Hello readers!

My last post focused on protein, specifically digestion and absorption of it and how to increase the bioavailability of nutrients in your food by eating more raw plant foods and with the help of digestive enzymes. This post is dedicated to the discussion of “clean” sources of protein.

Most fitness buffs would describe a perfectly balanced meal as a grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast, steamed broccoli, and brown rice. While you could certainly eat worse things, I would like to examine the notion that chicken breast is a “clean” protein. When I say “clean”, I mean void of added hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and unhealthy feed. If you are buying your chicken (or other meat) at the grocery store or at a restaurant, likely it contains all or most of the above added ingredients. Same is true for beef, pork, dairy, eggs, and some fish. There are a variety of reasons why these additives are used, most of which include a higher yield and lower cost to the food growers, but all of them are extremely dangerous to us and detrimental to our overall health. Don’t take my word for it… look up antiobiotic overexposure and the potential dangers, and then consider that 80% of the antiobiotics used in this country are used in farm animals that we eat. The conditions these animals are raised in can be filthy, and the animals often end up very sick. They are fed a diet of feed that is unnatural to their bodies, so they are given additional medicine to keep them alive. I could go on about the horrors of factory farming, but I think you get the picture.

Our bodies are fantastic, incredibly precise machines that are constantly working to eliminate toxins that we are exposed to in the air we breathe, water we drink, and food we eat. But it is no wonder that in this age of food additives and artificial everything, our bodies can no longer keep up with the demand of detoxification. Getting back to protein… yes, we need protein/amino acids (as discussed in Part 1). But there are better ways to get protein without ingesting all of these unnecessary and harmful toxins. For example, plant based protein sources (all plants contain protein), and animals raised without the use of harmful hormones and antibiotics.

When choosing animal protein, look for the following:

• *Grass “Finished” (not just grass fed) Beef
• Hormone and Antibiotic Free
• Organic (indicates pesticide free)
• Omega-3, Vegetarian Fed Eggs
• Nitrate-Free Pork Products
• rBST-Free Dairy Products
• Wild Fish (check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium list of sustainable fish)

Some of my favorite plant proteins (remember, you must eat a variety of plants to obtain all of the essential amino acids):

• Quinoa (ancient Incan grain, nutty flavor, and contains ALL amino acids!)
• Beans, legumes
• Nuts and Seeds
• Green Leafy Vegetables (spinach, broccoli, etc.) – all contain protein!!
• Soybeans (also a comlete protein!)

In summary, for best absorption and quality of protein without unnecessary toxins, include many plant foods and only “clean” animal proteins. Your overall protein requirement will be less, and you will be consuming a higher content of micronutrients, which will make your body function optimally! The end result will be greater energy, sleep, skin, muscle tone, and overall well being.

Thanks for reading!

With the dedication to healthy eating comes the challenge of balancing the enjoyment of life’s abundance with staying committed to your goals. I think you can do both. Recently, on a cold Colorado evening, I made this recipe with a good friend and we enjoyed everything about the process… shopping for the best ingredients, spending time in the kitchen together, and finally sampling our creation.

While this recipe is not my own, I think it is worth sharing! The flavors are simple and elegant. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did…

 

 

 

 

Butternut Squash Pizza*

Serves 6

1 small butternut squash, peeled, halved, and sliced 1/8-inch thick
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced (1 1/2 cups)
2 Tbs. Eden Selected Spanish extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 16-oz. pkg. refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 cup fresh spinach leaves
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Toss together squash, onion, oil, and rosemary in bowl. Spread in large baking dish, and roast 30 minutes, or until  tender.

3. Increase oven temperature to 450°F. Divide pizza dough into 2 pieces, and shape each piece into 8-inch round. Place dough rounds on baking sheet, and top with squash mixture. Bake 13 to 17 minutes, or until crust is crisp. Drizzle pizzas with oil, scatter 1/4 cup spinach over each, and garnish each with 2 Tbs. shaved Parmesan.

Per 1/3 pizza (2 SLICES) 295 cal; 9 g prot; 8 g total fat (2 g sat fat); 47 g carb; 2 mg chol; 448 mg sod; 3 g fiber; 5 g sugars

*Vegetarian Times: Candice Garrett 1st place winner 2012 Reader Recipe Contest

If you’re like most people, you spent the holiday season enjoying family and friends, indulging in traditional holiday food and drinks, and putting off your healthy eating and exercise plan until the new year. This is what the holidays are all about, right? Well now that the sugar cookie dust has settled, its time to get to work.

Rather than refer to this time of year’s goals as “new year’s resolutions”, I prefer to call it what it really is… a commitment to yourself to do what is good for you. I am going to give you a few easy to implement strategies for getting yourself back on a healthy track:

1) Commit to changing 1-2 habits:  It takes approximately 60 days to change a habit. Pick something that you know derails your progress. For instance, if you find yourself snacking on something sweet at the same time of day each day, replace your typical sweet snack with something healthy (a green apple, a mozzarella cheese stick, a handful of raw almonds). Or maybe your best attempt to make it to your workout is delayed when you get home from work and decide to take a short rest before hitting the gym, which turns into vowing to make it tomorrow instead. Try packing your workout clothes and go straight to the gym from work. Small changes will yield big results!

2) Avoid fad diets like the plague!:  It can be tempting to commit to one of the hundreds of “lose weight quick” diet gimicks. Whether its Paleo, Atkins, Cleansing, Fasting, Southbeach, Raw Diet, or countless others, most of them require drastic changes to your lifestyle that will likely leave you feeling deprived. Don’t set yourself up to fail… Better strategies include portion control, bulking (loading up your plate with things like fresh greens and vegetables to give you more food without more calories), food swapping (exchange a poor food choice for a healthy food choice), and indulgence in moderation. You still have to live your life, give yourself some flexibility when it comes to healthy eating!

3) Its all in your head:  Losing weight, dieting, and changing your lifestyle is 100% psychological. We develop habits over a lifetime of eating, and it is not easy to change these ingrained behaviors. The first step is awareness; acknowledge your desire to change and take the necessary steps to replace an unhealthy behavior with a healthy one. The second step is to be specific; as mentioned above, choose only 1 or 2 habits at a time and commit to replacing those old habits with new ones that align with your long term goals. Plan for success! The third step is to plan for long term adherance by keeping those new habits in the forefront of your mind. Practice mindfulness in everything you do! And if you do experience setbacks, don’t beat yourself up. The emotional guilt that occurs when you “fail” at your diet or exercise goals is as detrimental to your success as the actual plan. Instead of dwelling on the momentary lack of will power, focus on why you made the choice that you did and what you can do in the future to avoid making the same mistake. Or, enjoy your moment of indulgence and move on!

4) Move your body:  While it is true you are not likely to lose weight and meet your health goals by ignoring your diet and with exercise alone, the benefits are too numerous to ignore. Exercise releases endorphins, helps you effectively manage stress, burns calories, prevents muscle and bone loss, improves strength and stamina, is a proven treatment for depression, and can also be fun! If working out in the traditional sense (in a gym or on a piece of cardio equipment) isn’t for you, almost everyone can walk. In studies of centenarians (people who live to 100 years or older), one of the  common denominators was walking. If you are new to exercise or walking, start slowly and plan on increasing your distance each week. Shoot for 45 to 60 minutes each day, most days of the week. Within no time you will feel more stamina, focus and vigor. Other activities that “count” as exercise include cleaning your house, gardening, yard work, taking the stairs, washing your car, walking your dog, playing with your kids, etc. Move your body as much and as often as you can!

5) Drink more water:  Plain and simple, water is lubrication for our cells. Without it, our bodies do not function the way they were meant to. Water aids in digestion, healthy skin, prevents muscle fatigue, helps to control appetite, and transports nutrients to our cells. If you are exercising, you are losing fluids rapidly and those fluids need to be replaced. For taste, try adding a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime, add cucumber slices, fresh ginger, orange slices, fresh mint or basil, or any other combination of fresh additions! Drink more water, aim for 80-100 ounces per day (more if you live in a dry climate or at high altitude). If this is not already a part of your new year’s health plan, it should be.

Your success in the next year with regards to your health and fitness will depend on how you approach each decision. Every choice is an opportunity to get you closer to optimum health or an anchor holding you down. Choose to live fully by treating your body the way it deserves to be treated. You will be rewarded with vitality and the ability to fully engage in life! No one said it would be easy, but I promise it will be worth it.

Thanks for reading, wishing you a healthy 2013!

Tara

 

 

Eat This, Not That…  Good” Food Vs. “Bad” Food:

One of the most commonly asked questions I receive from clients is related to whether a certain food is considered “good” or “bad”. Sometimes the answer is simple. For instance, if we’re talking about French fries covered in cheese sauce, clearly the answer is a definitive “bad”. However, often the topic can be a bit more complicated.

 

Bad Foods  It is not surprising people are more confused than ever about their diet and how to lose weight and achieve optimal health. Whether its Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, Zone, Vegetarian, or any other “diet”, there seems to be some study to justify eliminating this or that food group. While I am not a proponent of elimination diets (diets that suggest you should eliminate a macro-nutrient group entirely, for instance no carbohydrates), I would like to address foods that are considered “empty calories”. These are the undeniably “bad” foods. Empty calorie foods are made up of mostly or all solid fats and/or added sugars. They contribute calories without any real nutrients. Here are a few examples:

• Cookies, cakes, pastries, baked goods, any white flour food
• Soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, and fruit drinks
• Sausages, hot dogs, heavily processed meat
• High fat cheese
• Fried food

 

(Click here to view the USDA Food Pyramid’s table showing the amount of “empty calories” in common foods: http://:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/emptycalories_count_table.html)

 

Not only are these “empty calorie” foods low in or completely void of nutrients, but most are very high in calories. Our bodies require a very specific balance of nutrients and if our diets are deficient in certain nutrients, symptoms will arise and your general well being will suffer. I am not referring to macro-nutrients such as protein, carbs or fats, but micro-nutrients like selenium, zinc, B vitamins, iron, and countless others.

 

In addition to lacking micro-nutrients, empty calorie foods typically contain a host of other manufactured food substances that can literally be toxic to our bodies. Familiar ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, and aspartame, for example, may be added to foods to preserve the shelf life or simply to make them taste salty or sweet. There are literally thousands of these additives and chemicals added to our food supply. In very small amounts, our bodies are generally pretty good at processing and filtering unwanted substances. But, over time, these chemicals accumulate and begin to wreak havoc on our health.

 

Good Foods  On the other hand, certain foods provide a high amount and variety of nutrients while contributing fewer calories. These are the “good” foods. Not surprisingly, these foods come predominantly from plants. The following foods are considered extremely nutrient dense:

• Green leafy vegetables
• Beans and legumes
• Raw nuts and seeds
• Orange, yellow, and red colored vegetables
• Berries
• Onions, mushrooms, cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli and cauliflower)
• Oily fish (mackarel, sardines)
• Eggs (omega-3 fed only)

Highly nutrient dense foods contribute to every bodily system functioning properly. The result is increased energy and focus, proper digestion, weight management, disease prevention, and general well being. The problem is, most Americans consume far more “bad” foods than they do “good” ones. The first step to improving the ratio of nutrient dense foods to empty calorie foods in your diet is to eliminate or drastically reduce the amount of processed food you eat. You may have heard the saying, “if your grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, don’t eat it”. So this leaves fruit, vegetables, meat/poultry/fish, seeds/nuts, and beans/legumes.

 

“Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. “ … Michael Pollan

 

It may be a difficult transition at first, but by slowly eliminating the “bad” foods from your diet and incorporating as many of the “good” foods as possible, you will notice improvements in every aspect of your health. Check out Revolution Personal Training’s “Food” section for recipes!

Thanks for reading,

 

Tara

 

Welcome to Revolution Personal Training!

Whether you are a current client, prospective client, or just browsing, I hope this site offers you inspiration and tools to live a healthier life! Visit often for recipes, workout ideas, and updates on the latest health and fitness information.

My intention is to provide useful content to you weekly in the form of honest, authentic dialogue. Please enjoy and good luck with your own Revolution!

Tara