Be Prepared!

Whether stuck in traffic, running late for work, stuck at your desk through lunch, or a long errand run, it's always a smart idea to have some healthy snacks on hand. A Junior High teacher once told me, "Failure to prepare is to prepare for failure". When it comes to a hungry stomach, if you aren't prepared to battle the rumbling beast.. disaster can strike!


Between meals, small snacks (100-250 Calories) are essential to keep your metabolism going, your energy levels up, a focused mind and your stomach satisfied so that when it comes to your next meal, you can approach it with a calm mind rather than raging stomach! I think we all know what happens if you wait too long to eat in-between meals, and it aint pretty!

There's a funny myth out there that "snacks are bad" and "snacking leads to weight gain". I'll give them half credit on this one. What you don't remember about this saying is that unhealthy snacks are "bad" and uncontrolled snacking leads to weight gain. There is good news though. Ready for it? Healthy snacks are very much good for you, help achieve daily % of vitamins, minerals, etc. and controlled snacking can often times lead to weight loss!

Now, if you are an expert in the snacking department, like me, you're probably pretty excited to hear this wonderful news! If I'm being honest, sometimes I look forward to my snacks more than my meals! But that's where I have to be careful. Snacks need to know their place, and should never take place of a meal. Got it? Kapeesh? Okay, good. ;)

Maybe some of you are wondering, well Shannon, at what times am I supposed to incorporate snacks? What a great question. This is when you are to be prepared. Prepare for at least 2 snacks a day. For snacking to be successful you need to start a food schedule.  For example, hopefully you are all now starting to eat breakfast (as this starts off your energy for the day), then comes a mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner and perhaps even a snack after dinner, all within 3-4 hours of each other (CAUTION: as a society we have learned that anything we eat after dinner is considered dessert, and actually tend to crave something sweet because of that thought process, and bad habits.. more on this later, but be cautious if you decide to have a snack after dinner)

Seems simple enough, right. Who is to say, though, that on your way home from work there is a terrible accident and you are stuck for at least an extra hour. You start realizing that you are starting to get hungry. Be prepared! Have a small bag of almonds in your car if you are a commuter. It will make you a more alert, keep you satisfied until dinner and bring some kind of happiness to a not so happy commute ;) Or lets say you run out the door and completely forget to eat breakfast, have a healthy power bar in your purse you can eat on your way to work. These simple strategies of being prepared will be the difference in a healthy eating day, and perhaps an "off" eating day.

Everyone's schedule is different, I know this because hopefully not everyone's is like mine.. some days waking up and starting my day at 4am. On these days, I completely understand not wanting to have a "meal" during this time.
For me, I will actually start my day, around 5am with a snack; a banana, or half a power bar, something that will get my wheels turning, but not something too overwhelming.
Around 7:30am I'll have some Oats with just a little bit of dried cranberries with some coffee.
Around 11am is when I'll actually have my lunch- egg white omelet, turkey bacon, and a side of fruit (see previous blog.. I told you I always have to have my omelet)
Around 2:30/3, I'll pull out some deli turkey, hummus, and some rice crisps or carrots for a snack.
Dinner will usually be around 6:30, and it varies what's on the table, last night it was a turkey burger (made from Jennie-O extra lean ground turkey) with a bit of low-fat pepper jack cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes mixed in, with a mixed green salad.
I had a late night snack of a cup of Special K w/ Berries cereal (it's cures my sweet tooth, without overdoing it with fat)

Okay, so that is just an example of how you can incorporate snacks into a planned schedule. What helps me most is to have my snacks prepared and ready to go for the week on sunday night. I will cut up all my fruit (strawberries, cantaloupe, peaches, etc.) and put them in containers, cut up my veggie snacks (carrots, celery, peppers, etc.) and place them in tupperware, and make sure I have enough healthy snacks ready to go if I need to simply grab something.

Some of you may have such good intentions, but just simply don't know what kind of snacks are healthy.. well I'll do my best to list some of my favorites that may or may not suit your fancy :)

*LOVE hummus and Rice Crisps (serving size 38 crisps=130 cals) or veggies
*Carrots & a few stalks of Celery cut up with 1tbsp Peanut Butter
*Fruit and 1-2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
*Almonds!! (all you need is about 10-12) or a handful of trail mix
*Deli Meat w/ a piece of cheese
*Light String Cheese
*3/4 C Fat Free Cottage Cheese & Peaches
*Power Bar (make sure to check saturated fat.. sometimes it really is too good to be good for you.. and you should feel confident in what the ingredients are. I like LaraBars, it's all natural ingredients, but they are really sweet, so you really only need half at one time)
*1 serving fortified cereal w/ 1 Cup Skim Milk (I wouldn't say to have this all the time, but it's a controlled snack and will satisfy a late night sweet craving)

These are just a few of my favorites. Depending on goals, and what your meals consist of, you can cut down how many "sweet" snacks you have, such as fruits. Please feel free to ask me any questions! Everyone is different and has different goals in mind.

Remember, it's not a meal, so don't get too carried away. If your almonds come in a container, pour out 10 and put the container away. The only time you can leave the container out is for veggies, please by all means, eat all the veggies you want! :) Also remember to be prepared. You are more likely to reach for your fruit or veggies if they are cut up nicely. If caught unprepared, that bag of chips just may find their way into your lap :O Don't let this happen to you..

Now it's your turn.. Start with what time you get up and plan your snacks accordingly!

Breakfast__________

Mid-Morning Snack__________

Lunch_____________

Mid-Afternoon Snack___________

Dinner____________

After-Dinner Snack? _____________


   

Start off the day right!

I don't know how many times I have met with a new client who is frustrated and confused on why the scale isn't moving in the direction desired. These particular clients seem to have a pretty clean eating lifestyle, and have even incorporated exercise into their routine.  Seems like they are doing everything right, so then I throw in the kicker question. "Well, what do you normally eat for breakfast?" 9 times out of 10, the client will answer, 'Oh, I don't eat breakfast', followed by, 'I'm not usually hungry that early', 'I'm too busy getting things together in the morning to make myself breakfast', or the winning answer, 'I'm just not a breakfast person'.  Let me just say this.. if you fall into any of these categories, your answer is not wrong in any means, or even an excuse.  If you want your answer to stay that way, then you should stop reading now. Once you know the facts and benefits of eating breakfast, then skipping it just won't be an option.  I'll give you a moment of silence to contemplate....


Congratulations! I knew you would know better ;) You've just overcome the first hurdle!

First off, anyone who currently does not eat breakfast is in a great position. This means this simple change to your lifestyle can make a huge difference in your energy levels, satiety throughout the day, and, of course, weight loss! For those of you who are already on the breakfast bandwagon.. this info will just be affirmation and a big ol' pat on the back ;)

Think about this for a moment. Lets say you ate dinner around 7pm. Go to bed, wake up the next morning around 6 or 7am (that's already been 12 hours) and decide not to eat breakfast, for whatever reason at all. You head to work, errands, the gym, where ever your schedule calls you and don't realize you are actually hungry until it's about noon. By this point it's been 17 hours since your last meal, and now your body is saying you need to eat. So you do. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you eat something nutritious (Mhmm... righhht) but also decide snacking on the bread offered at the restaurant to make the rumbling go away in your stomach sounds like a good idea. By the time you get home, you start looking in the cupboards for anything you can open and indulge in. Then dinner comes, around 7pm again, and you decide to eat a big, hearty meal since you hadn't really eaten much all day. Go to bed, wake up at 6 am and the cycle continues.

Okay, let me break this down a bit.

Right away, you can see that a lot of time passes from dinnertime to even breakfast time. If you decide to 'wait' until lunch, it's best compared to going into a small fast. You do not want your body to get used to this. Going without food for such a long period of time increases the production of insulin in your body which can cause you to store more fat. Don't blame your body though, it just is storing up because it isn't sure when it will be fed again, it's adapting to your lifestyle...

By lunchtime, how many people can say they would choose something nutritious? A lot of times you won't even be able to wait until lunch without snacking on something you have on hand.. candy, chips, donut holes. By waiting so long to fuel your body for your day, you put yourself at risk of making bad decisions and overeating at lunch. That packed lunch may not sound as good as the smell of jack-in-the-box across the street, if you catch my drift..

I don't have to explain much about what happens when you get home for the day.. because if you are like me and haven't eaten much all day, you "deserve" whatever you can get your hands on. Not only do you "deserve" a good meal for dinner, but for some reason you also "deserve" dessert! Its not the cookie monster.. it's the deserve monster in all of us that stole that cookie from the cookie jar, lets just be honest..

Okay Okay, all joking aside, what can we do to get you to start your day off right then? Maybe you ask, what would be a few good options to eat if you fall under those categories I mentioned earlier..

If you are the 'not usually hungry in the morning', and perhaps the thought of eating something right when you wake up doesn't sounds so appealing, here's a few options. It's still important to make sure you have something to start kick start your metabolism for the day.. maybe something like a protein shake,  smoothie, or who doesn't love a piece of toast with some peanut butter? Even a bit of a protein bar will do! These will also work for the 'I'm too busy in the morning to eat'. Something quick and simple is better than nothing. Just please don't take from this that I'm saying it's okay to grab some pop-tarts.. don't do it.. I will come smack it out of your hand! As for the 'just not breakfast' people, the hard fact is, you have to learn to be. You may not love breakfast, but if you are serious about your fitness goals, then you need to be serious about how you start your day. If your fitness goal is to lose body fat or weight, you need your body to start burning calories from the point you wake up, rather than using those hours of "fasting" for storing fat. Right? Has a lightbulb gone off for anyone yet?

If you love breakfast, like I do, or are learning to love breakfast, heres a fun fact. In a study found in Nutrition for Health, Fitness & Sport, Vander Wal and others found that eating eggs (or any other lean protein) for breakfast can curb appetite at lunch and for the remainder of the day, reducing the total daily intake by about 250 fewer Calories (Williams, 466) Funny, you would think cutting out a meal would reduce calories.. but that is just not the case! Good news for us breakfast feens!

Here is my ritual every morning and a few pictures of my breakfast today!

If you know me, you know I love my egg white omelets. My favorite pan we have is my omelet specific one! All you do is pour in the egg whites, spinach, jalapenos (as shown), tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, whatever you want! It has a grill on both sides so you can flip it half way! I also make a few pieces of low sodium, low-fat turkey bacon, which makes the house smell nice and bacony ;)

I do my breakfast right, adding a slice of Fat-free American cheese and always have to have either salsa, or Taco Bell Sauce! NOTE: I only use pepper on my eggs, because you get enough sodium from the cheese & turkey bacon. Accompanying my omelet is a nice side of fruit (cantaloupe, peaches, strawberries & grapes) and of course my cup of coffee with Stevia & Coffee Mate Natural Bliss creamer (with all natural ingredients)!

All of this for only about 325 Calories (egg whites + toppings = 80, cheese = 25, turkey bacon = 70 (35 each), Salsa/TB Sauce = 0, coffee + creamer = 30, bowl of fruit = approx. 120) Yummy!

Side Note: Just so you know, at the beginning of the week I cut up all my fruit so I can easily and quickly add it to the side of a meal. The omelet and turkey bacon only take about 5 minutes to make! (6 if you like your bacon crispy!!)


Okay, no more excuses! Start you day off right from now on, or you shall be cursed with the guilt of  knowledge ;)    

Welcome to my life! ;)

It's really been on my mind to start a blog so that my clients, friends, family, neighbors or even just onlookers can be satisfied knowing that .. no, there is no such thing as being born fit, with a desire to always eat healthy or with a burning motivation to constantly workout. I mean.. look far right in this pic.. does that look like a kid with a fit, motivated gene? 

With that said, personally, I've always wanted to be fit (I mean, who doesn't?) but I didn't know how to do it right. In Jr High & High School, I decided I would make myself fit & slender with a killer six-pack! I thought, just eat non-fat things, then for sure I won't gain any fat! But then I would be so confused when my belly would bloat out from my breakfast, lunch, and dinner of dried fruit, low-fat bread, plain animal crackers, and cereal. Hmm... So I would try to burn off so many calories each day that I knew I was in a deficit (burn 700 .. eat 500..) Makes sense.. but I was so shocked that, yes I was losing weight, but how did I not have any muscle definition? I was working out every day, so where was my six-pack, and why was I still soft and squishy? Not to mention the lack of energy, lack of high performance for sports, etc. 

When I got into college, I realized there was a science behind all the madness AND that I could have a career in it! I figured I already knew so much anyway I might as well major in it.  You can imagine how shocked I was when I started studying the correct methods to being fit, and the nutrition your body needs (even fats!!) to get and keep your body slender and tone. This fascinated me even more and although it was hard to break out of bad habit, I tried new methods, ate more, took days off from working out, and was seeing some of the best results of my life. 

So yes, I AM motivated. My clients motivate me. Personal goals motivate me. Seeing someone's potential and helping them achieve it motivates me. Certain pictures I tear out of magazines (or pin on Pinterest!) motivate me. Showing people that there is a healthy way to become fit besides over-exercise, under-eating motivates me. Running motivates me. Motivating others motivates me. It's something you have to continually work at, and check-in with, but let me tell you.. once you are motivated, there is no stopping you!