Are you eating tons of salads? I sure hope so. A big, colorful salad topped with a serving of protein is just about as healthy a meal as you will ever find. And, when done right, it’s also one of the tastiest meals!
Eating like this makes it possible to shed body fat while sustaining energy levels and muscle tone. This Curly Endive Salad with Butternut Squash with a big ‘ol serving of protein on top makes a fantastic go-to dinner salad. That is, dinner IS the salad; salad IS the dinner.
It’s light and tight and will leave you looking and feeling light and tight.
​
​Servings: 6

Here’s what you need
For the Butternut Squash

• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 2 cups butternut squash, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• sea salt

For the Vinaigrette

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon shallot, minced
• ⅛ teaspoon liquid stevia
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• sea salt and pepper to taste

For the Salad

• 8 cups curly endive, torn
• 1 avocado, chopped

Instructions

1. Place the coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat. While the coconut oil melts, in a large bowl combine the butternut squash pieces with the cinnamon, red pepper flakes and a few cracks of sea salt. Once coated, add the butternut squash to the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat.
2. In a small bowl combine the vinaigrette ingredients. Whisk until fully combined.
3. In a large salad bowl combine the endive, avocado and butternut squash. Toss with the vinaigrette and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Nutritional Analysis
91 calories, 5g fat, 10g carbohydrate, 2g sugar, 156mg sodium, 5g fiber, and 2g 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!

​Less than 1% of the formerly obese will maintain weight loss for more than a year, according to a study conducted in the UK in 2015. Specifically this broke down to just 1 man out of 210 and 1 woman out of 124.


Does this mean that once fat we are all doomed to stay fat? Participants in the study were told to eat less and move more, a method that failed to deliver long-term results. Clearly this sound bite advice wasn’t enough.
Now I could launch into a debate over whether or not this study practiced sound research and whether or not the participants really did eat less and exercise more, but instead I’d rather share with you what I know to be true about lasting weight loss.
Make no mistake about it, long-term fat loss results are very possible and are enjoyed by the majority of my clients – in stark contrast to the UK study results!
Since there’s more to it than simply eating less and moving more, how does one go about losing fat and then keeping it off for the long haul? Here are 5 Steps to Lose it For Good…
Step #1 to Lose it For Good - The Right Mindset
There are only two mindsets to choose from when you approach your quest for weight loss:
1. This is a temporary change in my behavior.
2. This is a new way of life.
There’s no middle ground, you either see it as temporary change or you see it as permanent change. It’s pretty obvious which mindset produces permanent results.
Step #2 to Lose it For Good - New Habits
Understanding how to put new habits in place is the second step to losing the weight and keeping it lost.
As we just saw in step one, looking at your weight loss behavior as a new lifestyle is the only way to ensure permanent results and this means adopting healthy new habits.
Habits are best taken on in gradual steps. This has been proven to be the most effective way to make the new habits stick. Approach building new habits with baby steps instead of grand leaps.
If one of your current, fattening, habits is that you drink sugary soda then first switch to drinking diet soda. Once the habit of drinking diet soda has completely replaced your sugary soda habit then you can start replacing some of the diet soda with water. You didn’t jump straight from drinking flavorful, fizzy soda to just drinking water, that’s too extreme and will make success unlikely.
Step #3 to Lose it For Good - Your Environment
In order to permanently change your body you must permanently change your environment. It makes sense that you won’t maintain a lean body in the same environment where you gained the weight.
The term “environment” sounds vague, so let’s break it down. Your environment is the world that you create around yourself. These are the foods that you see, smell and have easy access to. This is the ease or difficulty you have in consistently accessing exercise. This is the lifestyle of the people closest to you that casts an influence on your own lifestyle whether you realize it or not.
I’ll bet you could draw out the ideal environment for permanent weight loss. You know the path. Now put in the effort to walk the path.
Step #4 to Lose it For Good - Good Nutrition
The problem with the advice of eat less and move more is that it doesn’t make a distinction between calories. When total calorie count is your only goal you’ll end up consuming lower quality calories than you should, which leads to mindless eating and malnutrition.
Educate yourself on healthy calories versus nutritionally void calories. A great rule of thumb is that calories that are created in nature are always superior to calories created in a factory. Stick with real food over anything from a package.
Step #5 to Lose it For Good - Your Support System
If you just did the first 4 steps then you’d be well on your way to successfully transforming your body from fat to fit, and keeping it that way for the long haul. However, in order to fully ensure that you make the switch from where you are to where you want to be it’s important to put a support system in place.
Nothing is more powerful than social accountability. Instinctively you don’t want to let people down, and so you’ll work harder and more consistently in a support group than you would when working on your own. It’s hard to sleep in when you know someone is at the gym waiting for you!
This fifth and most important step is where I come into your life. My entire mission is to not only provide you with the action steps to getting into the best shape of your life, I also am here to provide you with the support that you need to make it happen.
Call or email me now to get started on a program that will get you fit for life. You can do this!

It’s hard to find a dinner recipe that’s as healthy as this one: white fish and veggies, steamed in a parchment parcel with fresh herbs, lemon and white wine. You’d also be hard pressed to find a white fish recipe that is this easy to make and tastes this darn good!
Cooking “En Papillote” (with Parchment Packets!) 
En Papillote is a fancy French way of saying “cooked in paper” :-) So we are going to be French and fancy today while making this super-quick-n-awesome recipe! 
This recipe cooks in a packet made with parchment paper, which is one of the reasons that it’s so quick and healthy.  Parchment paper packets use steam to quickly and healthfully cook the contents. It also makes clean up a breeze – crumpling up some paper and throwing it in the trash is my kind of KP! Parchment paper is grease and moisture resistant paper that has been specially treated for oven use. It won’t burn in the oven on bake, however don’t put it under the broiler – it will burn there! There is no right or wrong side of parchment paper – either side can be used.
​Servings: 4
Here’s what you need

• ½ cup red onion, cut into think matchsticks
• 1 zucchini, cut into matchstick
• 1 carrots, cut into matchstick
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 (6 oz.) halibut fillets, or other white fish
• sea salt and black pepper
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced into half moons
• 8 sprigs fresh thyme
• ¼ cup white wine

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl toss the thinly sliced onion, zucchini and carrot with the olive oil and minced garlic.
3. Cut four 12-by-16-inch pieces of parchment paper and fold each in half. Open the parchment paper and arrange each fillet in the center of the top half of each parchment. Generously season with salt and pepper. Top each fillet with one quarter of the veggies, 2 slices of lemon, two sprigs of thyme and 1 Tablespoon of white wine.
4. Fold the bottom half of the parchment paper over the fish. Start folding and crimping the parchment paper ends together from one end all the way around the fish to the other end, creating a sealed envelope. Fold the end under the fish. The fish and veggies should be fully encased, with no breaks in the parchment paper for steam to escape – we need that steam as part of the cooking process! Place the packets on a pan.
5. Bake the fish packets for 12 to 18 minutes and remove from the oven. Serve the packets on plates, tearing them open just before serving. Enjoy!

Nutritional Analysis
231 calories, 4g fat, 8g carbohydrate, 3g sugar, 166mg sodium, 2g fiber, and 36g 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!

​Sandy started her fat loss journey with 56 pounds to lose, though when you see her now you’d never believe that she was once overweight. Today the lean and attractive mother of two walks confidently with a spring in her step and a smile on her face.
Given her amazing transformation, it’s easy to see why she’s so confident and happy.
But back when Sandy first came to me, she was fed up and constantly stressing about her weight. She was sick and tired of feeling unattractive, embarrassed and discouraged. None of the diets or exercise plans that she tried ever worked.
Sandy felt hopeless about ever regaining the attractive body that she once had.
As I got to know Sandy, she told me about the way her body changed after her pregnancies, how the weight continued to add up over the course of a few years, and how each pound rendered her more frustrated and hopeless.
We came up with a simple plan, the first step towards regaining a body that she felt excited about again.
The simple habit that started it all…
Aristotle taught us that, “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” His words aptly apply to fitness.
For Sandy, dropping 56 pounds was not the result of an act, but of a habit.
The simple habit that she adopted was to place her gym clothes on her nightstand before going to sleep each night.
That’s. It.
Every morning the first thing that she would see was the tidy stack of clean gym clothes. So her first act of the day was to put them on.
Naturally, now that her gym clothes were on, Sandy would then go directly to her workout. By starting her day in such a positive, fitness-oriented way, Sandy was then able to continue making healthy choices throughout the day, ending it by putting the next day’s gym clothes on her nightstand before bed.
Did she have any hiccups along the way? Certainly. There were days that would start out great, but then she’d get off track sometime after lunch. Discouraging as the occasional setback was, she kept on putting her gym clothes out each night.
By starting her day out with such a positive fitness experience, Sandy was able to make a habit out of fitness. As a result she lost 56 pounds and regained her confidence and sunny disposition.
What about you? What habit could you adopt that would keep you on track with your fitness goal?
It shouldn’t be complicated.
Maybe you will start putting your gym clothes out each night, like Sandy. Maybe you will make the recipe below for Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken each week to pack with some veggies in mini meals to eat throughout your day.
Pick one simple, fitness habit and add it to your daily routine.
If you need help coming up with the right new habit to get you into amazing shape then reach out to me. I’m here to help you transform your body and your life!
Don’t wait –start a new habit today!