My Food: Baked Italian Ziti (Clean Eating)

 

When we are craving Italian Food, this is our go-to clean eating recipe!  The Gracious Pantry does it right!

Yields: 12 servings

Ingredients:

1 pound whole wheat penne pasta, cooked
1.5 pounds lean, ground turkey
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
½ cup water
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce, no sodium
1 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. While the pasta cooks, in a large skillet, cook the turkey meat in the olive oil.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the basil, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, honey, vinegar, water, and tomato sauce
3. Add the cooked pasta and the cooked meat to the tomato sauce and mix well.
4. Transfer to a baking dish and top with parmesan cheese,
5. Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

The Shakeology 3-Day Cleanse

I’ve had several people ask me “What is the Shakeology Cleanse”? Here is a great article by Steve Edwards that explains exactly what the cleanse is and how to do the cleanse. If you’re interested in trying it, please contact me! I’d love to get to know your story and help coach you through it.

The Sci­ence Behind the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse
by Steve Edwards, Direc­tor of Results

 

I like to call the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse a “per­for­mance cleanse.” This is because it was designed to be done with a work­out pro­gram. Let’s take a look at how this dif­fers from other cleanses, how to tai­lor it to your needs, and what to expect if you decide to try it.

First of all, it’s not a true cleanse. It’s a calorie-restricted and nutrient-dense diet plan. Tra­di­tional cleanses con­tain very few calo­ries and nutri­ents. Com­pared to the much more pop­u­lar Mas­ter Cleanse, it’s like an all-you-can-eat buf­fet. Tra­di­tional cleans­ing diets are done to rid your sys­tem of tox­ins and bring it into home­osta­sis. They also con­tain a spir­i­tual aspect. This process can take a long time, which is why you may have seen cowork­ers walk­ing around the office in a zombie-like state for weeks on end—swilling a strange con­coc­tion of lemons and maple syrup.

The Shake­ol­ogy cleanse is noth­ing like that. Depend­ing on how you decide to do it, you’ll be eat­ing fre­quently and con­sum­ing between 800 and 1,200 calo­ries per day, and it could be even more should you feel the need. The point of this cleanse is not calo­rie restric­tion, per se—it’s nutri­ent effi­ciency. The aim is to get the most nutri­ents pos­si­ble into the fewest num­ber of calo­ries. The goal is to put all of these calo­ries to use as a part of your exer­cise pro­gram, to rid your body of undi­gested foods and tox­ins, and to bring your hydra­tion lev­els into home­osta­sis. The result you’re after is not weight loss—though it will likely occur—but for your body to be run­ning more effi­ciently. This should make you feel lighter and more ener­getic, even though you’re doing an exer­cise program.

How It Works

Your eat­ing struc­ture doesn’t change. You still eat every few hours while you’re awake. Each meal should have a bal­ance of pro­teins, car­bo­hy­drates, fats, and fiber. And while you’re not eat­ing as much food as you’d nor­mally eat, your calorie-to-nutrient ratio is extremely high. This means that you shouldn’t restrict the actual nutri­ents you’re get­ting by too much, so activ­ity can con­tinue as normal.

We rec­om­mend you try to keep your shakes to just Shake­ol­ogy. Adding fruits of any kind, or seeds (for fat and fiber), or the Shake­ol­ogy Fiber sup­ple­ment, can and should be done as you see fit.

Ditto for your one solid meal—a salad. As we all know from any salad bar, the def­i­n­i­tion of salad can be var­ied. The goal of the salad in the plan is to keep your calo­ries com­ing from nat­ural sources (no arti­fi­cial ingre­di­ents should be added, includ­ing arti­fi­cial salad dress­ing). Aside from that, you can add ingre­di­ents as nec­es­sary. Keep your meat intake to four ounces or less, but add veg­gies, seeds, nuts, fruits, and legumes in quan­ti­ties to sati­ate you.

The goal of the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse is to opti­mize your per­for­mance. You want to eat enough to fuel your day AND your work­out. The foods you’re eat­ing are so high in fiber and nutri­ents that it’s vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble to overeat. You’ll be con­sum­ing so much fiber, along with enzymes and diges­tive aids, that your body’s abil­ity to flush excess foods quickly will be at its peak.

What to Drink

Water, of course, is rec­om­mended in quan­tity. This is vital to any cleanse, because one of your goals is to bring your hydra­tion into home­osta­sis. When your elec­trolytes are out of balance—the main prob­lem we have is salt—you often retain water out­side of your cells. This sit­u­a­tion, which we refer to as retain­ing water, is cured by drink­ing more water. As the excess salts are dif­fused, your body begins to hydrate your cells (using sodium as it should be used) and flush the water held out­side the cells. So, oddly enough, you drink water to elim­i­nate water retention.

Sodas, juices, etc., should be elim­i­nated entirely dur­ing a cleanse. Cof­fee and tea, which are diuret­ics, should be min­i­mized at the very least and elim­i­nated if pos­si­ble. Again, per­for­mance is the key, so if you need a cup of Joe as a pick-me-up, go ahead. Just use only as needed, and don’t use addi­tives. Elim­i­nat­ing sugar and chem­i­cals is vital. How­ever, do not use energy drinks or soda for this pur­pose, includ­ing the ones with arti­fi­cial sweet­en­ers. Cof­fee drinkers may find that switch­ing to black tea dur­ing a cleanse will give you the energy you’re look­ing for with less upset. Coffee’s acidic nature can heighten the effects in a neg­a­tive way dur­ing your cleanse.

Why You Won’t Lose Weight

I should say why you might not lose weight, but I wanted to get your atten­tion. Most peo­ple will lose some weight dur­ing a cleanse, but that is not the goal. Those with a lot of undi­gested gunk in their sys­tems will lose weight as it’s flushed out. Those of you who are prop­erly hydrated and already eat well are less likely to lose. For those of you who need to lose weight, take heart: you are set­ting up your sys­tem to use nutri­ents more effi­ciently and improv­ing your abil­ity to lose weight through struc­tured diet and exer­cise. So while you may not lose much on the cleanse, you’ll be more pre­pared to lose weight later.

Another rea­son why we don’t always lose weight on cleanses is due to a stress hor­mone called cor­ti­sol. Restrict­ing calo­ries is stress­ful to the body, and it reacts by releas­ing cor­ti­sol. Cor­ti­sol is performance-enhancing in the short term, but if you some­how keep your body stressed for long peri­ods, it cre­ates havoc in your sys­tem and can cause you to doggedly hang onto weight in a type of sur­vival mode. We don’t want this to occur, which is one rea­son the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse is short. It’s impor­tant not to remain in a highly calorie-deficient state for long peri­ods of time, espe­cially when you are try­ing to exer­cise hard.

The Shake­ol­ogy® 3-Day Cleanse — Full Plan

The key is to fol­low the same reg­i­men all three days.

Essen­tials:
3 Shake­ol­ogy shakes per day
2 cups of green tea per day
1 or 2 pieces of fruit per day (optional)
1 salad for dinner—can include fish or poul­try
No dairy or extra sug­ars (this includes almond and soy milk)! D
rink 2 to 4 liters of water every day
Only use low-fat dress­ings, and go easy on the salt and/or pep­per to taste
2 snacks before/after any of the major meals (break­fast, lunch, and din­ner)
Fruit is optional, and it is dis­cour­aged (how­ever, some of you will need the calo­ries while oth­ers may not)
Power-workout par­tic­i­pants (those who are already super con­di­tioned) are rec­om­mended the higher num­bers of calories

For max­i­mum results, do NOT use addi­tives.
Din­ner salad may include WHITE GRILLED PROTEIN—poultry or fish only.

Daily Reg­i­men:
1 cup of green tea to start the day

Breakfast:
1 scoop Shake­ol­ogy (140 calo­ries)
1/2 cup of fruit (60 to 90 calo­ries) — optional
Ice to taste
8 to 10 oz. of water

Snack 1 (85 calo­ries):
1 piece of fruit (apple, pear, orange, banana, mango, etc.)

Lunch:
1 scoop Shake­ol­ogy (140 calo­ries)
Ice to taste
8 to 10 oz. of water
1 cup of green tea or a detox tea

Snack 2: (you can have the sec­ond snack before or after dinner)
1 scoop Shake­ol­ogy (140 calo­ries)
Ice to taste
8 to10 oz. of water

Din­ner:
Salad with grilled white fish or poul­try (roughly 340 calo­ries)
Greens—3 serv­ings of veg­eta­bles, plus 4 oz. of grilled white meat (fish or poul­try) 2 table­spoons of dressing—no more!

Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse FAQ

1. How many calo­ries per day? 800 to 1,100 calo­ries per day if you fol­low the plan as strictly as possible…but if you are work­ing out, make sure you add the snacks of fruit and nuts to keep you from drop­ping too low on your calories.

2. How often can I do the Shake­ol­ogy 3-Day Cleanse? Ide­ally, you should do it once per quar­ter. It’s also a great way to kick-start a new work­out pro­gram or to help you break through a plateau.

3. Should/Can I still do my work­outs dur­ing the Cleanse? Yes, but be rea­son­able. If you’re train­ing for a marathon, don’t pick your 20-mile run day as your first day of the cleanse. You can be active on the cleanse, espe­cially if you are hav­ing the snacks, but don’t push it.

4. Can I do a 1-day or a 2-day cleanse instead of a 3-day? Yes! Some peo­ple will see results with one or two days. But DO NOT do the cleanse for more than three days.

The Shake­ol­ogy Cleanse Sys­tem includes 9 serv­ings of Shake­ol­ogy, 4 pack­ets of green tea, and printed instructions. Contact me for more information on how to purchase the cleanse!



 

New Move Monday: 25 Minute Indoor Cardio Routine

For those of us who live in the South, if we don’t make it outdoors for our morning run, we may not get the chance to do something outdoors for the day. Here’s a quick, 25-minute cardio circuit that you can do in the comfort of your living room.

1 minute jump-rope in place (you don't have to have a rope)
1 minute high knees (run in place with high knees)
1 minute jumping jacks
1 minute front kicks
1 minute jumping jacks
1 minute run in place
1 minute jump-rope in place
1 minute butt kicks (run in place but kicking your butt with your foot)
1 minute rest
Repeat

This is 8 minutes cardio, 1 minute rest. I usually do it 3 times for a 25-minute cardio workout.

My Food: Balsamic Pear and Portobello Mushroom Slow Cooker Chicken (Clean Eating)

 

 

 

This is such an easy recipe from The Gracious Pantry.  You can serve it alone, over brown rice, with a salad, or on top of a slice of Ezekiel Bread.

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:

2 raw, large chicken breasts (about 7 ounces each)
1 medium pear, cored and sliced thin
¼ pound Portobello mushrooms, sliced or chopped
¼ cup balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Place all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours, or until the chicken easily falls apart when stirred.





 

Shakeology: Priority Over Price

"I would love to try Shakeology, but I'm sorry. I just can't afford it."

Whenever I hear someone say this, I want to apologize to them. Not because I think they're poor. Not because I won't get commission. But because I haven't done a good enough job helping them realize the importance of Shakeology.

Here’s the deal… we all operate within a budget. Trust me – as a stay-at-home mom, I know how important operating within our families budget can be.  Sure, some of us have a little more flexibility to spend than others, but we all make decisions on how we will spend our money based on our priorities.

I recently read an article in Time Magazine that highlights what the average American spends annually in a few categories. Here are some highlights:

Coffee: $1,092
Soft drinks: $850
Pets: $1,183
Lunch: $2,000

A person who thinks Cups or Starbucks is overpriced would think it is CRAZY to spend a grand on coffee each year. But to the business man who takes his clients to coffee each year – that’s nothing to him compared to the income those meetings bring in by helping him maintain great relationships with his customers.

To a person who hates animals, it may seem absurd to spend almost $1200 on a pet. But those who have pets don't see the additional $1,200 when they look at their sweet puppy.

And the woman who drops $2,000 a year on lunches? That's nothing to her compared to the time she spends fellowshipping with her friends and family members during her daily work break.  She wouldn’t trade that money for anything.

See my point?

If it's important to us, we'll find a way to make it work. If not, we'll make an excuse.

My health matters to me, so we’ve found ways to work this into our monthly budget.  Since breakfast can be done healthy for cheaper, you could substitute Shakeology for lunch or dinner. You could use half a scoop daily. You could split a bag with a friend and drink it every other day.

You HAVE options, and you COULD make it work.

So if you've thought about trying Shakeology, but you've told yourself it's too expensive, please take two minutes and watch this commercial from one of my favorite trainers – Tony Horton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwgaeGBvm4c

Your health is important!

 

 

 

 

New Move Monday: Single Leg Deadlift

 

This is a great exercise for overall kinesthetic awareness, strength, and balance. It primarily works the hamstrings, but also works the glutes and lower back.

(1) Hold a weight in one or both hands.  Balance on one leg with a slight bend at the knee so as to avoid over-stressing the hamstring and neglecting the glutes

(2) Flex or hinge forward from the hip. Imagine the hamstring as a pulley, slowly lowering you. Be careful not to round our flex the spine (keep your back straight!) as this delineates the effectiveness of the exercise.

(3) The rear leg should be internally rotated and your toes should be pointed toward the floor. Work to keep your head in alignment with the spine.

(4) Continue lowering until you are parallel to the ground, then return to the upright position.

Modification: Avoid going so low and start with only your body weight. Add a ball, free weight, or kettle bell as you feel comfortable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Food: Chicken Avocado Salad (Clean Eating)

 

 

If you're looking for a quick, healthy, summery recipe, this is it!  I love this recipe from The Gracious Pantry!

 

Yields: 2 servings

Salad Ingredients:

½ cup cooked, shredded chicken
¼ cup shredded carrots
¼ cup minced, raw, red onions
2 avocados
Dressing to taste

Dressing Ingredients:

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 teaspoon yellow mustard (no sugar added)
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch of salt (to taste)

Directions:

1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the salad ingredients until well mixed
3. Pour the dressing over your salad and serve as desired.

It's in the Bag: Kamut Grass

 

Kamut grass... If you’re like most people, you’ve probably never heard of Kamut Grass, but you need to know what this amazing ingredient can do for your body.

Benefits:

• Kamut grass is a type of grain, known or it’s sweet and nutty flavor. It is actually a form of wheat, but it contains about significantly more protein than wheat, which makes it especially important for vegans. It also cholesterol-free and contains many vitamins and minerals like folic acid, vitamin A, B-1, B-2, B-6, C and E.

• If you are allergic to wheat, kamut is just right for you! It has been proven to cause little or no allergic reactions in people who are allergic to wheat.

• Anyone who is suffering from digestive issues may benefit by adding kamut to their diet because it has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties that help treat some inflammatory diseases.

• Kamut grass contains anti-aging properties that have been shown to help balance body pH levels & restore aging cells.

• Kamut is also considered a high-energy grain because of its high lipid content. Isn't it awesome what nature can do for our bodies?!

If you're not into eating grass alone, GREAT NEWS! Kamut grass is in the bag...of Shakeology, of course!

You can try Shakeology risk-free with our bottom-of-the-bag guarantee. Get your daily dose of dense nutrition (like kamut grass) with the healthiest meal of the day. :)





 

New Move Monday: The Triangle

 

The triangle pose is one of the best poses that you can do for balance, flexibility, and strength, but it is also one of the most abused poses for form and alignment.

When you’re doing the triangle pose, focus on keeping your shoulders in the same line as your hips.  Common mistakes include sitting back or pushing back the hips to try and reach lower on the leg or floor.

To perform this pose:

1. Start with your legs about three-feet apart, shoulders upright over the hips, and arms out to your side (like a T, palms pointing down).

2. Slide your back hip up so that the front crest of the pelvis is lower than the back crest of the pelvis (think “sexy picture” pose).  Keep the spine long and both sides of the torso equal length. 

3. Extend your body over the lead leg, allowing your lower hand to float towards your thigh, shin, or the floor (depending on your current level of flexibility).  The opposite hand should reach up toward the sky, maintaining the arms in the T position.

To make sure you are doing this correctly, take a peek over the bottom shoulder to your rear end. If you can clearly see it, you are most likely pushing your hips back too far and are not in line with the chest and shoulders.  Come up higher in your support (to the shin or thigh).

 

 

 

 

 

My Food: Fruit Popsicles

 

 

Healthy Popsicles! I made these for us now that the weather has started to warm up!

Yields: Approximately 12 popsicles

Ingredients:
3 cups watermelon puree (seedless if possible)
½ cup fresh blueberries
½ cup chopped fresh strawberries
1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
1 peach or nectarine, diced small
Handful of fresh cherries, pitted and chopped

Directions:
1. Cut the watermelon into chunks and puree in a blender until smooth. Set aside.
2. Set out about 1 dozen popsicle molds (amount needed will vary depending on size of molds).
3. Fill each one with the shopped fresh fruit.
4. Pour in the watermelon puree until each mold is full to the top.
5. Place a popsicle stick into each one. Please into your freezer and freeze for 6-8 hours.

Note: When ready to serve, run the popsicle molds under warm water for a few seconds and pull each one out.