January 14th...Organizing your meals=success!

So I was chatting with the Boot Camp classes and was inquiring on how our first week of Paleo eating went.  Some of you just sighed and hung your head, as the idea of giving up bread was just too much.  Others tackled it full on and by the end of the week were reaping the rewards of feeling great, down a couple of pounds and found that their workouts were better.  I myself had a cookie and one sandwich...it was either that or eat my hand off.  Which leads me into the point of today's blog...if your organised with your meals and snacks, you will be successful on this Paleo journey.  If you don't invest the time of meal planning, then your cravings will be sure to get the best of you!

Do's

#1 Plan out your meals and snacks for the week...be detailed!  

#2 Write up a grocery list.

#3 Schedule in a good hour where you won't be interrupted by family and "go to town" and get all your meals and snacks prepped.  Make sure you prepare enough for left overs and even better, enough to have a back up meal in the freezer for emergency.

#4 If you fall, get back up...if you loose it and eat a handful of chocolate chips, don't throw the whole day out the window.  Move on and make your next meal better.

Don'ts

#1 If you think you can "wing" the Paleo dieting...think again!  These meals require some thought using Paleo friendly ingredients.

#2 Buy only what is on your grocery list!  If you buy crap food and think that your will-power will be enough, think again...when your tired and hungry, your cravings for sugar and salt will take over your body...it will be as if you just turned into the Hulk!

#3 Not having back up meals leads to temptation, go buy a tray of pre-cut veggies if you have to and leave them in the fridge so you can snack on them while making dinner.

#4 Don't get caught up in making every meal perfect...instead strive for consistency with your meal times and what your eating...

At the end of the day, your trying to improve your habits.  It's not going to happen over night.  Each day, strive to do better than the last.  Those days will add up and before you know a week or two will have past and you'll be getting the hang of it and feeling good!

January 7th....Clean eating the Paleo way!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year...the lunch boxes are packed and the back packs are on and kids are out the door!"...that's me singing...it's also the most wonderful time of the year to start on the Paleo wagon.  Time to clean up our eating habits after all the holiday indulgences.  On previous posts I've listed lots of Paleo info and recipes, so just go to the search tab on your right and type in Paleo...lots of info will come up.  These are 2 great books with loads of easy recipes and information. 

Starting a Paleo lifestyle can be overwhelming for some because of the "idea" that you have to give up a lot of foods...you might think it's not really that bad, but for many people, food is there comfort and we all know, breaking any habit is hard...like late night eating, not eating breakfast, sweets with coffee or tea.  One of my bad habits is eating a snack right before bed while reading my book.  I call this "mindless" eating, as I'm not even paying attention to what I'm eating or really enjoying it because my mind is focused on my book. I know better but I still have to "check myself" and say what are you doing! Some days it's no big deal and others, when I'm really tired, some how in my head I can convince myself that I worked hard today and deserve this treat. And that's when I give in.  So I thought our first goal for this week would be to stop seeing food as a reward.

Our second goal, brace yourself, you can do this...is NO BREAD this week.  I will save you the lecture on the "wheat-belly" just trust me on this one.  You will be amazed by the end of this week how much better you will feel after eating a meal that doesn't have any bread with it.  For myself, I feel like a slug after I eat any kind of bread and my stomach bloats out, nice!

Today, I would like YOU to be mindful when you eat, think about what you are putting in your mouth, and what it's going to do for your body...think of your body as a machine or a car.  If you put cheap, crappy food/fuel in it, it ain't gonna run very well and over time, will break down and cost/medical are going to be a lot.  So why not invest in your body now, put good fuel in it and do regular maintenance/exercise, to keep it in top shape and it will last you for many, many years to come.  Just something to ponder...if your not exercising now and your having trouble walking up stairs or even going out for a walk...how are you going to feel a year from now, five years from now or even 20 years from now...think of your future life, if you can't move around easily now, how are you going to get yourself out of bed, get out of a tub, carry groceries etc...the time is now, so get moving! 

October 5th...Paleo friendly breakfast bars!

 Well lately I have been in the bad habit of eating the same foods over and over, I won't list all my excuses why, but I really need to change things up a bit.  Especially when it comes to breakfast, I just want to grab and go.  The reality is, mornings are busy around here, I need something I can eat while multitasking!  So that usually comes in the form of a bar or a ball of some kind.  I came across this recipe and "Mel-er-ized it" by subbing out regular flour with Almond flour and vegetable oil with Coconut oil, plus I added some other healthy stuff as well.  Let's get started!

In a food processor combine Almond flour and salt, pulse once or twice to mix. In a separate bowl, combine Coconut oil, honey, vanilla and water.  While pulsing add your liquids.  Then combine cranberries, shredded coconut, nuts and seeds into a bowl and add while pulsing.

 Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper and spread dough out evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20mins.

I managed to get 16 bars out of this recipe but it's highly likely that I would eat 2 pieces as they were so good!  In the second batch I made, I added extras like Chia seeds, whole ground Flaxseed Meal and Wheat Germ.  They tasted great but I should have added more liquid as the bars held together...but I waited too long to cut them and many of the bars became too flaky and fell apart.  Of course all those yummy bits and pieces, I saved and added to my yogurt, enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup almond flour 

• ¼ teaspoon sea salt  
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds 
• ½ cup sunflower seeds 
• ¼ cup slivered almonds
• ¼ cup unsweetened cranberries

October 2nd...no bake Gluten Free cookies!

 I love this recipe because it's a "no-bake" recipe, which means I can't burn anything!  You may have most of these ingredients kicking around in your cupboards already.  No worries if you don't have the exact ingredients, such as Almond butter, maple syrup, almonds, dried fruit...you could use natural peanut butter, honey, hazel nuts or cashews and any dried fruit or mini dark chocolate chips, possibilities are endless!

 Load up the first 5 ingredients on the list in your food processor...

Make sure to scrape the container to get all the ingredients stuck at the bottom mixed in.  Then add the oats and just a pinch of salt, mix one more time... 

Line baking sheet with Parchment paper.  Scoop the dough out with a spoon and roll into small balls.  place on cookie sheet and press down...I made mine about the size of a Toonie.  Place in fridge for about an hour or so.

This recipe yields about 14 cookies...they may be small but they're big on taste and enough to keep your sweet tooth at bay!  

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup Almonds

2 tbsp Almond butter

1 tbsp Vanilla

then add...

1/4 GLUTEN FREE oats

pinch of salt

You might need to add 1-2 tbsp of water after the dry ingredients, just to loosen things up.

Nutritional info per cookie : calories 59, fiber 1g, protein 1.5g, fat 2.3g and sugar 4.5g if you use "sweeten" dried cranberries, so spend a little more to get the unsweetened cranberries and you'll cut the sugar by half!

September 30th...Think big, Dream BIGGER!

Well after a summer off and a "little" time for me, I'm ready to get blogging again.  Don't get me wrong, I love doing my blog but something had to give.  At the beginning of summer I really wanted to do something to get myself more involved in the community and get the community more aware of their own health.  So I took my no excuse attitude and decided to offer a free boot camp class EVERY Saturday for the summer...all participants had to do was bring their "can-do" attitudes and a healthy can of food for the Westshore food bank.  Now that I can look back, I had no idea how time consuming taking this on would be.  I put a lot of work into each class because I wanted the experience for each boot camper to be better than any class they had ever done.  As the Saturdays went on, I tried making each class better than the last and the exercises more creative.  I would spend all week thinking up different ways to do an exercise.  My goal, was for the boot campers to have a new experience each class.  I'm pretty sure I reached this as I quickly had a following and the rest is history! 

 This past Friday I was nominated for two awards from the Westshore Community, Leadership in Healthy Communities and The New Business Excellence award.  I won the New Business Excellence Award, it was pretty awesome as you can see by the smile on my face! 

I think I went to bed with that grin on my face!

Friend and Boot Camper, Terra was my date for the night!  Two hot Momma's out on the town...see if we can stay awake past 9pm!

 

 Crystal, my hair dresser extraordinaire, was nominated for Employee of the Year at Cabello Salon! 

 And Kristy Martin and her father, Farley Martin Notaries Public, won the award for "going green"...Environmental Stewardship!

 And just hanging out with fellow Westshore Chamber member, Patrick from Remax Realty. 

 Our official group picture!

 So I had to get a picture of me in heels and a dress, just so people would believe I own such items!  Rock'n a pose with fellow boot campers / chamber members, Christina Scott from Black Press and Dale Collins with the other set of pipes of Prosperity Planning.

Here was the first of three loads of food that I dropped off at the Westshore food bank this summer...that was a pretty awesome day!  WHY...

Because it took a moment like that to realize what all my effort was for.  When I dropped off all the food, I saw families who had nothing, they were waiting their turn in line hoping to get enough food to last them the week.  We can sit here and get teary eyed and feel sad in our warm houses with cupboards full of food...or we can do something about it.  Take two minutes out of your day and see how you can contribute to your community.  Why not organize something at your work...take the month of October, ask customers to bring an item for your local food bank or ask them to clean out their bathroom cupboards and bring in all the "hotel" toiletries, food banks are need of personal care items big time.  Then offer your customers a small gift card, they will like the idea of winning something and they will feel good knowing they are helping contribute to their own community.  

Think big, Dream BIGGER! 

July 30th...Snacks: Healthy Banana chips!

So I'm looking in my fruit bowl at my over ripe collection of bananas and wondering what to do with them all?  Then I remembered that I ask the my clients in the gym to send me some of their favorite snack ideas.  Rebecca had brought in these homemade banana chips and they were sooo good!  So here's my first attempt at Banana chips!  But first I'm going to tell you HOW bananas chips CAN BE a healthy snack...bananas are a great source of potassium and fiber.  Why is this good for me?  Potassium, is a simple mineral with a crucial job: helping your heart beat.  A hundred thousand times a day, potassium helps trigger your heart to squeeze blood through your body.  Potassium is a critical electrolyte  which allows our muscles to move, our nerves to fire and our kidneys to filter blood.  Fiber, I could go on and on about how great fiber is for you, but all you have to know is that it keeps you having regular poops!  Good enough reason for me!  

  

 All you need is lemon juice and bananas!  Be careful, many store bought banana chips are deep fried and covered in sugar!  READ YOUR LABELS!

 Peel and dice bananas up into thin pieces, quickly toss them in lemon juice.  The picture shows 3 bananas but I ended up using 4...

Then place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Set oven to about 200-225 degrees  depending on your oven.  Bake for 1 hour and 45 mins.  I thought I'd be creative and sprinkle some of the banana chips with Cinnamon and Mango-Curry seasoning, just to mix things up a bit...

OK so here I am 2 hours and 10 mins. later. I turned up the oven to 225 degrees after 1 hour and 45 mins.  I've had some samples to test the crispiness of the chips and I have to say YUM...but this is crazy!  Good thing I have stuff to do around the house today, because these chips are taking way too long for my liking.  In the picture above I've decided to flip the chips over and put them on a new sheet of parchment paper.  In hindsight, maybe brushing on lemon juice lightly, would have been better than a quick toss in the juice...maybe I made them too wet that is why they're taking so long!

And here you go!  OK, OK they were worth the wait...just barely.  The mango-curry is pretty awesome tasting.  JUST REMEMBER to not eat the whole pan...about 20 chips is equal to one banana, 80 calories.  These would be great added to some Greek yogurt!

July 18th...Burgers: Beef & Pork Apple Spice burgers!

Arrrrg!  The on-going saga of "whats for dinner?"  Were well into summer and I'm bored with hamburgers already...so I thought let's shake things up a bit.  I cruised through my cook books and the internet seeing what I made my taste buds water.  I came across a pork and stuffing style burger...I'm doing the Paleo diet so bread/stuffing is a no-no...here's what I made...

 I combined lean ground beef and pork.  Apparently the pork makes for a juicier burger.  I'm using Italian spice, garlic powder, Sea salt and pepper, 2 apples and an onion...

 Chop the apples and onions up into into little pieces and I say "little" because I did not do that.  It's not a huge deal, it's just that when I put the burgers on the bar-b-q, I ended up loosing some of the apples and onions off the edges because they were too big to be held in by the mixture...

 I used 2 packages of meat, one pork and one beef.  I can't stand recipes that serve 4pp...I have 3 boys and a husband, so I'm looking for realistic recipes that will leave me with left-overs for the next night or to freeze and save for later...come on people were hungry here...4pp serving WTF!  As you can see I have separated the mixture into 2 bowls.  Good thing I take pictures after the fact, because I tried to mix this all together in one bowl, what a mess all over the counter!

This recipe made me 14 burgers and one mini one.  As you can see the burgers are a good size and so are the pieces of apple lol!  Don't be afraid to make your burgers big as they will shrink up on the bar-b-que.  These were just a little bit bigger than the palm of my hand.  Cook burgers on medium on the bar-b-que for about 6-7 mins. per side.

OK these turned out really good!  Super moist and super tasty.  I served mine on a bed of coleslaw mixed with 2 tbsp of Guacamole.  The burger is about 240 calories for the size I made.  I was thinking a little dash of cinnamon would have been good as well, next time!