Kim Kardashian's Weight Loss 'The Biggest Challenge Of My Life'

That Twitter pic

After a highly publicized and scrutinized pregnancy, Kim Kardashian has worked hard to regain her fitness and body confidence. Following a strict Atkins Diet program, Kim lost 43 of the 50 pounds she gained while pregnant with baby North. Regular exercise and breast feeding has also helped the reality star to downsize within a few months.

The Akins Diet focuses on consuming a high protein diet with limited carbohydrates, which shifts your body into fat burning mode and revs up your metabolism. Popular 10 years ago, the Atkins Diet has been criticized for its high in fat and cholesterol meal plans, which could negatively affect heart health.

Kristen Bell Talks Body After Baby

Kristen Bell has ticked off two major milestones this year; giving birth to her daughter, Lincoln and marrying her baby daddy, Dax Shepard. During such an exciting time in Kristen's life, including returning to movie making, the actress has put returning to her pre-baby body on the back burner. Recognising the mental stress and pressure on women to bounce back into shape, Kristen is filtering out negativity and keeping her focus on her new family.

"The secret to body after baby is flushing down the toilet every notion of body after baby. Honestly!...I made a commitment to not allow my narrative for the year after having a baby to be about my weight. And I think that freed me up and it made me less concerned with all the pressures that revolve around body image. I was like, 'I have a baby. Do you know how awesome that is? It's so radical! Why on earth am I going to be so concerned with my pants size?'"

Three New Apps You Need in Your Life

Most of us would be lost without our precious smart phone, which has become the ultimate gadget. Much more than a 'phone', our tech sidekicks let us play music, Facebook, Google, Instagram and FaceTime. Oh and take lots of obligatory selfies and snapshots of our food. All this technology also means it's easier than ever to get access to health and wellness information. I've recently downloaded three apps that I love, helping me to keep my fitness and wellbeing goals in check. Read on to find out which apps I am loving right now.

Clean Chocolate Tarts

I've been seeing lots of vegan recipes calling for avocado in replacement of the usual creamy ingredients we reach for when making a mousse or cheesecake. I just couldn't quite wrap my head around the thought of avocado as a sweet treat, despite all the raving reviews of its dessert potential.

Getting creative one afternoon, I was raiding my fridge and pantry to see what skinny sweet I could whip up. I had some walnuts, cream cheese and an avocado, and using my beloved Vitamix I decided to give avocado a chance! What I came up with tasted EXACTLY like chocolate mousse and I put that in a shell of toasted walnut and cinnamon. The hype about avocado in desserts is warranted, it works beautifully! Not avocado-tasting, the fruit just adds a rich and creamy texture. To make this dessert vegan, replace the cream cheese with firm coconut cream.

Healing Your Food Relationship

Gabrielle Bernstein is a motivational speaker and New York Times best-selling author of May Cause Miracles. She believes that simple, consistent shifts in our thinking and actions can lead to miracles across all aspects of our lives, including relationships, finances, bodies, and self-image.

In her inspiring guide, Gabrielle offers an exciting plan for releasing fear and allowing gratitude, forgiveness, and love to flow leading to appreciation, acceptance and happiness! Doesn't that sound lovely?!

Are We Becoming Professional Dieters?

When I read this open letter from a weight loss consultant to her clients, I had to agree with many of her observations. Everywhere you turn, there is CONSTANT pressure to feel you should be thin, toned and fit. You should have the apparent willpower to resist any 'bad' foods and exercise like some sort of army troop, bouncing out of bed every morning straight on schedule.

To transform yourself into your fitness inspiration, you may start falling prey to obsessive diet and exercise patterns, where you are ruled by what you should and shouldn't be doing. You might start to cancel social events to avoid the party food and drink or to get an extra workout in.

While a healthy attitude to balancing food and exercise is key to a healthy body, I don't recommend trying to change the way you look at the expense of your sanity! Let's face it, unless you are Miranda Kerr, you won't see her body looking back at you in the mirror. What we ultimately need to work towards is acceptance and self love. Anything extreme and gruelling can't last forever and a healthy lifestyle with balance is most achievable.

We are smart enough to know all that you really need to do is eat real food, move your body and whatever comes with that is about acceptance. A healthy lifestyle will lead to a healthy body, and each person is different in terms of what will work best for you.

Having the perfect body would be fun but it wouldn't dramatically change your life. Making peace with yourself and learning self-acceptance is what will make the real difference to your overall happiness.

Read this post to see the open letter.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (gluten free)

These cookies contain no refined sugar, animal products or gluten, but that doesn't mean they aren't filled with lots of flavour. Not to mention, this cookie recipe is so much simpler than traditional types and takes mere minutes to prepare. You will one this recipe and I promise you will be making these cookies all the time, and everyone will thank you for it!