Fab Fit Squad

If your salads are becoming boring, you need to re-think the basics and spruce up those greens. Check out these fanciful salads that boost your enthusiasm for eating these healthy sides and enjoy the crunch of some good greens for the picnic months ahead.

Robust Salads Are Built On Protein

We all know how much I stress protein at all meals. Add a powerful punch to your salad is to include some protein, namely in the form of seafood, meats, beans, or hard boiled eggs.

Here are some ideas cooked shrimp, canned salmon or white albacore tuna on top of your bed of greens. Perhaps your salad would benefit from black or kidney beans for a Mexican twist. Juicy grilled chicken, thinly sliced into strips, could add a smoky barbecue flavor to a simple salad. If you choose different marinades, you’ll get different flavor influences. Think of marinading beef in Teriyaki before grilling.  Then those delicate, thin strips will blend well with ingredients borrowed from Asian cuisine.

Sweet Salads Are Meant To Surprise

A classic salad that always surprises is the Waldorf salad, made with a variety of fruits, including apples, cherries, dates, grapes, or even fresh pineapple. You’ll substitute the mayo with greek yogurt and some lemon juice.  I like to add in shredded coconut, YUM!!! Ambrosia salad is an explosion of fanciful delights, including bright colors and the sweet flavors of  mandarin oranges, blackberries, strawberries, grapes and coconut, but the name says it all, so don’t limit your choices.

Then there are big fruit salad bowls filled with everything from watermelon to berries, bananas, and grapes, apples, kiwi, mango, pineapple, cantaloupe and a host of other fruits in between.  Add crunch with nuts like walnuts, pecans, pistachios, or almonds.

Using a light vinaigrette dressing may sound odd with all that fruit, but the touch of savory brings out the sweet juices and makes the salad taste all the better. You can also toss the fruit salad with a mixture non-fat yogurt or cottage cheese to give your salad a little protein boost. The options are as varied as your taste buds.

Gourmet Salads Call For Clever Ingredients

For a truly unique salad creation, you have to go deeper into the range of greens you use in your salads. Look at food in a whole new way and choose combinations of flavors and textures that will light up the eyes of guests as they taste your best efforts.

Try mixing eclectic greens like endive, arugula, and watercress with avocado, crab meat, Greek olives, and grapefruit, along with hard-boiled eggs for a fresh take on a classic salad. Sprinkle a touch of nutmeg and cinnamon with golden raisins and chopped tart apples, and toss with shredded cooked chicken or turkey, and a touch of balsamic vinaigrette for a delightful new salad. Go tropical with mango, papaya, figs, or summer melons, adding the right compliment of spice like ginger, curry, or fresh mint. Top with toasted coconut for a truly fanciful salad.

Seeds and Sprouts Add the Finishing Touch

No matter what you put in your salads, you’ll always want to have an eye-catching topping that completes a gourmet creation you can be proud of. The best choices are often seeds and sprouts, since they add texture and depth to all types of salads for all types of meals. Seeds add color and dimension, almost a solid, formidable look, while sprouts are often heaped on in a big fluffy pile, providing a playful and unruly look to the salad.

For seeds, you could choose sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, milk thistle, or alfalfa seeds, just to name a few. With sprouts, you have mung bean sprouts, broccoli sprouts, and alfalfa sprouts. Then there are the lesser known choices like radish sprouts and clover sprouts. These types of ingredients go very well with most salads but especially with dishes that are made with quinoa, tofu, tempeh, and jicama.

With a little imagination, and time to seek out unique ingredients, you can walk away from conventional thinking and create wonderful, fanciful salads to enjoy.

Do you have a favorite salad you want to share, please leave me some comments below.

Admit we all look down at our tummy’s and wish they are a little flatter, more

define or hell just wasn’t a muffin top! Here a four ways to lose that muffin top.

1. Add protein to every meal. I always ask my clients to write their food journals and the one element that is missing from most meals is protein. This is help you repair your muscles after working out and helps you to feel full longer.
2. Log your meals. This helps you really visualize what your are putting in your mouth. I mean you log EVERYTHING the Peppermint Patty  you grabbed from the receptionist desk. Want me to review? Just send 3 days and I’ll give you feedback.
3. Avoid artificial sweeteners.Because they are “artificial” it’s sometimes hard for our bodies to process them. When your body can’t process it causes inflammation. Unfortunately you typically can’t control where the inflammation occurs, most times it will occur in your tummy. So its best to avoid foods high in sodium, carbonated beverages, and gum.
4. Fill up on veggies.  Veggies are low in calories and high in fiber. This combination helps you feel full longer. Be careful with broccoli it does cause a little bloating.

Here is a bonus — interval training — instead of just hoping on a piece of equipment and doing the same pace, try mixing it up with intervals.  Try this one.  Go hard for 30 sec and then rest for 30 sec try this for 30 minutes. After you try it leave me a comment about how you did.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

These past few weeks, we may have been eating more than we typically do during the rest of the year. Come January 1st, many of will list losing weight as your primary New Year’s Resolution. So what do you do? You head to the gym and hit the cardio machines, take a few group exercise classes and maybe lift a few weights. The question that remains is what are you eating? Jack Lalanne is the godfather of fitness and his famous quote is~ Exercise is King, nutrition is Queen, put them together and you’ve got a kingdom. Most people forget to think about the food.  Once you get your nutrition in alignment you will find that workouts come a little easier and you fit into those skinny jeans just a little faster.

Over the next 5 weeks I going to give a number of challenges to help you kick off the new year with a bang!

This week I challenge you to keep a food journal! This food journal doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I use Fitday to track my food. They have a free online version as well as a paid version. You can also just write it down on a piece of paper. Why do you need to write down what you eat? When you write down what you eat, you get an up close and personal view what you are putting into your body. This exercise will be very eye opening. Care to share your journal with me? I’ll do FREE 15 min nutrition review.

PS — Feel like you need a little more help and want to do a cleanse to detox the holidays? Let me know my client Kjerstan did and lost 7  pounds in one week! Shoot me an email for me details.

You heard right we are clearing out the 2011 weight, we need to make room for the 2012 healthy life. We need to make room for the healthy person that is inside of us that we have been waiting to meet!

The time is now we only have a few weeks to make it happen. If this was the year you were going to loose weight, fit into those skinny jeans or look hot for the holidays in the little black dress. Your time is NOW. Join me in my year-end fat clearance. My client Kjerstan did this and loss 7 pounds in the first week!!!

I am doing a 30 day cleanse.  I’d love for you to join me. My goals for this cleanse are really simple jump start my 2012 fitness goals.

This isn’t your traditional starve yourself or drink a crazy combination of maple syrup and cayenne pepper. We aren’t going to dance around our backyards with a chicken and rabbit’s foot during a full moon. We are going to infuse our bodies with quality nutrients that ensure optimum health leading to safe weight loss.  During this cleanse we are going to get our bodies back into balance while releasing toxins and impurities that have accumulated in each of our bodies over time.

Why you should join me on this year end clearance? You’ll:

• jump start your 2012 resolutions and actually meet them
• increase your energy levels
• experience reduced cravings
• accelerate healthy weight loss
• improved digestion
• sleep better

I will be with you every step of the way going through the cleanse with you. When you join me on the year end fat clearance you will receive:

• step by step instructions
• daily motivational emails
• a grocery list
• unlimited support via email

Let’s get our weight loss goals off to a fast start. Join me for the year-end fat clearance. To join me on this challenge just shoot me an email and I’ll give you all the details.

The path to success is to take massive, determined action — Tony Robbins

So many people say the WANT to _______, you fill in the blank. Lose weight, build muscle, fit into their skinny jeans or the little black dress. And then you hit the wall of LACK! You know what I’m talking about, you can’t hit your goals, because you lack this, that and any other excuse you can drum. Below you will find 5 Lacks that you can turn around to make your weight loss/fitness goals a reality.

1. Motivation — you have a goal, but it doesn’t inspire you. It doesn’t cause you to take action.  Turn it around. What will inspire you to take action — is it telling someone? Is posting your goals all around the house? Is it taking your jeans up on your wall so you can see them each and every day? Whatever it is, needs to motivate you to take ACTION!!!
2. Accountability — you’ve set the goal, but you haven’t told anybody what it is, so if you don’t do it guess what it doesn’t matter because no one knows. Turn it around — TELL SOMEONE! You have no one to tell. Tell me — shoot me an email and I’ll hold you accountable. This accountability person is the person who holds your feet to fire and encourages when you get down or gives you the swift kick in the tush when you need it as well.
3. “Life” (you get busy) — these days are all “busy” running a million miles away, here is how you turn it around! Planning, planning and more planning.   Here’s how it works. Every week sit down and decide what you are going to do this week and put it in your calendar. I mean EVERYTHING — when will you prep your meals for the week, when will you workout.
4. Support — everyone around isn’t living a healthy lifestyle or will test your willpower. You can have just one can’t you? Well don’t let those crabs get you down. Turn it around by spending time with like minded folk. I know its hard to pull away from people, but its all about toward something versus remaining stagnat. To be successful at living a healthy life you need the support.
5. Results – you’ve gone down this path before and your results didn’t come as quickly as you would have hoped for. So.. you gave up, it wasn’t going to work any way, right. Wrong — most people give up right before they reach the tipping point the point at which change is about reach its boiling point.  I also want you to remember that change takes MASSIVE ACTION for MASSIVE RESULTS to be acheived. Are you ready to turn it around and take that MASSIVE ACTION.

I know that this is a total mind shift. You need to get your head moving from a place of what you lack into a place of what you don’t lack and how you can use those tools to push you toward your goals. One of the biggest ways I’ve been able to reach my goal is through the support of people, both online and offline. If you would like to brainstorm ways to turn aournd your fitness goals, shoot me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

PS — please join me for a pre-thanksgiving fast. I will be starting my 9 day cleanse on Tuesday, November 15 and breaking my fast on Thursday, November 24th Thanksgiving day. If you’d like to join me, please shoot me an email. My goal is to release 5 pounds from my body.

One of things I love most about fall is pumpkin.  I love anything with pumpkin, just the mention of pumpkin on a menu and I’m ordering it if there is a pumpkin product on the grocery shelf I’m buying it.

Pumpkin not only tastes great, but it’s a superfood.  It’s low in calories and contains fiber, magnesium and carotenoids.  Studies of carotenoids show that it can reduce the risk of heart disease, macular degeneration and certain cancers.  What pushes pumpkin to the top of the super food list is the alpha- carotene content.  Studies have shown that it can slow the signs of aging.  Yes, you read that correctly.

I hear all the time, that folks would like to add pumpkin to their diets but don’t know how.  Below find three ways you can add in some pumpkin.  There recipes can also be interchanged with acorn or butternut squash.

Here are three ways you can get a little more pumpkin into your diet.

Pumpkin Smoothie

• ¼ c pumpkin
• ¾ c All Whites egg whites
• 1 T coconut oil
• 1 chopped small apple
• ½-1c water (to taste)
• 1 t agave

Put all ingredients in blender.  Add a few ice cubes, the more ice cubes you add the thicker your shake. To thin out your shake add some more water to desired consistency.

Pumpkin Protein Pancake

• ¼ c Oatmeal
• ¼ c pumpkin
• ½ c cottage cheese
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 t vanilla extract (you could also use almond extract)
• 2 t nutmeg (you could also use cinnamon, cloves or pumpkin pie spice)

Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Blend until smooth.  Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat.  Pour batter into pan and cook about 2 min a side.  You should get about 3 medium sized pancakes

Pumpkin Soup

• 1 can pumpkin
• 1 can chicken soup stock (can you veggie)
• 1 t sea salt (may add more for taste)
• 1 t chili powder (may add more for taste)
• 1 t garlic (may add more for taste)
• 1 T cilantro
• 1c soft tofu

Place all ingredients in a stock pot.  Simmer until hot.  Place ingredients in a blender or food processor.  You could also use an immersion blender.

To increase your protein content to this soup, you can add in some chicken or turkey.

It started out really simple, I was looking for a new mid morning snack. I feel into a rut and was looking to branch out.  Then we had a bit of a heat wave and I didn’t feel like cooking anything. It’s one of the few times a year that not having an air conditioner in New England is a bad thing.

Any who.. I started making smoothies and I can’t stop! My smoothies have taken on a life of their own.  My latest creation.

1 T powdered greens
1/2 c greek yogurt
1 kiwi peeled
1 t Udo’s oil
4 oz sweet potato (yes a sweet potato) — previously roasted
1/2 c water
handful ice cubes

Take all of this mix in a blender and blend until smooth.  The shake will be green, but will taste great.  If you feel that you need it, you make add 1/2 t honey to add some sweetness.

We all have those mornings where we are running out the door and can’t quite cook a meal or now that the summer has finally arrived and its too hot and you just don’t want to cook give this smoothie a try.

• 1/2 mango
• 1/2 banana
• 4 strawberries — frozen
• 1 scoop of protein powder (any flavor)
• 6 ice cubes
• 1 and 1/4 cup cold water

Put all in your blender and blend until desired smoothness and thickness.  Want this to be a little more satiating add in some good fat give 1 t coconut oil, flax or udos.

Source: Sweet on Veg

Quinoa is pronounced keen-wah and has a rice-like appearance with a crunchy texture and slightly nutty flavor. It’s a staple in my cupboards because it takes great warm as well as cold. Here are a few other reasons why you should think about giving quinoa a try.

(more…)

It’s the first big weekend of the summer, you’re staring at the invitation thinking how can I do this AND keep to my lifestyle. Guess what YOU CAN! Offer to bring side dishes or part of the main course. With a grill there are so may choices grilled veggies, lean meats and great salads.

Here are a few dishes you can give a try.

Roasted chick peas – (2) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and dry with papertowel. Put in a bowl and season with 1T chili powder, 1t kosher salt 1T olive oil. Place on cookie sheet coated with non-stick cooking spray. Cook for 30-40 min keep you eye on the for the last 10 min to make sure they don’t burn.

Grilled citrus shrimp –1 to 1 1/2 pounds of uncooked medium shrimp peeled. Squeeze 2 medium oranges and 1 lime in a mixing bowl. Now add 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 t kosher salt. Like it a little spicy add in crushed red pepper flakes. Put shrimp and marinade in a ziplock bag and refrigerate for  at least 30 minutes.  Grill about 2 min/side or until shrimp turns pink.

Hummus cucumber cups — Cut 4 cucumbers into thick 1 inch slices. Using a melon baller, scoop at the seeds (careful don’t break through bottom) and add in hummus. You can use store bought. I like the garlic lovers.

Here’s a marinade to give a shot.

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, 1/2 c parsley, 1/2 c olive oil, 2 limes squeezed, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t crushed red pepper and 2 T red wine vinegar . Mix together using a food processor or hand mixer.