HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU STARTED YOUR JOURNEY TO HEALTH?

I know this is true for all of us.  You get started on a plan to get healthy.  You may even reach your goal, then something happens and you slide back the other way.  One day, then a week and then a year.  You have to start over.  It sucks!  I know that I beat myself up about not just maintaining what I had.  If only?  What if?  Why not?  I have thought a lot about this and for me, this is my painful truth.  I didn’t love myself enough to make me a priority.  I always let something else steer me away from my best path.  I followed a love, gave up a work out to do what someone else wanted, cleaned the house instead of going to the gym.   A million little tiny choices where I did not choose me over someone else - I should have chosen ME.  Sounds selfish right?  It’s not!  What I have learned is that to give my best in any relationship I have to love myself and believe with all my heart that I am honoring the deepest parts of my soul everyday.  If I don’t, then I lose focus, fall off  track and every relationship in my world is negatively impacted.
LOVE YOURSELF enough to do what is best for you.  That means sometimes you say no you cannot do something that someone else wants you to do.  This may temporarily bring disappointment to your spouse, friends, kids and random people biding for your time.  It does not matter.  You have to look at the long term.  Your relationships with all those who love you will improve if you love yourself enough to honor your deepest hopes and dreams.  Your spouse will benefit everyday and night from you feeling confident, proud and accomplished.  Your children will benefit from your increase in energy and patience.  They will also see that you are modeling that YOU ARE IMPORTANT.  What an amazing example you will be setting for them.  They will understand that it is okay to follow what is inside of them, give themselves what they need in life so that they can be their best in all relationships.
Today chose you.  If you chose you first, the rest of it will get better.  Tell the world you love yourself enough to do what makes you feel your best.  The world will respect you everyday for your choices and so will the people that love you.  If anyone harasses you about it - kick them off your life bus, they don’t belong there.

MAPLE BALSAMIC SWEET POTATOES

One of my favorite foods is sweet potatoes.  They are an excellent healthy food choice and easy to make and keep in the fridge.  I mix them with chicken, salads, rice and eggs.

Maple Balsamic Sweet Potatoes

Peel and cube sweet potatoes (I usually do 2 medium at a time since it fits on one cookie sheet) Cubes should be about the size of dice

Mix together olive oil, maple syrup* and balsamic vinegar** in a small dish.  I don’t measure but it is about 3 TBS olive oil, 1-2 TBS Maple Syrup and 1 - 2 TBS of balsamic.

Pour mix over potatoes and toss together until evenly coated

Put on a greased (I used olive oil) cookie sheet

Sprinkle with a light coat of sea salt

Cook at 375 for 20 - 30 minutes (turn them every 10 minutes)

*Use REAL maple syrup

** I buy balsamic vinegar at the farmers market.  It is $18 for one bottle.  It is worth every penny.  I highly recommend the investment.  One bottle will last me a couple of months.  I use it on sweet potatoes, for sauteed mushrooms and in other recipes that call for balsamic.  The bottle I have from Costco sits untouched since I found the one at the farmers market.

FUEL YOUR BODY FOR OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE

Something you will hear me say if you talk to me about nutrition is, “don’t drink your calories”.  I drink water and tea (mostly green) throughout the day, but I will not waste my calories on a soda, fruit juice or any drink that rhymes with frappuccino.  I want every calorie that enters my body to be useful so I focus on eating real food.  This eliminates cravings and allows me to maintain my energy level throughout the day.  I hear all the time that people feel tired in the afternoon.  This is a direct result of what you ate (or didn’t eat).  If you feed your body small, balanced meals every 2-3 hours, then you will not experience the highs and lows during the day.  Don’t wait until you are hungry.  Set the alarm on your phone if you need to and listen to your body.  For me, my body wants my largest meal between 3 and 4 in the afternoon.  This is a due to when I work out, get up and go to bed – yours may be different.  Listen!  Your body will tell you everything you need to know about what it wants.  Extra bonus for eating regularly is that your metabolism increases and your body has the fuel it needs to build muscle.  Yay for more muscles and a high metabolism.

Here are some ideas for small meals and snacks.  

*Anytime I eat I also drink a large glass of tea or water.  I also consume water and tea between my small meals.  

Snacks

• Raw almonds and an apple
• Raw almonds are great anytime - they fill you up and are a good source of fiber
• Raw pistachios – get them in the shell and make sure they are raw and unsalted
• Greek yogurt and blueberries
• Banana and peanut butter
• String cheese and a few whole grain crackers (I love Kashi 7 grain crackers)
• Hard boiled eggs
• Veggies and a small amount of dip (something made without corn syrup and fake stuff)

Small Meals (these should fit on an 8” -9” plate)

• Chicken breast and spinach salad (spinach, mushrooms, tomato, avocado, balsamic dressing)
• Rice, turkey meat balls and brussel sprouts
• Sweet potato cubes mixed with brown rice and egg (sounds gross, but don’t knock it till you try it)
• Greek yogurt with cinnamon, granola and flax seeds
• Whole wheat toast and peanut butter or almond butter and a couple of strawberries
• Protein pancake topped with greek yogurt, cinnamon and blueberries
• Whole grain pasta, chicken, broccoli and sauteed mushrooms

When you start paying attention to your body you will notice that you can control how you feel through food.  Everything from upset stomach and heartburn to your energy level is related to the food you eat.  Take control of how you feel and fuel your body for optimum performance. 

TURKEY MEATBALLS

Last night I made turkey meatballs, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, brown rice, sauteed mushrooms, chicken breast, potatoes and whole wheat pasta.  It took a couple of hours, but now my fridge is stocked and I feel ready to focus on my other priorities.

The turkey meatballs are my favorite and something I do not like to be without.  I make them every couple of days. There is no real recipe - they come out great every time and I don’t ever measure.

One yellow onion chopped
Five large white mushrooms chopped
3-5 stalks of celery chopped
4 cloves of garlic diced
Sometimes I add some jalepeno - up to you
3 eggs
3 slices of whole wheat bread - toasted until dry and cut into very small pieces
1 package of lean turkey
A good sprinkle of sea salt, pepper and garlic powder

Combine everything in a large bowl and mix with a submersion blender.  If you don’t have one of these you can mix everything but the meat in blender or food processor.  The goal is to get most of the chunks out and then mix it together with the turkey.  Before I bought the submersion blender I used my hands to mix in the turkey.  It really doesn’t matter because once it is all mixed together you use your hands to form into balls and place on cookie sheet coated with olive oil.  You can see the size I like in the picture.

Cook at 350 for about 30 minutes.

When you take them out, let them sit for a few minutes before you lift them off the sheet.

YOUR ARE WHAT YOU EAT

I guess it is a part of what we do that we notice people’s shopping carts.  It is hard sometimes not to walk up to someone and say, “Are you kidding me?  You want to be fat and tired?  Are those really the best foods you can put into your body?”

Over and over again we are shown that people truly don’t know how to be healthy.  We hear all the time from intelligent people that they just don’t know how to choose foods, when to eat them, how to prepare them.  Fortunately, we can help with that.

First, let’s be clear.  Healthy food costs more.  However, if you stop eating out (which you should), then you will be saving money in the long run AND you will feel a bazillion times better.  The payoff is unreal and if you genuinely commit, you will never go back.  You will fall off the wagon (we do too), but you will get back on.  Feeling your best is like a drug. The best, most amazing drug ever!  If you can work to get your body to that point, then there is no amount of time or money that you will feel is not worth it.

An easy place to start is Costco.  They have lots of great options and the prices are better than the grocery store.  The picture is from my real trip to Costco yesterday and I did not leave anything out of the picture.

This was my list:

Organic chicken breast - I just like the way organic tastes better :)
Ground Turkey
Olive Oil
Fage 0% yogurt - 3
Organic brown eggs -3
Blueberries - 3
Rasperries - 1
Strawberries - 2
Balsamic dressing - great to marinate chicken and on salad
Classico spaghetti sauce
Via coffee packets
Mushrooms
Agave syrup
Apples
Oatmeal
Bottled Water
Almond Butter

When you add this to the fresh produce I bought at the farmers market, then I am all set for 7-10 days.

The fridge always has food prepared and ready to heat up.  This is key and I do spend a lot of time on preparation so that I don’t have to stress out when I am trying to eat every two hours throughout the day.  I will be posting recipes for some of my staples.  It does take time and it is an adjustment.  As stated earlier - it is so worth it.

No Costco card - you can find all of this stuff anywhere.

Want a fun activity.  Look at peoples carts.  Find someone you want to look like and look in their cart.  Now find someone you don’t want to look like and look in their cart.  It’s not rocket science.  You are what you eat. To the guy at target with the huge tub of cheese balls yesterday - YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!

WHY WE TRAIN

We often get asked, “What are you training for?”  It’s true that we have talked about doing figure and bodybuilding competitions; however, that is not why we train.  We train and eat the way we do because we love to feel our best.  We often discuss how fun it is to feel like you can conquer the world every day.  It just feels amazing to be strong, powerful and healthy.  Other benefits include a fantastic sex life, feeling great no matter what you put on, sleeping like a rock, having energy to run up a mountain and then play with the kids.  There are truly not enough words to describe the power you feel when your treat your body well and demand that it give you its best.  

You will have your own reason you train, but at the end of the day we train you for your best life.  The life you should be living.  We know it is in you because we have found in everyone we have worked with and we have found it in ourselves.  

Every push, every demand, every moment you give us we will push you towards your personal best.  We accept nothing less for you and you should accept nothing less for yourself.