Sugar Shock Blog Turns 5 Today! How Shall We Celebrate?

Today is the Sugar Shock Blog’s five-year anniversary! Wow!
I may have missed this birthday, but I had to look it up, because today, someone requested more information about me and what I do.
As long-time fans may know — and newer visitors can discover — this Sugar Shock Blog began dedicated to providing health and wellness information, with a focus on providing tips to quit sugar, updates about sugar research and ifnormation about artificial sweeteners, etc. Now its mission and goal has expanded greatly. Over time, we’ve enlarged our focus to help you live a happier, more fulfilling life.
My intention here is to give you content that:
Helps you improve your health and activate your wellness
Shows or tells you how to become personally empowered
Helps you lead a better life, or, as I like to say, Get a Life that Rocks™
Gives you info so you can master social networking and realize your dreams
Tells you about inspiring guests, who will appear or have entertained and educated you on my Gab with the Gurus Radio Show on BlogTalkRadio. These gurus — many of whom have written bestselling books, have a revolutionary product or are appearing in exciting movies or TV shows, etc. — can help you a lot! In fact, there’s nothing like hearing people’s voices to help you. (By the way, Gab with the Gurus turns 3 next week — actually it’s 4 years (because the show began as the Stop Sugar Shock Radio Show.) Stay tuned for an exciting week of shows, which, as usual, you can listen to live or later.
Educates you about cutting edge studies related to sugar, nutrition and more
Helps you improve your relationships
Lets you catch up with me and connect with me
Updates you about my free teleseminars and my Sugar Freedom Now program.
And so much more
For those of you who are new here, let tell you about myself. I’m:
A trained-journalist-turned blogger.
Author of the book, Sugar Shock (from Berkley Books, part of the Penguin Group).
Author of the upcoming book, The Sugar Shock Diet (from Hay House), which I just finished writing. (I’m taking it easy a little before we go into major editing mode shortly.)
A certified life coach (who studied at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching or iPEC), and certified health coach (who trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition or IIN).
Host of the Gab with the Gurus Radio Show, which is how I bring to you many experts from a variety of fields, including health, wellness, personal empowerment, social networking, relationships, dating, fitness, forgiveness, celebrities, etc. Some of my guests have included Dr. Mehmet Oz, Montel Williams, Lisa Rinna, Suzanne Somers, Chris Brogan, Mari Smith, Marianne Williamson, Gretchen Rubin and many more.
People refer to me as a “Sugar Shrew No More,” a Sugar Freedom Coach or Freedom Coach, Sugar Liberator or Smart Habits Girl (which is my handle on Twitter).
So how do you think we should celebrate the Sugar Shock Blog’s five-year anniversary? Please share your ideas here.

Get Sleeveless & Sexy with JJ Virgin on Today’s Gab with the Gurus

Join acclaimed fitness and nutrition expert JJ Virgin, who appears today at 2 pm EST on my Gab With the Gurus Radio Show.
JJ Virgin—the author of the exciting new book, Six Weeks to Sleeveless and Sexy—will tell you how to get the toned, gorgeous arms like she has (in the photo above).
On today’s show, you’ll learn:
•The keys to building learn arms — and why your muscles will never get bigger from lifting weights
•Simple strategies for avoiding the common mistakes that can derail your progress
•The one simple activity that can derail your diet plan (and it doesn’t involve eating)
•How to keep motivated
•How to eat to get sinewy arms and a sleek body
•The “3 bite rule”
•And much more.
To join us live or later, go to: http://tinyurl.com/FitnessSecretsJJVirginGabGurus
Remember, you can listen to the show live at 2 pm EST or later, at your convenience. Listen here: Gab With the Gurus Radio Show with JJ Virgin.
Join us Wednesday: http://tinyurl.com/FitnessSecretsJJVirginGabGurus
Get JJ’s new book now, too.
•JJ really wants to help you. Now, learn how to have your best body by summer. Just go here:
=== >>>> http://tinyurl.com/LiveWellWithJJ-Connie

My Friend JJ May Have Saved my Life; Now She Can Save Your Body

Whenever I think of my wonderful friend JJ Virgin, I feel respect, admiration and profound gratitude.
To make the long story short, JJ — a celebrity health and nutrition expert — helped me bounce back quickly from a severe illness two summers ago. Not only that, but because of her insights and insistence, my disease was diagnosed quickly.
(It turns out that a tick had given me Lyme disease, and JJ may have saved me years of misery. In fact, she may have saved my life.)
Now, whenever JJ speaks, I listen. And today, she is offering an amazing program, “Is Your Cardio Workout Making You Age Faster, Gain Fat and Lose Your Sex Drive?”
If you’re unsatisfied with your body, you need to pay attention.
In her free program today (which you can listen to later), JJ — who works with hot Hollywood celebrities — will reveal how your exercise program may be working against you!
JJ will share her insider secrets on the most effective way to work out for the quickest and most dramatic results, and promote the release of your “young” hormones! And the best part is, it takes far less time than you think, and you don’t even have to go to the gym!
Discover JJ’s proven strategies so you can get your dream body… FAST.
Reserve your spot on this complimentary call today.
FYI, I’ll be there, too, of course. I’m making time for this important call even though I’m on back-to-back deadlines. “See you” there?
Feel free to spread the word. Just send your friends to http://tinyurl.com/JJExerciseSecrets

Kelly Ripa, Kim Kardashian, Seth Green, Eva Langoria Parker Go for Over-the-Top Cakes

Many of us would-be, health-conscious people strive often (or at times) to cut culprit carbs and shove candies, cookies, cakes and chips out of our lives for our emotional or physical health.
But who can blame Tori Spelling, Kelly Ripa, Kim Kardashian, Eva Langoria Parker, Guy Ritchie, Flavor Flav, Seth Green, Spencer Pratt and Kid Rock for using creative, elaborate cakes to memorialize major occasions?
I don’t mean to unnecessarily entice you with these images (to your left), but I’m amused, entertained and intrigued by these over-the-top, sugary concoctions that People Magazine shares with us in a snazzy photo essay.
My sugar-free — albeit sometimes jealous — funny bone nudges me to poke fun of this sugar-filled hoopla in this way: Well, let them eat cake!
(For the record, my comment was NOT intended to be malicious — it was intended as a silly remark.)
Hey, sometimes you just have to laugh at — and just accept — our nation’s habit of celebrating events with sugar-filled cakes.
For the most part, this is a trend you just can’t buck.
So I invite you to set some limits for yourself at your next beautiful cake-celebrated event. I urge you to have just one teeny, tiny piece — and to have it after a good meal with healthy foods — protein, carbs (veggies) and fat (like olive oil). I challenge you to partake of one tiny slice!
Cake tori-spelling-660 Speaking of challenges, it’s quite a challenge to figure out how to observe important milestones such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, bar mitzvahs, christenings and graduations without cute cakes.
So, now I’m presented with a challenge. Given that I don’t eat sweets, how the heck should I celebrate my 12 years off sugar on April 15?
I invite your suggestions. Because frankly I’m at a loss! Please send in your ideas!
In case you’re new to this Sugar Shock Blog and you’re wondering why I would want to pass up such delectable treats as those shown here, consider this: Would you rather suffer from 44 horrible ailments or skip the sweets and feel great?
That’s the choice had to reluctantly make back in 1998, when my doctor ordered me to quit my sugar habit. To learn about my sad-to-sweet story, read it in Chapter One of my book SUGAR SHOCK!
Now, have a healthy snack or meal and then check out this cake-filled People Magazine photo essay.

Jeff Garlin & Ellen DeGeneres Set Sugar-Shunning Trend – AOL Runs My Opinion Piece

You know the expression, “Love is in the air?”
Well, thanks to comedians Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Garlin, kicking sugar is in the air!
For instance, Jeff Garlin, Jeff Garlin, the star and co-producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm, recently talked about his sugar-stopping activities on Regis and Kelly while publicizing his new book, My Footprint: Carrying the Weight of the World.
Before that Ellen DeGeneres, who, of course, hosts The Ellen DeGeneres Show and is now also a judge on American Idol, announced to the world that she, too, is shunning sugar.
Please visit AOL now to read my opinion piece, in which I praise both comedians for the wonderful examples they’re setting for the rest of the nation and world.
As an advocate of leading happy, healthy, energy-filled, sugar-free lives, I applaud the two comedians for what they’re doing.
I invite you to read my my op ed piece now: Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Garlin Could Inspire Others to Kick the Sugar Habit – AOL News.