Yes you CAN eat healthier!

Hi guys,

Here is a quick tip to help you eat healthier.

Laying out your workout clothes at night for the next morning is a great visual reminder that you have a commitment to your exercise every day!

Do the same thing with your healthy foods, create visual reminders.

For example, leave a beautiful, colorful bowl of fruit on your counter instead of the fridge will help you achieve eating more fruits.

Research identified that healthy eating habits can be boosted simply by using the acronym CAN:

Convenient: Make your healthy foods easy to see, simple to reach and ready to eat

Attractive: Make your healthy foods look enticing by mixing colors, flavors and types

Normal: Make them the obvious choice in your kitchen

Start today and start eating healthier immediately!

Ciao for now!

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Eat this to kill stomach fat!

Hi guys,

Blasting calories at the gym doing the right combination is imperative and so is a good nutrition plan in order to lose belly fat.

But did you know that adding these foods might help reduce belly fat?

Dark chocolate:

Make sure to choose dark chocolate that has 70% or more cocoa which means less sugar and fat.

The healthy fats on the dark chocolate will prevent blood sugar spikes helping you burn fat more efficiently.

Peanut butter:

Peanut butter contains mononsaturated fats that promotes a healthy cardiovascular system and will keep you full longer. Some studies also suggests that peanut butter is a metabolism booster that keep you burning calories throughout the day.

Omelets:

Eggs have been shown to have important vitamins and minerals that regulate your hormones and are rich in protein. Add some healthy veggies and healthy fats like avocados and stay full longer.

Wild salmon

Salmon has Omega-3 fatty acids that keep your hormones balanced, especially the weight regulating ones.

Omega-3 also contribute to blood sugar balance which keep belly fat away and may help break down the belly fat that you already have, that’s a WINNER.

Berries

According to studies by the University of Michigan, the chemicals (phenolic compounds) that give berries their beautiful colors also do a great job at eliminating belly fat..and they are delicious!

Avocados:

Avocados are rich in healthy fats that will keep you full longer, help regulate hormones and also fight inflammation (therefore higher cortisol levels) that ultimately prevent you from losing weight especially in the midsection.

Cinnamon:

Cinnamon has the ability to burn fat and to help reduce blood sugar levels. Start adding it to your healthy recipes without adding the calories.

Ciao for now, happy belly fat burning!

How to eat healthy on a budget!

Hi guys,

I bet you wondered many times how you could eat a little healthier without spending too much money?

Well here is 10 basic easy steps for you to follow to start eating healthier today!

1. Spend time and plan your week with recipes. Choose recipes that call for the same ingredients to reduce waste.
2. Have a shopping list when hitting the store in order to reduce impulse buying. Use your phone apps like Food.com to help you stay organized, find recipes and make shopping lists.
3. Use coupons and buy on sale items, meats and fish especially!
4. Buy in bulk which is always cheaper. Store or freeze the rest.
5. Avoid convenience items like frozen dinners, crackers and all things processed. Buy the ingredients and make it yourself.
6. Choose store brands in order to reduce costs.
7. Buy seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables.
8. Buy frozen not in season fruits and vegetables.
9. Spend one day cooking for the week so you are ready for busy nights!
10. Do not shop when you are hungry, EVER! That’s how all the cookies end up in your cart!

Happy healthier eating!

Ciao for now!

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How to keep your salad healthy!

Hi guys,

You are doing awesome on your healthy lifestyle changes and you are feeling so much better just by eating healthier!

Salad has now become your best friend and if you are like me, you have to eat it at least once a day (I prefer mine at night, keeps my calories low before bed)!

Amazing job, but we have to talk about something…The dressing!

If you are watching what you eat and are controlling your calorie intake, you cannot afford to throw all of your efforts out of the window by eating commercial salad dressing!

Let’s start by figuring out an average calorie count for a healthy, appetizing, colorful salad…Mine:) it looks about the same every day!

1 cup of spinach 7 calories

1 cup of organic romaine 5 calories

1/2 organic tomato 15 calories

1 organic carrot 25 calories

1/2 avocado 145 calories

10 olives 50 calories

1/2 cup of previously grilled skinless chicken 125 calories

Total so far : 372 calories

Now that is a great amount of calories for a very satisfying giant dinner salad!

But wait we need some dressing…and this is where all hell breaks loose!

Here are some calorie count of popular commercial dressing:

All amounts are for 2 tablespoons which is plenty for this salad:

• blue cheese 150                       total salad: 522
• ranch 135                                                    507
• thousand island 120                                    492
• honey mustard 150                                      522
• italian dressing 95                                        467

So let’s be real there for a second…You are probably going to use more than 2 tablespoons slowing adding more and more calories to your healthy dinner.

And be aware that in this post, we are only talking about calories, not fat or sugar or all the crap that they put in commercial dressings!

So what to do?????

Well either you use only olive oil 180 HEALTHY calories per tbsp and vinegar 20 calories adding 200 healthy calories

Or you can make you own vinaigrette dressing with fresh ingredients without added sugars, corn syrup, added fats and so much more crap…

Happy healthy eating!

Ciao for now!
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Happy Halloween! Let’s bake!

Good morning and Happy Halloween!

Find below two of my favorite pumpkin recipes; pumpkin/chocolate chips cookies and pumpkin bread, with a healthier twist to them.

We will be using unbleached/gluten free flour and coconut flour for the recipes. It’s time you stop using regular flour…why? Read this

Chocolate chips and pumpkin cookies

Prep 15 minutes

Cook 10 minutes

yields 36 cookies cookies:

ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter softened
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar (organic is always best)
• 15 oz canned pumpkin (1/2 can)
• 1 egg (cage free of course)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of gluten free unbleached flour
• 1 cup of organic coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of organic miniature chocolate chips
• 2 teaspoons of chia seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree
2. Beat butter and sugar together in a bowl until creamy. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract; beat until smooth.
3. Mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl; stir into creamed butter until combined. Fold chocolate chips and chia seeds into batter. Drop 1 to 2 tablespoons batter for each cookie onto a baking sheet.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the edges of each cookie are lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes.

Voila!

Pumpkin chocolate chips bread

Prep 5 minutes

Cook 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1¾ cup unbleached gluten free flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ can of pumpkin (the other half of the cookies recipes)
• ½ cup oil (I used coconut oil)
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¼ cup apple cider, no sugar added
• ½ cup of chocolate chip (the other half of the bag used for the cookies)

1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and nutmeg. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and brown sugar together until it’s combined and lightens in color just slightly. Whisk in the pumpkin, oil, vanilla extract and apple cider. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix together using a rubber spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake the bread for 60-70 minutes, making sure to loosely cover the top of the bread after 30 minutes to prevent the top from excessive browning. Insert a toothpick in the center to test is the bread is done, it should come out clean with only a few small moist crumbs.

Happy Halloween!

Ciao for now!

Why you should NOT use bleached four!

Hi guys,

Make the switch today from bleached flour to organic coconut flour, you body will thank you.

Here is why: courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour

Bleached flour

“Refined flour” has had the germ and bran removed and is typically referred to as “white flour”. “Bleached flour” is any refined flour with a whitening agent added.

Bleached flour is artificially aged using a bleaching agent, a maturing agent, or both. A bleaching agent would affect only the carotenoids in the flour; a maturing agent affects glutendevelopment. A maturing agent may either strengthen or weaken gluten development.

The four most common additives used as bleaching/maturing agents in the USA at this time are:

Potassiun bromate (will be listed as an ingredient/additive) – a maturing agent that strengthens gluten development. Does not bleach.

Benzoyl peroxide – bleaches. Does not act as a maturing agent – no effect on gluten

Ascorbic acid – (Will be listed as an ingredient/additive, but seeing it in the ingredient list may not be an indication that the flour was matured using ascorbic acid but instead has had a small amount added as a dough enhancer) – Maturing agent that strengthens gluten development. Does not bleach.

Chlorine gas – both a bleaching agent and a maturing agent, but one that weakens gluten development. Chlorination also oxidizes starches in the flour, making it easier for the flour to absorb water and swell, resulting in thicker batters and stiffer doughs. The retarded gluten formation is desirable in cakes, cookies, and biscuits as it would otherwise make them tougher and bread-like. The modification of starches in the flour allows the use of wetter doughs (making for a moister end product) without destroying the structure necessary for light fluffy cakes and biscuits. Chlorinated flour allows cakes and other baked goods to set faster, rise better, the fat to be distributed more evenly, with less vulnerability to collapse.

Cake flours in particular are nearly always chlorinated. There is at least one flour labeled “unbleached cake flour blend” (marketed by King Arthur) that is not bleached, but the protein content is much higher than typical cake flour at about 9.4% protein (cake flour is usually around 6% to 8%). According to King Arthur, this flour is a blend of a more finely milled unbleached wheat flour and cornstarch, which makes a better end result than unbleached wheat flour alone (cornstarch blended with all purpose flour commonly substituted for cake flour when the latter is unavailable). The end product, however, is denser than would result from lower-protein, chlorinated cake flour.

All bleaching and maturing agents (with the possible exception of ascorbic acid) have been banned in UK.

Bromination of flour in the USA has fallen out of favor and while it is not yet actually banned anywhere, few retail flours available to the home baker are bromated anymore.

Many flours packaged specifically for commercial bakeries are still bromated. Retail bleached flours marketed to the home baker are now treated mostly with either peroxidation or chlorine gas. Current information from Pillsbury is that their bleached flours are treated both with benzoyl peroxide and chlorine gas. Gold Medal states that their bleached flour is treated either with benzoyl peroxide or chlorine gas, but there is no way to tell which process has been used when buying the flour at the grocery store.

Some other chemicals used as flour treatment agents  to modify color and baking properties include:

• chlorine dioxide (unstable to be transported in the U.S.)
• calcium peroxide
• azodicarbonamide or azobisformamide (synthetic)

• Atmospheric oxygen causes natural bleaching.

KEEP THAT STUFF FOR YOUR POOL NOT YOUR FAMILY!

So if you don’t want to eat your pool and much worse, make the switch today!

Coconut flour is low carb and gluten free so you can’t go wrong there!

Coconut flour is a little trickier to use because it doesn’t rise so you might have to only substitute half of what the recipe calls with the coconut flour but make sure to use gluten free unbleached organic flours…almond, brown rice…

Have a great day!

Ciao for now

Easy swaps to cut calories

 

Hi guys,

 

Here is a list of easy swaps that will save you about 100 calories per swap:

 

• English muffin instead of a bagel

• Greek yogurt instead of low fat milk

• Orange instead of orange juice

• Wrap instead of bread

• Apple slices instead of crackers

• Corn tortilla instead of flour tortilla

 

 

• Trail mix instead of mixed nuts

• Dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate

 

• Raisin bread instead of a cinnamon roll

• Edemame instead of peanuts

 

 

Happy swapping!

Ciao for now, gonna watch soccer!

 

Protein crazy?

Hi guys,

 

Unless you live in a cave, you probably has seen it EVERYWHERE those days…Protein this, protein that…EVERYWHERE.

But do you really need that much protein all day long to be healthy?

First here are the daily recommendations for protein intake :

• Babies need about 10 grams a day.
• Teenage boys need up to 52 grams a day.
• Teenage girls need 46 grams a day.
• Adult men need about 56 grams a day.
• Adult women need about 46 grams a day

 

First let’s answer a few questions:

What is protein?

 

Protein is a macronutrient ( a chemical element or substance  required in relatively large quantities in nutrition) and is the building block of human and animal structure.

Proteins serve different functions in the body:

1. formation of the brain, nervous system, blood, muscle, skin and hair
2. the transport mechanism for irons, vitamins, minerals, fats and oxygen
3. fluid balance
4. formation of enzymes that speed up the chemical reactions to milliseconds that might otherwise take years
5. making of antibodies that fight infections
6. break down for energy in case of energy deprivation

 

Why is it important?

Well as stated below, it is the building block of human structure.

Resistance training and cardiovascular exercise induce muscular and structural damage and because protein helps the muscles and tissues repair and rebuild themselves it is a very important part of our daily nutrition.

So be mindful that unless you workout you do not need to repair your muscles so you do not need extra protein!

 

How much do we really need?

The recommended daily intake is :

56 grams for the average sedentary man

46 grams for the average sedentary woman

The way to figure it out for yourself is that we need at least 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight:

If you are a 140 lbs woman, you weight 63 kilograms (divide the pounds by 2.2) so you need at least 50.4 grams (63 x 0.8) per day.

50 grams of of protein is about 1.8 oz

You should get at least 10 % but no more than 35% of your daily calorie intake from protein.

 

How do I know how much I am getting?

You need to figure out YOUR daily need which should be right around 45 to 50 grams per day or 1.6 to 1.8 oz per day if you are a woman and figure the rest by reading the labels.

But let’s not be fooled, chances are you are getting enough per day!

 

Which proteins to choose:

Protein quality varies and professional use a complicated mathematical calculation to determine the quality of proteins.

Here is a list of the healthiest:

1. Casein, egg, milk, whey, soy
2. beef
3. black beans
4. peanuts
5. wheat gluten

Overall, with the exception of soy, the highest quality proteins typically come from animal sources such as egg,milk, meat, fish, and poultry. They all (soy too) contains all of the amino acids and are easily digestible and absorbed.

Fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts are incomplete proteins and must be consumed in complimentary combinations over the course of a day to assure intake of each of the amino acids.

 

Other considerations:

It is important to remember the other non-protein health and harms from consuming certain foods.

Beef for example is a very good protein source but it is also high in saturated fats and calories. a 6 oz broiled porterhouse contains 38 grams of protein but also has 44 grams of fat, 16 of them being saturated. That is almost 3/4 of the recommended daily intake for saturated fat in one piece of meat!

So the big question, do we really need all that protein stuff out there?

 

Well as every trend (gluten free, paleo…) the big companies definitely jump all over and try to sell you their healthiest craze.

But do you really need that 20 gram of protein that one candy bar will give you?

The real question is :

Do you really need those 25 grams of sugar that nobody notices because they are so obsessed with getting their protein to repair their muscles that they didn’t use?

Be mindful of the trends out there and always keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish.

If you are on a healthy lifestyle trying to lose weight, having one mega giant protein bar for your breakfast might not be the answer.

Always read your labels and know what you really need and unless you are a professional athlete, you do not need to worry about your protein intake and a healthy well balanced diet is plenty for you.

Do not spend extra $$$ on protein powder, protein drinks, protein bars or protein whatever, your body will most likely not benefit much from the extra sugar, fat or carbs!

1. KNOW WHAT YOU NEED
2. READ THE LABEL
3. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING
4. KNOW IF YOU NEED MORE OR LESS

THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE BETTER YOU LIVE!

 

Ciao for now!

 

 

 

meal planning is key!

Hi guys,

If you are trying to lose weight or just trying to eat healthier, you need to be prepared!

You need to have all your meals planned out and cooked so all you have to do when you get home an face the hungry family is heat, serve and enjoy!

Here is my week in pictures:

I cooked fish, chicken and pork and my vegetables and legumes so I can pick and choose my sides.

Everything is baked or grilled with a touch of light olive oil.

Baked chicken drumettes, delicious with quinoa!

 

 

 

 

 

Baked pork loin rubbed with garlic and cooked with small red potatoes:

Chicken thighs in grapefruit juice, delicious and so healthy…remove the skin and serve with lentils!

 

 

Grilled tilapia perfect with quinoa and lemon juice!

Grapefruit salad, my favorite after a long workout!

Sauteed vegetables with organic italian chicken sausage:

Sides:

 

It only took me 2 hours to cook all that and I make the salad for lunch/dinner the day off!

It allows me to have a crazy schedule and to not worry about what my family is going to eat while I am not here!

Happy meal planning!

Ciao for now!