#21 Lose Weight by Eating Detox Week with Best-Selling Author Audrey Johns

Audrey Johns is a blogger and cookbook author with an amazing story. She lost 150 pounds by eating real food and cooking at home. She is here today to talk about her new book Lose Weight by Eating Detox Week.

In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, We talk about:  

• Audrey’s eating and weight loss story
• How clean eating has changed Audrey's life
• Thinking about the long game when making food choices

Some highlights of this episode:

1. Audrey had been heavy her entire life. She tried many different diets, and she would lose a little and then gain it back. Then she came across a clean eating cookbook and thought she would give it a try.  A light went on she found something easy that made sense to her. She lost 150 pounds in 11 months by just replacing processed foods with whole foods. [02:17]
2. People kept asking her what she had done to lose so much weight, and she had trouble articulating that, so she decided to start a blog and share her recipes.  Her blood turned viral, and she now has two cookbooks and has been on the Rachael Ray Show three times. [03:33]
3. A baby step to beginning your health journey can be giving up diet soda. It makes you hungrier at mealtime and you are also hyped up on caffeine. [04:14]
4. Audrey is always looking for the good in things. This is why she called her book Lose By Through Eating. We need calories for fuel, so they shouldn't be considered a bad thing. Filling our body with fake foods is worse for us even if they are low calorie. [05:38]
5. The convenience trap and thinking about the long game. Think about how a convenience foods make you feel afterwards. Think about the long game and your life as you're getting older.  Think about how the food is going to affect you in the long run. Our food should taste good and make us feel good. [07:31]
6. Anyone can learn to cook. It's as simple as following directions and having a little bit of kitchen confidence. If ruining dinner is the worst thing that happened today, you're doing pretty good. [10:41]
7. The equation of how to make a perfect salad. You need protein and healthy fats. Audrey loves using things like walnuts and goat cheese. Healthy fats tell your body that it's okay to release the fat in the body. Audrey’s salads are supposed to be big. She wants you to be so full and satisfied that you aren't reaching for chips or processed food. [13:01]
8. When Audrey refers to detox she means removing chemicals and processed foods from our diets and replacing those things with healthy whole foods. Replacing laboratory foods that confuse your body with whole foods that your body already knows how to digest. She shares an equation for our plates where it should be 50% vegetables, 25% lean protein, and 25% Healthy carbohydrates.  [15:35]  
9. Tips for kids who are picky eaters include using baby spinach in your smoothie.  You can also put your smoothie in a cup so the kids won't even know it's green. Baby kale is also more mild than regular kale. You can also use half kale and half spinach. [20:06]  

Links mentioned in this episode (some affiliate links included):

• Lose Weight by Eating: Detox Week: Twice the Weight Loss in Half the Time with 130 recipes for a Crave-Worthy Cleanse
• Books by Audrey Johns
• Lose Weight By Eating
• Lose Weight By Eating on Facebook
• Audrey on Rachael Ray with Bob Harper
• Mammoth Bars (use code CLEANEATING for 20% discount during checkout)
• Otto’s Cassava Flour (use code CLEANEATING for 10% discount + free shipping over $35 during checkout)