Food For Thought: Nutrition Facts

As you know, I am all about eating clean. I firmly believe that anyone who is looking to improve their health, lose weight, achieve fitness goals, or even just feel better should make the focus of their food based on the principle of clean eating. One who is eating clean should seek to avoid processed foods, decrease their sugar intake, and eat as many foods in their whole and natural form as possible. Individuals who are striving to eat this way often question where they stand with packaged foods. After all, sometimes broccoli comes in a package? There are definitely some healthy and nutritious foods that come packaged, the trick to knowing which packaged items are better than others lies in knowing how to read the nutriton labels.

A few things to look for:
1) The fewer ingredients the better
2) The ingredients are listed in sequential order of the amounts used (largest amounts first)
3) You should be able to identify the names of the ingredients
4) It is also smart to check the serving size

Let me explain a little further with some pics...
Nutrition Label #1

The ingredients are very simple; Dates, unsweetened coconut, almonds, cashews, and extra virgin coconut oil. You know by looking at this that dates are the first ingredient so they are used in the largest amount, and then on down the line with the rest of the ingredients. All of these ingredients are recognizable, and the serving size is one bar. This is a clean and healthy choice for sure. 

Nutrition Label #2

The ingredients are NOT so simple here. I have no idea what isomalto-oligosaccharides are? I don't think you can pick those up at the local farmers market. AKA - processed. The first listed ingredient is the items that make up the coating of the bar...that scares me a little? Again, words I don't recognize. Lastly, there are actually two servings in this one bar. Most people would assume that if it is one bar, the nutrition information would be for one serving. Not so. This is definitely something that throws people off with vending machine food, soda, ice cream, etc. Portion control gets tricky with scenarios like this. 

So, clearly we would go with bar #1 if we were choosing which ingredients were better. My challenge to you is to be more aware of the food you are putting in your body. Look to see if you are eating an apple...or an isomalto-olgiosaccharide...whatever that is? 

Rotisserie Chicken - Make Eating Healthy Easier!

A great deal of the questions I get have to do with making healthy eating easier. Everyone has busy schedules, and finding ways to make healthy meals quickly can be a huge help in making positive food choices. One of the biggest problems that I have when it comes to quick food prep is protein, especially when it comes to making healthy choices. Whipping up some protein usually takes time...that and I HATE touching raw meat. It really is not my favorite. So, what's a healthy, in a hurry, meat-a-phobe to do? The answer...rotisserie chicken! 

All you have to do is bring it home, take off the skin, peel the chicken off the bones, put it in a tupperware, and throw it in the fridge. It is fantastically easy and can be used for so many different things! I just recently used it in my Greek Chopped Chicken Salad. You could put it in a stir fry, put it in a wrap, make a sandwich, throw it in a casserole, or just eat it as a snack. EASY. 

The "Baby It's Cold Outside" At Home Circuit

Mother Nature decided to play this awesome trick on me. It looks a little something like this.

Does that look/feel familiar to you? Yowza. Not my favorite kind of joke. With temperatures that make your breath freeze in mid air the second you step outside, it can be MUCH easier to get your sweat on indoors. My mom and sis and I did this workout when I was visiting in Texas. It takes about 25 minutes. Quick, sweaty, and to the point. Just the way we like it! Hopefully this at-home circuit workout will help you out!

The "Baby It's Cold Outside" At Home Circuit Workout

30 burpees
30 deep air squats
30 pushups
30 plyometric lunges


20 burpees
20 deep air squats
20 pushups
20 plyometric lunges


10 burpees
10 deep air squats
10 pushups
10 plyometric lunges

*If you get to this point and you are feeling like you wanna push it some more, go through and do 10 again, or drop down to 5 of each!*

1 minute plank hold
10 walkouts to a pushup
1 minute plank hold
10 walkouts to a pushup

*for the walkouts to a pushup you start standing, bend over with straight legs, walk your body out to a pushup position with your hands (feet stay in place) do a pushup, walk your hands back to your feet with straight legs, and stand back up.

You can do this workout anywhere! If you want to add some intensity, do your burpees, air squats, and plyo lunges holding weights, increase your plank time, or add more reps. Speaking of Texas...here are some of my favorite pics from the trip...

Yep. It was a blast! 

It's time. Get rid of it.

With the holidays comes a plethora of goodies. All sorts of tasty treats that we usually don't indulge in seem to make their way to our kitchen counters, and very frequently into our mouths. Now, I am all about moderation when it comes to eating and exercising...and I think that there is nothing wrong with allowing for occasional indulgences. HOWEVER, it seems that with the holidays there are so many reasons to indulge they become far more than occasional. As the holidays come to an end there are many thoughts of improving eating and exercise habits. This is a great thing to aspire for. With that being said, I have a little piece of advice for you.

Create for yourself a setting for success. If you have holiday treats and candies adorning your shelves and countertops, the chances of you walking by them and snagging a bite or two are a lot greater. With extra bites of treats and goodies you are stunting your progress towards improvement! So...My advice to you is to GET RID OF IT. All of it. Deplete your home of the temptations that are stopping you from getting where you want to be. I bet there is a lot of junk that you will never even miss. Do a pantry/fridge clean out of the foods that aren't doing much for you and replace them with the healthy and nutritious foods that will benefit you!
Tis the season for healthy food choices and achieving your goals!

Greek Chopped Chicken Salad: AKA I have created a masterpiece

While I was in Austin over Christmas break my sister made us a greek salad for dinner, which reminded me just how much I LOVE greek salads. They are simple, delicious, and full of good nutrition. Ever since then I have been wanting to make one. Last night I decided to make a delicious greek salad for dinner, but I decided take my own spin on it. Well, guess what? It turned out kind of amazing. It is such a simple meal, but totally filling. It is full of protein, fresh produce, and good fats. It is an easy make ahead meal that you could pre-chop and mix together right before it's time to eat. Promise you'll love it.

Greek Chopped Chicken Salad

Ingredients for salad: 4 oz cooked/shredded chicken breast, (I used rotisserie chicken) 1/4 an avocado chopped, diced tomatoes, diced olives, a few cups of your choice of lettuce chopped (I used a spring mix w/spinach).  You could also add chopped cucumbers, sunflower seeds, and feta if you like!

Ingredients for dressing: 1 part red wine vinegar, 2 parts olive oil, 2-3 tsp garlic salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1-2 tsp Lowry's season salt. (I put this in a mason jar and shake it to combine) This will make more dressing than you need for one salad, but it will keep great in the fridge.

Combine lettuce, chicken, avocado, tomatoes, and olives in a bowl. Drizzle with dressing and toss to combine.

I had this for dinner last night and made it again for lunch today because I liked it so much! It is light, flavorful and filling! SO TASTY!

My Goals for 2013

I always like to write out a few goals to work towards for the new year. I think it helps to give you something to work towards, and keeps you motivated. I DON'T think you should set goals that are unrealistic, and will only cause you to beat yourself up. Setting yourself up for failure is the quickest way to make no progress at all. :)

My health goals for 2013 are...
1) Broaden my healthy cooking palate. I want to learn to make at least 12 new dishes, one per month.
2) Take some dance classes. I grew up dancing, and I miss it. It is such an awesome way to workout and I want to get back into it.
3) Keep up my current exercise plan of 3 cardio interval workouts per week & 3 circuit/resistance intervals per week.
4) Improve my plank hold time.
5) Keep exploring the Paleo way of eating.

What are some of your goals for the new year??

Welcome 2013! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013!! I love the fresh start that the new year brings. We sent 2012 away with a party last night. 

 We have a tradition of making lanterns and sending them off to celebrate.

 Aren't they pretty??

I have always been big into goal setting. I think there is a lot to be said about acknowledging goals, and writing them down, and working towards improvement. I always love looking over my last years goals to see what I've accomplished and what I can still work on. 

My goals from last year were...

1. Run a full Marathon - CHECK! I ran the Utah Valley Marathon with my sister which was a tough/awesome experience.

2. No Candy/Treats/Sugar with the exceptions are frozen yogurt and mentos. - I did pretty well with this one! I think there is always room for improvement. I allowed myself some free days. 

3. Record my food. - I am actually happy to say that I failed with this one. I was an overly diligent food recorder until I started eating Paleo, and then I stopped recording my food which was really scary for me. Up until March 2012 when I started eating paleo I could probably have shown you a food journal from the past 5 years. I have become better at intuitive eating which I never thought was possible with me. (I see a new post in the making) 

4. Improve my photography skills..this translates over into improving my lil' bliggity blog so it counts as health and fitness. I did pretty well with this one, but there is still room for improvement, and I'm happy to say the blog improvement is still in the works! Hopefully to be unveiled this week! 

I'll be posting my new goals for 2013 tomorrow! How did you do on your goals from 2012??