Category: Healthy Living

Cooking Shortcuts To Help You Maintain Healthy Eating Habits

Eating at home is one of the key ingredients to maintaining a healthy diet. When you know what’s in your food, you have more control over the amount of calories and the quality of the food you consume.  However, with today’s fast paced lifestyles it can be difficult to carve out the time to cook.

Here are eight quick and easy cooking shortcuts for healthy eating.

These tips come straight to you from my personal kitchen! 

As a wife, homemaker, fitness coach, and doggie mom I have a limited amount of time I can spend in the kitchen.  Here are some shortcuts I use when following my favorite recipes:

1)  Use cookers that need no supervision! I use my rice cooker all week long. I make rice, quinoa and steamed vegetables in it. Slow cookers and crock pots serve the same purpose. While one part of the meal is cooking, you can prepare the rest. You can cook stew while you are at work, or run errands while the food is cooking.

2) Use pre-made sauces. I often substitute healthy pre-made sauces in recipes instead of making them from scratch. Organic pasta sauces, dips, and dressings are pretty easy to find in almost every grocery store.

For example, I make lamb burgers that call for a “raita” sauce. The recipe isn’t hard. However, Trader Joe’s sells a yoghurt cilantro sauce that works well in place of it. If you add up the time and cost of buying the ingredients and making the sauce, it is worth the $2.99 I paid for Joe’s version. Just be sure to check labels when buying pre-made sauces. Avoid partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. And be sure you recognize the ingredients!

3)  Speed up the veggies! Pre-washed and pre-cut organic vegetables are a great way to save time. Check the frozen section for a great variety as well. Frozen veggies are better than canned because they preserve more of the nutrients without preservatives.

4)  Prep well. Do all of your cutting, chopping, and mixing before you start cooking, including a side salad. This will save you time, and your meals will come together seamlessly.

5)  Recruit in-house! My husband and I have a lot of fun cooking together. We open a nice bottle of wine, turn on some music and enjoy quality time. The families I work with turn cooking into family time. The kids look forward to working in the kitchen, and mom and dad get to teach their children while getting a little help.

6)  Create a meal plan. Plan your meals one week in advance with the groceries in the house. If you have to stop at the store multiple times per week, you will lose a lot of time shopping. And this can tempt you to eat out. If you are not sure how to meal plan, check out Meal Planning Helps You Lose Weight for detailed steps.

7)  Have a back up! I always keep a few easy meals in our freezer and pantry just in case the day does not go as planned. Frozen organic pizzas and a fresh salad make a great last minute dinner. By making your own pizza, you have more control over the calories than if you went to the local pizzeria. Dry pasta and minced canned clams make an amazing linguini and clams dish. Add a salad on the side and your family will think it’s gourmet all the way!

8)  Buy freeze dried herbs!  Did you know freeze dried herbs become “like fresh” when they are moistened? Use these to avoid all of the chopping without sacrificing flavor. They are great in the winter when your herb garden isn’t producing, and it saves having to buy an entire bunch of herbs just for a couple tablespoons!

Please let me know which strategies are the most helpful, or share your own time saving tip below!

Blessings!

Jennifer

 

 

The Secrets To Permanent Weight Loss

Wondering how some people lose weight and keep it off for good? Then others seem to yo-yo their entire life? The key differences are simple success actions that you can learn to do.

Lose weight by biting off what you can chew!

Just getting started? Set realistic goals. Start with meal planning and eating home more often. For help, check out Meal Planning Helps You Lose Weight.

Once you have that down, move on to exercise. Start with 10-20 minutes of exercise per day. Success with one good habit will lead to more healthy behavior over time.

Put it on the calendar!

Schedule both exercise and meal planning on your calendar. Be sure to include enough time so you can get to bed at a decent hour. When you prepare for your healthy activities, it will be much easier to accomplish your goals. Treat these like any important appointment that you would not consider canceling.

Consistency is key!

I’ve been a personal trainer for 22 plus years. I’ve learned that weight loss success is accomplished the same as success in other areas of life. It doesn’t matter if it’s a goal relating to your business,  spiritual walk, parenting, or any other worthy goal you set out to achieve. 

As much as the media promotes them, fad diets are not the key to success. Did you know they have a 95 % failure rate? You wouldn’t trust some get rich quick scheme in business, so why should you when it comes to weight loss? 

Permanent weight loss is achieved by consistent daily actions that accumulate over time. That may sound a bit boring or way too simple, but it is one of the KEY secrets to success!

If you fall down, get back up! 

From time to time we all have circumstances come up that will cause us to skip exercise or binge. This is normal! We are human. The difference is how quickly you get back on track. 

Are you guilty of the “I’ve messed up so what’s the use” mistake? You’ve messed up by skipping exercise, so you eat more calories! This is like being up to your eyeballs in debt and saying, “oh what the heck, I might as well go get a $500 per month car payment.” Wrong! 

Instead, when you miss your exercise, make up for it by eating healthy low calorie meals. You may not meet your weight loss goal that week, but at least you won’t gain any back!

Believe you can!

Avoid self-sabotage. Believe in your ability to lose weight and keep it off for good.

Tell your body what you want, not what you don’t want. When you look in the mirror, use phrases like “I am losing weight,” or “I have a flat stomach.” In the beginning this can be tough. You tend to think you are lying. However, you are not. In my favorite success book, the Bible, it says “speak as if it is already.” This is called faith my friend! You are believing you can accomplish your goals!

Negative thoughts will enter your mind. That’s normal. You’re human! Just don’t let them leave your lips. Replace each negative thought with a positive statement. If that’s tough in the beginning, use one of my favorite personal quotes. If you don’t have anything nice to say about yourself, don’t say anything at all. You wouldn’t say something that mean to a friend, so why say it to yourself? 

Leave notes around the house as reminders to speak positively about yourself. This will help you build the mental muscles you will need to make success talk a habit. 

Health and fitness is a lifestyle, not a just a single action!

I’m able to maintain my weight and health because I have built a life around healthy activities. I look for opportunities to exercise, such as taking the stairs, working around the house, or walking my dogs. My husband and I gravitate toward outdoor activities for fun. We have one television in our home and it is in our guest room. We turn it on to watch major events, football, and movies. I have nothing against television! However often times our nation could be exercising instead of sitting in front of a screen.

Get creative and look for ways to incorporate activity into everyday life. Try spending family time doing something active like hiking or biking. A day at the beach or a picnic at the park is always more active than sitting in front of a television or playing a video game.

Are you guilty of the “I’ve messed up so what’s the use” mistake? Go ahead and tell us about it! Writing about it could help you avoid it in the future. 

Blessings!

Jennifer

 

The Truth About No Pain No Gain

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Today I’m tackling a great weight loss question someone asked me on Facebook. I usually answer questions on the spot if they can be answered in one to two sentences. But some inspire articles! Today I’m answering a question about pain versus gain and what is appropriate for weight loss.

Scott asked:

Let’s say you run a mile and it’s a real workout. It’s painful. Let’s say you keep at (it) so that running a mile becomes easy. To continue to lose weight, can you do that by simply continuing to run one mile? Or do you need to up the ante to two miles? In other words, is exercise only beneficial when it hurts? They say “No pain. No gain.” is that real?

Can you hit a weight loss plateau?

Let’s use Scott’s example. In the beginning, running the mile is more challenging for the body. There are two reasons- you weigh more and it’s something new. At first your body uses a lot more energy. Over time your body will become lighter and more efficient at running a mile, and will burn less calories. This is when people typically see a “plateau” in their weight loss efforts.

So, to answer Scott’s question — if further weight loss is desired, adding another mile would be beneficial for continued weight loss. It would continue to challenge the body’s endurance.

No exercise should ever be painful!

There’s a difference between pain and stepping out of your comfort zone. You should never feel pain when you exercise! Pain is your body telling you to stop what you are doing and find out what’s wrong. It’s not uncommon to feel a twinge from time to time while exercising. However, after two weeks of repetitive pain while exercising, go see your doctor.

You’ve definitely over-trained if you experience muscle soreness for more than two to three days, poor sleep, or prolonged fatigue (being super sluggish the next day). If any of this occurs, reduce the intensity or amount of time you perform the activity.

Feeling sick to your stomach is over training as well and means you need to back off the throttle. If you actually throw up and a trainer tells you that’s normal, I suggest you find a new trainer. For the average exerciser, pushing yourself to the point of puking is not only dangerous, it’s unnecessary!

Cross training is key!

Unless your goal is to be a marathon runner, adding more and more time to your exercise routine is probably unrealistic. The best way to keep the body “on it’s toes” is to cross train. Adding interval workouts two days — but no more than three days per week to your routine — will challenge the body without over training. The other days should be used for more “steady” or moderate workouts to allow recovery time. Too much over training can actually slow down your metabolism!

Burn more calories!

Change the activity to burn more calories — for example, run two days a week, then add a swim or  spin class. Cross training also prevents injury by avoiding too much repetitive motion from a single activity. Another great way to cross train is with lifestyle activity such as outdoor sports or chores that require physical exertion.

If walking is your thing, cross train by adding hills or stairs to your routine.

Slow and steady wins the race!

Any exercise routine that is safe for your body and performed consistently is beneficial. It helps build cardiovascular and muscular endurance as well as a steady weekly burn of calories. You are better off doing a twenty minute routine most days of the week than a one hour “hard core” workout sporadically.

As you get more fit, you will want to challenge your body in a safe and fun way! Remember, this is about maintaining your health and weight loss for life. Adjustments are normal.

Please let me know if you have a question about your routine, or a comment you would like to share. I love to hear from you!

Blessings to you and yours!

Jennifer