 There’s nothing like a bowl of homemade soup for instant comfort. Use this Easy Lentil Soup recipe for a light dinner or quick lunch. It’s easy to make, tastes delicious and is low in fat. What’s more it’s full of natural protein. And guess what? Lentils are packed with cholesterol-lowering fiber. What You Need Serves 8 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup finely chopped onion ½ cup finely chopped carrot ½ cup finely chopped celery 2 teaspoons salt 1 pound lentils, picked and rinsed 1 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes 2 quarts chicken broth, fat free, reduced sodium ½ teaspoon ground coriander ½ teaspoon ground toasted cumin Optional, spoonful of fat free cottage cheese Optional, dried parsley Instructions 1. Put the olive oil in a 6-quart Dutch oven and place over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery and salt. Saute for 6 to 7 minutes. 2. Add the lentils, tomatoes, broth, coriander and cumin; stir to combine. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture just to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook at a low simmer until the lentils are tender, about 40 minutes. 3. Using a stick blender, puree the soup to your desired consistency. Serve with cottage cheese and sprinkle with dried parsley if desired. Nutrition One serving equals: 240 calories, 2g fat, 35g carbohydrate, 18g fiber, and 16g protein. I hope that you get a chance to give this recipe a try this week. Remember that I’m only a call or email away to assist you in all things fitness. And if you are not yet one of my prized clients then call or email me now to set up your first workout – I’d love to help you achieve your best body ever!
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 Talk to 10 people and you'll get 10 different opinions on the best way to get fit.
One will tell you to attend an aerobics class. Another will swear by jogging. Yet another will tell you that dance and biking worked for them. The truth is that there's really only one effective way to get fit. Before I get into the details, it’s important that we agree on the definition of 'fit'. Too often thin is mistaken for fit, and that's not what you should strive for. When someone is thin, but has very little muscle tissue, they aren't truly fit. Here’s why thin doesn’t equal fit:
Resistance training is when resistance is used to challenge your muscles in order to gain strength and endurance. You could do this with traditional weights, exercise bands, medicine balls, cable machines, sandbags, kettle bells or even just using your own body weight. Consistent resistance training has the following side effects…
Top 9 Benefits to Resistance Training 1. To Build Muscle and Gain Strength: Don’t worry, ladies. This does NOT mean that you’re going to ‘bulk up’ or look too masculine. What will happen is that your arms, tummy and legs will become tighter, leaner and more defined. 2. To Lose Fat: When it comes to losing size, all that you want to see go is fat, not muscle. Strength training ensures that you maintain and grow those muscles and only lose fat. 3. To Build Strong Bones: The older we get, the more important our bone density is. A good strength training program is one of your best defenses when it comes to osteoporosis. 4. To Alleviate Anxiety, Stress and Depression: Sure there are plenty of pills out there that claim to give these benefits, but you and I both know that strength training is more wholesome and effective way. And besides, who really wants pharmaceutical side effects? 5. To Sleep Better: Here’s another pill you can stop taking once you start strength training. Study after study have proven that strength training improves sleep. 6. To Improve Chronic Back Pain: If you are one of the millions across the globe who suffer from back pain then you’ll love the benefit of lowered pain. 7. To Improve Insulin Sensitivity: Today diabetes is a huge threat. Minimize your risk by improving insulin sensitivity through regular, challenging strength training. 8. To Improve Good to Bad Cholesterol Ratio: Here is yet another pill that you could potentially stop taking while on a strength training routine. Blood pressure and heart health are of utmost concern, so why not give yourself the advantage of a strength training routine? 9. To Raise your Metabolism: This helps to reduce body fat and to keep that body fat off, even on the days that you aren’t able to exercise. Pretty awesome, right? A solid resistance training routine will tone your legs, lift your buns, strengthen your core, and will result in inches and pounds lost. If you’re ready to begin your body transformation then feel free to reach out to me. Call or email me today and we will get you started on the exercise program that will reshape your body once and for all!  This delicious dish is made with egg whites and sautéed vegetables and makes a wonderful light breakfast. Enjoy with salsa for an added kick. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it sets the tone for your eating throughout the rest of the day. Starting your day with a nutritious, filling and protein-packed meal like this one will keep you on track with your food choices all day long. What You Need Serves 2 ¼ cup onion, chopped 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 medium tomato, chopped ¾ cup egg whites (about 4 large egg whites) 2 wheat tortillas ¼ of a small avocado A dash of Paprika A dash of Garlic salt Instructions 1. Spray a medium frying pan with cooking spray. Sauté the onion, bell pepper and garlic until soft. Add the tomato and egg whites. Cook until the egg whites have set. 2. Divide the egg and veggie mixture between the tortillas and fold like a taco. 3. Slice the avocado and sprinkle it with paprika and garlic salt. Arrange the avocado on each taco and serve. Nutrition One serving equals: 243 calories, 5g fat, 35g carbohydrate, 6g fiber, and 15g protein. I hope that you get a chance to give this recipe a try this week. Remember that I’m only a call or email away to assist you in all things fitness. And if you are not yet one of my prized clients then call or email me now to set up your first workout – I’d love to help you achieve your best body ever!  Have you thought about starting an exercise program but haven’t done it yet? Here are 7 REALLY GOOD reasons to get started today! Reason #1: To Melt Fat Away The most coveted side effect of exercise is, of course, fat burn. The combination of a challenging exercise routine and a balanced meal plan is the best-known way to lose fat. Here’s what losing fat feels like:
Regular exercise is a great way to alleviate chronic muscle and joint pain. Persistent back pain can be lessened by strengthening your core, and you’ll protect yourself against injury. It amazes people when the chronic pain that they’ve lived with for years begins to fade after starting a regular exercise program. Reason #3: To Increase Lean Tissue More muscle is good for many reasons. You see, muscle burns five times more calories each day than fatty tissue. When you exercise your body composition will change to contain more lean tissue, thus resulting in extra calories burned while you sleep. What could be better than that? Reason #4: To Stay Young Tim D. Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College in London, led a study on the effects of exercise on aging. The results were astounding. They found that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells (called telomeres), which means a slowing of the aging process. Here’s the study in a nutshell:
Regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. This is something that people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk for type 2 diabetes, gain substantial benefits from. Exercise improves the body’s use of insulin, and the related weight loss improves insulin sensitivity. Of course patients with type 2 diabetes need to follow guidelines from their doctor before starting an exercise program. Reason #6: To Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels Exercise has shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels for these two reasons:
The first thing that clients tell me after starting an exercise program is how much better they feel. Most didn’t even realize how bad they felt. It is easy to get used to feeling sluggish, achy and unmotivated. Exercise boosts your energy levels and makes you feel amazing. The quickest, easiest way to guarantee that you’ll meet your fitness and weight loss goals is to work one-on-one with a qualified fitness professional. You’ll be held accountable with your workouts and you’ll be instructed properly and shown techniques and strategies that will expedite your results. Call or email today to get started on a program that will take the guesswork out of fitness and to set your results on fire. What are you waiting for? Lace up your shoes and get moving!  Craving something sweet? This recipe is the perfect dessert. If you don’t have nectarine or pear on hand, be creative and use other fresh fruits. Desserts are where most of us end up making regretful decisions at the end of a long day. Keep your goals at the forefront of your mind by avoiding sugary desserts and instead enjoying a bowl of this tasty Fruit Dessert! What You Need Serves 2 1 white nectarine, chopped 1 pear, chopped 1 Tablespoon chopped pecans 1 Tablespoon chopped dates Dash of cinnamon Instructions 1. Mix the nectarine, pear, pecans, and dates in a medium sized bowl. Sprinkle with cinnamon and mix until well coated. Nutrition One serving equals: 119 calories, 3g fat, 24g carbohydrate, 4.5g fiber, and 1.5g protein I hope that you get a chance to give this recipe a try this week. Remember that I’m only a call or email away to assist you in all things fitness. And if you are not yet one of my prized clients then call or email me now to set up your first workout – I’d love to help you achieve your best body ever!  Do you exercise with the hopes of reaching a specific number on the scale? Or are you wishing to fit into a certain size dress or jeans? While having a goal is great, it will NOT ensure your success. Consider how many people you know who have had a specific weight that they wanted to reach. You are likely one of them. This number might have been posted up on a sticky note on the fridge, reminding you to watch what you eat and consistently make it to the gym. Maybe this number was updated and recorded everyday, to enforce accountability. How long did that last? A week? Two weeks? Statistics dictate that it likely didn’t last longer than a few weeks until that “goal number” began to fade from your life. Then you took it down off the fridge, or you stared at it defiantly as you reached for the off-limits food. You began to look at your goal number as an adversary rather than something good. I’m going to clue you in on a new perspective that may help you when it comes to fitness, fat loss, and achieving any goal. Read on, this one is worthwhile. IT’S NOT ABOUT REACHING A SPECIFIC WEIGHT. This may go against everything you’ve come to believe about achieving a goal, but then, your techniques haven’t exactly been working. The number that you’re hoping to magically be one day doesn’t matter one bit, and here’s why… IT’S ACTUALLY ABOUT LIVING IN THE MOMENTUM. Can you remember how it felt the last time that you ate clean, exercised hard and got adequate sleep for a few consecutive days? A feeling of momentum came over you, didn’t it? There was a buzzing in your cells and a rhythm in your pace. You felt alive, you felt sexy, and you felt empowered. Never mind that you weren’t yet at your goal number, you were headed there! Getting down to your goal weight, and fitting into your goal size, is the direct result of living in that state of momentum for an extended period of time. You see, the momentum can be felt immediately, once you start eating clean, exercising hard and taking care of your health, whereas that “goal number” simply can’t be felt until it is achieved, and so it’s not as powerful a motivator. My challenge and advice to you is to find the joy of living in the momentum, and keep that momentum going until your goal number is achieved. Focus only on the momentum, not on the number. Fitness is a way of life. Being lean is a lifestyle. Neither of which can be had by going about it halfheartedly. You have to become the momentum. Call or email me today and we will get your momentum started on the exercise program that will reshape your body once and for all!  How would you like to enjoy noodles that are completely guilt free? Considering that traditional noodles are one of the most fattening foods known to man, this concept of guilt-free noodles is pretty sexy! Spaghetti squash is a vegetable that naturally shreds into noodles once cooked. You can serve it up with your favorite spaghetti sauce – just stay away from cream based sauces. If you are tempted to go out this weekend and consume a huge serving of traditional pasta – STOP! Don’t do it! You’ll be so disappointed with yourself when it’s over and you’ll lose the great progress that you made this week with your workouts. Instead enjoy a delicious heap of spaghetti squash served with spaghetti sauce. What You Need Serves 4 1 spaghetti squash 1 Tablespoon dried basil ½ teaspoon garlic salt Instructions 1. Cut squash in half and scoop out the seeds and fibers. With a fork pierce the squash skin a few times. 2. Fill a microwave safe dish with ½ inch of water. Place the squash cut-side down in the dish. 3. Microwave on high for 10-20 minutes or until the skin gives easily under pressure (be sure to use an oven mitt, as the squash get very hot.) Let stand for a few minutes. 4. With a fork, scrape the pasta-like insides into a medium bowl. Mix in basil and garlic salt and serve with your favorite pasta sauce. Nutrition One serving equals: 42 calories, 0g fat, 10g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, and 1g protein. I hope that you get a chance to give this recipe a try this week. Remember that I’m only a call or email away to assist you in all things fitness. And if you are not yet one of my prized clients then call or email me now to set up your first workout – I’d love to help you achieve your best body ever!  …on your diet. We live in society where food temptations are everywhere. Walk through a store and you’ll see the unhealthy food items displayed front and center. Turn on the TV and you’ll be assaulted with commercials for fattening foods. Open a magazine and you’ll notice glossy pin-ups of sugary snacks. Go down the street and you’ll have restaurant signs clamoring for your attention. In addition to the abundance of tempting edibles, you also have deeply ingrained positive associations with indulging. You treat tempting food as a reward. You turn to tempting food for comfort. You rely on tempting food as stress relief. You allow tempting food to become a habit. It’s Your Turn to Win Temptation doesn’t need to have the upper hand on you anymore. It’s time to fight back using your most powerful asset: your brain. Your mind is an amazing thing. Once it is made up about something it is nearly impossible to change it. A Matter of Perspective Imagine for a moment that you’re peacefully floating down a river in an inner tube. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and you are having a wonderful time. You feel great about the river because it is making you feel good. Now imagine that you are in a plane flying over the river. Your eye is immediately drawn to an enormous rocky waterfall. You look up the river and just around the bend is a person floating in an inner tube, having a wonderful time, headed straight for the treacherous falls. Do you think that after your plane ride you’d be happy to get an inner tube and float down the river? Of course you wouldn’t. You’ve seen that the river spells disaster. You now have a negative association (watery death) with the river rather than your initial positive association (relaxing fun). Overcoming temptation is all about building negative associations in place of existing positive ones. Use the 2 steps below to harness the power of your mind to become stronger than any temptation. Step One: Create a Strong Negative Association with all the BAD STUFF If cookies and chips and burgers are put on a pedestal in your mind as your favorite things to eat, then you will always eat unhealthy and will continue to gain weight. What do you dislike about tempting food?
Step Two: Create a Strong Positive Association with all the GOOD STUFF Now that your mental pedestal has been cleared, put healthy food items on it. Juicy fresh fruit, crispy vegetables and savory lean meats are a great place to start. What do you love about healthy food?
Using the technique above, you will soon find that healthy food is your favorite food. And cheating will become a thing of your past.  This delicious dish is made with egg whites and sautéed vegetables and makes a wonderful light breakfast. Enjoy with salsa for an added kick. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it sets the tone for your eating throughout the rest of the day. Starting your day with a nutritious, filling and protein-packed meal like this one will keep you on track with your food choices all day long. What You Need Serves 2 ¼ cup onion, chopped 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 medium tomato, chopped ¾ cup egg whites (about 4 large egg whites) 2 wheat tortillas ¼ of a small avocado A dash of Paprika A dash of Garlic salt Instructions 1. Spray a medium frying pan with cooking spray. Sauté the onion, bell pepper and garlic until soft. Add the tomato and egg whites. Cook until the egg whites have set. 2. Divide the egg and veggie mixture between the tortillas and fold like a taco. 3. Slice the avocado and sprinkle it with paprika and garlic salt. Arrange the avocado on each taco and serve. Nutrition One serving equals: 243 calories, 5g fat, 35g carbohydrate, 6g fiber, and 15g protein. I hope that you get a chance to give this recipe a try this week. Remember that I’m only a call or email away to assist you in all things fitness. And if you are not yet one of my prized clients then call or email me now to set up your first workout – I’d love to help you achieve your best body ever!  It takes a certain lifestyle to attain a fit, lean body…so what do fit people do in their “healthy lifestyle”? Take a peek with the following 7 Habits of Highly Fit People… Highly Fit Person Habit #1: They Don’t Buy Junk Fit people know that if they keep junk food in the house they will eat it sooner or later. So they don’t buy any. Even buying junk food for your kids or spouse is not advised since 1) you’ll likely eat some of it eventually, and 2) your loved ones shouldn’t be eating that junk either. It’s called junk for a reason. Rid your home of chips, cookies, candy, baked goods, pre-packaged snacks and anything else that belongs in a vending machine. Replace the above with fresh fruit, veggies, nuts and other healthy whole foods snacks. Highly Fit Person Habit #2: They Have Priorities Fit people make exercise a priority. Along with keeping a job, paying the bills and going to the doctor, exercise is an important part of their lives. What I’ve found is that fit people put exercise before leisure time. Sure, fit people enjoy leisure, but it is scheduled around their workout time. Treat exercise time with the same importance that you would a business meeting or trip to the dentist. Highly Fit Person Habit #3: They Stop When Full Fit people stop eating when they feel full. Sound simple? It is, but how many times have you stuffed yourself simply to clear your plate? Or how many times have you eaten another piece of cake despite being stuffed? The next time you feel full, take it as a sign to stop eating. Yes, even if your plate isn’t empty. Highly Fit Person Habit #4: They Push Themselves Not only do fit people make time to go to the gym, they challenge themselves during each workout. While it is easy to simply go through the motions while exercising, you’re cheating your body out of great results when you don’t push yourself. Exercise should make you sweat, make your muscles burn, and leave you with a feeling of accomplishment. Find ways to make each workout more challenging. For competitive people, the best way to push yourself is to exercise with a friend of similar strength. Another great way to challenge yourself is to set small attainable goals. These goals could be to push heavier weight, to sprint longer, or to do cardio at a higher intensity setting. Highly Fit Person Habit #5: They Don’t Eat and Watch Fit people know that eating in front of the T.V. is mindless eating. When your attention is on your entertainment and not on your food, then you’ll be less tuned in to what and how much ends up in your mouth. Eating in front of the T.V. is also very habit forming. Ever notice how you crave munchies just as a reflex of sitting in front of the T.V.? Eat before or after your entertainment and pay attention to what and how much goes into your mouth. Highly Fit Person Habit #6: They Drink Water Fit people drink lots of water. And not just in addition to other beverages, but instead of them. Water is their main drink, while other drinks are occasional treats. Calorie-filled drinks are one of the quickest ways to consume excess calories which quickly turn into fat. Consider water your beverage of choice. Drink plenty of it each day and drink other beverages only a few times each week. Highly Fit Person Habit #7: They Are Supported Fit people don’t leave their motivation to chance. They know that if their personal trainer, boot camp instructor or workout partner is waiting for them, then they are less likely to skip a workout. It is so easy to hit snooze or to talk yourself out of the gym as soon as your behind hits the couch after work. Fit people take the option of skipping out of the equation. Want instant support? Call or email me today to get started on your own customized fitness plan. I hope that these habits have inspired you to make a change for the fitter in your own life. If you already do some of these habits then congratulations – you are on your way to a better body. Make an effort to incorporate the rest of the habits to take your results to the next level. If none, or very few, of these habits describe your lifestyle, then I’ve got good news – you now have 7 effective new habits to start that will get you some awesome results. Don’t try to tackle all 7 at once – pick one or two to add each week and gradually work up to all 7. As always, you are welcome to call or email me with questions or to get started on your own customized fitness plan. I look forward to hearing from you. |
David CorderOwner and Lead Personal Trainer at Perfect Fit Wellness Center. Archives
November 2019
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