Build your Summer body in the Winter

With the beginning of the new year comes those resolutions of millions of people to get more physically fit by joining gyms. Most people need a clean slate to start something new, and the beginning of the year is just the jump start they need. Along with working out and being more active, people should also focus on the other aspects that have lead you to where you are now. The most notable aspect is your eating habits. If you have poor eating habits, it will counteract the hard work you put in at the gym. Who wants their efforts to be in vain? No one (hopefully, lol). If you change the way you eat, you'll see results. This is definitely easier said than done though. You have to be focused on your goal at all times, plan to keep yourself on track, and surround yourself with positive influences. Have a friend hold you accountable, prep your meals so that hunger doesn't cause you to make bad decisions on the fly, align your nutrition with your fitness goals, etc.

A friend of mine always encourages me to workout, even when I don't want to. I feel that they hold me accountable. They do the same with my nutrition. Because they know what I'm trying to do, I feel that it makes me try harder to not let myself down, and to not let them down either. At the end of the day you have to want it more for yourself than they want it for you. Figure out what your excuses are and try to find options and solutions. We have 5 months until June people. Let's start construction on these Summer bodies made in the Winter. We can do it!!!

What are some of your goals? What are some of the things holding you back? What are your solutions? Comment. Your answers may help someone in need :-)

Dinner Food Diary

So I was watching Food Network and 'The Kitchen" was on. They had a lady on the show who had been keeping a dinner diary for 30+ years I believe. I thought that this was a great idea. She only writes down what she cooks, not the recipe. I immediately thought about how this can help people come up with dinner ideas, look back and see what they were eating to help explain differences in weight, and what lead to health problems or solutions. It is always a struggle to get me to write a recipe because I hate measuring. Cooking is my passion and I use my senses and intuition when adding ingredients. Day to day my senses and intuition can change causing me to make something completely different, but still delicious. I have been trying out the food diary for a few days and I'm loving it. Now, next month when I don't know what to cook for dinner, I'll just pull out my food diary and find my own inspiration. Try it and see if It works for you :-)

Granny Smith Apple Crescent Pie

The inspiration for this recipe came from a new friend who loves Granny Smith Apple Pie with Blue Bell ice-cream. I haven’t seen Blue Bell ice-cream where I live in VAL, but I still wanted to make an apple pie. I thought I’d make them mini pies so I wouldn’t have to cut a million apples (Yep, I was lazy. So what? Lol. It turned out to be a great thing. *Shrugs*). This recipe is so simple that even the most inexperienced home cook can do it.

This recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients

1 Granny Smith Apple

1 ½ T Sugar (Sugar in Spanish is azúcar. Random, I know.)

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Non-stick Spray

*Cookware needed

Cutting Board

Knife

Measuring Spoons

Cookie Sheet

Directions

1.) Pre-heat your oven to 350°F. (I know your packaging on the Crescent rolls say 375°F, but I like doing things my way. I don’t want the outside to get too brown before the apples have a chance to get tender.)

2.) Cut the apple into halves and then cut each half into 8 pieces. (Be sure to cut off any of the middle core/seed area. Not sexy.)

3.) In a bowl, add the slices apples, 1 ½ T sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

4.) Coat the apples with the mixture and let it sit while you’re preparing the dough.

5.) Open the crescent roll package and place each individual piece on a cookie sheet. (Be sure to spray with non-stick spray.)

6.) For each piece of dough, take 2 apple slices and wrap them inside. (Be sure to press any gaps together completely enclosing the apples in the dough.)

7.) Once all apples are safely wrapped in dough, bake for 15-20 minutes. (The color should be a slightly under golden brown.)

8.) Serve and enjoy with a caramel drizzle and your favorite ice-cream.

In hindsight, I should’ve peeled the apple, but it was still tasty and perfectly delicious! As always, if there is a topic or recipe you’d like me to post, don’t hesitate to comment and let me know. I’m constantly looking for ways to give you more value on my blog. Peace, love, and food!

Set yourself up for success with your food lifestyle

Have you ever had a difficult time trying to stay true to your new food lifestyle? Most people would say yes, but don’t fully understand that they have not set themselves up for success the proper way. Here’s what I mean. So you say that you’ll begin to eat clean starting today. You go to the grocery store and buy good wholesome ingredients and think that you’re well on your way to changing your habits. Sadly, this is not enough. What about the items you already had in your pantry/fridge that are not conducive to a healthy eating environment? Why do you still have them around? The answer is because you’re not fully committed to your new lifestyle. You can easily fall victim to the late night munchies (lol) or the unhealthy quick afternoon snack and suddenly you’re back at square 1.

This post came about with me trying to basically save me from myself. On Sunday night I tried a new creation, Individual Granny Smith Apple Pies. OMG they were soooo delicious and I served them with a caramel sauce and Butter Pecan ice-cream (Post coming soon! #JustWaitOnIt ). There were 4 mini pies left and I knew that if I were to simply put them in the refrigerator, I’d come back the next day and eat another 2 (because I’m a fat kid at heart. *Shrugs*). So to create a barrier for myself, I put the remaining pies in the freezer. If I wanted to eat them, it would have required too much effort to thaw out and warm back up, so I passed on the opportunity and thus successfully saved myself from myself. Now granted I indulge in sweets on the weekends, but everything else is pretty much Paleo. I told Trent (#Bae) about what I did and he thought it’d make a great post. Thanks hunnie J (He’s right 99.9% of the time).

I encourage everyone to go through every single food item (Yep, E-VE-RY food item) and determine which ones are not in agreement with your new lifestyle. Sure you don’t want to throw out all the food. Fine, I get it. You can start to get away from those items by creating barriers. Freeze the items that you can, and put the rest of the items all in one corner of your pantry/fridge. Don’t mix the bad items with the good items. Divide and conquer people (#ThisIsSparta lmao!). Doing this makes it easy for you to make an informed decision about what you’re going to cook/eat at that moment. If you open the ‘bad’ pantry or reach for the ‘bad’ shelf, you already know that you’re deliberately making that choice to go against what you said you would do in your new lifestyle. You can’t make excuses for yourself (We all know what excuses are).

Hopefully this will help someone. Set yourself up for success! And as always, if there is a topic or recipe you’d like me to post, don’t hesitate to comment and let me know. I love reading comments! I’m constantly looking for ways to give you more value on my blog. Peace, love, and food!

Set yourself up for success with your food lifestyle.

Have you ever had a difficult time trying to stay true to your new food lifestyle? Most people would say yes, but don’t fully understand that they have not set themselves up for success the proper way. Here’s what I mean. So you say that you’ll begin to eat clean starting today. You go to the grocery store and buy good wholesome ingredients and think that you’re well on your way to changing your habits. Sadly, this is not enough. What about the items you already had in your pantry/fridge that are not conducive to a healthy eating environment? Why do you still have them around? The answer is because you’re not fully committed to your new lifestyle. You can easily fall victim to the late night munchies (lol) or the unhealthy quick afternoon snack and suddenly you’re back at square 1.

This post came about with me trying to basically save me from myself. On Sunday night I tried a new creation, Individual Granny Smith Apple Pies. OMG they were soooo delicious and I served them with a caramel sauce and Butter Pecan ice-cream (Post coming soon! #JustWaitOnIt ). There were 4 mini pies left and I knew that if I were to simply put them in the refrigerator, I’d come back the next day and eat another 2 (because I’m a fat kid at heart. *Shrugs*). So to create a barrier for myself, I put the remaining pies in the freezer. If I wanted to eat them, it would have required too much effort to thaw out and warm back up, so I passed on the opportunity and thus successfully saved myself from myself. Now granted I indulge in sweets on the weekends, but everything else is pretty much Paleo. I told Trent (#Bae) about what I did and he thought it’d make a great post. Thanks hunnie J (He’s right 99.9% of the time).

I encourage everyone to go through every single food item (Yep, E-VE-RY food item) and determine which ones are not in agreement with your new lifestyle. Sure you don’t want to throw out all the food. Fine, I get it. You can start to get away from those items by creating barriers. Freeze the items that you can, and put the rest of the items all in one corner of your pantry/fridge. Don’t mix the bad items with the good items. Divide and conquer people (#ThisIsSparta lmao!). Doing this makes it easy for you to make an informed decision about what you’re going to cook/eat at that moment. If you open the ‘bad’ pantry or reach for the ‘bad’ shelf, you already know that you’re deliberately making that choice to go against what you said you would do in your new lifestyle. You can’t make excuses for yourself (We all know what excuses are).

Hopefully this will help someone. Set yourself up for success! And as always, if there is a topic or recipe you’d like me to post, don’t hesitate to comment and let me know. I love reading comments! I’m constantly looking for ways to give you more value on my blog. Peace, love, and food!

Intro to Paleo

The Paleo lifestyle is a favorite of mine because of its simplicity. At the end of every night countless people will be asked this question "What's for dinner?" I can't even think of how many times I've been asked this question, along with variations such as "What's for lunch?" and "What's for breakfast?". I mean these questions come back to haunt people day in and day out. Making a cohesive meal is a challenge for many people who don't have much time, those who don't like to cook, and those who just can't think of anything to cook.

Going Paleo makes these questions a bit easier to answer because your options are somewhat scaled down to certain food groups with meat and vegetables being the main 2. I can't even begin to truly express in words how much stress is now off my shoulders when trying to think of something to cook for dinner. I simply choose a protein, usually steak, and a vegetable or two, usually broccoli and carrots, or a salad. Done. The steak takes about 8 minutes (depending on the cut and thickness of course) and while it's cooking I'm preparing the side which will be done at the same time. How simple and easy is that, I know Rachel Ray has her 30 minute meals, but this one was a meal in under 10 minutes! I love Rachel Ray btw!

So I've mentioned that Paleo basically is meat and vegetables, but you can also eat certain fruits that are lower in carbs, healthy fats such as coconut oil and avocado oil, eggs, seafood, and nuts. Now what you are avoiding is basically processed foods and foods high in carbs such as grains, legumes, unhealthy fats, and most dairy products. Now there are some alternative things that are available like coconut and almond flour that are considered Paleo and will allow you to still eat breads, biscuits, pancakes, things of that nature. It's worth looking into if you feel like you can't live without carb loaded foods. This opens up the possibilities even more. I actually love almond flour!

Below are some things that you can eat to give an example.

Meat/Poultry/Fish: Ground Beef, Steak, Turkey, Chicken, Bison, Quail, Veal, Salmon, Catfish ,Lamb, Pork, Crab, Lobster, Shrimp, Rainbow Trout, Cod, etc. There are soo many different cuts of meat and thousands of different kind of fish. Your options for protein are very abundant.

Vegetables: Asparagus, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale, Spinach, Mushrooms, Lettuce, Eggplant, Spaghetti Squash, Avocado (technically a fruit though but who likes technicalities lol), Brussels Sprouts, Artichoke Hearts, Peppers, Cabbage, Zucchini, Onions, etc. You can still eat the starchy vegetables like potatoes and yams, but if you're trying to bring sexy back, those starchy vegetables are not a good idea.

I'll later post this list of Paleo meal ideas I have that might help in embracing the lifestyle. It provides a range of options so that you don't feel like your meal is missing something that is not in agreement with the Paleo lifestyle.

Thanks for reading my post. As always, if there's something you'd like me to post about just let me know. Comments are welcomed! Enjoy the weekend peeps!

She wasn't ready! (In my Kevin Hart voice): Fitness and Food struggles.

So the majority of the summer is gone and I'm sad to report that I missed out on bathing suit season. Why? My eating habits were not as clean as they should have been. It's difficult to find a happy medium between eating right, enjoying food, and looking great, at least for me anyway. On the outside people see me and think that I'm in pretty good shape, but my personal goal is to look good naked from every angle. No need for special effect in photos or filters. The biggest obstacle is myself. I was once down to the shape I wanted to be at. Knowing this should be motivation because I know that I've reached this goal before, but with starting again comes challenges and sacrifices that must be made. No excuses.

They say that summer bodies are made in the winter. This girl will be cooking this 2016 Summer Body right now and by the time I reach my goal it'll be cold, but I'll be fine as hell underneath my clothes, lol. Proper nutrition, motivation, and drive are essential to reach fitness goals. Sure you can workout 2 hours a day, but if you're eating poorly you're canceling out your workout basically.

Nutritional goals will vary from person to person based on size and fitness goals. In my case I'm looking to slim down a little bit more and gain muscle at the same time. I drastically lowered my carbs and I use the My Fitness Pal app to keep an eye on how many calories I'm taking in. With food I'm usually on a Paleo diet plan. It's just so simple and easy but sometimes meals feel incomplete without carbs. I'll do another post about the Paleo lifestyle because I actually think it's amazing and makes so much sense. I eat most of my carbs on the weekends. I can't resist French Toast on a Saturday morning, lol. Plus yall know how I feel about cookies/brownies and ice cream (Yaaaaassss!!!).

I'll be coming up with some great recipes that might help us all get in better shape and not miss out on all the summer time fun next year. Be on the lookout for posts about meal prepping, paleo, keto.

As always, if you have any topics that you'd like me to write about or any recipes you'd like me to post, feel free to let me know!

Peace, love, and food!