Fab Fit Squad

That’s right, drinking chocolate milk after a HARD work out will aid in helping your muscles recover. Now let me reiterate HARD workout, if you just went a did a light workout and didn’t break a sweat, you won’t need a post workout recovery.  But if you did come back from a long bike ride, run or hike chocolate milk will help you recover better than some of those other high beverages. Why??

• Plain water just replaces the water you sweat out during your workout
• Carbohydrate laden beverages just builds and replaces your glycogen (stored muscle carbs)
• Carbohydrates and Protein combination not only replaces the glycogen but studies have that you see a double % increase in glycogen, plus the protein also helps your muscles to recover and repair.

I am a big advocate of using whole foods, but for post workouts chocolate milk will do the trick.  Just remember you need to be in a hard workout to earn the chocolate. In honor of National Chocolate Milk Day go out for a hard workout and enjoy!!

Yes cabbage, I remember as kid my grandmother, affectionately referred to as Granny use to make red cabbage slaw and braised red cabbage all the time. It took me a while to reconnect with this veggie, but now that I have I love it. Here is a twist on a her recipe.

Braised Cabbage

• 1/2 head green cabbage
• 1/2 head red cabbage
• 2 T mustard (Dijon or Grey Poupon)
• 1/2 c chicken broth
• 1/4 c balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 t nutmeg

Simmer in a pot for 40 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

I know what you are thinking you should only eat cabbage on St. Patrick’s day or only if you are Irish, but cabbage has a lot of health benefits.

1. helps fight ulcers
2. promotes women’s health by helping to metabolize estrogen
3. protection against Alzheimer’s

If you’ve done something interesting with cabbage, let me know below!

Oatmeal Parfait

• 1/3 c cooked oatmeal
• 1/2 c greek yogurt or cottage cheese
• 1/2 t honey or agave nectar
• 1/8 t pumpkin pie spice

in a separate bowl, mix 1/2 c berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or a mixture)

Layer into a glass and serve. YUM YUM. This could also be a snack.

For my egg lovers give this a try

Scrambled Eggs

• 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg
• 1/4 c salsa (your choice)
• 1/4 c black beans

Scramble in a pan coated with Pam, no one likes to clean up the egg mess.

Do you have any other great breakfast ideas, share them below.

Artichokes are the oldest fruit known to man and similar to the lobster you must work to get to the good stuff. Artichokes are a significant source of  425 grams of potassium, 61/2 grams of fiber vitamin C, folic acid and 72 grams of  magnesium. Virtually fat-free, the artichoke weighs in at 60 calories (per medium artichoke) and is low in sodium.

They are in season from May to March and the biggest growers of Artichokes is the California.

When buying an artichoke you will want to:

• choose an artichoke that has tight leaves
• one that is heavy for its size
• a deep green color
• a squeaking noise when the leaves are rubbed together
• avoid any artichokes that have cracked leaves or are showing any brown discoloration.

More artichoke facts are available here.

LONDON (Reuters) – Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over conventionally produced food, according to a major study published on Wednesday. Click here to read the rest of the story.

Instead of going organic try eating foods grown by local farmers market. These foods haven’t traveled days in a truck to get to you and are currently in-season so they have a ton of nutrients and are sometimes better priced.  On the plus side its often sold by the farmer so you can ask about the growing conditions. You can’t do that at your local grocery store. You may also want to try getting involved in a  CSA, community support agriculture — a local farm or group of farms deliver locally grow fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis.  To get a list of these farms, click here.

Organic Foods overview

You heard this term from your bodybuilding friends or you heard about the book from Tosca Reno. Clean Eating means,  eating food as close to its natural state as possible. Basically, if you can grow, fish for it, pluck it, that’s clean eating. When you eat clean your goals are to avoid eating additives as much as possible. So what are additives?  I tell all my clients read the back of your food to really understand what is inside the box. The front of the box is where food manufactures try to sell you on what’s inside, the back of the box is where the FDA requires them to come clean with what’s inside. So the less ingredients you see the closer to the source the food is.

Here are just a few of the more popular additives.

• Aspartame: better known as Equal/Nutrasweet and is 180 times sweeter than sugar, plus in my humble opinion has an after taste. Be careful with how much you eat, as too much may cause headache and vision issues. For more information on Aspartame dangers.
• High Fructose Corn Syrup: is a highly processed sweetener made from corn that more than 40% of all food products in the US contain. When processed by your body, it’s sent directly to your liver, because it can’t be absorbed by your cells. Once processed by your liver, it’s stored as FAT!
• Mannitol: the sugar alcohol that is in many of those “sugar-free” products.  While it doesn’t have calories, it does a dosey on your stomach, causing some to spend some quality time in the bathroom, if you know what I mean.
• Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (trans fat): This is the “trans fats” that you have been hearing so much about.  They are in baked goods and margarine. It’s a low cost way of increasing the shelf life of foods.  Why are they so bad for you? They aren’t good fats, and increase your changes of heart disease, raise the bad cholesterol levels while reducing the good cholesterol levels. Bottom line — STAY AWAY!
• Sucralose: Also known as Splenda, it’ 600 times sweeter than sugar and honesty the jury is still out. So similar to aspartame, take in small doses.

For more grocery shopping tips.

Raise your hands if had to grocery shop. It’s okay do, but I have gotten it down to science and can get in out of the store in 30 minutes. Yep, 30 minutes. I can go faster at a Stop and Shop that has the self scanner, wear I scan and pack my groceries while I shop only stopping at the checkout to pay. HOLLA, that is the best invention for me.

So here is how I get in and out of the store with ease.

1. Shop the perimeter — I know you’ve heard this time time and time again, but its true the freshest foods and non-processed foods are placed on the perimeter of the store
2. Make list — I keep my list on the fridge, I put down items we run out of as well as items that we are running low on, plus there always staples that I keep stocked in my fridge, before I leave for the store I run thought the staple list and highlight the items that I need.
3. Go a full stomach — another one you’ve heard, but trust me, when you shop hungry. You fall pray to the tastings that they have the store, the candy aisle looks amazing, as well as the strategically placed sale junk items
4. Buy whole grains– Whole grains keep you satisfied longer.  Now don’t be fooled it manufacturers have started to put this information on the front of the box. It’s not the front of the box the really count, you MUST look at the ingredients on the back to truly understand what’s inside.
5. It’s okay to eat frozen food — in fact when you can’t get fresh veggies or fish, frozen makes a great alternative.
6. Add some color — mix up your produce choice by adding all colors of the rainbow, this will ensure that you are getting all your nutrients.
7. Save money by buying fresh vegetables in season – when possible shop a farmer’s markets and buy local when possible
8. Packaged prepared foods are okay, but again make sure you look at the ingredients, if you need a chemistry degree to understand what’s in it put it back on the shelf.
9. Choose real foods over processed foods, again check the back of the label you want to read the back of the label does it contain more than 5 ingredients and can you pronounce the ingredients.
10. Use coupons wisely, when you need to purchase 3 of something to save a few cents, ask yourself do you really need 3 or are you sucked into deal mode.