kick it to the Carb!

If you have been following any of the diet trends the last few years you know that protein has taken center stage in the diet world and for good reason. Protein: Helps are body build tissue and muscle Helps with hormone production Provide enzymes to help the body break down carbs and fats Aid the immune system Helps you feel more satiated and fuller longer Protein can be found in animal sources like meat and dairy products and plant sources like beans, nuts and seeds.  It is recommended that proteins make up 30% of your daily calories or to consume one gram per pound of lean body mass.  Protein can also help boost your metabolism by helping your body create more muscle which it turns increases your daily metabolic rate, or the amount of calories you burn a day of rest. 

It seems everyone I follow on social media has been struggling these last few weeks with body image. Even those girls I deem as having my dream body have been beating themselves up. It seems that no matter how perfect the rest of the world deems us we all have those couple of things we absolutely hate and want to fix. For me seeing all those other women be open and honest about it made me realize I wasn't alone. Even just having a five minute rant session with a fellow struggler made me more at peace with my own feelings of frustration at not being where I want to be. It took me seven years to get my meal and fitness plan to a point where I don't stress about parties, eating out, missing a workout or just being human. I still, however stress about the size of my stomach, how big my butt is and how I can't fit in any normal size bra. I recently had a conversation with one of my accountability partners about how my breasts seem to have grown in the last two months. Sh...

I talk to a lot of people about their nutrition habits and the number one thing almost every single one of them is doing wrong is that they aren't eating enough. Somehow amongst the crazy diet trends we got fixated on a number and decided that number was the holy grail of calories to eat in a day and get AMAZING results.  If you've been around the block you probably already know what that number is, but if you don't it is 1200. Sounds easy enough, eat 1200 calories a day and lose weight but there is a major flaw in this way of thinking. We are all different, we have different calorie needs, different activity levels and different metabolic rates. So for most people 1200 isn't enough calories and you don't lose weight because your body isn't getting enough fuel so it holds on to everything! It always amazes people when I tell them to eat more and they suddenly start dropping pounds. I am not going to make this all sciency for you, because if you're read...

I may have gone a little overkill for my 30th birthday. I wanted all my favorite things and that included my five favorite cakes. So me, miss healthy eating, ate five cakes at one time spanning three plates. Don't believe me see exhibit A. Birthdays, social events, cookouts etc... always leave those on a "diet" or who are trying to eat better a bit stumped because you want to indulge and have fun but you also don't want to wreck your progress, am I right? Life is about balance and that includes learning how to survive these functions maintaining a balance between having fun and stopping that little bully voice inside you from making you feel bad about your choices. So here are some survival tips for all those fun eating events you have coming up. 1. EARNED meals, not cheat meals because it is NOT cheating if you stayed the course and planned ahead. I plan my earned meals. I take a look at my calendar for the month and see what events I have coming up and if I ...

Do I have your attention?  Good. Because Carbs Aren't Killing You! They aren't making you fat either. I know, I know all the diet advice out there is telling you to cut carbs and you will lose weight. That isn't actually true. Well actually it is true, but not for the reason you think. All weight loss is is a calories deficit, calories in vs calories out. Simply: to lose weight you need to consume less calories than you burn off in a day. You want to know a super easy way to take in less calories a day? Cut out one of the higher calorie food groups and your calories consumed per day goes down. It's great news for those of you trying to lose weight....unless you actually really love bread, pasta and grains or like me if you cut those out of your diet completely your workouts suffer, you're tired all the time, going to the bathroom becomes a struggle and you slight hate life because you are hungry and grumpy all the time.  So what is a car...

It's not me, it's defiantly you! This past week was brutal. I didn't feel well Wednesday morning but figured it was the gyro's I had Tuesday after hiking. Ate my homemade turkey chili Wednesday afternoon for lunch and suddenly my symptoms were worse and I realized for the second time in a little over a month I was sick and it was tied to my food. As any rational person would do I flushed the rest down the garbage disposal and flipped it the bird! Six days later even thinking about eating a bird makes me queasy, it could still be my digestive system trying to recover but being the rational person I am I decided to look into some vegetarian options for meal prep this week. As a previous vegetarian I had some ideas of where to start but don't know why I didn't realize how much time I would save preparing meat alternatives instead of cooking up all those juicy animals! We are talking less than 10 minutes, I have "chicken patties" and some steam-abl...

Your friend Sally (I made up this name I don't really know your friend) is getting crazy results on her diet. You tried it and all you got was a rash. Your friend Adam is doing something super crazy, you signed up. You almost died and got zero results. So you go looking for the next thing. I am here to tell you what it is and guarantee it's not what you're thinking. Firstly, all these diets you see your friends getting fantastic results with work....for them. This is the key part here. We are all different. Have different bodies, different dietary needs, different lifestyles, different goals etc... So while all these diets work, they may not work for you. The trick is finding the one that does. Some things to consider: Are there certain foods that cause you problems? Are there certain types of food you can't give up? Are there certain foods you need to avoid? Do you see yourself maintaining these kinds of changes long term? Diets are temporary, lasting re...

I am always a little confused when someone tells me they don't eat carbs, because fruits and vegetables are a key source of vitamins and minerals. Usually after several questions I find they mean they don't eat grains which while still a carb is not the sole inhabitant of the name carb. I am here to clear up the confusion. First some background. I remember when we had a food pyramid. I may be dating myself but this is important. The food pyramid created a hierarchy of food and a misconception about how much of each food group we should be eating. The Base of the pyramid was grains (bread, pasta,rice etc) and we were told 6-11 servings of these a day aka the bulk of your diet. Next up was fruits (2-4 servings) and vegetables (3-5 servings) topped  by meat, beans eggs and nuts (2-3 servings) and dairy (2-3 servings) and at the very top was fats, oils and sweets with the suggested serving of sparingly. What this pyramid did was give us a very confusing way to create our ...

Every time I ate something "unhealthy" a little voice inside of me would tear me down. You know that voice. It is the one that tells you that earned meal will derail all your progress, that dress does make you look fat and yes everyone notices that tiny patch of hair you forgot to shave off your leg. That voice...man did I hate it. She is defiantly a bully and one I have a very hard time ignoring. She seems to forget we lost 40 pounds, that we can run miles now instead of dying after two side walk squares and that we can lift all those heavy things. I knew something had to change and I had to get myself out of the diet mindset, because every time I strayed from my plan she ripped into me and made me feel awful. So how did I do it?  Stay tuned....