I always know it's going to be a great day when a new Bodybuilding.com order arrives at my doorstep! Currently, they are having a sale I just could not pass up: buy two Cellucor 2 lb protein powders, get 1 free. That means 6 pounds of protein for $60, when I usually get 5 lbs for that price if I'm lucky. PLUS I am the type of person who likes to try a little bit of everything (tapas or going out for sushi with friends who like to share is my perfect type of dinner). Now I can switch up the flavors when I want, and don't run the risk of getting sick of a delicious protein powder just because I am eating the same one every post-workout meal. Along with a box of White Chocolate Raspberry Quest Bars and my FREE shaker cup, I received 1 tub of Peanut Butter Marshmallow, Whipped Vanilla, and the new exclusive flavor (that was recently back ordered until February) COR-Fetti Cake Batter <3
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Bruschetta is one of those foods I rarely get to enjoy, but when I do it makes my Italian taste buds sing. Traditionally, bruschetta is made with tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil, S&P, and balsamic vinegar, served on top of a fresh, warm baguette rubbed with more olive oil and garlic. Yeah, sounds amazing I know. Well today I thought I could spin this into a salad with the superfood kale as my base and, of course, some protein for my lunch today.
Kale is a vegetable I make sure I eat at least once a day, and I love it in my salads. It is very high in calcium, iron, fiber, and antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K. It also supplies one of the highest amounts of vitamin K, a total of 684% in 1 cup of chopped kale. Eating a diet rich in the powerful antioxidant vitamin K can reduce the overall risk of developing or dying from cancer, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and is important for bone health and normal blood clotting. Anyways, the result of this salad was so delicious I had to share this creation with you all immediately! Here is my recipe for Turkey and Kale Bruschetta salad. I always wondered how I could make a delicious substitution for regular ice cream without an ice cream maker or having bananas be the base. Then it occurred to me that I could probably freeze greek yogurt and make frozen yogurt just like that. So with some validation from other food bloggers I discovered it was indeed that simple, but it was certainly missing something I try to eat at every meal: PROTEIN. So now I share with you, my fitness family, my effortless and delicious recipe for vanilla frozen yogurt and questbar cookies for when you need a healthy way to satisfy that sweet tooth.
Forget New Year's resolutions. Something about "New Year's resolutions" implies "I intend to fail at this because it's just another fitness/weight related resolution like I make every year." Instead, focus on making long-term goals. Every year I write a letter to myself going over all the exciting events that happened the previous year. But the most important part of this letter is when I evaluate the goals I set for myself to see if I achieved them. Setting goals, both long-term and short-term, is so beneficial for making actual conceivable progress. Goals with a time limit, a concrete number, and a plan to accomplish them allows us to make real strength gains, lose body fat, and stay focused on our health. Just making a resolution like "I will lift more weight," "I want to squat more," or the famous "I will lose weight this year and finally get my diet on track" has no specificity or measurability to help us stick to these resolutions.
Now that I have hopefully convinced you that you need to ditch the wishful, nonspecific resolutions and write down some concrete goals, I am going to help you make those goals bulletproof so you can happily check them off January 1, 2015. I am going to share with you a quick tip that has helped me survive long days at work, school, commenting, traveling, or running errands. As I am preparing to travel back to NY today for the holidays, I made sure to cross "pack a snack" off my to-do list. This is because even while traveling, I strive to keep my fitness goals in mind. The airport options are Dunkin Donuts and UNOs pizza, so since I will be arriving around dinner time, I need to make sure I have something to munch on other than donuts or greasy stale airport pizza. Behold the power of Trail Mix! Any snacks will do, but today I made an awesome, Paleo friendly trail mix and wanted to share how to easily prepare and store this snack in your bag for those busy days out of the house. Now you can ditch the fast food for more fitness food! :)
I spent a couple hours in my kitchen this morning experimenting on how to make a new and simple protein packed snack. These are also full of healthy fats, making it a great high protein and fat pre-workout. I came up with two versions, both equally delicious! The first requires just THREE ingredients. The second version is a bit more complex using a couple more ingredients. Both have NO BAKING required! Lastly, I tried baking some of these into protein cookies and they came out pretty good, just not as sweet as you would expect a cookie to be. Still, I will explain how to perfect this recipe by what I should have done to make these cookies even better than my first attempt :)
Who doesn't get a sweet tooth from time to time? I know that there are some days I am drowning in homework, rushing around from school to work to the gym, and after I eat an ordinary dinner of sweet potatoes and leftover chicken, there is still something to be desired. My stress hormones are begging me to cave in, go get a cinnamon bun and not look back. But I am always prepared for when the sugar cravings kick in, my dopamine is telling me what a treat some donuts would be, and my reserve of willpower is almost empty. I am about to share with you the best tasting guilt-free desserts that I have accumulated in my healthy food arsenal. This is essential for when life sucks and all you want to eat is something sweet while you watch Netflix on repeat. QuestBar CookiesSo I have received a lot of requests to write about this subject from many of you who want to begin lifting but do not know where to start. Of course I think this is a great idea because instead of just telling you to lift, I can inform you on HOW to! In this blog post, I will give you some simple program templates to follow, as well as how to do properly perform these exercises + some assistance work. Then I will share with you briefly WHAT I DO, which are highly technical movements that you should not attempt until you receive proper coaching on form so you do not injure yourself. Nonetheless, this will give you an idea of just how much volume I do each week.
As the holiday season approaches, we all begin to remind ourselves what we are thankful for: friends, family, and our bounty of opportunities. Thanksgiving is also a time for endless amounts of delicious, home cooked comfort foods. Now while the food is my favorite part of coming home for Thanksgiving, I have fitness goals that I also need to keep in mind. Thanksgiving only comes once a year, so I ENCOURAGE you to enjoy all the delectable food on your table this Thursday with your loved ones. But this day does not have to ruin your fitness progress either! I wanted to offer some helpful tips to avoid completing sabotaging all the hard work you have put in towards achieving your fitness goals, whether it is steadily losing body fat, watching your sugar intake, or trying to cut weight for a competition. Here are my top 5 fit tips to help you enjoy a guilt-free Thanksgiving and keep moving in the right direction. Get Active: Before & After!In my last blog post Why Females Should Lift Heavy, I briefly talked about the ways lifting has transformed my body by decreasing my body fat and increasing my lean body mass. I wanted to elaborate more on the benefits of resistance training for those of you looking to lose body fat. The answer does not lie solely in endless elliptical or 30 minute ab classes at your gym. I am going to hopefully convince you to give strength training priority in your workout routine by the end of this post.
So to lose weight, we all know we need to increase our energy expenditure (that is, more calories must be burned than calories consumed). Therefore, it would be wise to burn as many calories as possible during the time we dedicate to working out each day. For simplicity, burning calories can happen in two ways: directly and indirectly. Direct energy expenditure is exactly what you think it is: the calories you burn running on the treadmill, or performing X hours of exercise to burn X amount of calories. Indirect energy expenditure, on the other hand, isn’t quite as obvious. This is dictated by the amount of lean muscle mass you have, and is also know as "resting metabolism." The important thing to take note of is that your indirect energy expenditure is the bigger contributor to overall caloric expenditure. Getting the “metabolism up” is the key to shedding a substantial amount of body fat. Because lean muscle mass allows us to increase indirect expenditure, shouldn't we focus on increasing our muscle mass? Yes. So now you ask, how do I accomplish this? The answer is simple: WEIGHT TRAINING AND ADEQUATE PROTEIN CONSUMPTION ARE THE TWO OF THE BIGGEST FACTORS FOR INCREASING LEAN MASS. |
Meet LeighannI am a 26 year-old competitive Olympic weightlifter who loves to learn and talk about anything involving nutrition and exercise. My passion is to help others live at their full potential as a future surgeon of the 2018 medical school class. The journey towards health & happiness looks different for everyone, but I hope to help guide and inspire you, wherever you may be on yours. Welcome to my healthy food & fitness blog! Archives
October 2014
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