogurt(1/4 cup). Adding an apple to it not only gives you more fall superfoods in the smoothie, but is going to sweeten it up (green apples have less sugar if that is your goal).  If this is too thick adding water is always a good idea and adding a few ice cubes to make it cold is great unless you choose to use frozen pumpkin and that may be enough for you.

Spinach Green Smoothie
This smoothie is more of a classic recipe for a green smoothie, though there is a lot of room for customizing it according to your preferences. Spinach (1 cup) is used as the main greens for the smoothie, which are always a good superfood. However, if you want greens specifically in-season during the fall, kale is another great option.  You would have some non-dairy milk (1 cup) if you would like it to be a little more creamy. Add to that some ground flax seed (1 tablespoon), an apple or other sweet fruits (1 cup of frozen berries are a great option) that are in season during this time of year, and a frozen the banana. If you use a frozen banana, it can usually replace the ice. You may also need to add a little water (1 cup or as needed).

Beet Juice for Smoothies
Beets are a fall superfood that is not often talked about, mostly because people hear beets and run for the hills. But they are a lot tastier than you might realize, and should definitely be considered when putting together a green smoothie or juice. While the beets will turn it a dark purple color instead of green, the healthy ingredients are the same. The basis of a beet juice or smoothie is of course the beets, usually one is enough for a single serving. You can then choose other fruits and veggies to add. For a juice with spice, try ginger, carrots, and then some apples for sweetness. Or you can use greens for a green smoothie, your favorite type of milk, and a pear to add in the sweetness.  If you want to read up on the goodness of beets World's Healthiest Foods is a great resource, here is the link: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=49

Hope you find this helpful and thanks for reading! 

​Have a great day!