Quinoa porridge

This is a wonderful, high protein breakfast or anytime meal!  Great for those who are avoiding gluten and oats as well.  This will keep you satisfied for hours.

1 cup cooked quinoa
1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
a dash of maple flavoring
a sprinkle of raw slivered almonds
a few banana slices
cinnamon to taste
one packet of Nectresse sweetener

Add everything to a small bowl and microwave until heated through.  You can also add about a half a scoop of vanilla protein powder for more flavor and protein.  I used vegan plant based powder.

Chocolate peanut butter vegan balls (no bake)

A vegan diet is naturally pretty low on fat if you aren't eating a bunch of junk food, so I like to make little treats that are loaded with good fats.  I can pop one here and there to keep my energy levels up while breast feeding and chasing a crazy little baby!

Ingredients:
(makes about ten balls)
4 tbsp Trader Joe's vanilla hemp protein
4 tbsp raw agave
4 tbsp Naturally More peanut butter with flaxseed
3 large dates, pitted and chopped

Combine all ingredients until it forms a big, sticky ball.  If its too dry, add a tablespoon or two of unsweetened  almond milk.  Grab tablespoon sized bunches out and press and roll into balls a little smaller than a ping pong ball.  Refrigerate or freeze

"Kitchen Sink" Salad!

I often throw together big, yummy salads with whatever is on hand at the house.  This salad is a bed of spinach, kale, swiss chard.  The additions are soy cheese, chickpeas, crimini mushrooms, sunflower seeds and multi-color dried grapes.  Sometimes I will throw a veggie burger on top for an even heartier meal.  The dressing was a home made vegan cashew dressing:

1/4 c raw cashews
2 tbsp chopped shallot
1/2 c almond milk
1/4 c rice vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp agave
3/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Blend all ingredients in the blender until smooth.  This makes enough for a few salads, store in the fridge.

Vegan carrot cake recipe

This carrot cake is vegan (no animal products) and gluten free.  Its a little healthier with coconut oil, carrots and unsweetened shredded coconut.  I made it with real sugar, but you could certainly substitute agave nectar, stevia or Nectresse if you wanted to avoid the white stuff!  I have to say, it turned out moist and delicious and even the non-vegans at the party had to have the recipe! Just don't tell anyone the frosting is made of tofu.....its so awesome they will never know!

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 c soy flour
1 c brown rice flour
1 c white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3 c shredded carrots (Trader Joe's has these ready to go)
1/2 c coconut oil
1/2 c orange juice (no sugar added)
1/2 c golden berry blend dried fruit(Trader Joe's)
1/2 c shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/2 c chopped walnuts
Icing:
1 c firm tofu
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp agave
1/2 tsp vanilla
mix in blender until fluffy


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking dish, set aside.
Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.  Add carrots and coconut oil.  Add OJ, then stir in the nuts, raisins and coconut.  Smooth evenly into greased pan.  Bake 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack, then refrigerate for one hour.  Smooth on the icing, then return to the refrigerator for it to set.

Dark cocoa and coconut haystacks

Here is a quick, easy vegan recipe, literally five minutes!  It produces little balls of healthy fats- which is important to get in your diet, especially if you are eating a plant-based diet which is naturally lower in fat.
The fat is from coconut, which is a saturated fat, but a healthier one!

No baking required!

Ingredients:
1.5 c raw, shredded coconut
1/2 c agave (I used Blue Agave)
3/4 c dark cocoa powder
splash of vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil

In a large bowl, mix ingredients together well.  With wet hands, form into small, packed balls about 2" across.  Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet and pop in the freezer.  I leave them in the freezer and grab one when I want one.  You can also wrap then individually in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

Processed meats declared too dangerous for human consumption

Check out this article from national review online:

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has just completed a detailed review of more than 7,000 clinical studies covering links between diet and cancer. Its conclusion is rocking the health world with startling bluntness: Processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption. Consumers should stop buying and eating all processed meat products for the rest of their lives. Processed meats include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals. They are usually manufactured with a carcinogenic ingredient known as sodium nitrite. This is used as a color fixer by meat companies to turn packaged meats a bright red color so they look fresh. Unfortunately, sodium nitrite also results in the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines in the human body. And this leads to a sharp increase in cancer risk for those who eat them. A 2005 University of Hawaii study found that processed meats increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 67 percent. Another study revealed that every 50 grams of processed meat consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 50 percent. These are alarming numbers. Note that these cancer risks do not come from eating fresh, non-processed meats. They only appear in people who regularly consume processed meat products containing sodium nitrite.


"They can take my bacon from my cold, dead hand. Which, is exactly what they say will happen."— Greg Pollowitz

..........this isn't new information.  Unfortunately, it is just now getting out to the general public.  How these practices continue to be swept under the rug by the FDA is maddening.  Do you think we will see this inedible garbage removed from store shelves?  Doubtful.  Cancer causing acrylamide is also known to be in processed foods, such as fast food fries.  We have known this for years, and nothing has been done to address it.  Here is a list of common foods and their acrylamide levels:

Food Serving                                           Acrylamide (mcg)


McDonalds French Fries, large 6.2 oz.                          82

Burger King French Fries, large 5.7 oz.                         59

KFC Potato Wedges, Jumbo 6.2 oz.                            52

Wendy’s French Fries, Biggie 5.6 oz.                            39

Ore Ida French Fries (baked) 3 oz.                               28

Pringles Potato Crisps 1 oz.                                           25

Fritos Corn Chips 1 oz.                                                 11

Cheerios 1 oz.                                                                7

Honey Nut Cheerios 1 oz.                                              6

Boiled Potatoes 4 oz.                                        less than 3

Water 8 oz.                                               0.12 (EPA limit)


Saddest part of all of this is that this has been all over the news, and most people are still completely unaware of it.  As a nutritionist this not only saddens me, it is sometimes overwhelming.  When it is my job to help people, and educate them on these things, and I don't even know where to begin!  I want to help people to learn to take care of themselves, but at the same time I don't want to promote fear and anxiety over everything they put in their mouths.  Sometimes by receiving this information, people who don't cook and subsist on these convenience foods withdraw and figure its a lost cause.  The lack of knowledge is evident every time I drive past McDonald's and the drive through line is wrapped around the building.

Learn the Basics of Nutrition

One of the biggest problems I face as a trainer and nutritionist is people's complete lack of  basic nutrition knowledge.  It is such a journey, for both the client and myself- to teach them the reasons that what they are eating is making them fat.  They are being bombarded with advertisements for "healthy" and "natural" products that are full of sugars and other simple carbs.  Most Americans believe that granola bars are healthy because the box says so.  That box of cereal is healthy because it tells them it will "lower your cholesterol".  Bagels, muffins and breads can be eaten freely as long as they are "whole grain". 
  We are more obese than ever as a society, in spite of buying more and more of these "health foods".  Problem is, these foods displace fruits, vegetables and lean proteins to the point where many of us are eating virtually no REAL food.  These fake foods also cause us to release a flood of insulin every time we consume them, and insulin is the fat storing hormone.  Most people (other than Lance Armstrong) can't utilize the large number of carbohydrates these foods provide, they simply aren't active enough to burn them off.
  Another issue is the unawareness that things that may be good for you (or at least better than a big greasy burger) can still have lots of calories.  I  met a friend at one of our local health food restaurant hot spots the other day.  I was there a little early, and while I sipped my green tea I couldn't help but notice the table of young ladies in front of me.  They had massive amounts of food on their table.  Huge pitas with piles of hummus, fried falafels, and each one also had their own colossal sized gyro wrap or chicken pita.  If I had to guess, each girl probably consumed well over a thousand calories in that one meal.  Your body doesn't care if its 1500 calories of health food, or 1500 calories of Burger King, both kinds of excess calories will go straight to fat storage.  And that was just lunch.  Similar scenarios were taking place at all but one other table around me, where a lady ordered a large salad with the dressing on the side.  Even her friend had a lavosh pizza the size of a place mat.
  In my business ladies like this will come to me upset that in spite of only eating healthy foods, they simply cannot lose weight.  They say their metabolism is messed up, or they think they might have a thyroid problem.  I always encourage them to get tested, and nine times out of ten they are fine.  Then the arduous task begins to re-train their way of thinking about what they should be eating.
  At the very least, I would encourage everyone to pick up a book such as "Nutrition for Dummies".  Having a basic knowledge of proteins, carbs and fats as well as how to read a food label is so important.  Secondly, track a few days worth of calories to see what is really being consumed.  There are great, free databases online that even have the calorie counts of most restaurant foods.  The support of a professional is also helpful, not only to learn how to help yourself, but for emotional support in changing your health and way of life forever.

Hidden Poisons....They are Everywhere

 As I was walking through the grocery store this last Sunday, carefully selecting the things I think will bring my family the best nutrition at mealtimes, I started thinking.  I was thinking how unfortunate it is that I have to make two stops at two different stores every week.  Walmart doesn't offer but maybe one or two organic produce selections, and no meats free of hormones and antibiotics.  I have to assume they don't offer them because their shoppers aren't demanding it.   Worse yet, they probably don't even know the difference.  Even knowing as much as I do about what is really in our food supply (and it ain't pretty), I often get stuck buying things i know to be harmful just because I simply can't afford all organic.  If I were to simply buy all of my groceries at one of these other stores that DO offer organic.....the price for my same load of groceries more than doubles. 
  Being five months pregnant right now makes me even more cautious, so i have been paying a lot more to get all of my fruits and vegetables organic.  The last thing I can imagine is pesticides from my grapes, or hormones from my chicken at dinner going into this precious little person's developing system.  We have such a steep rise now in things such as autism, which is officially reported now as one in 91, some sources think it may be as high as one in 38 children.  Something is damaging our children, and it is an atrocity that with this information, we are still ingesting known carcinogens and toxins on our food supply every day.  The list of most contaminated fruits and vegetables are:

peaches
apples
bell peppers
celery
nectarines
strawberries
cherries
pears
grapes
spinach
lettuce
potatoes

This has become pretty common knowledge, that these and many other of our foods are literally poisoned.  The advice given for those who simply cannot afford organic?  Just wash them in mild soap, that will remove a good portion of the pesticide.  Hmmmmm, last time I checked, dish soap is not something you want in your digestive system.  Trading a little less poison for some detergent residue, sounds like a fabulous solution!
  Since we know fruits, vegetables and meats CAN be grown without these chemicals, hormones and antibiotics, its now just a matter of getting the information out there to everyone!  If we, as a society shun these practices by refusing to buy them, more and more organic varieties will become available at a lower price.  Its a shame that only the more educated and affluent can afford to have access to the best foods for their family.
  As I passed by the produce section at the end of my shopping trip, I noticed a guy with a young toddler in the cart selecting grapes for his little one.  I was thinking how sad it was that he was going to take those heavily sprayed Chilean-grown grapes home and feed them to that little baby.....thinking he is doing the best thing for him.

Eating Low Cal at Restaurants

I was just inspired by a client to write this entry on restaurant food, since this scenario is one I see so often.  She has been working so hard for quite some time, training her ass off 5 days a week.  She wasn't having much luck getting the pounds to come off by just making healthy choices, so I had her keep a food journal for a few days to see whats going on.  In her defense, she really was making an honest effort to make good choices most of the time.  With the volume of her training, even a few indiscretions should not have had much impact on her weight loss.  As with many past clients, there was a fair amount of restaurant fare in the journal.  A salad was listed from a popular chain restaurant that seemed pretty innocuous, including chicken breast and almonds as a garnish.  Upon further research, this seemingly healthful salad packs over 1300 calories and almost 1000 mg sodium.  A SALAD.  For a dieting female, this is not much less than an entire days' worth of calories and sodium.  Another item listed was a margarita, "just one".  Well, one 12 oz marg has roughly 540 calories.....all of it from alcohol and sugar.  That sure makes a big dent in the daily allotment!  To lose weight, there needs to be a deficit in calories each day so the body looks to its own stored fuel for energy.  Moreover, its also believed that only so much fuel (calories) can be assimilated in one sitting, meaning your body will use say, 300 calories of what you consume right away....guess where the rest goes?  Storage.  Alcohol is tricky too, it can halt the weight loss process because it is a "preferred' fuel source.  All fat burning comes to a screeching halt until every last bit of that booze is metabolized out of the system.  It gets first dibs over protein, carbs and fats.  In my work in nutrition consulting, I have done quite a bit of research on the different restaurants, scouring their nutritional information and trying to find healthy options for people "in a pinch".  I can honestly say, I have had very little luck, and it is unfortunate because many people don't like to cook, don't know how, or don't make time.  We really all need to learn to do some "basic survival" cooking so as to not be at the mercy of the restaurant industry.  I'm hard pressed to find even a salad at any of the major chains that clocks in under 900 calories.  We also don't see whats really going on in the kitchen.  Busy chefs cook multiple foods together on the same skillet often dousing the surface with ladles of oil to keep things from burning....and adding hundreds of calories to foods that would normally be low cal.  The only way to control what goes in your food is to make it yourself.

Pasta free spaghetti!

This recipe rocks!
It was given a gold star by the husband who is a big pasta fan...........even though it has none!  The pasta is replaced with spaghetti squash.  When cooked to just the right tenderness, the texture is pretty darn satisfying under your meat sauce.

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash
1 lb. Natural ground beef (try to get organic or hormone free)
1 sm. onion, chopped
couple of cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 14 oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
*lots of dried oregano (to taste)
*lots of onion powder
*lots of garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch of dried rosemary
1 tsp sea salt
pat of butter

punch a couple of holes in the top of the spaghetti squash and put it in the microwave and cook on high for about ten minutes (less time for a smaller one).  I usually throw mine in an hour or so before cooking the meal so I can take it out and let it cool for a half hour before I need it.  Brown the beef, onions and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a biol then simmer on low for about 30 minutes.
Slice the spaghetti squash in half and scoop out the seeds and toss.  Hold half of the squash on its end inside of a bowl and use a fork to scrape the strands loose form the skin.  keep scraping until you get as much out as you can.  Repeat with other half.  Toss the shells.  Toss with a small pat of butter.
Serve like pasta, pouring the sauce on top, sprinkle with dried parmesan (optional).

A Plant- Based Diet for Ultra Performance and Superior Health?

More and more we are starting to see the pitfalls of the “standard American diet”. It is no coincidence that it bears the acronym S.A.D……well, because it is nothing less than sad. Most of us don’t even know that most of the things that we are putting in to our mouths (and more sadly our kids’) aren’t even really food. The bulk of our diet is made in factories from refined white flour, partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. It is then packaged in colorful little boxes with enticing pictures on the front and at a fraction of the cost of “real” food. By real food I mean those things our creator intended for us to eat, like beautiful, multicolored fruits and vegetables. The average per-person vegetable consumption is 0-2 servings per week. And we wonder why as a nation our health is failing. The foods we were intended to eat infuse our cells with vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. Not only do these components contribute to optimum health, but they give us long-lasting, sustained energy by way of slowly released energy. This equates to nice, even blood glucose levels. Simple carbohydrate sources such as the ones we have all come to accept as the foundation of our diets (bagels, bread, pasta, crackers) have a more profound effect on glucose levels. Upon consumption there is a nice rise in blood sugar and energy, but hours later there is often a compensatory crash in energy levels. The blood sugar crashes from all of that insulin released as the body tries to deal with the big onslaught of fast digesting carbs.


One of the biggest pushes toward a high processed carb diet is in the endurance exercise community. Just about every book and magazine geared toward running or cycling touts the necessity of obtaining the vast majority of calories from starchy carb sources. It is often recommended that 50% or MORE of the daily calories should be from carbs, that they are the body’s preferred fuel source. Many participants even supplement further with fast digesting sugar-based gels and liquids during their activity.

We have to step back and ask ourselves, is this approach really the best? Even more importantly, is it the most beneficial to our health? Could we just be plain wrong? Endurance athletes are notorious for “bonking”, which in layman’s terms is running out of gas during an event. If all these processed carbs are so wonderful for sustained energy, why are we needing sports drinks and gels to get us through, and why are overtraining and overuse injuries so prevalent? Let’s take a look at it from another angle.

The Tarahumara are a tribe of Indians living in Northwestern Mexico. Running is a part of their daily life, not only as a lifestyle but as a necessity. They live in a very rugged and treacherous terrain with deep canyons and lots of vegetation. It is not unusual for the average tribe member to log between 50 and 80 miles every day at a marathon pace. The land makes it impossible to travel by horse or wagon, so they run from place to place to complete their daily tasks. The interesting part is that they are keeping up this frenetic pace on a plant-based diet. No bagels, no sports goo, no big bowls of cereal. Their diet is roughly 80% plants (squash, beans, corn), 10% fat and a measly 10% protein from the special occasion when they get some fish, mice or goat. Even more fascinating is that they run incredible distances and still feel great. One tribe member was said to have ran six hundred miles in five days to deliver an important message. When they ran in the 1928 marathon, they blew through the course and exclaimed “Too short! Too short!”

Scientists have done many tests and studies on the Tarahumara to see if they have some genetic propensity toward better endurance. Everything keeps coming back to the fact that they are products of conditioning not heredity. Their extreme, almost vegetarian diet translates into an unnaturally low pulse rate and blood pressure. These things (along with a high-antioxidant diet) are also attributed to generalized well being, better energy, and a reduced risk of disease.

There seems to be such controversy over eating a plant-based diet. Many people view it as extreme, when in fact it is actually where our culinary roots are. Prior to the factory age we had to grow, hunt and forage for our sustenance. Have we gotten so far from where we are supposed to be in regards to our diet that we are sabotaging ourselves? Why are we continually pumping more and more man-made carbs into our systems in the quest for sustained energy when really some beans and vegetables would do the trick? Nutrition science is always behind due to the old-school doctrine of the U.S.D.A., and people are given these antiquated RDA guidelines to follow which may not necessarily lead them to optimum health. I still think we are closer than ever to a revolution. More and more athletes are coming out, and very vocally about their switch to a vegetarian or even vegan diet. They are raving about how much better their performance is, and how they are no longer just surviving, but thriving!

What is Crossfit??

I get this question every day.  Since I am fully engrossed in it as a Crossfit certified trainer, and believe there is no faster way to get in amazing shape, here is a video.  This explains it better than my words ever could!  The beauty of it is that it is FULLY SCALABLE to anyone. 

People are starving....on purpose

There’s a relatively new diet out there called calorie restriction, or CR. Followers would argue though that it is not a diet, it is a “lifestyle”. They claim that reducing their daily caloric intake by 30% to as much as 50% is the fountain of youth, and there are studies showing they may increase their life span by as much as 40%. They brag of lowered blood pressure, blood sugar and heart rate. They claim that they get to a point that they really aren’t hungry any more. This seems difficult to believe when being hungry all the time is the #1 reason people fail at even conservative 15-20% under maintenance diets. Neuroendocrine profiles clearly show that animals under CR are continuously hungry. At what point do these benefits become perilous? Sure, low blood pressure is good, but to a point- past which it is labeled hypotension. At this level it can be a nuisance causing dizziness upon standing and fainting spells. Further on down the road it can deprive the brain and other organs of vital oxygen. Same goes for lowered blood glucose. If it remains too low for too long there is a condition called neuroglycopenia that can result. Basically, the brain suffers from too little fuel for too long and there is fatigue, slurred speech, ataxia (incoordination), blurred vision and confusion.

A 20 year study was recently completed and published in Science News Magazine. There is compelling evidence that CR improves the health and extends the life spans of every tested species. “Tested species” however includes worms, spiders, rodents, dogs, cows, and monkeys. This study looked specifically at rhesus monkeys. We are only recently starting to do in-depth research on human subjects. There are now enough human guinea pigs out there following this diet, er, way of life that we have some to track. Researchers believe “it is likely we will see similar results in humans”.

Much more well studied are the effects of anorexia nervosa. Much scarier are the similarities between CR and anorexia. The physical effects of CR include:

- Decreased RMR (resting metabolic rate)

- Loss of LBM (lean body mass)

- Loss of bone mass

- Decreased heart rate (bradycardia)

- Decreased blood pressure (hypotension)

- Decreased cardiac muscle mass

- Alopecia

- Food related obsessions

Other deleterious health effects of a persistent caloric deficit are low BMI and the effects of starvation. BMI under 18 is associated with significantly increased mortality from non-cancer, non-cardiovascular disease causes. In a nut shell, you are at a hugely increased risk of dying from just about anything- except cancer or heart disease. Nice. Severe calorie restriction may also lead to low-grade, insidious starvation effects on the body. In absence of adequate intake, the body turns to muscle, collagen, bone and remaining fat stores for fuel. Catabolic (muscle wasting) hormones such as cortisol are elevated, and catabolic (muscle sparing) hormones such as insulin decline. With too few calories, essential nutrient intake suffers as well, especially fat-soluble vitamins. These require fat for proper absorption. High calorie foods such as meat, nuts, dairy and oils are omitted due to their high caloric density.

Interestingly, every single one of these “effects” are also effects of Anorexia nervosa, but believers don’t want you to acknowledge that. Is this lifestyle a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Might these people already be the same people who would be more apt to fall into disordered eating behavior? Sometime back I saw two proponents of the diet, a husband and wife, on Oprah. Something about their demeanor bothered me. It wasn’t just that they were staunchly defensive of their “lifestyle”, but that more that they had no sparkle in their eyes. Oprah followed them through a typical days’ eating. They loaded up huge (I mean HUGE) salad bowls with greens, greens and more greens explaining that all those leaves only amount to about 30 calories. Then they topped off that massive mound with finely measured bits of more calorie dense items such as sunflower seeds and protein. Dressing was too “costly” calorie wise, so simple vinegar or lemon juice would have to do.

It seemed as though the rigid structure and deprivation of their daily existence had stolen something from their souls, they were more like automatons. Studies are showing that the later in life you start the CR lifestyle, the less the benefits. In other words, you have to starve for most of your life to reap the full benefits. Even more recently they say the life extending benefits may only be an added 2% to your life span, not the lofty 40% they originally claimed. Personally, I’m not signing up for complete and utter misery every single day for the rest of my life- to possibly add ONE year to it. Would you like a splash of lemon on those greens?

Post-vacation musings

Our family recently went on a wonderful four day cruise.  We relished every moment of being lazy, gluttonous and catered to.  Our biggest decisions each day were which ship restaurant to eat at, what activities to partake in, and where to shop next.  These few days of eating whatever we wanted whenever we wanted were freeing.  At home we cook healthy meals at home, and exercise most days of the week, so vacation is a time to take a mind/body break from all of it.
    It was very eye-opening a couple of days into the cruise when my husband's ankles and fingers swelled so badly from all the sodium in the food that he looked like the Michelin man.

Most of the cruisers were overweight, and we watched as they piled the food so high on their plates it was spilling over the sides.  I saw a guy standing in line for more food while still munching on a sandwich from the previous load. Another lady had just finished a couple of plates of food and came back to the table with three pieces of cheesecake, and 2-3 other desserts- and ate it all herself.  Now don't get me wrong.  We were enjoying the chocolate covered strawberries and chocolates delivered to out suites daily, and dined and imbibed enough to return with a few unwanted pounds.  It was scary to think of how profoundly this way of eating affected my husband, who works out regularly and maintains a healthy diet.  It is easy to see how much stress the standard American diet puts on the body if his extremities could swell to those extremes. 

   A few of my clients seemed to be curious as to why we didn't take our exercise clothes or plan to exercise while on board.  My very simple answer is that a vacation is defined as "leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure".  Exercise does NOT fit into that definition.  I have come to a place of balance in my life which I did not have even a few years ago.  Not being able to abandon the workouts for a few days to rest and recharge is the definition of imbalance.  I subscribe to the 90% rule.  If we eat clean and workout 90% of the time, there is 10% of wiggle room left over.  I have spent many years in that place where there was no balance, fretting over every missed workout and uncounted calorie.  I've come to realize that I didn't look/feel any better being obsessed, I just made my life empty.

"Muscle toning" workouts

Many people, especially women desire a fit, lean, toned body. There seems to be some controversy in the fitness community about how to achieve this look. Many people seem to believe that there is a different means by which you “tone” muscles as opposed to getting the big, muscular look. That’s actually not true, both looks require some form of resistance training, usually free-weight training. In order to get that definition, muscle needs to be built. Many trainees work out with weights that are too light due to their fear of getting “bulky”. There are so many other factors that weigh in to getting large muscles. One is genetics. There are few, but not many people with a genetic propensity toward gaining muscle quickly. Most of these individuals are men, since muscle growth is largely dependent on the hormone testosterone. Women naturally have very little of this hormone, so this is one reason why it is highly unlikely that most women need to worry about excess muscle growth. Another factor is nutrition. You need to be in a major caloric surplus to put on massive amounts of muscle. These top bodybuilding competitors that scare most of us with their huge shredded muscles consume thousands of extra calories a day to support that muscle growth. That is another reason most women need not fear getting too muscular, most women don’t eat a surplus of calories each day. If anything, many women are in a chronic deficit due to trying to “watch their figure”. You simply cannot build muscle without the building blocks (amino acids and carbohydrates) available. The last factor is the use of anabolic steroids. Unfortunately, a vast majority of athletes that appear “too muscular” to fit in with the mainstream are using these substances. So if you don’t have superior genetics, eat mass quantities of protein and carbohydrates or take ergogenic aids (anabolic steroids) you can train as hard and as often as needed without fear.

The principles involved in getting the toned, tight look are threefold. The increase in muscle size from training is what gives that nice, shapely look to all of the body parts. The second factor is cardiovascular activity to burn off that layer of fat that is blanketing the muscle. Lastly, and most important is nutrition. The most well planned out and rigorous workout program will be unsuccessful if the trainee’s diet is not intact. A proper amount of nutrients to support the workouts, and the right foods. 100 calories of French fries is not equal to 100 calories of oatmeal.

The take home message is that there is only one way to a nice, aesthetically pleasing, toned physique. It is with a good, balanced training and cardio program coupled with a clean, healthy diet.

Watch Those Incidentals!!

In-ci-den-tal
adjective-
incurred casually and in addition to the regular or main amount.

In all my years helping people to lose weight, I have figured out some tricks to get a client's weight loss moving again when it has stalled. The one I want to focus on today is the accurate tracking of "incidentals" in one's diet. I'm not merely referring to the bites of left over chicken finger or cheeseburger off their kid's plate that wasn't accounted for......but a more sneaky and insidious form of excess calories, the kind when you're measuring everything with your little scoopers and measuring spoons.......and STILL going over by a couple hundred calories per day?? How is this possible?
I'll tell you how. The next time you grab your half-cup or cup scooper, dunk it into that oatmeal container, scoop it up and level it off- try throwing that on the scale. You will find that there are more grams of oats on the scale than what the package label says is supposed to be in a half cup serving. To get the true serving size, you can't even fill the scooper all the way to the top. I know, ugh. A little more bad news, nuts are even more heinous. If the package says 1/4 cup is a serving size, and you level off the scooper full of nuts you are easily getting another half a serving. This is a big deal, because nuts are so calorie and fat dense. As an experiment, I weighed out my 28 grams of nuts (the serving listed on the package) and then put that into the 1/4 c measuring cup- it wasn't even close to filling it up. Bummer.
On to the GOOD news about all of this? Now you know, and now you can easily shave a pretty decent amount of calories off of your daily total and get back to where you THOUGHT you were in the first place. Oh, and.....I didn't even mention all that coffee mate and those packets of Splenda you weren't counting.....

My green smoothie!!

In the last month I have made some serious changes to my diet. Not that it wasn't good before, but the standard bodybuilding style of diet I had been consuming for SO many years seemed to be lacking so much. Too much meat, super-high protein protein powder, dairy and artificial sweeteners. Not enough plants (multi-colored vegetables and fruits).
Well, in my effort to revamp my diet toward a more plant-based one, I have been enjoying one to two "green" smoothies a day in addition to the rest of my daily intake. They are so good, and so packed full of great stuff that I just have to share the recipe. Being told that we are supposed to be having 10 servings per day of vegetables and fruits seems daunting-until you knock out a good 5-6 of these servings out in one or two of these blended concoctions!

Recipe:

1 scoop Vega Whole Food Optimizer (plant based protein)
.25 c frozen blueberries
2-3 large frozen strawberries
.5 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
handful raw spinach
1/2 small banana
stevia (just a pinch)
.5 c alfalfa sprouts (optional)- these really add a "sprouty" flavor, so only if you like them
1 tsp coconut oil
handful ice
about 2.5 c water

Blend!

This make a huge smoothie. I drink all of it, but if you have a hard time with large amounts of liquid, just cut the water and ice down.

Enjoy!

Balancing fitness with family life

Last night we were out on the town having "family night". This usually includes some form of really bad food, as we have to go to "kid friendly" establishments. Its not fair to ask a teenager to go to a salad or pita place on their one night out a week! We had a ball playing games, video games and eating stuff we normally don't, and having a couple of cocktails (well, the adults of course!). Its funny, but because I'm a professional in the health and fitness industry, many of my friends and clients would be horrified if they saw us last night. Most people expect that if you are living the fitness lifestyle you live this rigid, structured life that has no wiggle room. I have encountered this so frequently over the years. At parties when I get the 10th comment about "I can't believe you are eating/drinking that", "You aren't supposed to eat" chips/party mix/appetizers/other offending food. Or how about, "Wow, no wonder you stay in shape, you can eat whatever you want!" People often miss the big picture. Life needs to have balance, especially when you have kids because you need to set an example. Of course we shouldn't eat massive amounts of fattening foods and wash it down with a cocktail every day, but when you work out really hard and eat all the right things MOST of the time, you are entitled to a reprieve once every week or so......just make sure you hide in the closet while you're having it so as to not be seen.....wink ;-)

In spite of all of my preaching about not making excuses, being mentally tough, and "the hardest part sometimes is just getting through the gym door".....occasionally we need to NOT do any of those things. Depending on how hard you've been hitting it, and for how long, the body does need breaks. The consequences of ignoring your body's "I've had enough" signals can cause you to actually look worse rather than better. Not that many people ever get to the point of "overtraining". Usually an occasional family trip or increased work demands will keep one out of the gym enough to promote some serious healing time. However, when that doesn't happen, and we continue to train and push week after week, month after month, the body gets stressed. Positive body changes don't happen in the gym, they are actually achieved at rest, when the rebuilding process happens. Many exercisers think the more they work out, the fitter they will be.....which is true to a certain point, but not once the body senses too much. Too much training, not enough rest, and inadequate nutrition can slowly creep up on you, then slowly you start to realize everything aches. There can be a lack of motivation to get to the gym, low grade irritability, and increased muscle tension. Muscle gets broken down, rather than built.
I try to take scheduled rest periods of a week (or more) from lifting weights at least every three months. It is easy to forget to take these breaks, and before I know it it has been 6 months without a rest. My clients will sometimes see that I am "off" from training and wonder why I haven't prescribed time off for them. Most of my clients have had plenty of recovery time due to vacations and unexpected missed gym time due to kid and work issues. For the gym rat who hasn't had any of these setbacks, and is training regularly and intensely, there needs to be a recovery plan in place. A good rule of thumb is a week of rest after 8 weeks or so. This is optimum. Do I always follow this rule? No, but I end up suffering the consequences. That week of rest that would normally get me strong, refreshed and ready to rock needs to be a little longer. ;-)

Go out and get it!!! Then NEVER LET IT GO....

I know I'm a little type-A and a little psycho. I tend to run myself into the ground and then wonder why I get so tired sometimes. I was out for a run after work yesterday, and as usual my internal dialogue was yapping away at me. I was thinking how wonderful it felt to be able-bodied enough to be on that run, and what a huge blessing that is. I was also thinking about how often clients ask me how I stay motivated year after year to keep up my fitness routine. Let me just say, aside from realizing EVERY SINGLE DAY that I will never take my health and strength for granted, it is just good old fashioned fear. Yup. I am so determined that I will not go back to being overweight and plagued with health issues. I am determined to never again let some catty bitch in a club ask her guy friend "why he's talking to a fat chick". I'm determined to never again be referred to as "a good 'ole corn-fed American girl". Life is too short, and we only get one go-round. Go out do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get your best, most fulfilling life, and never let it go!!